History of Blake's 7

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This article is specifically about the production history of the television series Blake's 7: for a more general overview of this series, please see the main Blake's 7 article.

Blake's 7 was a British science fiction television programme, made by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for their BBC1 channel, that ran for four seasons between 1978 and 1981. It was created by Terry Nation, a prolific television writer, best known for creating the popular Dalek monsters for the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who. Nation came up with the concept for Blake's 7 – which he later described as “The Dirty Dozen in space”^[1] - on the spur of the moment during a meeting with Ronnie Marsh, the Head of Drama at the BBC and was commissioned on the spot to develop the series.

Assigned to produce the series was David Maloney while Chris Boucher took on the role of script editor. With Terry Nation commissioned to write every episode of the first season, Boucher's contribution was to expand and develop the first draft scripts delivered by Nation into workable scripts, a task that became increasingly more difficult as Nation started running out of ideas. Meanwhile, Maloney was faced with the challenges of handling a shooting schedule and budget unsuited to such an action and special effects-heavy show as Blake's 7. Despite these challenges, the programme was a ratings success, with some episodes exceeding ten million viewers, and was quickly renewed for a second year.

New writers were taken on board from the second season onwards but difficulties with the scripts affected plans to have a continuing plot that would run through the season. The decision was also taken to kill off one of the regular characters to show to viewers that Blake and his crew were not indestructible. Although ratings were down on the previous year, a third season was commissioned. A major challenge faced the production team for the third season when star Gareth Thomas, who played Blake, quit and the series had to redefine itself in order to continue without its titular character. Various ideas to have a replacement Blake character take over fell by the wayside and the character of Avon was moved centre stage from this point onwards. However, to keep the cast numbers at the titular seven, new characters Tarrant and Dayna were added to make up for the departed Blake and for Jenna, who also left at the end of the second season.

Blake's 7 was expected to finish in 1980, after its third season, but was unexpectedly reprieved at the last moment and confirmed for a fourth season. With David Maloney unavailable, the producer's reigns were handed to the show's senior director, Vere Lorrimer who oversaw major changes in the show's format including introducing a new spacecraft, Scorpio. When Jan Chappell, who played Cally, chose not to return, she was replaced by Glynis Barber, playing a new character, Soolin. Gareth Thomas made one final appearance on the show as Blake, insisting that the character be killed off in a definitive manner, for the last episode. Although the fourth season performed satisfactorily in the ratings, there would be no last minute reprieve for the series this time. Blake's 7 was not renewed for a fifth year and viewers were left with an unresolved cliffhanger when the final episode finished airing on 21 December 1981.

Contents 1 Origins (1975-1976) 2 Season A (1977-1978) 3 Season B (1978-1979) 4 Season C (1978-1980) 5 Season D (1980-1981) 6 See also 7 References

[edit] Origins (1975-1976)

Terry Nation began his writing career in comedy, penning scripts for Tony Hancock among others. He had successfully broken into drama writing in 1963 when he created the enduringly popular Dalek monsters for the science fiction television series Doctor Who. He went on to work as a writer on numerous ITC film series, such as The Saint, The Baron and Department S, as well as a stint as script editor on The Avengers and producer of The Persuaders!. In 1973, he created the post-apocalyptic science fiction drama Survivors for the BBC.^[2] In 1975, he attended a meeting with Ronnie Marsh, the Head of Drama at the BBC, to discuss ideas for new television series. Marsh was on the lookout for formats with the potential to be made as co-productions with American television channels. Nation pitched a number of ideas, mostly for crime dramas, none of which particularly appealed to Marsh.^[1] Then, according to Nation, “the interview was drawing to a close when I surprised myself by starting to detail a new science fiction adventure [...] ‘Have you got a title?' someone asked. ‘Blake's 7’ I replied without hesitation”.^[3] Marsh's notes of the meeting survive and record the pitch Nation made as follows: “cracking Boy's Own/kidult sci-fi. A space Western adventure. A modern swashbuckler. Blake's Seven. Group of villains being escorted onto a rocket ship (transported) which goes astray & lands on an alien planet where inhabitants are planning to invade & destroy Earth. Possibly live underground”.^[1] Nation left the meeting with a commission for a pilot script and “the bewildered feeling that [...] I could not trace the source of the idea”.^[3]

