Blake's 7

[knowles2]

I hope we do see the remake of Blake. With BBCAmerica scaling up there original programming I think that where we will eventually see a remake come from.

I think the concept art for the liberator needs a bit more work but I think it could work.

[Blencathra]

Big Finish Blake's 7 - Full-Cast Series 2 Details Announced!

http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/blak...ails-announced

Blake’s 7 - Creating the Scimitar in 31-Easy Steps! Details can today be confirmed on the second series of full-cast Blake's 7 audio productions...

Today we can announce details of November and December's releases of series 2 of our Blake's 7 full-cast audios, plus there's a look at designer Grant Kempster's work in creating the first story's cover...

For the first of Big Finish and B7 Media’s new series of Blake’s 7: The Classic Audio Adventures, cover-artist Grant Kempster was given the challenge to create a brand new Federation ship – the titular Scimitar.

As this short animation shows (http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/...ind_the_scenes), Grant started with an original sketch and then ‘built’ the Scimitar in Photoshop, using pictures of retro objects such as the Tomytronic 3D gaming device and a Sega Light Phaser gun controller. To these, Grant added photos of various model kits, combining them all to create the Federation’s newest warship.

Before long, the Scimitar began to take shape. When completed producer Cavan Scott immediately told Grant that he loved it, but it needed “roughing up as much as possible!”



Scimitar sees the crew of the Liberator beginning their search for their lost teammate Dayna. The trail leads them to an abandoned ship in a dangerous asteroid field – a ship with a secret.

Scimitar by Trevor Baxendale is out in November.

________________

Fortuitas by George Mann

http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/tba-1085

In December, the search for Dayna takes the Liberator to Solace, a former galactic tourist trap fallen on hard times. When he loses a second member of his crew, Avon is forced to investigate a series of mysterious disappearances. As Orac and Del Grant track a radical new movement that is campaigning for the purity of Solace, a deadly trap begins to tighten. The future is Fortuitas. The future is now.

Cast: Paul Darrow (Kerr Avon), Michael Keating (Vila Restal), Jan Chappell (Cally), Steven Pacey (Del Tarrant), Tom Chadbon (Del Grant), Alistair Lock (Zen/Orac), Hywel Morgan (Karl Ranking), Jo Howarth (Eva)

Producer: Cavan Scott
Script Editor: Justin Richards
Executive Producers: Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Pre-order CD: £10.99
Pre-order Digital: £8.99

Fortuitas by George Mann is out in December and as with Scimitar is available now for pre-order on CD or Download. All six titles can be bought in a money-saving subscription.

Keep watching Big Finish's news pages for further story titles, a brand new trailer for Scimitar, and a trailer for Liberator Chronicles volume 10...

[Blencathra]

Big Finish Blake's 7 Full Cast Series 2 - Story Titles and Trailer Released

http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/blak...ailer-released

Early this week we announced the first two story titles in Big Finish and B7 Media's second series of full-cast audios. Now we can give you more...

Launching in November, the second series of the Blake's 7 Full Cast Classic Adventures opens with Scimitar, as the crew of the Liberator begin a vital search for a missing colleague.

Trailer - http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/popout/scimitar-1084

Also released today are the story titles for all six stories in the season:

2.1 - Scimitar by Trevor Baxendale

2.2 - Fortuitas by George Mann

2.3 - Mindset by Jacqueline Rayner

2.4 - Ghost Ship by Iain McLaughlin

2.5 - Devil's Advocate by Steve Lyons

2.6 - Truth and Lies by Justin Richards

All six stories are available for pre-order on CD or Download, or can be bought together in a specially-priced subscription.

[Blencathra]

Big Finish have released a PDF of the prologue of their novel Criminal Intent by Trexor Baxendale.

http://www.bigfinish.com/files/relea...h2_insides.pdf

[Blencathra]

Range of Blake's 7 clothing, T shirts, hoodies etc

http://www.shotdeadinthehead.com/nse...ds=blake%27s+7

[Blencathra]

Big Finish - The Liberator Chronicles Vol 10

http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/...-volume-10-894



Synopsis

Velandra by Steve Lyons
Blake is having bad dreams: a swamp, wolves, a woman called Velandra… and Travis. Could this be a memory that was erased by the Federation?

