Blake's 7

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Blake's 7 (sometimes spelled Blakes 7, as this was the title shown at the beginning of the series) was a science fiction space opera sub-genre which was first broadcast on BBC 1 between 1978 and 1981. Its characters, setting was created by, and, for the first season, it was entirely written by Terry Nation, the creator of the Daleks.

Overview

Premise and tone

The series was set an unspecified time in the future. The first two seasons concerned the adventures of the experienced but still idealistic rebel Roj Blake and the crew of the Liberator, an alien starship which they had acquired who fought the despotic Terran Federation, represented by Servalan, aided by Travis.

In the third season, Blake vanished and was replaced by his second in command, the vengeful genius Kerr Avon. The Liberator was destroyed at the end of the season and in the next replaced by another starship, the Scorpio.

Blake's 7 was a less fundamentally optimistic series than Doctor Who. The majority of the protagonists met violent deaths during the course of the series, and the dystopian setting remaining basically unchanged or even, perhaps, got worse as a result of the actions of the rebels. Aliens and monsters appeared less often in the series than in Doctor Who and it seemed that other than the Human Terran Federation no major galactic powers existed.

Major Production Personnel Common to Both Series

Doctor Who actors cast in Blake's 7

Regulars

Others

Blake's 7 Regular Cast with Doctor Who and Torchwood connections

In-Universe Crossovers

Despite what a minority of fans believe, there is no evidence to suggest any Blake's 7 TV stories are set in the Doctor Who universe (or vice versa). However a few crossovers were proposed or have occurred in other media.

  • Terry Nation wanted to feature the Daleks as the extra-galactic enemy threatening the Federation at the end of Blake's second series. Chris Boucher recalls the idea was strongly rejected by the producer and himself.
  • Boucher himself was responsible for the first true crossover in his novel Corpse Marker - a sequel to The Robots of Death, it features the psychostrategist Carnell, a character first appearing in the Blake's 7 episode Weapon. Carnell's background was left vague in the novel, but the character appeared again in the Kaldor City series of audios.