Blake's 7 was a science-fiction drama first broadcast on BBC One between 1978 and 1981. It shared similar production values to Doctor Who and a large number of cast and crew worked on both series - most notably, Blake's 7 was the creation of Terry Nation.
However, Blake's 7 was a less fundamentally optimistic series than Doctor Who, with the majority of the regular characters meeting violent deaths in the course of the series, and the dystopian setting remaining basically unchanged despite their best efforts.
Rumours occasionally surface of a Blake's 7 revival, on TV or in another medium, but for the most part it retains the reputation as a piece of low-budget, high-camp silliness that the revived Doctor Who has largely managed to shed.
Major Production Personnel Common to Both Series
- Terry Nation - creator and chief writer of the first three series
- Chris Boucher - script editor & writer
- Robert Holmes - scriptwriter
- David Maloney - producer of first three series
- Dudley Simpson - composer of theme music
- Michael E. Briant - director
- Douglas Camfield - director
- Pennant Roberts - director
- Derek Martinus - director
- Fiona Cumming - director
- Mary Ridge - director
- Gerald Blake - director
- Barry Letts - writer of two BBC Radio 4 plays set during the fourth series
Regular Cast Appearances
Doctor Who Regular Cast in Blake's 7
- Colin Baker - Bayban in City at the Edge of the World
- Richard Franklin - Federation Trooper in Aftermath
- Richard Hurndall - Nebrox in Cancer (not strictly a Doctor Who regular, but on his one appearance he played a regular character)
Blake's 7 Regular Cast with Doctor Who and Torchwood connections
- Gareth Thomas (Roj Blake) played Ed Morgan in the Torchwood episode Ghost Machine, Lord Tamworth (Storm Warning) and also had the regular role of Kalendorf, a recurring role in the Dalek Empire line of audio plays from Big Finish Productions.
- Paul Darrow (Kerr Avon) played Captain Hawkins (Doctor Who and the Silurians), Tekker (Timelash) and Iago in the Kaldor City series of audio plays.
- Michael Keating (Vila Restal]) played Goudry (The Sun Makers) and Major Koth (The Twilight Kingdom).
- Jaqueline Pearce (Servalan) played Chessene ( The Two Doctors) and Sherilyn Harper (The Fearmonger) and Admiral Mettna (Death Comes to Time).
- Jan Chappell (Cally) played Captain Lisa Deranne inShakedown.
- Brian Croucher (the second of two actors to play Travis) played Borg (The Robots of Death) and Kurt (Shakedown).
- Peter Tuddenham the voices of the talking computers Orac, Zen and Slave also leant his voiceover talents to The Ark in Space, The Masque of Mandragora and Time and the Rani.
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.