Blake's 7: "Blake"

It's 21 December 1981, and time for the series finale of Blake's 7.

Abandoning his now-compromised base on Xenon, Avon (Paul Darrow) leads his team to the frontier world of Gauda Prime for a long-delayed reunion with Roj Blake (Gareth Thomas).

"Blake", written by series script editor Chris Boucher, is indeed the final-ever episode of Blake's 7. It has gone down as one of the most famous - some would say notorious - series finales in the history of British television. Those who have seen it never forget it. Upon its original Christmas week broadcast it led to the BBC's main switchboard being jammed with angry calls, and furiously written letters telling Boucher that he was 'the man who ruined Christmas'. If you've been reading along with these reviews, but have never actually seen this episode and do not know what happens in it, I honestly recommend you stop reading now and go watch the episode for yourself. It really is worth seeing cold at least once before having its storyline spoiled for you.

Blake's 7: "Warlord"

It's 14 December 1981, and time for the penultimate episode of Blake's 7.

The time has come to strike back: as the Federation's drug pacification program expands, Avon (Paul Darrow) assembles an alliance of independent worlds in the hope of mounting a full-scale offensive. Their success hinges on the participation of Zukan (Roy Boyd), the militaristic leader of the planet Betafarl - only Zukan has already betrayed him.

"Warlord" pulls together the Federation story arc for Season 4 and gives it a fairly definitive climax. Avon has the cure to Pylene-50, Zukan has the ability to mass produce it, and an assembled group of planetary leaders and governors are willing to present a united front and stop the Federation's runaway expansion. It's an odd beginning to a Blake's 7 episode, with this alliance already formed and discussing bringing Zukan into the fold. It's simply unusual to see one of Avon or Blake's plans already be so successful. At its heart Blake's 7 is always an episode about failure; to see Avon already so close to achieving his goal is a slightly odd experience.

Blake's 7: "Orbit"

It's 7 December 1981, and time for more Blake's 7.

Scorpio arrives at the isolated world of Malodar, where the long-missing physicist Egrorian (John Savident) has suddenly re-appeared. Egrorian has an unexpected offer for Avon (Paul Darrow): give him Orac in return for the tachyon funnel - a weapon so powerful it could destroy the Federation without days.

Robert Holmes returns to Blake's 7 for one final script, with a much smaller focus than his earlier works. For the large part it's essentially a four-hander: Avon and Vila (Michael Keating) take a shuttle down to Egrorian's Malodar base and negotiate the exchange of Orac for the funnel from Egrorian and his frail assistant Pinder (Larry Noble). The tight focus helps the episode enormously, both fleshing out the guest characters while providing some excellent enrichment of both Avon and Vila. If you're a fan of these two - and let's be honest, which Blake's 7 viewer isn't? - then this may run close to being your favourite episode.

Blake's 7: "Gold"

It’s 30 November 1981, and time for more Blake’s 7.

Keillor (Roy Kinnear), an old associate of Avon’s, contacts the Scorpio with a proposition: millions of credits in stolen gold, available for the taking. Before Avon (Paul Darrow) and his crew can attempt the heist, however, it becomes clear that Keillor has not been entirely forthcoming and someone else may be pulling the strings.

When Gareth Thomas quit Blake’s 7 at the end of the second season, it left the series in a bit of a crisis: the title character gone, and with him the narrative drive for a rebellion against the Federation. In its third year the series cantered through a series of science fiction adventures based around a half-destroyed Federation slowly rebuilding after an intergalactic war. In the fourth, a renewed focus was placed on fighting the Federation: Avon leading an attempt to disrupt the Federation’s drug pacification program and to assemble an army of scientists and political leaders to form a proper resistance. It was clear that an constantly unsuccessful rebellion was going to deliver diminishing returns for the series, and so with an eye towards a potential fifth year script editor Chris Boucher commissioned this script: a heist drama by Colin Davis, re-positioning Avon, Vila (Michael Keating) and the rest of their crew as self-interested criminals hunting for the ‘big score’.

Blake's 7: "Sand"

It's 23 November 1981, and time for more Blake's 7.

Five years ago a Federation science mission went silent on the planet Vern. Now an investigation is underway, commanded by the arrogant Reeve (Stephen Yardley) and including an incognito Servalan (Jacqueline Pearce). When Avon hears of the mission he dispatches Tarrant (Steven Pacey) to steal the mysterious scientific discovery from under the Federation's noses - only an unexpected presence on the planet leaves Tarrant and Servalan trapped in the base together.

"Sand" is an exceptional episode of Blake's 7. It manages to pull off multiple achievements at once. It tells an intriguing science fiction story. It enriches its lead characters, and develops them in fresh directions. It even presents an unlikely romance that, while truncated, is pretty much the most effective storyline of its kind since the series began. It's written by the noted fantasy author Tanith Lee, who also wrote the unusual Season 3 episode "Sarcophagus". For me "Sand" is the much stronger script.

