Warship

Blake's 7: Classic Audio Adventures #0

by Peter Anghelides

From the Blakes 7 Universe:

An alien fleet stands poised to invade Federation space. The only vessel available to hold it back is the Liberator, commanded by Roj Blake and his crew.

As an intergalactic war breaks out, old enemies become allies, and friends will become separated.

And Blake will be forced to leave behind all that matters to him...

This release consists of two discs: the story on one disc, and a behind the scenes documentary on disc two. It is not part of any Blake's 7 subscription.

Written By: Peter Anghelides
Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast

Gareth Thomas (Roj Blake), Paul Darrow (Kerr Avon), Michael Keating (Vila Restal), Jan Chappell (Cally), Sally Knyvette (Jenna Stannis), Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan), Alistair Lock (Zen/Orac)

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook

Audiobook

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Anghelides' first published work was the short story "Moving On" in the third volume of the Virgin Decalog collections, which led to further short stories in the fourth collection and then in two of the BBC Short Trips collections that followed. In January 1998, his first novel Kursaal was published as part of BBC Books' Eighth Doctor Adventures series on books. Anghelides subsequently wrote two more novels for the range, Frontier Worlds in November 1999, which was named "Best Eighth Doctor Novel" in the annual Doctor Who Magazine poll of its readers, and the The Ancestor Cell in July 2000 (co-written with departing editor Stephen Cole). The Ancestor Cell was placed ninth in the Top 10 of SFX magazine's "Best SF/Fantasy novelisation or TV tie-in novel" category of that year.

Anghelides also wrote several short stories for a variety of Big Finish Productions' Short Trips and Bernice Summerfield collections. This led, in November 2002, to the production of his first audio adventure for Big Finish, the play Sarah Jane Smith: Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre.

In 2008, he wrote a comic which featured on the Doctor Who website

Reviews

[Rob Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blake's 7 is a British science fiction television series produced by the BBC. Four 13-episode series were broadcast on BBC1 between 1978 and 1981. It was created by Terry Nation, who also created the Daleks for the television series Doctor Who. The script editor was Chris Boucher. The main character, at least initially, was Roj Blake, played by Gareth Thomas. The series was inspired by various fictional media, including Robin Hood, Star Trek, Passage to Marseille, The Dirty Dozen, Brave New World and classic Western stories, as well as real-world political conflicts in South America and Israel.

Blake's 7 was popular from its first broadcast, watched by approximately 10 million in the UK and shown in 25 other countries. Although many tropes of space opera are present, such as spaceships, robots, galactic empires and aliens, its budget was inadequate for its interstellar theme.

In this audio drama, an alien fleet stands poised to invade Federation space. The only vessel available to hold it back is the Liberator, commanded by Roj Blake and his crew. As an intergalactic war breaks out, old enemies become allies, and friends will become separated. And Blake will be forced to leave behind all that matters to him...

The story here fills in the action after season two’s epic finale “Star One”. With a deadly alien fleet poised to unleash destruction across the Federation, the only thing standing in its way is the Liberator, but the crew has plenty of other problems on their hands – including an attack from alien limpet-mines, and the dangerous attentions of Servalan (Jacqueline Pearce).

Warship captures the correct mix of edgy characterisation and charmingly dated sci-fi, fitting seamlessly with the style of the original series while also giving the cast plenty to do. Paul Darrow once again steals the show as the brainy and amoral Avon, but while this is certainly a must-buy for fans, it’s also extremely talky, and the multi-stranded story struggles to cohere at times. There’s an unavoidable sense of “joining the narrative dots” to Warship , but despite its flaws there’s still plenty of nostalgic, old-fashioned SF entertainment to be found here.

To his credit, Anghelides doesn't just provide a filler between seasons. While it is a logical sequel or companion to second series finale Star One, he introduces enough new, fresh elements into the narrative to make it engaging and exciting while still keeping the writing tight. Warship has all the hallmarks of a studiobound B7 episode (the major setpiece being the Liberator itself), with the action played out mainly between the core characters. Anghelides, though, doesn't shy away from giving the story a celestial, expansive feel and his climax is of such Hollywood blockbuster-style proportions that it would have been well beyond the scope of a TV episode. (Well, the climax could – and probably would - have been attempted on TV but the result would have been decidedly shaky on a 1970s budget!