Retribution by Andrew Smith
A distress call leads Avon and Vila to an old tracking station on the moon of Lorean. It was sent by Ragnus Lang, formerly Vila’s partner-in-crime. And now Lang needs Blake’s help.

Ministry of Peace by Una McCormack
The Liberator crew are on the planet Speranza to assist its new interim government. But is the planet a beacon of hope in the fight against the Federation – or is Speranza’s history about to take a darker path?

Written By: Steve Lyons, Andrew Smith, Una McCormack
Directed By: Lisa Bowerman, Ken Bentley
Cast: Gareth Thomas (Blake), Paul Darrow (Avon), Michael Keating (Vila), Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan), Stephen Greif (Travis), John Banks (Ragnus Lang)

Producer David Richardson
Script Editor Justin Richards
Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Pre-order CD - £25.00
Pre-order Digital - £20.00


___________


Also during November, the full cast audio drama Warship will be available for download at £2.99.

http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/warship-815


I recommend that one. It fills the gap between season B and C very nicely & explains what happened to Blake & Jenna after the events of Star One.

[Blencathra]

Blake's 7 - Full-Cast - Fortuitas Cover and Trailer!

http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/blak...er-and-trailer




With the first of the second series of Blake's 7 full-cast productions out, we're pleased to be able to reveal the cover and trailer for the next...

Blake's 7: Fortuitas is the December release of the hugely popular and critically acclaimed range which sees Big Finish teaming up with B7 Media to bring to life BBC's thrilling and iconic series Blake's 7 with the show's original stars.

Today a brand new trailer and the cover have been posted on the story's page.

The search for Dayna takes the Liberator to Solace, a former galactic tourist trap fallen on hard times.

When he loses a second member of his crew, Avon is forced to investigate a series of mysterious disappearances. As Orac and Del Grant track a radical new movement that is campaigning for the purity of Solace, a deadly trap begins to tighten.

The future is Fortuitas. The future is now.

Blake's 7 - The Full Cast Audios: Fortuitas is now available for pre-order on CD or Download. http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/fortuitas-1085

This November has been a busy one for Blake's 7 fans - check out our releases Blake's 7 - Criminal Intent, Blake's 7 - Scimitar and Blake's 7 - The Liberator Chronicles Volume 10 for trailers, previews, Subscriptions, or to order!

[Blencathra]

Writer Trevor Baxendale lists his favourite Blake's 7 moments

http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/blak...released-today


Another interview with Big Finish Blake's 7 writer/producer Cavan Scott about their new audio adventures.

http://scifibulletin.com/uk-tv/blake...nish-producer/


And here's a article from the Big Finish Vortex Magazine.

Spoiler:

STANDARD BY 2

Cavan Scott teleports onto the Liberator, and tells Kenny Smith about the new season of Blake’s 7 adventures.

After the critical success of the first season of Blake’s 7 plays, it hasn’t take long for a second series of adventures onboard the Liberator to arrive. The first run of episodes slotted neatly into series B, during the search for Star One, and there’s a search involved in the new series, which begins this month.

Succeeding David Richardson as producer on the series is Cavan Scott, who says: “We’ve pushed it into series C. There’s a theory among fans that the third season takes place over a really long period of time, possibly a few years, as it starts with the Federation in tatters, and by the end it’s been rebuilt and is strong again. We’ve also continued our ongoing story of Del Grant joining the team, which we’ve been planning for a while. It’s all moving forward.

“This time, we’ve got Steven Pacey joining us. I started watching Blake’s 7 during series C, so Tarrant and Dayna, and the crew that survived the Galactic War were Blake’s 7 for me. It’s a bit of a thrill, and it’s just worked out that I’ve taken over producing these plays when the first team I watched are the ones I’m working with. So getting Steven Pacey in was an absolute joy.

“There’s great banter between all the returning cast. Sometimes it felt like intruding on a reunion, listening to all the jokes and gentle joshing that goes on when old friends get together. I had a big grin on my face at every recording.”