Blake's 7: "Games"

It's 16 November 1981, and time for more Blake's 7.

With the future of the galaxy's energy dominated by the use of volatile and immensely valuable feldon crystals, Avon (Paul Darrow) has hatched a plan to steal a batch of the crystals from a mining facility on Mecron II. His only hurdles? The continuing presence of Commissioner Sleer, aka Servalan (Jacqueline Pearce), and the facility controller Belkov (Stratford Johns) - a corrupt official obsessed with laying traps and playing games.

Given the rapidly growing popularity of videogames in popular culture in the early 1980s, it shouldn't come as a big surprise that Blake's 7 would choose to exploit the phenomenon for an episode. The eccentric Belkov has hidden a cache of feldon crystals onboard the "Orbiter", an abandoned space station circling above Mecron II. To access the crystals, visitors must defeat a series of challenges: a shooting game where you duel a replica of yourself, an immersive space flight simulator, and a complex puzzle game. Fail at a game, and it will kill you - and all three seem rigged to ensure nobody gets to the crystals alive. Viewed today, these gaming sequences seem charmingly primitive, and date the episode in a specific manner unlike most other Blake's 7 adventures.

Blake's 7: "Assassin"

It's 9 November 1981, and time for more Blake's 7.

Vila (Michael Keating) successfully intercepts a message from Servalan (Jacqueline Pearce) to the notorious professional killer known as Cancer, agreeing to a contract for Avon's entire crew to be assassinated. Rather than wait for the assassin to come to him, Avon (Paul Darrow) goes looking for Cancer himself at a remote slave trader's community beyond the Federation's control.

So "Assassin" is, like many Blake's 7 episodes, a story split into two halves. The first, which sees Avon infiltrate a slaver's market to gain intelligence on the mysterious Cancer, is reasonably entertaining. The second, which sees Avon, Tarrant (Steve Pacey) and Soolin (Glynis Barber) hunt down Cancer in the bowels of his own ship, is positively risible. What's a viewer to do?

Blake's 7: "Headhunter"

It's 2 November 1981, and time for more Blake's 7.

As part of his plan to recruit scientists to his cause, Avon (Paul Darrow) dispatches Tarrant (Steven Pacey) and Vila (Michael Keating) to retrieve the cyberneticist Muller (John Westbrook). When Muller unexpectedly turns violent, Vila is forced to kill him. On the way back to Xenon Scorpio begins to suffer malfunctions, putting Tarrant and Vila's lives in danger.

"Headhunter" marks a sharp contrast to Season 4's earlier episodes. It is a fully blown horror story, packed with murder, walking corpses and a growing threat to all human life in the galaxy. It is the third and final script for the series by Roger Parkes ("Voice from the Past", "Children of Auron"), and it is far and away his best.

Blake's 7: "Animals"

It's 26 October 1981 and time for more Blake's 7.

Dayna (Josette Simon) teleports down to the surface of Bucol II to meet with Justin (Peter Byrne), a talented geneticist who used to know her father. Meanwhile Scorpio is ambushed by a Federation patrol, forcing Tarrant (Steven Pacey) to retreat back to Xenon base for repairs - and leaving Dayna stranded. She is horrified by Justin's experiment: creating his own humanoid beast-like species to work as a slave race for humans.

Let's jump right into the most egregious problem with "Animals". The episode focuses in the main on a growing romance between Dayna and Justin. She knows him because he used to tutor her in her childhood. There was clearly a romantic attraction then, and it's rekindled now. The only problem is that Justin is visibly in his mid-50s and Dayna is visibly in her early 20s. It's difficult to imagine their earlier attraction - possibly even an affair - as inappropriate at best and criminal at worst. The creepiness is not helped by Peter Byrne's weirdly obsessive portrayal of Justin. He constantly stares at Dayna, and leaves ominous heart-felt pauses in the middle of scenes. At its core "Animals" is a romance, and it's one that fails completely.

Blake's 7: "Stardrive"

It's 19 October 1981, and time for more Blake's 7.

A disastrous attempt to sneak past a Federation border leaves Scorpio in dire need of a new stardrive. Avon (Paul Darrow) believes he's found it on the planet Casper, where the noted Federation physicist Dr Plaxton (Barbara Shelley) is developing the galaxy's fastest new engine for the villainous Space Rats.

Oh Space Rats. I don’t think there’s anything in all four seasons of Blake’s 7 that more wonderfully reveals such a middle-aged – and middle-class – fear of youth culture. They are essentially punks in space, except they’re punks as envisaged by someone who’s never been one, never met one, and never really had a clue about what they’re like. It's also presented several years too late, attempting to capitalise on the punk craze precisely when Britain's youth had moved on to becoming new romantics instead.

