Blakes 7 out in the shops!

[Brian G Turner]

Series 1 of blakes 7 is out in the shops now - I'm just wondering who's actually bought it yet, and who's actually watched it all again.

I'm especially interested in whether it upholds the same sense of awe as it held in the 1980's - those black-clad figures in gasmasks were always pretty intimidating as a kid, and the general sense of oppression seemed pretty well done then. But how is it holding out after all this time?

 

[Foxbat]

I bought it a while ago and have just finished watching the whole season.

I have to say that it has certainly dated - and the plotlines certainly look a bit more formulaic than they did when I was younger (hmm, perhaps it's just me). The costumes are very dated and have that 70s/80s sense of the future - if you know what I mean. Travis looks daft with his lump of liquorice over one eye (at least that's what it looks like to me).

Avon is definitely a saving grace....and Servelan looks just as fine as I remember - but I think her sense of dress (though somewhat pleasing to the eye) does not become the Supreme Commander. It looks more as if she's heading of to some swish dinner party. Still I'm not complaining.

All in all. This is dated stuff but it still holds that spark of something special. Despite the ridiculous costumes, the bad acting, the flat-pack plots, I really enjoyed it and will definitely be buying season 2 when it comes out.

P.S. I haven't got around to the extras yet

 

[Esioul]

Hmm, I saw series 1 on tv (too young to have seen it the first time round!) and I've been buying series 2. Unfortunatly, someone else seems to have been using our local forbidden planet for the same purpose, so I am waiting for them to stock some more.

There are a lot of problems with Blakes 7, (not to mention the missing apostraphe) but it's great. I weas cracking up watching an episode last week where Travis is running round an abandoned quarry yelling 'crimos!', wearing some very shiny black knee length boots and what looked like several bin liners.

Servalan is so cool! I had my hair cut like her a few years ago, but I've grown it a bit since then... still, I might invest in the Servalan style again, as my hair is starting to stress me out. The most recent episode I watched was countdown- pretty good, had me freaked out anyway.

 

[jenna]

When I moved house last year and changed video shops I was shocked to find the entire series on video hiding in a corner! I'd always wanted to see it since my parents loved it so much they named me after Jenna, but I'd never been able to find it. So since then I've watched the whole thing twice and am just starting into my third time! You have to kind of look past the crappy sets and costumes, especially in the earlier episodes, but I think the characters and story lines are great. Of course it's dated, that's how everything pre-CGI will look to all of us now! It's one of the biggest crimes in television that B7 only went for 4 seasons, while so many god awful shows just go on and on and on...

 

[Esioul]

I love B7! What is CGI, btw?

 

[Brian G Turner]

Computer Graphical Imagery (or something like that) - you know, that stuff that in Star Trek Insurrection made the Enterprise look like a 2 foot piece of plastic, and makes the TIE fighters in Star Wars shiny in the "enhanced" version. .

 

[jenna]

CGI (computer generated imagery) is also what made Gollum look so amazing in LotR, and basically what carries every Sci-fi and fantasy film out there. imagine what B7 could have been with that sort of technology!!

 

[Brian G Turner]

Yeah - it works when used right. It works so well in LOTR precisely because Jackson used so much physical modelling. Where CGI falls apart IMO is when its used completely alone and without any real-world modelling - ie, the short cut way.

But jenna is quite right - when it works it works.

And welcome to the chronicles-network, jenna.

 

[jenna]

thanks! i was really happy to find an active B7 forum, most of them are dead and gone now *sigh* and i could talk about B7 forever, but it's so rare to find anyone outside of the net who's even heard of the show!

 

[Brian G Turner]

Heh, there are a lot of people from the UK here, so we naturally remember Blakes 7.

I know there's another extremely dedicated Blakes 7 fan here not yet on this thread - she goes under the alias of AVON. I expect we'll see her pop back in soon enough.

No chance of this place becoming inactive. We're growing up very well indeed.