One notable absence from the cast list is Josette Simon, who played Dayna Mellanby throughout series C and D. Cav explains: “Sadly, Josette Simon has very politely declined the chance to return as Dayna. So, that became our starting point. I was speaking to Justin Richards, telling him we had got Steven and all the others, and although we discussed recasting, Justin came back and said that was the plot of the season – we had a problem and we should use it creatively.”

The season kicks off with Scimitar, by Trevor Baxendale. “It’s a good, old-fashioned Blake’s 7 space romp to start the series,” says Cav, “getting the gang together. Scimitar is a Federation ship developed for major space battles. It’s huge, which you can see from the cover of the release as it dwarfs the Liberator and it’s a kilometre long. It was lost in its first battle and was left drifting, but now it’s been located in an asteroid field, and there’s a secret onboard. Scimitar was never meant to be lost and abandoned, so there’s people wanting to get their hands on it because of that. Also, we reintroduce Del Grant for those who don’t know much about him, and he’s effectively taking Dana’s place as a weapons expert.”

The second part of the season is Fortuitas, by George Mann. Cav says: “Among other things, George writes amazing Sherlock Holmes novels, so my brief to him was to do Avon as Holmes, as he’s so logical, and thought it would be fun to have Orac as another Holmes, so they are both trying to out-Sherlock each other. Orac goes off-ship and investigates why people are disappearing on a distant colony.”

There’s a welcome return for Big Finish veteran Jacqueline Rayner, who has written the third story Mindset. Cav explains: “Not all of the stories in the original series were the same – some were hard science fiction, others were space opera and then there’s others by the likes of Tanith Lee which were more space fantasy, with almost dream-like atmospheres at times. Getting Jac to write one was something I really wanted to do, because she always writes good, human stories, and we didn’t want to go down the route of having the Federation in every story.

“We’ve got more variety in the writing and it’s quite a loosely-linked series anyway. This story is a very Cally-centric episode, and dealing with her reaction to what’s happened to her home planet and her people, after Children of Auron, and looks at her relationship with the crew, and one member in particular…”

Another writer with long-standing Big Finish credits returns, with Iain McLaughlin, who created the Fifth Doctor’s companion Erimem in Eye of the Scorpion. Cav continues: “I wanted to bring Iain back into the Big Finish fold and my brief came in the form of a question: What happens to the person left on teleport duty when the others are off having adventures?

“We had a chat about this and had the idea of the Liberator being haunted. We knew who we had to leave on duty – Vila. It also ties into an ongoing theme which myself and Mark Wright had written about – that Vila’s not so much the coward that he makes himself out to be, but this really tests his mettle. Iain turns the Liberator into an unforgiving, scary place, somewhere you don’t want to be when the lights go out.”

Steven Pacey takes centre stage in Devil’s Advocate, by Steve Lyons. “This is very much a Tarrant-based story,” says Cav, “dealing with what he was doing before Blake’s 7, when he just pops up after the war. He’s never really been given a backstory – the majority of the other characters are, but not him. We know he’s been a good Federation officer, which I think is fun to play with. He’s not always trustworthy, but seems to be quite a good man, with principles.

“It’s the usual thing, to think of every Federation officer as a scheming villain, but Tarrant is the opposite of that. We start to develop his backstory, and will return to it at some point. We learn of his links to the Federation hierarchy, with a returning voice that the Big Finish Blake’s 7 fans may very well recognise…”

Concluding the season is Truth and Lies by Justin Richards. Cav concludes: “Justin gave me this with
the mystery of what had happened to Dayna, and how to finish it. We bring it all together, as the trail for
Dayna comes back into it as the Liberator finally tracks her down.

“It was a nice way to bookend the series, and everyone gets lots of things to do. I’m very pleased with it all, as we’ve got an ensemble story where the regular cast all get something meaty to do.”


The latest Big Finish original Blake’s 7 novel is released this month, as Trevor Baxendale tells Xanna Eve Chown it’s a dream come true.

