Liberation - A Complete Guide to Blake's 7

by Alan Stevens

From its first appearance in 1978 to its final episode in 1981, Blake's 7 was a series which pushed back the boundaries of what was possible in TV science fiction. Despite the attempts made by critics over the years to deride it for its low-budget special effects, sometimes-dubious costume design and overly middle-class casting, Blake's 7 continues to remain popular and to gain new audiences, due to its intelligent treatment of powerful themes of human evil, rebellion, love and death. In this book, Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore go beyond the stereotypes and look at the background to and the writing of the stories. Including technical details, overviews of the production of the series and in-depth analyses of every episode, together with a number of previously-unpublished photographs, this book is the ideal companion for anyone interested in the development of TV science fiction during the late seventies. "... a wealth of detail about the early development of the series." From the foreword by series producer David Maloney.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference

368 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Alan Stevens is a British writer and producer who is based in the Southeast of England, where he runs his own audio production company, Magic Bullet Productions.

Stevens has produced a number of documentaries, serials and dramas for radio and independent audio release, including the Blake's 7/Doctor Who' spinoff series Kaldor City and the second Faction Paradox audio series, and has co-written two guidebooks for Telos Publishing, Liberation: the Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Blake's 7 and Fall Out: the Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The Prisoner, with Fiona Moore. He writes articles for Celestial Toyroom, the magazine of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, and has written in the past for Doctor Who Magazine and DWB.

Reviews

[Pedro Pascoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very handy guide to every Blake's 7 episode, with independant analysis of each episode, holding back few punches, and a guide to some of the spin-off post-show audio episodes. Unless by a bizarre co-incidence, co-author Alan Stevens also seems to be the producer of the Kaldor City series, expanding upon the Chris Boucher Doctor Who novel 'Corpse Marker' (which I have recently discovered and read), marking a cross-over between the two franchises. Stevens also wrote and produced the audio adventure 'The Logic of Empire' which I listened to, and considered the best of the spin-offs for its very explosive ending. The synopsis of 'Afterlife' (which I read back in the day, and have pretty much forgotten), saved me a re-read, as it critically pans the Atwood sequel, pointing out its more obvious flaws and contradictions. Yay for synopses!

The guide was a welcome revision of episodes of Blake's 7 (of which I am a huge fan), and pointed out a number of things going on in the series which I had missed on my numerous re-watches of random episodes. There are a number of behind-the-scenes explanations that sneak in, and the guide points out frankly the episodes that (in the opinion of the authors) work the best and the worst. I found myself largely in agreement with their assessment of each episode based on the nearly 40 years of watching that I have sunk into this brilliant series. I did object to the description of the special effect of Saymon in 'The Web', but I was 10 or so when I first watched that episode, and the concept of a corporate identity in a schrivelled body in a fish-tank was one of the more disturbing concepts I'd encountered at that age, and its impact had never quite left me, despite how 'risible' the 'special effects' may have seemed to an adult at the time.

I was hoping for perhaps a few essays of general criticism and analysis of the series overall, or event elements of the series, which was absent, in favour of the episode guide. But all in all, a handy companion piece to the official episode guide, and the small shelf of Blake's 7 books available currently.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hardcore fans-only blow by blow compendium of the Blake's 7 series and beyond, which benefits from insider recollections of the production. There's a lot of hard-to-find information here (more than I needed to know about post-B7 productions), and I don't find much to disagree with in their episode analysis. And they rightly posit that B7 is the progenitor of the showrunner/storyarc style of tv scifi that everyone has come to accept as standard.

But two things struck me about it: one, its not fun. They may love the show, perhaps worship it, but they don't seem to be enjoying writing about it. The other is really quite odd: the amount of overlap with the Doctor Who production is immense but you won't hear too much about that from these fans. We get a lot of the politics between Terry Nation and the universe, but the great many shared props, actors, writers, and production staff with the Whoverse is passed over silently. It's odd to make constant reference to the poor budgets and production constraints without noting how they managed to get by ie pinch what they could from a friendly production.

So I can't give it all the stars I'd like, despite being probably the best reference you'll find.

[Colleen Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read and a different perspective, but unless you are really into Blake's 7, this may not be for you. The authors have very odd bias, at times praising episodes I thought were terrible and shunning ones I liked, but overall it was interesting to read their analysis. I enjoyed hearing about trivia that I had not heard before. It seems odd that there is no mention of Firefly with their detailed discussion of things influenced by Blake's 7, but as I had to remind myself, Firefly may not have been released by the time of year this book was.

[cauldronofevil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished watching the British science-fiction television show “Blake’s 7”. I’d heard about it for decades but it just wasn’t available to watch anyway until now.

It was every bit as amazing as I was told. Certainly the cheesy sets and costumes are dated, but most the stories and the characters were fascinating and interesting and it was well worth the effort - even for some of the clunky bits and hammy villains.

Pound for pound (no pun intended) it was better written that most science fiction shows I’ve ever seen.

It impressed me enough to purchase the hard-copy book “Liberation: The Unofficial and Unauthorized Guide to Blake’s 7”, a 376 page paperback, even though it is easily and freely available as a download.

After some introduction and background it goes on to an analysis of the show episode by episode and so far I really agree with it’s analysis fro the things that worked and the things that should have been continued and weren’t (Vila’s darker characterization being a main one).

Each episode gives a full list of credited and uncredited cast members as well as the dates of transmission duration, writer and director.

I can’t really imagine why this one hasn’t been rebooted yet, except that it would be really hard to top what is there.

The episode guide is very enlightening. It details what went right about the episodes and also what went wrong - plot holes, really bad costumes and effects. There is no forgiveness for how old it is at all. It’s actually kind of brutal.

But it also confirms that what I saw in it was really meant to be. It was a really interesting idea that all of the crew are criminals and they don’t really redeem themselves at all throughout the series. They are the kind of rebels that will stop at nothing.

Honestly I wish I had read this book concurrently with watching the series. It certainly is insightful and would have been interesting. I’m tempted to watch it again while reading this episode guide.

One of the things that distinguishes this from most ‘episode guides’ of this type is the amount of research that has gone into the difference between the script for the episode and the final episode.

There is also a lot of information given on the motivations of the writers and actors in certain ways that affect an episode.

This is all very interesting and insightful stuff. I don’t recall any Star Trek book going this deep.

“Jacqueline Pearce has remarked of her makeup in this episode, ‘I looked like a man in drag’.

After the excellent episode guide is an Afterword that discusses the impact Blake 7 has had and continues to have. I’m amazed at many of the series that I love have been partially influenced by Blake 7.

After that there are chapters summarizing the Blake 7 books fiction books and radio shows that have been published. None of them fair very well.

Then there are summaries of two Blake 7 ‘Independent Audio’ which are only summarized and then some 9 Doctor Who books that I have no idea why they are in this book.

Anyway, I greatly enjoyed this book. While certainly no more than an ‘episode guide’ it’s a very entertaining one and sheds a lot of light on each and every episode. I give it 5 stars and I’ll keep it as one of the only Blake 7 souvenirs I have!

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

brilliant insight into bake 7, many things I didn't know , probably would only appeal to those who are fans of the show.