Nation submitted his pilot script, titled “Blake's 7 – A Television Series created by Terry Nation”, in April 1976, sub-titling the draft episode Cygnus Alpha.^{[4] [1]} The plot was broadly similar to what would become The Way Back, the first Blake's 7 episode to be transmitted, though the agent who betrays Glyd's group and plots to have Blake convicted was named Cral Travis not Tarrant as in the transmitted episode. The proposed cast of characters for the series was Rog (later changed to Roj) Blake and seven others – Vila Restal; Jenna Stanis; Kerr Avon; Olag Gan; Arco Trent; Tone Selman and Brell Klein.^[4] The descriptions given to Blake, Jenna and Gan are similar to how the characters were presented on the screen.^[4] However, the character of Vila is somewhat different: described as “thirty five, good looking athletic”, he appears to be closer to the popular fictional character Simon Templar (a.k.a. The Saint) than that of the Vila that eventually appeared on screen.^{[4] [5]} The Arco Trent character was described as a powerful figure in the Administration who had taken the fall for a group of corrupt officials involved in arms dealing.^[4] Arco would plot against Blake but would eventually come to respect for him after Blake saves his life. Arco's sidekick would be Avon, a self-serving, treacherous coward.^[5] The characters of Selman and Klein did not appear in the pilot and the script noted that they would join in a later episode.^[4]

Marsh asked Nation for a draft script for a second Blake's 7 episode in June 1976 and Nation duly delivered Space Fall, in which the spacecraft, Liberator, is introduced, in mid-August. On 12 November 1976 Marsh commissioned Space Fall and, confirming the series for full development, asked Nation to deliver a further five scripts. The intention was that Blake's 7 would run to 13 episodes and would replace the police drama Softly, Softly: Task Force. Nation would write the first seven episodes, then the next four would be scripted by other writers with Nation returning to pen a two part finale. Blake's 7 now officially entered production.^[1]

[edit] Season A (1977-1978)

To produce Blake's 7, the BBC chose David Maloney. Maloney had started out as a journalist and then become an actor before joining the BBC as an Assistant Floor Manager in 1961. He became a director in 1968 and worked on programmes such as Z Cars, literary adaptations such as Ivanhoe, Sentimental Education and The Last of the Mohicans as well as many episodes of Doctor Who.^[6] It was his experience with Doctor Who that made him the ideal candidate for producer of Blake's 7. Needing a script editor, Maloney initially approached Robert Holmes, who was script editing Doctor Who at the time. Holmes, wishing to return to freelance writing, declined but recommended Chris Boucher, who had written three Doctor Who scripts during Holmes' tenure.^[4] Boucher had begun his writing career in comedy producing material for the likes of Dave Allen and Bernard Braden. Doctor Who had been his first foray into drama writing.^[7]

Early in 1977, Terry Nation was commissioned to write a further four episodes for season one and five episodes for season two. This meant that Nation was now contracted to write all thirteen episodes of the first season. The BBC had decided that Nation's high profile as a writer would help them sell the series and so expanded the commission.^[1] In the end, providing such a large amount of material in such a short time would prove difficult. Nation, admitting that he had agreed to write every episode out of “ego and supreme confidence”, later recalled that he returned home following the commission and told his wife, “I think I've got myself into deep trouble!”.^[8] From an early stage, he made it clear to Chris Boucher that he would only be able to deliver the first draft of each script, telling him, “you can have rewrites or you can have the next episode: which do you want?”.^[9] As a result, while the plots were Nation's, Boucher provided a great deal of input into the characters and the dialogue.^[5] According to Boucher, “Terry came up with the characters, he came up with thirteen good stories, but he didn't come up with the dialogue. I remember saying, and I think it's pretty close to the truth, that for a long time, Paul Darrow [playing Avon] never spoke a line that I hadn't written or altered to make the lines sharper”.^[10]

One script that got dropped early on was Locate and Destroy, which was originally intended to be the fourth episode. This story would have re-introduced the Cral Travis character first seen in the pilot script, now with a mechanical arm and an eyepatch, ordered by his superior “Commander Shervalan” to recapture Blake. The plot – elements of which would later be reused in the episodes Duel, Mission to Destiny and Deliverance – centred around Travis attacking the Liberator while Jenna was captured by primitives living on a planet ravaged by a biological weapon released by the Federation.^[5] In the end, Cral Travis was renamed Tarrant (played by Jeremy Wilkin) in the opening episode, The Way Back, and the Travis that appeared from Seek-Locate-Destroy onwards was a new character (played by Stephen Greif) while “Commander Shervalan” was renamed Servalan and changed from a man to a woman.^[4]

It was also at this point that the characters of Trent, Selman and Klein were dropped from the series (although Trent and Selman do appear and are then killed off in the final broadcast version of Cygnus Alpha). This was for reasons of controlling costs by reducing the number of regulars and also because it was proving difficult to give each character enough to do. “Blake's 7” would, therefore, comprise Blake himself; Avon, who now took on Arco's scheming nature; Vila, who now took on the cowardly aspect originally envisaged for Avon; Jenna; Gan; Zen, the Liberator computer and a new character: the telepathic alien, Cally.^{[4] [5]} Cally was added to balance out the gender mix among the cast. Noting the similarity between the character description of Cally as akin to an Israeli girl soldier and the character of Leela, devised by Chris Boucher for Doctor Who, who was inspired by the Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled, Alan Stephens and Fiona Moore have suggested that Cally may have been largely the creation of Boucher.^[5] Cally was originally planned to be more alien in appearance – her skin and hair were to be coloured red and special contact lenses would be used on her eyes when she went into a telepathic trance. In the end, these aspects were abandoned for reasons of cost and time.^[10]

