"Blake's 7" is a science fiction television series created by Terry Nation made for the BBC.
Is "Blake's 7" actually "Blakes 7"? Twenty years on and grammarians still get upset.
The "Blake's 7" series is set in the 30th century.
Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi - "Star Trek: The Next Generation") auditioned for the part of Dayna.
As the cast goes up and down, it becomes a hot topic as to who are the seven characters in the title. Does the seven include Blake? Do the computers count? Or the ship? And what about when Blake leaves?
Although the line-up of the "seven" changed considerably over the show's four seasons, the original characters envisioned by creator Terry Nation for the seven were: Kerr Avon, Vila Restal, Olag Gan, Jenna Stannis, Brell Klein, Tone Selman and Arco Trent (with Blake as their leader). They would all have joined Blake on the "Liberator" after their escape from the penal colony on Cygnus Alpha. However, subsequent rewrites, and budgetary restrictions, saw the characters of Klein, Selman and Arco being dropped (although Selman and Arco made short-lived appearences in the 3rd episode, "Cygnus Alpha") and replaced with Cally, Zen and later Orac (both computers, voiced by the same actor to reduce expenses).
That endless corridor that the team were always dashing around the ship in was only about 20 feet long with a short tee on one end.
Gareth Thomas (Roj Blake) and Tom Baker (Dr Who) always wanted to do a cross-over between "Doctor Who" and "Blake's 7" but this was vetoed by producers of both series. Indeed the invasion from Andromeda at the end of the second season was originally going to be invasion by Doctor Who's Daleks, also created by Terry Nation.
The first episode draw in 7.4 milion viewers. Viewing figures topped 10 million several times throughout the four seasons.
Blake's 7 has already come back twice as a radio play, but there were efforts to bring the series back in the mid 80's (apparently scotched by the cost of Daytime TV). There were plans a couple of years ago to produce a TV movie about the Napoleon-like imprisonment of Avon.
Glynis Barber (Soolin) later starred in "Dempsey and Makepeace" (1985).
