Television » Blake’s 7

Current status: Last aired July, 1998

In the third century of the second calendar, after the chaos of the intergalactic wars, a powerful dictatorship has risen to dynamic proportions and engulfed most of the populated worlds. Liberty has become a crime punishable by death, and the majority of the population lives in a drug-induced state of docility. Society is strictly structured from the elite Alpha grades to the menial Deltas–with rewards apportioned accordingly in return for total obedience. This tyrannical authority fulfills George Orwell’s prophecy of 1984 to its most terrifying extremes. This government is known as the Federation.

Each world has its share of rebels who either turned to crime or the Resistance. Through corruption and payoffs, the larger criminal organizations are allowed to exist because they pose no real opposition to the Federation. The Resistance movement, however, is unorganized and comprised of small, persistent groups who constitute enough of a threat to warrant termination if caught. This is the story of one such group of rebels, led by a man named Blake. His name has become the symbol of hope and freedom against oppression throughout the entire movement. His group is largely composed of escaped convicts, thieves and smugglers, who are thrown together by chance.

While on his way to the penal colony of Cygnus Alpha, and following a fixed trial, Blake meets fellow outcasts Jenna, Vila, Avon and Gan. Together, they make their escape, and in the alien starship, Liberator, begin their space odyssey opposing the Federation whenever and wherever possible. On the planet Saurian Major, CaIly is recruited, and counting the ship’s computer, Zen, the original seven were complete. Blake’s 7 is a continuing saga with many engaging twists and turns in its stories. It is a combination of The Magnificent Seven and The Dirty Dozen set in space. Unlike most series, where the main characters always win in the end and live to see another adventure, the fates of the characters of Blake’s 7 are always in doubt. An unforeseen danger can easily result in the untimely death of one of the lead roles, providing a space opera with nail biting suspense and edge-of-the-seat excitement.

SERIES 1

1. THE WAY BACK – After a rigged trial, resistance leader Blake is on his way by space ship to the penal colony of Cygnus Alpha. He meets Jenna Stannis, smuggler, and Vila Restal, thief.

2. SPACE FALL – An abandoned spaceship – the Liberator – arrives alongside. Blake with Gan, Jenna and Vila and computer expert Avon, makes his escape.

3. CYGNUS ALPHA – On board is Zen, a talking computer. Blake makes for Cygnus Alpha on a rescue mission and meets a fascist ruler.

4. TIME SQUAD – Blake attacks and destroys a communications complex on Saurian Major where he finds a new recruit – Cally.

5. THE WEB – When his ship is trapped in an enveloping gossamer fungus near an unexplored planet, Blake is asked to wipe out an entire species.

6. SEEK, LOCATE, DESTROY – The Federation orders Space Commander Travis to destroy Blake. He captures Cally and uses her as bait.

7. MISSION TO DESTINATION – A series of mysterious murders on board a drifting spaceship give Avon a dangerous puzzle to solve and Blake a risky mission to complete.

8. DUEL – Travis sets a trap for Blake, and then the two men are forced to face each other in single unarmed combat in a maze of tunnels.

9. PROJECT AVALON – Travis engineers another deadly scheme. When Blake carries out a rescue, he wonders why it has been allowed to succeed.

10. BREAKDOWN – Gan is in urgent need of neuro surgery. But will the doctors at Space Research Station XK72 aid a wanted criminal?

11. BOUNTY – Blake forces an exiled president to return to his own planet, and then finds himself in a deadly trap.

12. DELIVERANCE – Jenna is captured by primitive savages; the ship is hijacked; Blake is forced to head for an unknown planet.

13. ORAC – Blake has to win a double race – against the Federation and against time.

SERIES 2

1. REDEMPTION – Blake sees a vision of a gigantic explosion that destroys his ship. Orac confirms it, but refuses to say when it will happen.

2. SHADOW – When Blake tries to buy the help of Terra Nostra, an interplanetary crime syndicate, he discovers that they are even more dangerous than he expected.

3. WEAPON – The freedom fighters attempt to acquire a devastating secret weapon called IMIPAC, and Servalan and Travis try to defeat them by using a clone of Blake.

4. HORIZON – Blake takes the Liberator far out towards the edge of the galaxy. But even here he is not free of the Federation. On the planet Horizon, he is captured.

5. PRESSURE POINT – Within the Forbidden Zone is Control, the computer complex which runs the entire Federation. Blake is now ready to attack it.

6. TRIAL – Blake’s abortive attack results in a court martial in Space Command Headquarters. On the Liberator, he prepares to desert his crew.

7. KILLER – On Fosforon, Avon tries to persuade an old friend to hand over a vital piece of equipment, while Blake and the others watch an Earth ship, listed as missing centuries earlier, approach the planet.

8. HOSTAGE – Although he too is now an outlaw from the Federation, Travis is still determined to kill Blake. On a desolate planet, he gets his chance.

9. COUNTDOWN – An entire world is under sentence of death – unless Blake and his crew can save it.

10. VOICES FROM THE PAST – A mysterious telepathic signal plunges Blake back into the nightmare of his torture and trial. Under its control, he re-routes the Liberator.

11. GAMBIT – Docholli is the only person who knows the location of the computer control center. Blake searches for him in Freedom City, but Travis is already there.