Blake's 7: "Traitor"

It's 12 October 1981, and time for more Blake's 7.

When a resurgent Federation manages to re-conquer the planet Helotrix, Avon (Paul Darrow) decides to find out precisely how they're managing to expand their territory so rapidly. Tarrant (Steven Pacey) and Dayna (Josette Simon) teleport down from Scorpio, only to find a rebellion in full swing, a new drug control system that is making the local population incapable of fighting back, and the unexpected return of a familiar face.

"Traitor" is an odd episode. Certainly it's an enormous improvement over the previous two episodes, thanks mainly to much stronger writing by British telefantasy icon Robert Holmes. On the other hand it feels oddly cursory and slightly rushed - less like a brilliant episode in its own right, and more like a rough draft of that brilliant episode. The plot is good, and the characters nicely complex, but it all feels as if it needed a little more time in development before it was produced.

Blake's 7: "Power"

It's 5 October 1981, and time for more Blake's 7.

Soolin (Glynis Barber) has vanished after Dorian's death. Vila still can't get through the sealed hatch to the Scorpio, and there's an explosive charge ticking down the hours that will destroy the entire base if Vila can't get it open. Avon (Paul Darrow) has gone searching for crystals to help manufacture a new teleport system, but has instead been captured by the Hommicks - an ingidenous all-male tribe locked in the dying days of a war with the all-female Seska.

Writer Ben Steed returns for the third and final time to Blake's 7. His first script, "The Harvest of Kairos", focused on Jarvik, the manliest of manly men doing manly things while shouting at women about how manly he was. His second script, "Moloch", featured crass misogyny and women being dragged away to be sexually assaulted. For his final script Steed goes all out, writing a literal "war of the sexes" in which men emerge victorious and women apparently get taught their proper place.

Blake's 7: "Rescue"

It's 28 September 1981, and time for the fourth season premiere of Blake's 7.

The survivors of the Liberator appear to be trapped on Terminal forever, until they are unexpectedly rescued by the mysterious Dorian (Geoffrey Burridge) and his space freighter Scorpio. He takes Avon (Paul Darrow) and the others back to his base on the planet Xenon - but does he have an ulterior motive?

With the spontaneous re-commissioning of Blake's 7 on the night of the series finale's broadcast, production of a fourth season was understandably delayed. Producer David Maloney was already hard at work on both When the Boat Comes In and The Day of the Triffids for the BBC, and entirely unavailable. While script editor Chris Boucher was available, no scripts had been developed and no writers hired. Contracts needed to be negotiated with the regular cast: Paul Darrow, Michael Keating, Josette Simon and Steven Pacey all agreed to return. Jan Chappel chose to bow out. As a result of multiple challenges in bringing the series back, Season 4 did not premiere in January 1981 but rather in September.

Blake's 7: "Terminal"

It's 31 March 1980, and time for the Season 3 finale of Blake's 7.

Avon (Paul Darrow) has commandeered the Liberator on a private mission. He won't tell his crew where the ship is going, he refuses to navigate around a mysterious cloud of fluid in the ship's way, and when Tarrant (Steven Pacey) tries to intervene Avon almost shoots him. When the Liberator finally arrives at its destination - the artificially constructed planet Terminal - Tarrant and Cally (Jan Chappel) follow Avon down while Vila (Michael Keating) and Dayna (Josette Simon) discover the untoward effects the cloud of fluid has had on the ship.

"Terminal" marks Terry Nation's final script for Blake's 7. At the time of its production it was intended not simply as the season finale but the series finale. At the conclusion of shooting the actors were released from their contracts and the production team subsequently moved on to other projects. It sounds like the worst kind of urban myth, but BBC1 controller Bill Cotton genuinely did watch "Terminal" go to air in his home with his family, telephone the BBC switchboard to find out when a fourth season would debut, and - on learning the drama department had axed the series - order an announcement be made over the closing titles that the series would return in 1981.

Blake's 7: "Death Watch"

It's 24 March 1980, and time for the penultimate episode of Blake's 7 Season 3.

The independent planets of Teal and Vandor have declared war. Rather than launch their battle fleets at one another, they have each appointed a single champion. Together they will duel until one dies, and the victor's government will declare victory over the entire war. The Liberator crew arrive on the neutral planet to observe the duel - a huge celebratory festival is attached - only to discover that Servalan (Jacqueline Pearce) is acting as the neutral arbiter, and Tarrant's older brother Deeta is Teal's appointed champion.

"Death Watch" was a last-minute script thrown together by Chris Boucher when an earlier commissioned script by a writer named John Fletcher fell through. You can't tell: Boucher throws in family drama, high concept science fiction and diplomatic conspiracies, as well as pushing along multiple character arcs for the season overall, and in doing so pretty much writes the best episode of Season 3. It's between this and "City at the Edge of the World", and pretty much personal taste is going to dictate which episode you prefer. For me, it's this.

