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Blake's 7 - Series 3 - Complete


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Blake-less 7
Review date: 2008-03-06 Rating: 10 out of 10

The third season of Blake's 7 sees Paul Darrow's Avon take over as the main focus of the show, Gareth Thomas' Blake having left at the end of the previous season. Personally, I think this is the best of the show's four seasons, as the show had been a little narrow minded in it's scope. With Blake gone, there is less of a sense of purpose in the crew, and therefore a much greater variety in the types of stories with several very imaginative sci-fi stories, the most unusual being the rather weird Sarcophagus. Avon really comes into his own here, and Paul Darrow steals the show with his memorable performance. New characters Dayna and Tarrant are also very welcome and are played by some very capable actors, Jacqueline Pearce has a whale of a time in this season featuring more prominantly than ever and giving a highly entertainingly villainous performance, there's a fresh feel to the stories and the variety of styles, from the humourous City at the Edge of the World to the gritty and downbeat Rumours of Death, the surreal Sarcophagus and the sinister and catastrophic Terminal, mean this series never feels repetetive. The only poor episodes are Dawn of the Gods which feels like a rejected Star Trek script and the horrendously sexist Moloch, which feature the silliest looking alien ever seen. Overall, Season 3 of Blake's 7 is a terrific piece of space opera with a wonderful array of episodes and ends on a fantastic cliffhanger. Highly recommended.

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Reviews


Great Stuff
Review date: 2008-02-23 Rating: 10 out of 10

You'd have thought the absence of the main title character was going to spoil the show. But no the series continues with the excellent acting and scripts as before. Dayna is beautiful and Tarrant is a good foil to Avon. Vila is as funny as ever, Peter Tuddenham gives excellent voices and characterisation to Orac and Zen. Servalan is as glam and bitchy as ever, one of the first television actresses I remember having a thing for....sigh. The only minus is the absence of lovely Sally Knyvette as Jenna. But a small quibble. One of the best space/sci fi series ever made consistently good. Well overdue a comeback!

"Going downnnnnnnnnnnnnn..................."
Review date: 2008-01-03 Rating: 6 out of 10

Re-watched most of this series recently and came across very few surprises. It's weaker than series 1 or 2 and a country mile better than series four. Some great bits remain.

The transition away from Blake is handled as well as it could be given the circumstances. Avon is a great supporting character (see below) and his interaction with Dayna in episode 1 largely works very well.

The exceptional high standard of dialogue is almost maintained and the barbs between Avon and Tarrant only serve to make their relationship in series 4 look ridiculous. Add to that some great stories - Powerplay worked really well for me, I love the fact that Michael Keating was able to shake off the "clown" image in "City..........." and Sarcophagus remains in my top 5 B7 episodes. The "brooding menace" of Terminal is a perfect conclusion to the series and in fact - should have been a perfect conclusion to the show full stop. But hey most programme stay beyond their welcome. So why only 3 stars?

There is a (intentionally?) rudderless feeling to the series - what's it all for? Having built Avon up as a character who is only against the Federation because it's after him, it's a bit rich for him to be the lead character - if the ethos of the programme remains "against the Federation". Additionally the subtlety of the character begins its descent into an almost satirical cartoonesque caricature. There's always a healthy debate about whether Paul Darrow overacts or not. All views should be respected but often the defence comes across as "attack Paul Darrow and you're not a fan". Rubbish of course - no true sci-fi fan should follow blindly of course. I know they do - hence we get reviews on Amazon saying "disappointing episode but still fabulous 9/10". (???) But compare Avon of series 1 to Avon of series 3. Nothing to do with development - any semblance of restraint in his delivery disappears - on occasions in series 3, consistently in series 4.

It's worse with Servalan. The complexity surrounding the original positioning of the Federation ended with "Trial" in series 2. A power that had evolved to a point where it was a dictatorship was "confused" with a degree of debate as to why that should be the case ("it's about order") and the extent to which the end justified the means. From series three onwards it was largely "Federation bad" and with that a layer of complexity went. That applies to Servalan herself. Her more restrained costumes - hey even her longer hair, as well as her "desk bound" context in series one added to her appeal. The exaggeration from especially series three onwards is all very well from a "look out it's the big bad wolf" perspective, but character realism went.