In June 1977, the BBC announced to the press that Blake's 7, a “new and major BBC television series of space adventure” set in the “third century of the second calendar”, was in development, stating that 13 episodes would be made at a cost of £750,000.^[1] By this stage casting was underway – chosen to play Blake was Gareth Thomas, who had been suggested by Terry Nation. Paul Darrow had been under consideration to play the part of Blake but was eventually cast as Avon. Michael Keating was suggested for the part of Vila by Pennant Roberts who had worked with him on the Doctor Who serial The Sun Makers. David Jackson, who was cast as Gan, was known to David Maloney from his days as an actor and it was while watching Jackson at a performance at the Royal Court Theatre that Maloney and Vere Lorrimer spotted Jan Chappell, who would be cast as Cally. Sally Knyvette, who had been recommended by director Bill Sellars following her work on the serial Who Pays the Ferryman?, was cast as Jenna and rounding off the seven, Peter Tuddenham was cast as Zen. Chosen to play Blake's nemesis, Travis, was Stephen Greif, who at the time was appearing in the sitcom Citizen Smith. To play Travis' superior, Servalan, Ingrid Pitt had originally been considered but in the end the role went to Jacqueline Pearce.^[4]

Three directors – Pennant Roberts, Michael E. Briant and Lennie Mayne, all of whom had experience on Doctor Who – were initially assigned to Blake's 7.^[10] It was planned that the directors would work in rotation, each taking four episodes, with episode seven to be directed by Paul Ciappessoni. ^[1] When Lennie Mayne was tragically killed in a boating accident, he was replaced by Vere Lorrimer.^[10] The seventh episode, Duel, would ultimately be directed by another Doctor Who veteran, Douglas Camfield.^[1]

Maloney set about assembling the rest of his production team and was successful in securing the services of Roger Murray-Leach, with whom he had worked with on the Doctor Who serials The Deadly Assassin and The Talons of Weng-Chiang, as production designer. In order to have uniformity of concept, Maloney asked Murray-Leach to design both the interior and exterior of the Liberator spaceship. In coming up with the design, Murray-Leach “turned the ship around, so it was drawn to look as if it was going one way but flew the other way. In fact, if you take the line of flow, the angles go with it to get a sense of speed, and we turned that around so the 'wings' all canted forwards, not backwards”.^[10] The fact that Murray-Leach had designed the ship would prove to be a bone of contention with the series' special effects designer, Ian Scoones. Scoones, who had extensive experience working on Hammer horror films and Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds, found Murray-Leach's design for the Liberator awkward to mount and shoot for the scenes of the ship in flight. Aware that Star Wars would be hitting British cinema screens around the time Blake's 7 was due to make its television debut, Scoones elected to spend the budget he had been allocated for the entire series on the first episode to be shot, Space Fall. The model filming for this episode took place at Bray Studios on 15 August 1977 and would be the first piece of actual filming to take place on Blake's 7.^{[10] [1]} The series' animated title sequence was created by Bob Blagden and was based partially on suggestions for the titles given by Nation in his draft pilot script. Nation's description envisaged a vast computer that would print out pictures of each of the cast members which would be deposited in a tray marked “Enemies of the State” and then the title caption would appear.^[1] Music was provided by Dudley Simpson who was the regular composer on Doctor Who. Simpson would compose the music for most of Blake's 7's four year run.^[11]

By this stage the strain of writing all thirteen episodes was starting to hit Nation. His tenth script – The Invaders, in which Gan would fight an alien duplicate of himself intent on taking over the Liberator – was abandoned and replaced by a script titled Brain Drain (later renamed Breakdown) which partially re-used some elements of The Invaders.^{[1] [12]} Nation later recalled; “During those thirteen weeks, I ran entirely out of ideas, and I'd sit around and walk for days, saying, ‘There are no more ideas, that's it! I've shot it all and it's gone’”.^[8] One episode that was particularly affected by Nation's difficulties was Bounty which, even after a rewrite by Boucher, required director Pennant Roberts to pad out the scenes as much as possible to make up the fifty minute running time.^[5]