Fans of all the characters won’t be disappointed – there are great scenes for each of them, with some classic Blake/Avon and Avon/Vila moments. Alastair Lock steps into Peter Tuddenham’s shoes for both Zen and Orac and there’s an important, if not huge, role for Jacqueline Pearce as Servalan, giving one final stand-off between her and Blake.

The accompanying documentary is also interesting, particularly as it gives some of the history of the Big Finish work on the franchise, and it’s good to hear the actors’ views on the revival of their characters after so long. Let’s hope that we can have some more of these full-cast stories soon.

[Leila Anani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warship is pretty much like a dream come true for any Blake's 7 fan. Set within the episode Star One (with a tiny bit of Aftermath thrown in) it gives us the space battle that the TV show didn't have the budget for.

It's full cast and all the characters get their moment to shine. I particularly like Jenna here - She gets to go off and mount some daring piloting manoeuvre in an alien ship until Cally teleports over and 'rescues' her, much to her annoyance. You get an inkling at just what a kick-ass character she could have been if the writers had been less preoccupied with the male leads. Perhaps something that might be explored in further adventures (I'd love to see her adventures post Star One). While Cally still hasn't come into her potential as a character she does show some nice backbone here and I like how she totally ignores Avon's wishes. Her telepathy is used to explain to the audience just who the back up fleet are - I just wish a bit more had been made of this but with just a 60 minute run time I guess there just wasn't time.

Villa too manages to be both comic and courageous as he's forced to deal with limpet aliens boring through the hull of the Liberator.

Avon, Blake and Servalan go without saying and there's classic antagonism between them that makes you feel exactly like you are watching the show.

Alistair Lock takes over from the late Peter Tuddenham as Zen/Orac and he's so authentic honestly I couldn't tell any difference - both computers have their own personalities and voices which come across marvellously in audio.

So this one has an exciting story with excellent show continuity, brilliant, witty dialogue, top notch production values and manages to give each character their moment to shine. I like how it gives a bit more oomph to the female characters and that it questions whether the Federation is completely evil (I mean it does provide climate control, resources and safety...) With the show you often question where the line is between freedom fighter and terrorist and I like how this story really got to grips with that. For people listening to this without being familiar with the show I'm not sure how great it is out of context but personally I loved every single second of it.

There's also an entire disc of bonus interviews that are well worth listening to.

[Frank Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent episode! To place it in B7 chronology, Servalan is Federation President, Gan is not around but the rest of the crew are present and they're still on the Liberator (for the most part).

Blake's voice sounded more like Colin Baker (sixth Doctor) than Gareth Thomas which was a bit weird, but it was still great voice acting by all. Really good actually.

The story is jam packed with action and plenty of that familiar snark between the characters, it's all over a bit too quickly and it finished on a massive cliffhanger. I'd better keep going to find out how they get there shit back together.

EDIT: A quick google tells me that the cliffhanger is actually the end of season 2 from the TV series and will be resolved in the season 3 episodes. It's been so long since I watched that I didn't realise this was basically an expanded novelisation. So much for finding out what happens next 😆 I better just jump into the next Big Finish story wherever that takes me.

[Michael Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

The show ended almost 44 years ago but here is your chance to live it again.
An alien fleet is on its way to destroy human and Federation space. The Liberator does what it can but it is one ship against hundreds of alien ships. By time the human and alien fleets arrive to back them up, the Liberator is severely damaged, having been attacked by aliens who are like limpet mines, with hundreds attaching themselves to their ship and blowing themselves up. Worse, some get inside and do serious damage there.
The damage is not all on the Liberator's side as Star One, the base of the Federation, is set to self destruct, further damaging the Liberator, destroying the alien ships and sixty percent of the Federation ships and damaging most of the others. The Liberator is damaged beyond any help of self repair and a badly wounded Blake and the others escape in small single ships to two hopefully safe planets nearby.

[Andy Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

B7's famed lost canon is filled in with the original cast and a decent script by Anghelides. It bridges the gap inspired by the gritty SF adventurer genre from Se2 (phase 1) with only a few jitters from the lackluster Se3 (phase 2). No daleks I'm afraid. Try though he does Anghelides' new threat isn't up to par though he does script a good semblance of B7's all-out war, Wolf 359 equivalent and the sound engineers are right with him. There's some jittering towards the end in the new placement of characters but for the most the script doesn't worry about this, giving it over to being in the zone of the story. There's welcome (overdue) focus on the female characters, a good swansong for Blake and moments of Avon and Vila in character which gave me a laugh and a gasp. Surely one for the B7 collectors, no doubt.