Blake's 7: "Moloch"

It's 17 March 1980, and time for more Blake's 7.

The Liberator is following Servalan's command ship to the very edge of the galaxy, only to have the ship disappear from under their noses. After investigating, Avon (Paul Darrow) and his crew discover a secret planet hidden from view - where a lost Federation battle fleet has stumbled upon a remarkable new technology.

"Moloch" is a dreadful episode, combining re-heated ideas, tedious characterisation and some unpleasant misogyny. It's not a surprise to discover the script is by Ben Steed, whose earlier episode "The Harvest of Kairos" seemed similarly obsessed with manly men treating women like objects. This time around he has them beaten on-screen and adds allusions to gang-rape as well. It's pretty much impossible to get past how horribly written and unnecessary these sequences are; to be honest, the rest of the episode's failings are a moot point.

Blake's 7: "Ultraworld"

It's 10 March 1980, and time for another episode of Blake's 7.

Not just any episode either, but "Ultraworld" - the episode so cool that British electronic group The Orb named an entire album after it. It sees the Liberator stumble upon a massive artificial planet whose inhabitants lure passing starships in order to download their entire mind onto computers while feeding their bodies to a giant pulsating brain at the planet's core. Cally (Jan Chappel) is taken first, and then Avon (Paul Darrow). Vila (Michael Keating) is trapped on the Liberator - can Tarrant (Steven Pacey) and Dayna (Josette Simon) save the day?

I adore "Ultraworld" pretty much because it's one of the silliest things Blake's 7 ever produced. It's knowingly absurd. You can see it on the actor's faces. It's an episode in which the villain is an enormous brain, served by three bald blue men in jumpsuits - one of whom looks hilariously like the electronic musician Moby, and another like Smashing Pumpkins lead singer Billy Corgan. Once you've got Moby and Corgan in your head their scenes just get funnier and funnier. Then again I find pretty much everything in "Ultraworld" pretty funny. It's an episode that requires you to simply let go of common sense and enjoy it on its own peculiar merits.

Blake's 7: "Sarcophagus"

It's 3 March 1980, and time for more Blake's 7.

The Liberator comes across an alien spacecraft floating adrift in space. When Cally (Jan Chappel), Avon (Paul Darrow) and Vila (Michael Keating) teleport onboard they discover it is a tomb. They return to the Liberator - only an alien intelligence has followed them back, and threatens to take over the ship.

"Sarcophagus" is the first of two scripts written for Blake's 7 by fantasy author Tanith Lee, the only woman to write for the series. It's a strikingly different episode to anything before or since. This is partly because - a few early scenes aside - the entire episodes takes place on the Liberator with only the five regular characters appearing. It is also because this is for all intents and purposes a supernatural fantasy: Cally has become possessed by an alien ghost, who uses poltergeist-like powers to threaten the crew and drain the Liberator's power.

Blake's 7: "Rumours of Death"

It's 25 February 1980, and time for more Blake's 7.

Avon (Paul Darrow) has been captured and tortured by Federation security - but it's all a ruse to get close to the interrogator who murdered his lover. Servalan (Jacqueline Pearce) prepares to host the Federation council at her freshly built Presidential palace - unaware that a political coup d'etat is about to be launched.

"Rumours of Death" draws together three long-buried strands of series back story, and ties them together into a remarkable episode. We knew as far back as "Space Fall" that Avon had attempted to defraud the Federation banking system of millions of credits. In Season 2's "Countdown" we met Del Grant, brother to Avon's murdered lover Anna. Throughout Season 3 we've seen and heard references to the Federation's struggle to re-establish control in the wake of the intergalactic war. Now the Federation appears to have gone a long way to re-asserting its authority, and Avon is finally tracking down Anna's murderer.

Blake's 7: "Children of Auron"

It's 18 February 1980, and time for more Blake's 7.

As part of her latest scheme to capture the Liberator, Servalan (Jacqueline Pearce) unleashes a deadly virus on Cally's home planet of Auron. When the Liberator rushes to Auron's aid Servalan springs her trap - while simultaneously making use of the planet's cloning facilities.

So just to keep count: we're now seven episodes into Season 3 and four of those episodes have focused, in whole or in part, on a Federation attempt to capture the Liberator. It is getting just a little tiresome. Thankfully in this particular case taking the Liberator seems a secondary concern to Servalan's use of Auron's incubation chamber. Precisely why Servalan wants to populate the universe with several dozen genetically engineered clones is never really explained. There's quite a lot in this episode that goes unexplained, actually. It's a slightly frustrating combination of good scenes and bad. There's more good than bad, to be fair, but it's still a very shaky episode.