Live action filming of Blake's 7 began on Monday, 26 September 1977 at Ealing film studios with scenes set on the spaceship London for the second episode Space Fall. Filming continued at Ealing and on location before moving into the studios at BBC Television Centre in November.^[1] It was not long into recording that the difficulties inherent in the shooting schedule began to rear their heads – Blake's 7 had inherited its production style – a method called strike filming – from the series it was to replace: Softly, Softly. Strike filming was a method whereby pre-filming, either on location or at film studios such as Ealing, is performed immediately before entering rehearsals for the scenes to be shot in the videotape studios. This method was fine for a series such as Softly, Softly which had minimal pre-filming, few special effects and used a large number of standing sets but was totally unsuitable for Blake's 7.^[10] Soon, shooting schedules began to overrun leading to expensive remounts and leading to cast members being taken out of rehearsals either for pre-filming or for remounts of scenes that hadn't been shot on schedule. The problems came to a head in January 1978 when in the space of one week, the cast found themselves working on four different episodes for four different directors. Recording was further complicated when Stephen Grief, playing Travis, ruptured his Achilles tendon playing squash and had to be doubled by an extra for the studio scenes in the final episode of the season Orac. Shooting on Blake's 7's first season finally wrapped on 15 March 1978.^[4]

Blake's 7 made its television debut on BBC1 on Monday, 2 January 1978 at 6:00pm, an earlier timeslot on account of the holiday period. Subsequent episodes were aired on Mondays at 7:15pm. It's main competition, on the rival ITV network, came from the popular soap opera Coronation Street and sitcoms A Sharp Intake of Breath and Miss Jones and Son. Blake's 7 performed well, averaging 9.2 million viewers and attaining an average reaction index of 67.^[4]

[edit] Season B (1978-1979)

Planning for a second season of Blake's 7 began as early as January 1978 when only three episodes of the first season had been screened. Maloney and Boucher met with Terry Nation and his agent, Roger Hancock, to discuss the new season. It was decided that new writers would be brought on board and, although Nation would be consulted on general storylines, he would not be involved in choosing the writers or approving scripts.^[13] It was also decided that this season would have a running plot centering around Blake's attempt to attack the Federation Supreme Computer Control.^[14] This would be located at a place called Storm Mountain which, when attacked by Blake in a mid-season climax, would turn out to be a decoy. The rest of the season would follow Blake as he worked to find the real computer control, designated Star One. It was also decided that Travis would be dismissed from the Federation but would continue his vendetta against Blake.^[15] The general plan for the season was outlined in a document titled “Blake's Seven – Series Two – General Notes”. This document also noted that “the Federation must be shown to be even more powerful, even more ruthless and even more intelligent”.^[14] To this end it was decided that one of the main characters must die. Nation, unhappy with Michael Keating's interpretation of the role, was keen for Vila to be killed off but was met by resistance from Boucher and Maloney who knew that the character was popular.^[16] An Audience Research Report commissioned on the first season had indicated that Avon was, by far and away, the most popular character followed by Blake, Jenna, Vila, Cally and Gan. It is likely that it was this report that influenced the decision to kill off Gan.^[15]

Terry Nation was commissioned to write five episodes for Season B: episode one, which would resolved the cliffhanger left over from Orac, the last episode of Season A; episode 6, in which Blake would assault Storm Mountain; episode 10 which would be a stand alone space adventure and episodes 12 and 13, a two-part finale in which Blake would reach Star One only to uncover a plot by aliens to invade the galaxy, forcing him to ally himself with the Federation to defeat the aliens. Interviews given by Terry Nation at this time dropped hints that the Daleks, the very popular race of alien villains he had created for Doctor Who, would be making an appearance in Blake's 7. This has led to a general belief that Nation intended them to be the aliens Blake would encounter at Star One.^[13]

To assist the new writers who would be joining the series, Boucher wrote a “General Notes and Baffle Gab Glossary” that explained the format of the series, the background to the characters and outlined the various technical terms – such as “spacials” or “teleport” - that the series employed.^[15] Boucher himself was keen to write scripts for the series he had helped develop and received clearance to write up to three scripts in May 1978.^[14] Robert Holmes, Allan Prior, Roger Parkes and Pip and Jane Baker were commissioned to write the remainder of the episodes. The original intention was that Boucher would write episode two, which would re-introduce Travis and Servalan; Holmes would write episode three, which would be an Orac story and Boucher would then write the fourth episode, which would introduce the Storm Mountain storyline. This would be followed by Pip and Jane Baker's script, Death Squad, then Nation's Storm Mountain story, Boucher's next script would cover Travis' court-martial and Prior would write a script centered around a Ugandan-type of society. This plan was later revised such that Boucher would write episodes two and three, taking the story centered around Orac, while Holmes would write the fourth episode, which would introduce Storm Mountain.^[15]