4.5 Stars out of 5 for Blakes 7 Series 3
Review date: 2006-07-31 Rating: 10 out of 10

The third series of Blakes 7 reaches to an area where many SCI FI enthusiasts won't reach. We are now dealing with a product that many people won't see being content with the classic series 1 and 2. In series 3 the fast pace of the early series is only present in some episodes. Things take a different turn here. The major characters of Blake and Jenna are no longer here and that has quite an effect on the feel of the new series. Avon is now in command of the Liberator and I expected him to dictate a strategy of wealth creation rather than Blake's moral crusade. This is not what happens and if anything the new character of Tarrant appears a more forceful leader. The new characters are worthy replacements and fit in well. Rather than attacking the Federation they defend the Liberator from Servalan trying to capture it. Curiosity drives them quite regularly into the trouble that is a hallmark of Blakes 7. The early episodes are in the same style as the second series. The episodes I liked were: Aftermath, Powerplay, Dawn of Gods, City at the edge of the world, Rumours of death, Sarcophagus, Moloch, Deathwatch and Terminus. Volcano, Children of Auron, Ultraworld were also reasonable. The only episode I disliked was Harvest of Kairos. Although I liked most of this episode its ending still jars. If you watch this you will be asked in the last 15 minutes to believe the most incredible series of events. The writer unfortunately gets a little carried away and this seems like something from `The A Team' rather than Blakes 7. The episode I most liked was Sarcophagus and I can't decide whether this or City at the edge of the world is the jewel in the crown of the third series. Sarcophagus is of completely different form to the usual assault on a centre. It is actually a little sinister but also beautifully written with imaginative singing and music. It really is an unforgettable episode and adds much to the series despite being very unusual. There is still the large source of imaginative ideas from cloning starships, space plagues, superbly advanced races, black holes etc. that we have come to expect from Blakes 7. I think more could have been made of criminal activity under Avon's lead and perhaps more made of the space war although this would be expensive. This series contrasts with the first two which have a strong direction, here things are much more loose but I don't dislike this. It is quite plausible that events could unfold in this manner. I noticed this for the first time in the episode Volcano which is early on in the series, it seems a bit aimless and you wonder why Tarrant and Dayna are there. The acting and characterisation are as usual first class. The comical Vila is there with a goldfish bowl on his head trying to avoid the space plague in Children of Auron and losing the teleport co-ordinates at a critical moment in Rumours of death, he remains a star character in Blakes 7. Tarrant evolves as a hard man who clashes regularly with Avon. The darkness is still there in the chilling Powerplay and Sarcophagus as well as the inevitable corruption and violence. All in all this third series does not quite manage the seamless quality of series 1 and series 2. It is still good however and for the enthusiast of Blakes 7 it is an essential item.

Season Three- No Blake but still Blakes 7
Review date: 2006-03-09 Rating: 8 out of 10

"FIRE" was the last word spoken at the end of season 2 and who could forget the dimming of lights on the lberator, and Vila's finger pushing that button as soon as the credits rolled. Such cliffhangers made season three so welcome but, after repeated viewings, is it any good ?
As with Season two, the script writing was shared By Nation Boucher and newcomers Ben Steed and Tanith Lee input their own ideas. The opening scene of the epsiode "aftermath" is a space battle made entirely of Stock footage from season 2 with the odd laser blast superimposed! This is the BBC at its most cost cutting, its most cheeky, but what about Nation's Script ? Nation uses the 1st two episodes to disband the crew and allow them to reform minus blake and Jenna. Aftermath and Powerplay are important "scene setters", and powerplay explores the theme of organ donation in sinister proportions. The best line in these two episoded is given by Avon when in a million to one chance he meets servalan. "It has a Perverse kind of logic.....surprise seems inapropriate somehow"
The rest of the season has strong episodes and weak epsiodes, some like Dawn of the Gods being one of the weakest of the entire series. Boucher's scripts are certainly the strongest, and "City at the Edge of the World" is one of his finest episodes and Vila's finest hour. This episode also features a wonderful performance by Colin Baker.
Tanith lee penned a bazare but wonderful epsiode called "Sarcophagus" and wrote a very powerfull scene between Avon an Tarrant, an uneasy tension introduced by Nation in "Aftermath". Boucher also links Season 2 and 3 together in "Roumours of Death" and explores Avon's past. Here we see avon at his most vulnerable but why ? because of a Woman. "Off all the things I have known myself to be, I never recognised the fool"....brilliant.
Many other episodes have good scripts but are let down by low production values. Moloch, "Homeworld" in "city..." even the stock footage battle in "Aftermath" , but somehow, these don't matter because the scripting and characther interaction is as strong as ever, which brings us to Terminal, the final story and what was supposed to be the last ever episode. This story features some silly "monkey" costumes but, as he did in season two, Nation explores the idea of the Liberator as a living Entity and destroys it with a parasitic Fungus or "cancer in a machine" . This is one of the most unique and immaginatve ways of destoying a star ship ever concieved. Star wars showed us bags and explosions, but the BBC show us the ship we all loved for years, slowly disintigrating in front of us. Even Zen gives his most poignent line ever "I have failed you, I am sorry". The destruction of the liberator in the final moments as the flight deck and zen explode, also shows that the BBC can give us wonderful effects when required. This epsiode also deserves praise for Paul Darrows performance as a single minded Avon, desperate to find Blake. The Interaction betwen Avon and Blake (in an illusion) is B7 at its best. Where this epsiode fails is Orac is given nothing to do (would he have found a "cure" for the fungus ?) and why, when servalan boards the liberator, did she do nothing even tho it was disintigarting with green mould ?

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Jan Chappell
Steve Pacey
Paul Darrow
Michael Keating
Josette Simon

Creators:
Paul Darrow (Primary Contributor)
Michael Keating (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: 2 Entertain Video
Manufacturer: 2 Entertain Video
EAN: 5014503118525
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 5
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2005-06-20
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 650 minutes
Language: English (Original Language)

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