Blake’s 7 is one of British sci-fi’s greatest, most subversive cult classics. From the mind of Doctor Who scribe Terry Nation—after he’d sent the nation into Dalekmania in the ’60s—the 1978 show was wildly ahead of its time, with ideas as bold as its budget was threadbare. Imagine if classic Doctor Who had less money and more balls, and you get a rough approximation of what Blake’s could be at its very best. Now, at long last, the series is getting a familiarly loving home release treatment.
Today the BBC lifted the lid on a brand-new Blu-ray remaster, Blake’s 7: The Collection. Styled in the vein of the corporation’s lavish Blu-ray remasters of classic seasons of Doctor Who, the first of Blake’s four series will release later this year. Including a brand-new remastering of the series—available for the first time on Blu-ray after an infamously rough home release history on VHS and DVD decades prior—complete with all new practical model work for the show’s VFX sequences, the first volume of Blake’s 7: The Collection will include all 13 episodes from series one, as well as new interviews with surviving cast and crew, and a previously unreleased documentary planned for the show’s DVD release, The Making of Blake’s 7.
Set in a future where much of the galaxy is ruled by the iron grip of Earth’s totalitarian government, the Federation, Blake’s 7 follows Gareth Thomas’ Roj Blake, a legendary resistance fighter who is captured by the Federation and has his mind wiped, leaving him an upstanding worker—until those suppressed memories reawaken when Blake witnesses a Federation security detail gunning down a meeting of protestors. Caught and tried under false allegations, Blake is shipped to a distant prison planet, where he meets an unlikely group of scoundrels and convicts, breaks out, and returns to a life of fighting back against the Federation’s rule and its cunning architect (and wearer of many absolutely wild and fabulous sci-fashion looks), Supreme Commander Servalan, played by the legendary Jacqueline Pearce.
The show only gets better as it gets on—and even survives Thomas’ exit, transitioning its lead character to Blake’s second-in-command, Avon, played by Paul Darrow—climaxing in an infamously bleak finale, but it’s a remarkable example of science fiction at its most challengingly brutal, committed with the sincerity of cult British TV (and, again, the charm of its incredibly tight budget). While no official U.S. release has been confirmed yet, given the BBC’s rollout of Doctor Who: The Collection on both sides of the pond it wouldn’t be too surprising if Blake’s makes its way across the Atlantic too—and with it the best chance in years for new audiences to discover an unsung great.
Blake’s 7: The Collection series one releases in the UK November 11.
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