Blake's 7
Blake's 7 (alternatively spelled Blakes 7) is a British science-fiction television programme that ran for four seasons, from 1978 to 1982, and was created by Terry Nation, who wrote a large number of its episodes.
The original conceit of the series followed a group of outlaws and rebels, led by Roj Blake, an idealistic man framed for crimes he did not commit in order to slander his reputation, in their struggle against the fascist, corrupt galactic Federation. It is a dystopic variant on the model of Star Trek, in which the heroes often lose, suffer, or die. The series's worldview is bleak and cynical, but it shines for its cutting dialogue and sense of vision.
Blake's 7 was notable for the number of female characters in its ensemble cast at the time, and for having a woman as its recurring central villain.
In order of appearance, these regular characters were:
- Jenna Stannis (Sally Knyvette), a pirate and expert pilot (26 episodes, seasons 1-2)
- Cally (Jan Chappell), an Auron telepath and freedom fighter (37 episodes, seasons 1-3)
- Dayna Mellanby (Josette Simon), a weapons specialist (26 episodes, seasons 3-4)
- Soolin (Glynis Barber), a gunslinger (13 episodes, season 4)
and
- Servalan (Jacqueline Pearce), President of the Federation (29 episodes, seasons 1-4)
Author Tanith Lee was the only woman to write for the series: she scripted two episodes: "Sarcophagus" (season 3) and "Sand" (season 4). She was a fan of the series before she contributed to it: she took her inspiration for the two central figures of her novel Kill the Dead (1980), Parl Dro and Myal Lemyal, from the Blake's 7 characters of Kerr Avon and Vila Restal, as played by Paul Darrow and Michael Keating.
Several episodes were directed by women. These directors were Mary Ridge (6 episodes, seasons 3-4), Fiona Cumming (2 episodes, season 3), and Vivienne Cozens (2 episodes, season 4).
While the series as a whole provided fairly good and sometimes outstanding writing for its female characters, one of the series's writers, Ben Steed, contributed two exceedingly misogynist episodes: "The Harvest of Kairos" (season 3), in which a loathsome Gary Stu orders the President of the Federation about and sexually harasses her, and "Power" (season 4), in which there is a war of the sexes and the women of the planet at war are misguided caricatural villains. His second season 3 episode, "Moloch", was slightly less repellent.
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External Links
- IMDb listing for Blakes 7
- Wikipedia entry for Blake's 7
- Judith Proctor's Blake's 7 pages, the Largest Blake's 7 Site on the Web.
- Betty's Guide to Blake's 7