12. THE KEEPER – The secret of the location of Star One is apparently on a brain print hung around the neck of a royal chief on the planet of Goth. But there is another, very unlikely, keeper of the secret.

13. STAR ONE – At last Blake and his crew reach Star One. But a huge alien fleet is approaching the anti-matter barrier, intent on destroying humankind.

SERIES 3

1. AFTERMATH – After the battle with the alien fleet, the crew of the liberator abandon ship one by one.

2. POWERPLAY – As Avon and Vila fight separate battles for survival, they find that it is not always easy to distinguish between friends and enemies.

3. VOLCANO – For the Liberator crew, the planet Obsidian offers the prospect of allies and a safe base from which to work. But Obsidian holds a deadly secret…

4. DAWN OF THE GODS – When the Liberator is mysteriously drawn off-course, it takes the crew vital minutes to find out why. By this time, it is already too late to save the ship from almost certain destruction.

5. THE HARVEST OF KAIROS – A mysterious death awaits anyone who remains on the planet Kairos after the harvest week. When Servalan captures the Liberator, she maroons the crew on Kairos.

6. CITY AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD – In an ancient and deserted city on the planet Keezarn, Vila struggles to open a mysterious vault. The penalty for failure is death. The reward for success is not much better.

7. CHILDREN OF AURON – When a deadly disease strikes the planet Auron, Cally is summoned to return home to help her people. Only Avon suspects that it might be a trap…

8. RUMORS OF DEATH – Avon returns to Earth looking for the Federation torturer who killed the woman he loved. But revenge is not always sweet and the past not always what it seems.

9. SARCOPHAGUS – In deep space, the Liberator finds an alien ship drifting and unmanned. According to the scanners, there is no life on board. What they fail to register is the strange and terrifying death it carries.

10. ULTRAWORLD – To the crew of the Liberator, the strange artificial planet appears lifeless, but Ultraworld contains an enemy as dangerous as any they have met before.

11. MOLOCH – On the planet Sardos, is the secret of almost limitless wealth and power. But, as the Liberator’s crew discovers, the men who possess that secret do not control it.

12. DEATH WATCH – The planets of Teal and Vandor traditionally wage war by computer and for the Liberator crew it is an opportunity for an exciting day’s entertainment. But their discovery that Servalan is involved changes their attitude to the whole event.

13. TERMINAL – Avon undertakes a secret mission without the knowledge of the rest of the crew. From the moment he lands the Liberator on an artificial planet, things start to go wrong.

SERIES 4

1. RESCUE – After the destruction of their spaceship Liberator, the crew of Blake’s 7 are rescued from the hostile planet Terminal by Dorian in his ship Scorpio. But they escape the horrible fate Dorian has planned for them.

2. POWER – On the mysterious planet Xenon, Avon and the others are trapped underground in their ship Scorpio. When Avon is captured by warring gangs, he discovers that access to the ship is important to others on the planet.

3. TRAITOR – The inter-galactic dictatorship, the Federation, has been making easy territorial conquests. Avon needs to know why and sends Tarrant and Dayna to planet Helotrix to bring back the secret.

4. STARDRIVE – Federation ships are mysteriously disappearing. Unraveling the mystery leads Avon to the rescue of a woman scientist, Dr. Plaxton, the inventor of a new spacedrive technology, who is the captive of a barbaric sect known as Space Rats.

5. ANIMALS – On the planet Bucol, a genetic engineer, Justine, is working on a drug which Avon needs to combat the Federation’s pacification program. But Dayna’s love for Justine, her former tutor, leads them into deadly danger.

6. HEADHUNTER – Tarrant and Vila go off to the planet Faros to collect Dr. Muller, a leading cyberneticist. But the mission could lead to the potential death of humankind.

7. ASSASIN – The Federation and its evil security boss Servalan hire an assassin, code-named Cancer to eliminate Avon and his crew. From a pirate base on planet Domo, Scorpio sets off in pursuit of Cancer’s ship. But the real danger is only just beginning.

8. GAMES – On planet Mecron, a fortune in gems is being mined by Belkov, a skilled but unscrupulous games player. The Federation, as well as Avon and his companions, are involved when Belkov and his computer, Gambit, start playing for high stakes.

9. SAND – Servalan accompanies a Federation team sent to investigate mysterious messages from the planet Virn. The crew of Scorpio follow the trail but old emnities are forgotten when Tarrant and Servalan are trapped by a horrifying creature.

10. GOLD – Gold is being transported to the Federation from the independent planet Zerok. Security officer Keiller plans to steal a consignment with the help of Avon. But is he all he seems to be?

11. ORBIT – Egrorian, a renegade Federation scientist, has developed the ultimate weapon which he is prepared to give to Avon in return for Orac. But Avon senses a double-cross and counters with a plan of his own.

12. WARLORD – Zukan, the most powerful leader of the non-aligned planetary systems, joins Avon at a summit meeting to form an anti-Federation alliance. Zukan appears to be a convinced convert, but sabotage and betrayal follow his arrival.

13. BLAKE – When the lawless planet Gauda Prime seeks re-admission to the Federation, bounty hunters are appointed to establish law and order. Could one of them be the long-lost leader Blake? Avon and the others risk everything to find out.