CRIMINAL INTENT

Criminal Intent is the sixth book in the exciting Blake’s 7 Big Finish range. Written by Trevor Baxendale, who has written scripts for Big Finish’s Doctor Who, Robin Hood and Highlander audio plays, as well as this month’s full cast Blake’s 7 audio Scimitar.

“I loved Blake’s 7 from the moment it started,” admits Trevor.” I was 11 and already obsessed with Doctor Who and Star Wars. A brand new science fiction series was coming to BBC 1 – I can remember the Radio Times article trailing it just before the new year. I could hardly wait. And boy was it good. It was different, for one thing. It felt like it had an edge. The characters were unlike anything else I’d seen. And remarkably it still holds up to today.

“The production values and techniques are immaterial. It’s the concept, the dialogue and the characters that make Blake’s 7. And, of course, the Liberator – undeniably one of the truly great spaceship designs, inside and out. I remember people comparing Blake’s 7 to Star Trek – but I knew it was more than a British Trek. It was the Anti-Trek. It was brutal, mean, sarcastic and violent. It had characters that people could genuinely relate to. And – unusually in those days – it had an ongoing, developing narrative. We take that for granted now in TV series, but Blake did it first. No wonder we loved it.”

Criminal Intent started out as a proposal for a novella. Trevor says: “I was asked to work it up into a full novel, much to my surprise and delight. I didn’t need asking twice. I introduced a couple of secondary plots and themes and then got down to it. I felt like I had been waiting all my life to write a Blake’s 7 novel. It’s different to writing Doctor Who – for one thing, it has a large regular cast who all need good stories and development. Plus, Blake’s 7 characters all feel like real people and they exist in a much harsher reality. It’s fun getting to grips with that. I do like a bit of grit. But anyone who enjoyed my Doctor Who novels Fear of the Dark and Prisoner of the Daleks, will definitely enjoy Criminal Intent.

“Criminal Intent akes the crew of Blake’s 7 from the first TV series back to their roots – a spaceship full of criminals bound for a penal colony. Blake sees the chance to strike at the Federation’s routine justice system – a daring raid on a prison ship en route to the penal planet that might also result in some new followers. We know why Blake’s 7 is ‘7’ but why didn’t they ever try to bolster their ranks at all? This is the story of one such attempt – but as always with Blake’s 7, there’s more to this particular prison ship than Blake thinks. In fact there’s more to it than the prisoners think – or even the crew… Very soon things are going badly wrong for just about everyone, with the Liberator crew fighting for survival.”

Trevor particularly enjoys writing novels, as it allows him to fully flesh out the established characters. “Writing a novel really allows you to explore the individual characters” concedes Trevor, “to get inside their thinking, their motivations, their real fears and weaknesses. And the beauty of Blake’s 7 is that it has many characters so rich in all those things. Blake himself is quite a tormented character, in many ways: he’s a freedom fighter, and nominally our hero figure, but he’s terribly flawed. He’s fighting against a powerful enemy while not really being a natural fighter. He’s a leader but he’s driven by an obsession that blinds him to risk. He’s an idealist but he uses questionable methods to achieve his aims. But perhaps most interestingly, he has been subjected to appalling betrayal, violence, torture and brainwashing at least twice.

“What must be going on in his mind?”

Trevor also found the Federation itself fascinating, not just its leaders and its soldiers, but also the people living under it. He concludes: ”Criminal Intent looks at all of these characters and types and pushes them to expose their real motivations and feelings. Each party views the others as the criminals – what are their intentions, and who will be successful? But this is a Trevor Baxendale book, so you can be sure that our heroes – and our villains – are in for a hard time: there will, as they say, be blood.”

