"This article is specifically about the production history of the television series "Blake's 7": for a more general overview of this series, please see the main "Blake's 7" article."
Blake's 7 is a British science fiction television programme that was produced by the BBC for its station BBC1. Set in the far future, "Blake's 7" follows the fortunes of a group of rebels in their fight against the dictatorial Terran Federation. Four thirteen-episode series were produced between 1978 and 1981. "Blake's 7" was created by Terry Nation, who later described it as ""The Dirty Dozen" in space". David Maloney was assigned to produce the series and Chris Boucher was appointed as the script editor. Gareth Thomas was cast as the eponymous Blake. The series' budget was severely restricted, which limited the scope for visual effects.
Nation wrote the first 13-episode series and contributed a further six scripts in the second and third series. Twelve additional writers provided material for the series. After three successful series, "Blake's 7" was unexpectedly commissioned for a further series. Vere Lorrimer was appointed as producer, and oversaw major changes in its format. Following the dramatic finale of the fourth series, "Blake's 7" was not re-commissioned and the programme ended.
Origins (1975–1976).
In 1975, Terry Nation attended a meeting with Ronnie Marsh, the BBC's Head of Serials, to discuss ideas for new television series. Marsh was looking for formats for co-productions with American television channels. Nation suggested a number of ideas, mostly for crime dramas, none of which appealed to Marsh. According to Nation, "...the interview was drawing to a close when I surprised myself by starting to detail a new science fiction adventure [...] 'Have you got a title?' someone asked. Blake's 7 I replied without hesitation." Marsh's notes of the meeting survive and record the pitch Nation made as follows: "cracking "Boy's Own"/ kidult sci-fi. A space Western adventure. A modern swashbuckler. "Blake's Seven". Group of villains being escorted onto a rocket ship (transported) which goes astray and lands on an alien planet, where inhabitants are planning to invade and destroy Earth. Possibly live underground." Nation left the meeting with a commission for a pilot script and "...the bewildered feeling that [...] I could not trace the source of the idea". Nation submitted his pilot script, titled "Blake's 7 – A Television Series created by Terry Nation", in April 1976, sub-titling the draft episode "Cygnus Alpha".
Nation's pilot script broadly resembled what would become "The Way Back", the first episode of "Blake's 7" to be transmitted, although the agent who betrays Glyd's group and plots Blake's conviction was named Cral Travis, rather than Dev Tarrant in the transmitted episode. The proposed characters for the series were: Rog (later changed to Roj) Blake, Vila Restal, Jenna Stannis, Kerr Avon, Olag Gan, Arco Trent, Tone Selman and Brell Klein. The descriptions of Blake, Jenna and Gan are similar to those of the developed characters. However, Vila's character is somewhat different, described as "thirty five, a good-looking athletic", he appeared more similar to the popular fictional character Simon Templar than the Vila portrayed on screen. The character of Arco Trent was described as a powerful figure in the Administration who had become a scapegoat for a group of corrupt officials involved in arms dealing. Arco would plot against Blake but would gain respect for him after Blake saves his life. Arco's sidekick would be Avon, a self-serving, treacherous coward. The characters of Selman and Klein did not appear in the pilot script, which noted that these characters would join the series in a later episode.
Marsh asked Nation for a draft script for a second episode of "Blake's 7" in June 1976. Two months later, Nation delivered "Space Fall", in which the spacecraft "Liberator" was introduced. On 12 November, Marsh commissioned "Space Fall" and confirmed the series for full development. Marsh asked Nation to deliver a further five scripts. It was intended that 13 episodes of "Blake's 7" would be produced to replace the police drama "". Nation would write the first seven episodes, the following four would be written by other writers and Nation would write a two-part finale. "Blake's 7" now officially entered production.
Series One (1977–1978).
The BBC chose David Maloney to produce "Blake's 7" because of his experience with "Doctor Who". Maloney approached Robert Holmes, as a script editor. Holmes declined, as he was script editing "Doctor Who", but he recommended Chris Boucher, who had previously written three scripts for "Doctor Who".
Early in 1977, Nation was commissioned to write four more episodes for Series One and five episodes for Series Two. He was now contracted to write all thirteen episodes of the first series. The BBC had expanded Nation's writing commitment in order that Nation's high-profile would help the promotion of the series. Providing a large amount of material in a short time would prove difficult for Nation. Admitting that he had agreed to write every episode out of "ego and supreme confidence", Nation later recalled that he returned home following the commission and told his wife, "I think I've got myself into deep trouble!" Nation informed Boucher that he would only be able to deliver the first draft of each script, telling Boucher, "...you can have rewrites or you can have the next episode: which do you want?" As a result, while Nation created the plots, Boucher provided a great deal of input into the characters and dialogue. According to Boucher, "Terry came up with the characters, he came up with thirteen good stories, but he didn't come up with the dialogue. I remember saying, and I think it's pretty close to the truth, that for a long time, Paul Darrow [playing Avon] never spoke a line that I hadn't written or altered to make the lines sharper."
The strain of writing all thirteen episodes was starting to affect Nation. His tenth script – "The Invaders", in which Gan would fight an alien duplicate of himself intent on taking over the "Liberator" – was abandoned and replaced by a script titled "Brain Drain" (later renamed "Breakdown") which partially re-used some elements of "The Invaders". Nation later recalled: "During those thirteen weeks, I ran entirely out of ideas, and I'd sit around and walk for days, saying, 'There are no more ideas, that's it! I've shot it all and it's gone'." One episode badly affected by Nation's difficulties was "Bounty"; even after Boucher had rewritten it, director Pennant Roberts was required to lengthen the scenes to fill the fifty-minute running time.
