Vila: “Where are all the good guys?”

Blake: “You could be looking at them.”

Avon: “What a very depressing thought.”

And that pretty much sums up the show. Blakes 7 (yeah, I know, the apostrophe — its lack bothers me too, but you could argue it was ahead of its time) is basically (and was basically pitched as a) cynical Star Trek. The brainchild of Terry Nation (the man who created the Daleks), the series follows a small crew of criminals and rebels as they snark their way across the galaxies. Forced to work together to stay ahead of the oppressive and corrupt Federation, they try to strike a compromise between fighting back and basically doing pirating, and some exploring on the side. Mostly it’s snark.

While the stories are interesting, the main draw is the interplay of the characters. This is not a cohesive crew; everyone has their own goals, and some of them don’t even want to be there.

Roj Blake

Blake: “They butchered my family, my friends! They murdered my past and gave me tranquilized dreams!”

Jenna: “At least you’re still alive.”

Blake: “No, not until free men can think and speak! Not until power is back with the honest man.”

Ostensibly our hero. He’s passionate, obsessive, charismatic, and manipulative. He wants to bring down the Federation, and is willing to do anything to do so — no matter who gets hurt in the process. While one can argue that he has a good heart, he’s prone to be very manipulative to reach his goals, and vacillates between being too clever and making dramatic last stands and hopeless charges. He also occasionally wears sleeves so poofy it would make Henry VIII jealous.

Kerr Avon

“I’m not expendable, I’m not stupid, and I’m not going.”

Avon is sarcastic and cynical (even by Blakes 7 standards).

He’s a genius computer technician and loner who is ostensibly only out for himself and basically just wants to be left alone. He’s more comfortable around machines than people, and would like to be as unemotional as the machines he works with leading him to bury emotions deeply until they explode. While drawn to power he also hates being in power because he can’t get rid of the sense of responsibility he feels to those under him. He and Blake constantly clash; he, oddly enough, calls out Blake’s tendency to sacrifice anyone or anything in service of his (Blake’s) goal and never lets him get away with charming the others with grand speeches with at least criticizing Blake’s fanaticism.

He’s got a tragic backstory that has (and will) inspired many a hurt/comfort fic and spawned more than a small contingent of fangirls.

He also occasionally sports some ‘interesting’ fashion choices. Like this infamous ‘lobster suit’ 

Not really a great look, Avon. Better to keep to your blacks and grays.

Vila Restal

“I steal things — compulsive, I’m afraid. I’ve had my head adjusted by some of the best in the business, but it just won’t stay adjusted. …Other people’s property comes naturally to me.”

Kleptomaniac who just sort of snarks at any plans that include danger (which means all of them), but is pretty much a pushover and generally tries to stay out of any battles for control or physical fights.

He is, however, a master thief, and much more cunning and brave than he lets on, preferring to be known as a coward.

Jenna Stannis

“We’re free. We’ve got a ship. We can go anywhere we like.”

Tough as nails smuggler, ace pilot, and Blake’s right hand. She’s all for taking down the Federation, but she won’t say no to making a little money on the side.

Cally

“My people have a saying: A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.”

Idealistic alien (?) freedom fighter and telepath who is initially unquestioningly loyal to Blake. Her introduction was good, but her cred vacillated as the writers couldn’t figure out what to do with her. Her most interesting contribution to the series is her relationship with Avon, who identifies with her outsiderness, frequently defends her alien qualities to the rest of the crew, and is the only person whose feelings he shows any consideration for; for her part, she defends him, reminds the rest of the crew he has feelings (as much as he tries to pretend he’s a machine).

Olag Gan

:

“Well, I’m with you.”

The muscle and intensely loyal to Blake. He has an implant that makes him incapable of killing.

Orac

“There seems little point in wasting time on such an explanation since you would be incapable of understanding it.”

Fishtank-sized insufferable A.I. that has free run of space internet; incredibly useful, if one can convince it to help one. Which is difficult. The only person it shows any respect to is Avon, and he usually has to bully or threaten it to get it to help.