[Blencathra]

Blake’s 7: Interview: Paul Darrow

http://scifibulletin.com/uk-tv/blake...w-paul-darrow/

One of the mainstays of Blake’s 7, Paul Darrow hasn’t confined himself simply to playing Kerr Avon on the show. Some years ago, he penned Avon: A Terrible Aspect, an account of his character’s early life, and in recent time, he has written the Lucifer trilogy for Big Finish (although he admits that elements of the new trilogy don’t necessarily fit with what he wrote all those time ago) and is working on a new writing project. At the recording of the new series of full-cast audios in August, he chatted briefly with Paul Simpson…


Avon has a new sparring partner in these audios: Del Grant…

Yes, he’s popped up. I’ve known Tom [Chadbon] for a long time and he’s a very good actor and a lovely guy. They’ve put him in the third series, which he wasn’t in of course and which might be a bit tricky, but it seems to be working well, what we’ve done so far.

What are the characters’ attitude to each other? They do have a certain amount of history!

That’s covered, and I’m forgiven for killing his sister… Mind you, she had it coming!

Do you find now that you know the characters so well, particularly having written them, that you will comment if you find something not quite right in a script?

Yes – there are one or two sections which doesn’t quite ring true, so we try to work around them.

There was a moment in one story where someone turns up and in the script, Avon asks, “Who are you?” I said he wouldn’t do that; he’d kill her – but they said that if he did that, we didn’t have an episode! This happened originally: never in a million years in the third series all those years ago would he have tuned Tarrant or the Dayna character to Zen or Orac. He never would have done that. I said this to [producer] David Maloney, bless his soul, and he said, “If you don’t, then we haven’t got a series. Think of the money.” So I thought of the money, and off we went!

The interesting thing about these new audios is that you can explain such anomalies and fill in some of the gaps. When we first meet Avon, he’s calculating, cold and ruthless, planning ten steps ahead – do you consider that he remains that way throughout the show?

Pretty much. Obviously, I had to alter him slightly because he would have gone off on his own. He actually tried it at one point, tried to ditch the others, but since that didn’t happen, you have to tweak him a little bit. But underneath he’s the same old guy.

Avon and Vila are often seen as the heart of the series…

Their balance was good. As you may have heard today, when Michael [Keating] and I are together, it rattles off. I know what he’s going to do, and I know what he’s going to do. We race through those scenes.

How much have you worked together outside of Blake’s 7?

We did before the series. We were in Julius Caesar together in Bromley, many many years ago – I was playing Cassius, and he was playing Titinius, who is Cassius’s pal, and he asks him to kill him. Michael had this long speech over my corpse – “Oh, Cassius” – which has a lot of Ss… so I was getting a lot of saliva on my face when I was meant to be dead.

Of course, we’ve since done conventions around the world and had a lot of fun.

The popularity of the show doesn’t seem to be diminishing – there’s an increasing number of audios coming out…

You can understand it, I suppose. If you liked the series, and a lot of people seemed to, they’ve been starved of it for so long that they’ve now got something.

Your second new novel has also now come out – were you pleased with how it ended up?

Yes – I think it’s alright. I’ve written the third one, which they’ve got now. It’s a prequel and a sequel really. It switches back and forth.

Is there more you’d like to do with the character?

I wouldn’t mind writing an episode… I might have a word with Cav and see if he’ll let me.

It’s probably a more collaborative process than a book is.

I’d probably feature the Vila character more, make Avon more background. He’d have to be there, but Vila would feature, and you’d see a different side to him.

Why Vila?

I’ve talked about this to Michael: okay, he’s basically the comic character, but he’s also rather good at what he does. There is another side to the Vila character which I don’t think was necessarily brought to the fore. I discussed this with him many years ago, and he said he’d love to do something with that, do something a little different.

[Blencathra]

Blake's 7 - Full-Cast - Mindset & Ghost Ship Cover and Trailer!

http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/blak...er-and-trailer

Ahead of this month's release of Blake's 7 - Fortuitas, we're delighted to be able to put both a trailer and some covers and story details live for Blake's 7 Full Cast Adventures releases in early 2015...

In January, Blake's 7 - Full Cast Adventures: Mindset is released, and today we put the trailer and cover image live on the Big Finish site. Enjoy another new story in Big Finish's popular range reuniting the stars of the BBC space opera for fresh adventures!

Blake's 7 - Mindset



A voice is calling in the darkness. A voice that only Cally can hear.