Script and character alterations.
One script was abandoned early; "Locate and Destroy" was originally planned as the fourth episode. This story would have re-introduced the character Travis, first seen in the pilot script, now with a mechanical arm and an eye patch. Travis would be ordered by his superior officer, "Commander Shervalan", to recapture Blake. This script's plot elements would later be used in the episodes "Duel", "Mission to Destiny" and "Deliverance". The last of these centred on Travis attacking the "Liberator" while Jenna was captured by primitives living on a planet ravaged by a biological weapon released by the Federation. Travis was later renamed Dev Tarrant in the opening episode "The Way Back"; the Travis that appeared from "Seek-Locate-Destroy" onwards was a new character, while "Commander Shervalan" became female and was renamed Servalan.
The characters of Trent, Selman and Klein were removed from the series, although Trent and Selman appeared as Blake's fellow prisoners and were then killed in the broadcast version of "Cygnus Alpha". These characters were removed in order to control costs and to give the remaining characters more work. "Blake's 7" would now comprise Blake himself; Avon, who acquired the scheming nature of Arco Trent; Vila, who now acquired the cowardly aspect originally planned for Avon; Jenna; Gan; Zen, the "Liberator" computer; and a new character: the telepathic alien, Cally, who was added to balance the gender mix among the cast. This character had similarities to that of "Doctor Who" companion Leela – created by Boucher, who was inspired by the Palestinian hijacker Leila Khaled. Stevens and Moore speculate that Boucher had a large part in the creation of Cally, whose skin and hair were to be coloured red, while coloured contact lenses would be worn by the actress when Cally entered a telepathic trance, giving her a more alien appearance. These ideas were finally abandoned to reduce costs and save time.
Casting and production staff.
In June 1977 the BBC announced to the press that "Blake's 7", a "...new and major BBC television series of space adventure" set in the "third century of the second calendar", was in development, stating that 13 episodes would be produced at a cost of £750,000. Casting was now in progress. Gareth Thomas was chosen to play Blake at the suggestion of Terry Nation. Paul Darrow, who had been considered for the part of Blake, was cast as Avon. Michael Keating was suggested for the role of Vila by Pennant Roberts; the pair had worked together on the "Doctor Who" serial "The Sun Makers". David Jackson, who was known to David Maloney from Maloney's acting career, was cast as Gan. While watching Jackson on stage at the Royal Court Theatre, Maloney and Vere Lorrimer noted Jan Chappell, who would be cast as Cally. Sally Knyvette, who had been recommended by director Bill Sellars following her work on the serial "Who Pays the Ferryman?", was cast as Jenna. Peter Tuddenham was cast as Zen. Stephen Greif, who was appearing in the BBC sitcom "Citizen Smith", was cast as Blake's nemesis, Travis. Ingrid Pitt had originally been considered for the role of Travis' superior, Servalan, but the role went to Jacqueline Pearce.
Three directors – Pennant Roberts, Michael E. Briant and Lennie Mayne – who had directed "Doctor Who" episodes – were assigned to "Blake's 7". The directors would work in rotation, each directing four episodes. Episode seven would be directed by Paul Ciappessoni. Mayne was killed in a boating accident and was replaced by Vere Lorrimer. The eighth episode, "Duel", was directed by another "Doctor Who" veteran, Douglas Camfield.
Maloney assembled the rest of his production team and engaged Roger Murray-Leach, with whom he had worked on the "Doctor Who" serials "Planet of Evil", "The Deadly Assassin" and "The Talons of Weng-Chiang", as production designer. To ensure uniformity of concept, Maloney asked Murray-Leach to design both the interior and exterior of the "Liberator" spacecraft. Murray-Leach "...turned the ship around, so it was drawn to look as if it were going one way but flew the other way. In fact, if you take the line of flow, the angles go with it to get a sense of speed, and we turned that around so the 'wings' all canted forwards, not backwards". Murray-Leach's role as designer of the ship proved to be contentious with the series' special effects designer, Ian Scoones. Scoones found Murray-Leach's design for the "Liberator" awkward to mount and film for the scenes of the ship in flight.
Filming and broadcast.
Aware that "Star Wars" would be released in cinemas across the United Kingdom around the same time as the planned television debut of "Blake's 7", Scoones spent the budget he had been allocated for the entire series on "Space Fall", the first episode to be recorded but the second to be broadcast. The model filming for this episode, the first piece of filming for the series, took place at Bray Studios on 15 August 1977. Live action filming of "Blake's 7" began on 26 September that year at Ealing film studios with scenes set on the spacecraft "London" for the episode "Space Fall". Filming continued at Ealing and on location, and then moved into the studios at BBC Television Centre in November.
The series' animated title sequence was created by Bob Blagden, and was based partially on suggestions given by Nation in his draft pilot script. Nation had envisaged a vast computer that would print out pictures of each of the characters; these would be deposited in a tray marked "Enemies of the State" before the appearance of the title caption. The theme music was written by Dudley Simpson who composed much of the incidental music.
Shortly after recording began, problems with the filming schedule became obvious. "Blake's 7" had inherited its production style – a method called strike filming – from the series it was to replace: "".