Zen

“Information…”

The ‘soul’ inside the Liberator, in a sense; it is the onboard computer and it does its best to keep its inhabitants safe.

Travis

“You’d better kill me, Blake. Until one of us is dead, there’ll never be a time when I won’t be right behind you.”

Leather-clad officer with one eye and a prosthetic arm/gun determined to catch and kill Blake at any cost. The role was played by two different actors due to the first quitting after the first season; this has led to many a headcannon by the fans, which has included everything from plastic surgery to that Travis is actually a personality construct implanted in an individual to fulfill a role that is needed.

Servalan

“Maximum power!”

An ambitious, cunning, ruthless, and beautiful commander of Federation forces, she is Travis’ boss and will do anything to advance herself in power.

Well, that’s it for the starter pack of characters. Now on to other things.

It features one of the most beautiful spaceships I’ve set my eyes on, the Liberator; a real sports car of a ship if I’ve ever seen one.

The show runs at four seasons, most of the cast getting replaced at some point as their actors dropped out (not Avon, Paul Darrow adored Avon and would’ve gone on playing him for pretty much ever).

The show is low budget and campy, but it is imaginative, has ideas that are still fresh, and the interplay of the characters is grand. The show went rather downhill after Terry Nation left, featuring really terrible episodes (like the misogynist pieces of starcrap by Ben Steed), though it is absolutely worth it for the end.

Some prime examples of snark in the series (just because the series is so full of it):

Notes of Interest:

Behind the scenes stuff should not be missed, especially bloopers or any of the commentaries with Paul Darrow (Avon). Paul Darrow matches Matt Smith for adorkableness and clumsiness on set,

and him talking about how the prop guys came to dread him handling their props and built special reinforced props for him so he wouldn’t break them is hilarious.

Tom Baker (the Doctor, Doctor Who), Gareth Thomas (Blake), and Paul Darrow lobbied for a crossover, and Terry Nation wanted to have the Daleks show up in the finale of series b, but all of those were nixed.

The writing for Avon became so inconsistent after Terry Nation left that Paul Darrow started playing Avon as going mad

to compensate for it, which actually adds an extra level of depth to the character as it appears that Avon is finally cracking under the stress of being in charge (and the responsibilities he has to his crew) vs. his self-preservation and loner instincts.

 Sound familiar, Browncoats?

Avon said it first. 

Arjen A. Lucassen’s band, Star One, is not only named after the show, but featured a rather epic space rock ballad called “Intergalactic Space Crusaders” which basically details Blake and Avon’s relationship throughout the show. Warning! Earworm ahead!

My favorite episodes:

“Mission to Destiny”: Avon plays detective, trying to deduce who the killer is on a civilian ship.

“Pressure Point”: Blake tries to destroy the computer that is essentially the nerve center for the entire Federation. Avon agrees to help if he gets the Liberator when they’ve done it. Tragedy ensues.

“Trial”: Trying to atone for the death of one of the crew due to one of his plans going awry, Blake teleports down to an uninhabited planet and leaves it to the rest of the crew to decide his fate.

“Countdown”: Avon works with the brother of his deceased lover to stop a planet from destruction

“Gambit”: Vila and Avon have a day out on the town (namely the casino) while Blake, Jenna, and Cally try to track down a scientist.

“Star One”: One of my favorite season finales. Fire!

“City at the Edge of the World”: Vila gets to show he can be a hero. It features a gloriously hammy performance by Colin Baker as Bayban the Butcher.

“Rumours of Death”: Avon tries to get revenge for the death of his lover, Anna Grant.

“Terminal”: Another standout season finale. I wouldn’t have complained if they ended it there.

“Blake”: However, if it ended at “Terminal” we wouldn’t have got this rather perfect end to the series. Even though they didn’t mean to end it there, I really don’t see how it could have ended otherwise.

If you like Firefly, this is probably the show for you.