As things turned out, the eventual order in which the episodes ran was much different. Death Squad by Pip and Jane Baker – in which Blake, Gan and Jenna would infiltrate a Federation facility experimenting with creating super-soldiers by administering drugs to them, leading to Blake and Gan becoming exposed to the drugs and Jenna being held by Servalan as an inducement for the scientist behind the plan – was dropped, ostensibly on cost grounds, though Boucher also had concerns about the quality of the script.^[16][15] This lead to a reordering of the episodes with Horizon, Allan Prior's “Ugandan” script, brought forward to fill the gap left by Death Squad, while Holmes' script, Killer, was dropped back to be the seventh episode. This meant that Pressure Point, Terry Nation's Storm Mountain script, moved forward to fifth and Trial, the Travis court-martial story, moved to sixth.^[16] The script problems intensified in September 1978 when Nation informed Boucher that he was having trouble with the two part finale. He had made several aborted attempts to write episode twelve and hadn't managed to start episode thirteen. It was decided to cancel Nation's scripts and recommission the final two episodes. Allan Prior was commissioned to write episode twelve, which became The Keeper, while Boucher himself tackled Star One using Nation's original outline.^[13]

Season B also saw some changes to the cast. David Jackson (Gan) was not too upset to learn that he was to be dropped, given how little he was given to do in most episodes.^[17] According to Chris Boucher, Jackson once passed him a note with the word “four” written on it. When Boucher queried the note with Jackson, Jackson told him that “four” was the number of lines he had in that week's script.^[16] At one point it was intended that Gan would be killed by a double agent who would then join the Liberator crew, as a Federation spy.^[18] Stephen Greif, feeling that the character of Travis was somewhat limited and having been offered a film role in France, opted not to return for Season B.^[15] Deciding to recast, Maloney chose Brian Croucher, an actor noted for tough-guy roles, especially in the Euston Films series Out, to take over as Travis.^[19] It was decided quite late on that Orac would be retained as a regular character and when Derek Farr, who had voiced Orac in its debut, proved unavailable, Peter Tuddenham, who was already voicing Zen, was engaged to play Orac as well.^[16] The end of Season B would also see the 26 episode contracts the original cast had signed come to an end. In considering a possible Season C, Maloney soon discovered that neither Gareth Thomas nor Sally Knyvette wished to return for another year. Thomas, disappointed not to be allowed to direct a few episodes, had been offered a role with the Royal Shakespeare Company while Knyvette, encouraged by Bruce Purchase, who guest-starred on The Keeper, wished to pursue her Master of Arts degree, studying Chaucer, full-time.^[13] In considering how to deal with the loss of the series' titular character, Nation played around with the idea of adding a “substitute Blake” character in Countdown, the third story he was scheduled to write that year.^[18] It appears likely that the character of Del Grant, who appears in Countdown, was intended to be this “Blake substitute”. The “Blake substitute” also appears in one of the early drafts of Allan Prior's episode Hostage.^[16] While Nation's original outline for the two-part Star One finale envisaged Jenna and Vila being killed, Boucher, aware that Gan's death had upset some viewers, chose to have Blake and Jenna drop out of the narrative in the gap between the end of Star One and the opening story of Season C. Without Blake to act as Travis' motivation for his vendetta against the Liberator crew, it was decided that Travis be killed off at the end of Star One.^[13]

The only director to return for Season B was Vere Lorrimer. The other directors appointed were George Spenton-Foster, Jonathan Wright Miller and Derek Martinus. Responding to the difficulties encountered on Season A with the strike filming method, where one episode was made every ten days with pre-filming for subsequent episodes fitted around it, Season B was made using block filming. Under the block filming method, a month of pre-filming would be done on the first six episodes before production moved into the studio for taping of those six episodes. Each director would be assigned a pair of episodes. The method would then be repeated for the next six episodes and the final episode would be shot as a stand alone.^[18]

Shooting on Season B began on Monday 31 July 1978 at Oldbury-on-Severn nuclear power station near Bristol and finished on Thursday 8 March 1979.^[18] The recording of the episode Hostage was complicated when guest star Duncan Lamont died during shooting. He was initially replaced by Ronald Lewis, who proved to be unsuitable for health reasons and was quickly replaced by John Abineri.^[16] Vere Lorrimer proved to be unavailable for the recording of Star One and so David Maloney stepped in, uncredited on account of rules forbidding producers to direct their own programmes.^[13]

Deliverance, the opening episode of Season B was broadcast on Tuesday, 9 January 1979 at 7:20pm with subsequent episodes following at about the same time each Tuesday. Pressure Point was broadcast at the later time of 8:10pm on account of coverage of the Variety Club Awards that night. BBC Wales elected to opt-out of transmission and broadcast regional programming in the slot instead, showing Blake's 7 on Sunday afternoons. Competition on ITV came from the popular import Charlie's Angels. As a result, ratings averaged 7 million, down two million on the previous season. Nevertheless, a third season was assured.^[15]

[edit] Season C (1978-1980)

