SPOILERS ALERT!!!
Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
Yeah it’s taken me a while to get to review Series 2 of ‘Blake’s 7’. I haven’t watched these episodes as quickly as I did with Series 1. But that’s due to me being busy this year. Thankfully I’ve been able to see all of Series 2 of ‘Blake’s 7’. Thus I can give my general thoughts on what I think of the season.
Honestly, I enjoyed Series 2. Although I don’t think it’s as good as Series 1. The first season had a lot of compelling storytelling with all 13 episodes by one writer – Terry Nation. That doesn’t seem to be the case here since the episodes are by a variety of writers and not just Terry Nation, which is okay.
As well as Terry Nation, there are episodes by the script-editor Chris Boucher, Robert Holmes himself, Roger Parkes and Allan Prior. It was intriguing to see episodes by writers who delivered their own take on ‘Blake’s 7’ compared to how Terry Nation had delivered his vision for the series initially.
Some of the episodes are rather complex in their execution in my humble opinion, especially the Chris Boucher ones I have to admit. But hopefully when I get to re-watch and review ‘Blake’s 7’ properly as a series on my blog, I’ll be able to process and gain more in watching the episodes again.
The series is once again produced by David Maloney. There are episodes directed by Vere Lorimer, David Maloney himself, Derek Martinus, George Spenton-Foster and Jonathan Wright Miller. The incidental music provided by Dudley Simpson for the series is impressive and epic as ever in Series 2.
The series features the return of Gareth Thomas as Blake as well as Sally Knyvette as Jenna, Paul Darrow as Avon, Michael Keating as Villa, David Jackson as Gan, Jan Chappell as Cally and Peter Tuddenham as the voices of Zen and Orac. Orac is a super-computer that got acquired from Series 1.
I don’t know whether it’s me but Blake seems to be more aggressive and not so friendly as he was in Series 1. He takes things upon himself when setting out to destroy the corrupt Earth Federation in the series. There are tensions between him and his fellow mates during this season, including Avon.
I was shocked when half-way through the season we lost Gan. Gan self-sacrificed himself in one of the episodes when Blake and the others visit a planet where they confront Servalan and Travis. I did like how Blake’s grief over Gan’s death gets touched upon for the following episode during Series 2.
Jacqueline Pearce returns as the villainous Servalan in the series and there’s…(sighs) Brian Croucher as Travis. Brian Croucher was in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘The Robots of Death’ with Tom Baker before this. I’m sorry to say this, but I prefer Stephen Greif as Travis and not Brian Croucher here.
Brian Croucher doesn’t do it for me as Travis. I often found himself coming across as whiny and unimpressive. Stephen Grief had that intimidating presence whereas Brian Croucher didn’t. I don’t understand why Stephen Grief could not reprise Travis and why he transformed into Brian Croucher.
The season’s guest stars were spectacular to see. There were actors like John Savident, Peter Miles, John Abineri, Kevin Stoney, Andrew Robertson, Tom Chadbon, Paul Shelley, Denis Carey, Aubrey Woods, John Leeson, Bruce Purchase, etc. Many of these people have been in ‘Doctor Who’ also. 😀
The last episode of the season, ‘Star One’, ends on a cliff-hanger. Blake is still alive after being shot by Travis who gets killed by Avon, thank goodness. But Avon takes charge of the Liberator whilst Blake stays in sick-bay. The Liberator is about to do battle with an alien fleet invading the Federation.
And I’m not kidding, that’s the end of the season. Yeah! Avon tells the others to open fire at his command and the episode just stops. Roll credits and end theme music. I was like “What?! You can’t end it like that!” I was shocked by how Series 2 ended as I wondered what was going to happen next.
It’s like they’re tempting you to purchase the Series 3 DVD next, which I already have fortunately. I can’t wait to find out what happens next in Series 3. I hope it’ll be good. I’m looking forward to the episode where Colin Baker guest stars in it as Babyban the Butcher. That should be exciting, right? 😀
Overall, Series 2 of ‘Blake’s 7’ has been very good. I’ll need to re-watch the season again to get over some of the complex episodes. But the actors’ performances are great and the outer-space adventures are superb. I look forward when I get to review ‘Blake’s 7’ in-depth properly on my blog.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
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