[Ian Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set between Star One and Aftermath, this is the novelisation of the Big Finish play that launched Blake’s 7 for that company. While it isn’t as good as Star One (as if!), it does a pretty solid job of filling in some narrative blanks provided by the episodes that bookend it. All the characters get loads to do and we learn a little more about the universe around it. It works hard to not be a middle chapter of a trilogy (an entry in a lot of series that exists only to set things up for the finale) and mostly succeeds. If it has a fault it is that the prose is sometimes trying desperately hard to up its word count and become a much thicker story.

[Debra Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blake and his crew are still running from the federation. But they run into a ship that can destroy the federation and they can stop it.

[Arynne Priest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliantly fills the gap between Series B and C. Every character gets a moment to be the star.

[Rob Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warship takes you right back to the original series. The replacement actor for Zen and Orac is great. Gareth Thomas is the only actor to have audibly aged which can be a distraction at times.

[Sean Randall · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've got a love-hate relationship with Big Finish. I think they made a mess of James Follett's Mindwarp, and find their Blake's 7, both audio and especially electronic, wildly overpriced. The formatting of this ebook got under my skin (look at the unsavory apostrophes on "Liberator's"), and a few of the plot points were contrived (Vila on the hull of the ship, and his struggles to remain anchored whilst fighting wildly springs to mind). Then there's the whole issue of just inserting whole story arcs between canon stories, and the fact that given that the actors are aging they're flogging a dead horse with these stories anyway and, even though I crave more and more stories of this type I also find them paradoxically annoying as well. what a garbled and mismatched set of ramblings! But then, the book sort of has that impact on one, too.

[Victor Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Warship" fue el primer "Episodio de reunión" en formato de audio que se hizo antes de las actuales series regulares de Big Finish y viene a llenar un hueco argumental esencial para la serie: la desaparición de Blake y Jenna (ya que sus intérpretes decidieron dejar la serie tras su 2ª temporada) tras la batalla contra la flota alienígena tras la destrucción del Star One. Durante esta magnífica hora de audio drama se nos explica no solo la razón de tal ausencia sino también la causa de la destrucción de gran parte de la flota de la federación. Y la verdad es que no defrauda para nada, todo está perfectamente hilado e insertado en la continuidad, con una atención por el detalla espectacular. Y como premio tenemos una breve aparición de Jacqueline Pearce como la pérfida Servalan, con su voz algo más envejecida pero sin perder ni un ápice de mala hostia y lengua viperina. Imprescindible para los fans de la serie.

[Noah Soudrette · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I'll need to give this another listen or two to finalize my feelings, my initial thoughts are good. The continuity of the play fits in nicely between the end of series B and the beginning of series C. While some of the acting felt a little rough around the edges, I think the cast can be forgiven, seeing that this is their first performance together as a group in 32 years. Sally Knyvette, Michael Keating, Jacqueline Pearce, and Alistair Lock came off the best in terms of their performance. Paul Darrow had little to do sadly.

I thought the addition of the dwarf planet Meggido was a little contrived, especially given that Star One gets its name because it's the only planet orbiting said star. Also, I was very unclear on how the aliens are also limpet mines? Still, it's nice to hear the gang back together.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is based on the BBC TV show Blake's 7, which aired in the late 70s and early 80s. Anyone who's not a fan of that show will have no interest in this book or any idea what's going on.

In the TV show, one season ended with the Liberator and its crew facing off against an invading alien armada from another galaxy. In the first episode of the next season half the crew were gone, and the alien fleet was presumed vanquished. This book fills in some of the missing details of what went on in between.

[Dave Lefevre · Rating 4 out of 5]

The entire end of season 2 cast is in this recording! Very cool, but Gareth Thomas doesn't have the same voice he had when playing Blake in the 1980s. Despite this he does a great job, as well as the rest of the original cast.

This story fills in the gap between the second and third seasons: the galactic war that was too expensive to film. Season three starts right in the middle of a story, and the end of this audio drama overlaps with the first story of season two.

[Melanie Goldmund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as good or even better than a real episode -- every member of the crew got something important to do! My only complaint is that it was too short. :-)

[Duffy Laudick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story. Is this the end of the Liberator, Blake and his Lucky 7?

[Richard Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of fun hearing all the voices again though some of them have obviously aged a year or two.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

It fills in the gap between the end of "Star One" and "Aftermath". Apparently, it's a novelization of one of the Big Finish audios. If so, I'm really looking forward to listening to it.