Vila has abandoned his crewmates, searching for the mythical water of life. With Cally acting suspiciously, Tarrant and Grant face danger at the heart of paradise.

A gift is being offered. A gift that will cost one member of the Liberator crew dearly.

But will Cally accept?

Order & Trailer here - http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/mindset-1086

Blake's 7 - Ghost Ship



Vila is scared. Of course he is. Vila is always scared.

He should feel safe. He is on board the Liberator, the most powerful ship ever constructed. He is home – but he is certainly not alone.

Ghostly figures stalk the corridors of the Liberator. Spectres who know Vila’s name. Revenants. Demons.

And Vila has nowhere to run.

Order & Trailer here - http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/ghost-ship-1087

The last stories in the series are Blake's 7 - Devil's Advocate and Blake's 7 - Truth and Lies, and covers for these stories will be online soon.

[Blencathra]

Big Finish The Liberator Chronicles Volume 11 Details Released!

http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/blak...tails-released

Old friends and new faces combine in Blake’s 7 The Liberator Chronicles Volume 11, coming soon from Big Finish and B7 Media...

Old friends and new faces combine in Blake’s 7 - The Liberator Chronicles Volume 11, coming soon from Big Finish and B7 Media.

Escape From Destiny by Andrew Smith sees Cally (Jan Chappell) and Vila (Michael Keating) sent to help an old friend on a colony under siege. John Leeson reprises his role of Pasco, a character he first played in the 1978 Blake’s 7 TV episode, Mission to Destiny.

Escape From Destiny also reunites John with his Doctor Who co-star, Louise Jameson, who makes her Blake’s 7 directorial debut. Louise and John are, of course, best known as Leela and K9, redoubtable companions of Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor.

Meanwhile, in Brothers by Nigel Fairs, mysterious Auron scientist Gustav Nyrron (The Avenger’s Anthony Howell) finds himself in the clutches of Avon (Paul Darrow) on an unforgiving desert world.

The three-disc box set is completed with Poison, by Iain McLaughlin. Federation Freighter Antares is under the watchful eye of new recruit, Jance. But is Jance the ship’s guardian angel or a devil in the dark? Samantha Béart – soon to make her debut as Lieutenant Jexie Reagan in Vienna Series 2 - joins Michael Keating in this tense action adventure.

Blake's 7 - The Liberator Chronicles - Volume 11 is released in March 2015 and is available for pre-order now. The most recent release in this award-winning series was Blake's 7 - The Liberator Chronicles - Volume 10, and Big Finish are nearly halfway through a second series of full-cast Blake's 7 adventures - check out the details for trailers, information or to order on CD or Download...

[Blencathra]

Also I was so pleased to see that the BFI poll of the greatest sci characters of all time had Avon in 4th place. And also that Blake and Servalan also made the list.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/n...l-time-verdict

Here are the top 10

1 - The Doctor, Doctor Who
2 - Ellen Ripley, Alien saga
3 - Darth Vader, Star Wars saga
4 - Kerr Avon, Blake’s 7
5 - Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Firefly / Serenity
6 - G’Kar, Babylon 5
7 - HAL-9000, 2001: A Space Odyssey
8 - Rick Deckard, Blade Runner
9 - Han Solo, Star Wars saga
10 - Spock, Star Trek saga

[Blencathra]

Some news from Big Finish Day 6.

• Big Finish are recasting the part of Gan, David Jackson having passed away in 2005. It isn't clear whether Gan will be appearing in The Liberator Chronicles or as yet unannounced full cast audio adventures or both.

• Hugh Fraser will be returning as the President.

• David Warner will be returning as SPOILERS. That information was for the Hall only. But having listened to The Liberator Chronicles vol 9, I'm hoping he will return as the character he played in that.

• 'Ghost Ship' is the best way of scaring Vila on the Liberator whilst everyone has an adventure. Michael Keating does scared well!

[pakar]

I really wish that Syfy would have made the remake of Blake's 7 (one of my favourite series) rather that all these mediocre or even bad shows it makes the last years

[pakar]

I rewached Duet, what a great episode!! i don't think that there are many writers who could write such a story today.