Discussions regarding a third season began as early as November 1978. At this stage, with Gareth Thomas having signaled his intention to leave, it was already clear that the series would have to continue without its titular character.^[20] According to David Maloney, “a decision had to be made to go with a third series or stop it completely. Terry Nation, naturally, was for going on with it, and I think Ronnie Marsh was too, because of the viewing figures. [...] I think it was felt that they couldn't take it off, so why not be cheeky and do Blake's 7 without Blake?”.^[21] Terry Nation was brought on board again and given the option to write several scripts as well as give input into the format of the new season. By December the notion of a new lead character, “The Captain”, had been floated. The Captain, envisaged as being aged between mid-thirties and mid-fifties, would be a veteran of the Intergalactic War (started at the end of Star One) who would become the Liberator crew's new leader but whose ultimate goal would be to betray them to the Federation for personal profit. It was planned at this stage to have an ongoing storyline running through the series, much as had been done in Season B. In this case, the first half of the season would see the crew searching for the missing Blake, culminating in a mid-season climax where the Liberator crew would find his grave. Nation was commissioned to write the first two episodes, which would establish the new format and characters, and the final story of the season, which it was intended would wrap up the series for good.^[20]

David Maloney, however, was concerned that casting an older, well-known actor for the final season of an already established series would be difficult and persuaded Nation to change The Captain – now named Del Tarrant (Tarrant being a corruption of Nation's own name and one that crops up frequently in his work) – into a younger character.^[20] Nation saw this new, younger Tarrant as “someone like the Spitfire pilots of World War II, who were young and didn't know the meaning of fear”.^[22] Instead of Tarrant, Avon would become the lead character of the series, the intention being to soften the character and make him more moralistic. This idea was met with stiff resistance from Paul Darrow who felt that it was Avon's anti-heroic qualities that appealed to viewers. He was also sceptical of the notion of the Avon searching for Blake given his oft-stated aim of taking control of the Liberator for himself. In the end, the difficulties experienced with the scripts during Season B led to the running theme being largely dropped (though there are references to Avon's search for Federation torturer Shrinker in episodes prior to their encounter in Rumours of Death) while Tarrant was made into a more heroic character than originally envisaged. Cast as Tarrant was Steven Pacey, who was told about the part by Chris Boucher at the BBC bar.^[20] Recalling his audition, Steven Pacey later remembered “reading the character breakdown, and it said, 'Del Tarrant is thirty-five years old-' and I thought, 'This is a bit silly, I'm only twenty-one'. I went downstairs thinking it was a waste of time, and saw other actors who all seemed nearer the right age. When I went to see David Maloney [...] his advice to me was to keep my performance as gritty as possible”.^[21] One area of concern for Maloney was Pacey's curly hair, which he felt made him look too similar to Gareth Thomas. Judith Smith who was Maloney's production secretary, recalled that “there was all the rigmarole about trying to straighten his hair and can we cut it really short, and what can we do?”.^[21]

To replace Jenna, Nation created Dayna Mellanby, a skilled combat expert, who was based in part on the character of Miranda from Shakespeare's play The Tempest.^[20] Nation “thought it would be interesting to have a girl who was aggressive, to have somebody who would kill first and ask questions later, and it was nice to give what are generally masculine attitudes to a woman”.^[22] Chosen to play Dayna was Josette Simon who had just graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and didn't even have an Equity card.^[21] Simon would later go on to greater success and a distinguished career with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, receiving an OBE for services to drama in 2000.^[23][24]

Returning writers for the new season were Allan Prior and Robert Holmes, while writers new to the series were Ben Steed, a short story writer who had also written for Coronation Street, and Crown Court; Tanith Lee, a successful fantasy novelist; James Follet, who had written science fiction serials for radio, notably Earthsearch; Trevor Hoyle, who had published two novelisations of Terry Nation's Season A scripts and John Fletcher.^[20][25] Chris Boucher intended to write two scripts. One of these would be City on the Edge of the World, which came about from a request made by Michael Keating, who later recalled, “my daughter, who was about five or six at the time, thought Vila was stupid, and Chris Boucher said, 'I'll write you a story where you get the girl'”.^[26] Meanwhile, difficulties arose with both Robert Holmes' story, titled Sweetly Dreaming... Slowly Dying, and John Fletcher's story, about Hell's Angels in space, leading to both scripts being dropped. Ben Steed was commissioned to write the replacement for Sweetly Dreaming... Slowly Dying, which became Moloch, while Boucher himself stepped into the gap left by the Fletcher script, penning Death-Watch.^[27]

As with Season B before, Vere Lorrimer was the only returning director, the rest of the episodes being handled by Desmond McCarthy, Gerald Blake, Andrew Morgan, Fiona Cumming and Mary Ridge.^[27] David Maloney chose to direct Powerplay, the first episode to be recorded, himself in order to assist the new cast members in settling into their roles.^[28] Shooting for the new season began on Monday 30 July 1979 and continued until March 1980. By a stroke of luck, the series was filming on location and at Ealing when industrial action, leading to many BBC programmes having their runs curtailed or cancelled, struck BBC Television Centre in late 1979. By the time filming was completed and the cast and crew were ready for recording at Television Centre, the strike had ended and Blake's 7 was unaffected. A new title sequence, featuring the Liberator and three Federation pursuit ships, was created by Doug Burd to replace the original, which featured departed star Gareth Thomas prominently.^[20]

