SPOILERS ALERT!!!
Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
I’ve thankfully finished seeing all of Series 3 of ‘Blake’s 7’. I have taken my time with these seasons, but I’m glad I managed to watch all 13 episodes of Series 3 and I’m looking forward to watching Series 4 next. Series 3 of ‘Blake’s 7’ has been an intriguing and unusual season for me to sit through.
For one thing, this season doesn’t have Blake in it! At all! Gareth Thomas doesn’t return to play Blake in Series 3 apart from one episode at the end. This makes it less a show about him then, doesn’t it? Sally Knyvette also doesn’t return to play Jenna in Series 3. I did miss her when I watched Series 3. 😦
So, all that remains in the original cast is Paul Darrow as Avon, Michael Keating as Villa and Jan Chappell as Cally. Avon more or less takes Blake’s place as leader of the Liberator team. I’m surprised they didn’t rename the show as ‘Avon’s 7’ instead of ‘Blake’s 7’. This would’ve made sense.
Anyway, Series 3 follows on from the end of Series 2 where the Liberator gets severely damaged from the battle with the Andromedans. The crew splits up. Blake and Jenna go missing as Avon, Villa and Cally go off in escape pods from the Liberator. I’m not sure how much time’s passed in-between.
The Federation becomes less of a threat in this season despite Jacqueline Pearce’s return as the villainous Servalan. Yeah, she becomes more prominent as a villain in the series especially without Travis around. In Series 3, she attempts to capture the Liberator and restore the Federation’s power.
The ‘Blake’s 7’ team are now joined by two new members in Series 3. Avon meets Josette Simon as Dayna Mellanby on her home planet and soon meets Steven Pacey as Del Tarrant who was a former Federation officer turned mercenary. Dayna and Tarrant quickly become members on the Liberator.
That’s in the first two episodes of Series 3 in ‘Blake’s 7’. I liked Dayna and Tarrant as I watched them in Series 3. Dayna comes across as pretty feisty; likes to use weapons; but has a compassionate heart about her. Tarrant can be quite a jerk and assume his authority, but does have this quite good heart.
I enjoyed watching the episodes of Series 3 and seeing the new team of Avon, Villa, Cally, Dayna and Tarrant. It wasn’t the same as the original team, but it was still enjoyable. I enjoyed how the new team travelled the galaxy and thwarted the attempts of Servalan and her forces capturing their ship.
Avon gets to have centre-stage in the series compared to when Blake was in charge for Series 1 and 2. It was interesting to see how Avon conducts his leadership aboard the Liberator and sometimes showing moral codes even when he denies it. There is clearly more depth to Avon than ever before.
The series once again is produced by David Maloney in its third year. Peter Tuddenham also returned to voice Zen and Orac. The episodes themselves are penned by writers such as series creator Terry Nation, series script editor Chris Boucher, Jim Follett, Trevor Hoyle, Tanith Lee, Allan Prior and Ben Steed.
The episodes of Series 3 are also directed by people like Gerald Blake, Fiona Cumming, Vere Lorrimer, David Maloney, Desmond McCarthy and Mary Ridge. Some of these directors did ‘Doctor Who’ episodes. The show’s theme music and incidental music is also composed by Dudley Simpson.
Once again, there are a good guest stars for Series 3 in ‘Blake’s 7’. There are people like Richard Franklin, Michael Melia, Michael Sheard, Primi Townsend, Michael Gough, Andrew Burt, Valentine Dyall, Michael Troughton, Ronald Leigh-Hunt, David Haig, Sabina Franklyn, Stewart Bevan and more.
The highlight of Series 3 was seeing the episode ‘City at the Edge of the World’ which featured special guest star Colin Baker as Bayban the Butcher. I found him great in that episode and it was pretty nice to see a romantic story for Villa in the episode where he was with Carol Hawkins as Kerril.
Like I said, Gareth Thomas does come back as Blake in the last episode called ‘Terminal’. Incidentally, Mary Ridge directed that episode. She would later direct the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘Terminus’. Get it? ‘Terminal’; ‘Terminus’. 😀 It seems that Blake is dead. But is he really? I’m certain he’ll make a return.
The episode does end on a cliff-hanger with the Liberator destroyed and perhaps Servalan escaped. Avon, Villa, Cally, Dayna and Tarrant are on the alien planet called Terminal and need to get off with a ship supplied to them by Servalan. I wonder what will occur next as the series continues in Series 4.
I found Series 3 of ‘Blake’s 7’ reasonably good. I wouldn’t say it was as good as the first two seasons with not all of the original cast there and two new characters joining the ensemble. But there were some enjoyable episodes to watch. I do hope I’ll get to enjoy more in the next season of the series.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
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