With the last episode of the season, Terminal, intended to be the final episode of Blake's 7, Maloney was able to persuade Gareth Thomas to make one last appearance as Blake. Because Thomas was not available for the studio recording days, due to other commitments, his scenes were filmed in a village hall near Perton Hill, Oxfordshire where the scenes set on the planet Terminal were being filmed.^[20] While on location, an accident during a rehearsal for a stunt went wrong, leading to extra Deep Roy needing treatment for a broken collarbone.^[29] It was decided to end the series on a downbeat note by destroying the Liberator, the scenes for which were filmed on the final day of recording for the season, Friday 7 March 1980.^[27] Special effects designer Jim Francis, who was tasked with job of destroying the sets on camera, recalled, “It was a big set to destroy. [...] All the pyrotechnics and the big beams dropping from the ceiling could only be done once, which meant we couldn't rehearse it. Everybody did what they were told, and it looked great”.^[30]

Season C began transmission on Monday, 7 January 1980 at 7:15pm. Competition came from Coronation Street, game show Give Us A Clue and sitcom Keep it in the Family. Coverage of the Winter Olympics meant that Children of Auron was shown on a Tuesday before the series resumed its usual timeslot the following week. Ratings were strong, averaging 9.5 million viewers.^[20] By the time the final episode, Terminal, was shown on 31 March 1980, the Blake's 7 production office had been closed and the cast and crew gone their separate ways. It was with some surprise, therefore, that, as the closing credits of Terminal rolled, they heard the continuity announcer declare that there would be a new series of Blake's 7 next year...^[27]

[edit] Season D (1980-1981)

The story behind Blake's 7’s unexpected renewal for a fourth season was that Bill Cotton, the Head of BBC Television, impressed by Terminal as he watched its broadcast at home, rang BBC Presentation and instructed that an announcement be made during the end credits that the series would return. However, bringing the series back presented significant challenges – the cast and crew had moved on and the sets had been destroyed during the recording of Terminal. While Chris Boucher was available and willing to return as script editor, David Maloney was working on The Day of the Triffids and When the Boat Comes In and was not available. It was decided that Vere Lorrimer, who had directed episodes in each of Blake's 7's three seasons, had the necessary experience to take up the role of producer.^[23]

With the Liberator destroyed, the new season would require major changes to the series' format – Chris Boucher has suggested that the fourth season can be viewed as a new series altogether.^[31] Vere Lorrimer decided that the new season should be darker and less glamorous than its three predecessors, suggesting that the new ship the crew would acquire should be somewhat cramped and more functional, akin to the Nostromo from the film Alien.^[32] Chris Boucher, writing the opening episode, Rescue, came up with the Scorpio, describing it as “a fairly small and undistinguished looking cargo ship, moderately scruffy and beaten up”.^[23] The model for the new ship was designed by Jim Francis and constructed by Ron Thornton, who would later set up effects studio Foundation Imaging, best known for designing spaceships for the science fiction series Babylon 5.^[33] The interior was designed by Roger Cann in association with director Mary Ridge who worked to make the new set easier to shoot on and less fragile than the Liberator sets had been.^[23] A new element introduced in this season was that the rebels would have a base of operations on the planet Xenon (spelled Zenon in early drafts).^[31] The running theme proposed for this season would be that Avon would recruit scientists in order to use their expertise to resist the Federation. Because it was realised that this would impose a running order on the episodes and could make the rebels too powerful, many of the scripts end with the scientist dead and Avon and company back to square one again.^[23] Vere Lorrimer travelled to Los Angeles to meet Terry Nation who was now working there as a Hollywood producer to discuss the new format with him. Nation gave his blessing but played little part in the development of this season.^[31]

The first half dozen scripts were commissioned from writers familiar with the series – Ben Steed, Robert Holmes, James Follet, Allan Prior and Roger Parkes. At this stage it was unclear which of the regulars would be coming back. In the end, the only one not to return was Jan Chappell who had become dissatisfied with the role of Cally. Efforts were made to get her to reprise the role, first for six episodes, then three, then one. As things turned out Chappell appeared in the opening episode, Rescue, only as a voiceover.^[23] To replace Cally, Boucher created the character of Soolin (a name partly derived from Boucher's wife's name, Lynn), a twenty-five year old gunslinger who had killed the man who raised and trained her in revenge for the murder of her parents.^[31] Because of the uncertainty over Chappell's availability, most of the early scripts were written for Cally and her lines were given to Soolin. Cast as Soolin was Glynis Barber who had played a Mutoid in the first season episode Project Avalon and who would later go on to fame starring in Dempsey and Makepeace.^[23]

Another cast member whose availability was uncertain was Jacqueline Pearce, who had been taken ill and hospitalised shortly after Season C finished shooting. Believing that Pearce may not be available, a new female villain, Commissioner Sleer, was devised. When Pearce indicated that she would be able to return to the series, the character of Servalan, now a renegade, took on the guise of Sleer.^[23]

Filming on the new season got underway on Monday 23 February 1981 on location back at Perton Hill for the scenes in Rescue set on the planet Terminal. Mary Ridge was brought back to ensure continuity with the Season C closer Terminal which she had directed. The other director hired for the first half of the new season was David Sullivan Proudfoot. A new title sequence, featuring a new logo for the series, was created by Doug Burd.^[23] Vere Lorrimer wrote lyrics, titled Distant Star, for the series theme tune with the notion that Steven Pacey would sing them over a new arrangement of the theme by Norrie Paramour.^{[34] [35]} Pacey was less than keen on the idea, however, and, in the end, Dudley Simpson created a more up-beat arrangement of the theme for the closing titles.^[23]

Scripts for the second half of the season were commissioned from established writers Robert Holmes and Tanith Lee and from new writers Rod Beacham, Bill Lyons, Colin Davis and Simon Masters.^[34] Scripts that were commissioned but abandoned were Ragnarok by former Doctor Who producer Graham Williams and Man of Iron – about an attempt by Servalan to regain power using androids created by the scientist Algor on the planet Epsilon – by Paul Darrow.^[23] Directors assigned for the second shooting block were David Sullivan Proudfoot, Vivienne Cozens, Brian Lighthill, Viktors Ritelis and Mary Ridge. When David Sullivan Proudfoot was taken ill during the shooting of Assassin, Vere Lorrimer had to step into the director's chair for some scenes.^[34] A scene of Vila crying while while hiding from Avon, who is intent on killing him, was removed from the final edit of the episode Orbit as it was felt to be too strong for a family programme.^[23]

It was apparent to Lorrimer and Boucher from quite early on that there was little chance that Blake's 7 would be renewed for a fifth season.^[23] This was a disappointment to Boucher who felt that an additional season would have enabled them to settle in to the new format better.^[9] In considering how to wrap up the series, the first proposal, titled Attack, was that Blake would return and lead an all out assault on the Federation on Earth defeating them once and for all.^[23] This idea was eventually rejected by Lorrimer who felt it “would be like five men trying to defeat the German army”. Influenced by the films Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Wild Bunch,^[9] Boucher decided that having the series conclude in a shootout would lead to a more memorable ending.^[36] Gareth Thomas agreed to return for one final outing as Blake but on one condition – that Blake must be killed off once and for all. The fates of the rest of the cast was left deliberately ambiguous so that they could pick up again if a fifth season was commissioned.^[9] Location filming took place between 13th and 15th October 1981 and following rehearsals moved into the studio at BBC Television Centre on 5 November 1981. The final massacre was recorded on 6 November.^[34] Unknown to director Mary Ridge, Gareth Thomas, determined to eliminate any ambiguity over Blake's death, had arranged with the visual effects to make sure there was as much blood on screen as possible when Blake met his end. Ridge was therefore somewhat shocked when Thomas set off the charge to create the gunshot effect during the recording of his final scene.^[36] Blake was to be given the dying words, “Oh Avon, I didn't take any of them on trust... except you... You are my... only friend”, but these were cut when it was apparent that Blake's ability to deliver them after the violence of his shooting stretched credibilty. The final day's recording on Blake's 7 was on Saturday 7 November 1981.^[34]

The final season of Blake's 7 began transmission on Monday 29 September 1981 scheduled opposite Coronation Street, game show Bullseye and sitcom Never the Twain (replaced mid-season by Astronauts). An average of 8.5 million viewers watched the season, a respectable figure given the strong competition (except Astronauts).^[34] The apparent massacre at the end of the final episode prompted a strong reaction from many viewers who were upset to see their heroes meet a grisly fate.^[36] Chris Boucher has suggested that the date on which the final episode went out on – 21 December 1981 – was unfortunate, given the holiday season, and has since described himself as “the man who killed Father Christmas”.^[9]

[edit] See also

• List of Blake's 7 episodes

[edit] References

Blake's 7  v • d • e
Blake's 7 – The Television Series
History of Blake's 7 | List of Blake's 7 episodes | Blake's 7 actors
The Blake's 7 Universe
Terran Federation | Liberator | Scorpio | Planets | Intergalacic War
Roj Blake | Kerr Avon | Vila Restal | Jenna Stannis | Olag Gan | Cally | Zen | Orac | Dayna Mellanby | Del Tarrant | Soolin | Slave | Servalan | Travis