Blake's 7 (and other sci fi if you want)

Loved Blakes7, what a fantastic show! Vila was awesome. Loved his character from start to finish. Never liked Blake he got on my nerves, Avon was all right but his character changed over time and became less likeable. The ending blew my mind though 

You have summed up my exact feelings, Remora! I can't edit my original post now though. I love Vila. Now HE is the anti hero to end all anti heroes isn't he. The exact antithesis of the hero. And would always make you laugh and steal anything you wanted.

Yes, Blake was annoying, not likely to draw me into following his leadership. I thought Avon was great at first but he went downhill and ended up just a run of the mill psychopath. The only thing I liked about him was how handsome Paul Darrow was.

The ending...I think it was a cop out. They could at least have blown some Federation thing up as their last act if they had to die.

I'd love to see a remake of this with Blake in all the episodes.

You have summed up my exact feelings, Remora! I can't edit my original post now though. I love Vila. Now HE is the anti hero to end all anti heroes isn't he. The exact antithesis of the hero. And would always make you laugh and steal anything you wanted.

Yes, Blake was annoying, not likely to draw me into following his leadership. I thought Avon was great at first but he went downhill and ended up just a run of the mill psychopath. The only thing I liked about him was how handsome Paul Darrow was.

The ending...I think it was a cop out. They could at least have blown some Federation thing up as their last act if they had to die.

I'd love to see a remake of this with Blake in all the episodes.

Yes, I suppose because I'm an editor I tend to see flaws in all story plots. This show could have been done so much better IMO. I thought the ending was a real anticlimax, it just said to me: there's no point rebelling, you might as well give up and just obey all the rules.

Chris Boucher may well have written all Avon's dialogue...but actors can say dialogue however they like. Paul Darrow could have made any lines seem crazy, depending on how he said them. Like he shouted a lot of lines in series 4 and often went into crazy laughter. Which he didn't do in series 1-3, when he played Avon as pretty calm and controlled.

I just wish we could have had BLAKE'S 7 with the actual Blake in it for the whole series. SUCH a missed opportunity. What was the point of having Avon leading the gang? It wasn't Avon's 7. Just imagine having Blake and Avon fighting it out for 5 series! *drool* They should have recast Blake when Gareth Thomas left.

It was Michael Keating's daughter as far as I know. Surely if it were Michael himself, he'd have wanted more episodes to be a hero. 

I got really fed up and bored with Avon tbh and I'm more a fan of Vila now. There are so many Avons in life, Vila's a bit more unusual. They should have explored Vila's background. I can't edit my original post though  

I think there are so many rumours and different opinions of this show and the actors have said so many contradictory things about it, that who did what has got a bit lost in the mists of time.

I expect Paul Darrow resisted attempts to soften Avon because Paul was such a nice guy, I think he was a bit of a dork (and I mean that affectionately) and Avon was his alter ego, he could do terrible things as Avon that he wouldn't do in real life. Most actors are like that- the nice ones play villains, the difficult ones play heroes.

I don't think we can expect to remember everything so I wouldn't worry about memory too much.  This is why people have diaries and to-do lists and journals.  The present make be more important than the past.

I do seem to have verbatim recall for a remarkable.number of lines from Blake's 7 given that it was broadcast 40 years ago, and I think with years of practice I'm also pretty good at following plots. However, recently I've taken to making notes of character names so I can refer to them later.

not good news

I am uploading everything

Spoilers...

One episode he was the hero getting the girl and saving everyone, the next he was telling Orac riddles and falling apart.

I thought that was he same episode!  Vila telling Orac jokes was important to rescuing everyone else from the Ultraworld, so while he was a figure of fun he simultaneously saved the day.  It seems quite possible to me Tarrant might have been trained to do calculations about gravity as a pilot but then be a complete dimwit at calculating with deceptive people in 'Assassin' (just seen, more obvious story than preceding episode but fun). Maybe I'm just making excuses to make everything make sense, but then Steven Moffat said something about Doctor Who that if you think of a line that explains things for you, imagine it had been said on screen.

Ah yes, I see on IMDB 'After Terry Nation left the series, Paul Darrow was so fed up with the inconsistent way that Avon was written that he gave up and started playing him as slowly losing his mind to compensate for it.' but then the same page says that Chris Boucher wrote all Avon's dialogue,  which makes me think the inconsistency or different aspects are deliberate.  On another site I see 'Avon’s deadpan, sardonic wit and avowedly amoral approach to rebellion masked a surprising depth and complexity .... Darrow remained a lifelong spokesman for the show',  I haven't got to rewatching Orbit yet, but expect the second half of the final series will show the increasing paranoia that I'd assumed was also the intention of Boucher and the writers.  Also says 'Paul Darrow resisted attempts to soften Avon's character' which I guess was successful considering Orbit. I'd thought the reason Avon looked for Blake (a Terry Nation idea?) was realising firstly that the Federation was too powerful to escape or survive, and secondly that after the death/betrayal we saw in Darrow's favourite episode he was looking for meaning or purpose.

IMDB also repeats a story I'd heard that 'City at the Edge of the World' was written so that Vila could be a romantic hero, as Michael Keating's daughter (or I suspect Michael Keating himself) was fed up of Vila being a coward.  One of my favourite things in any drama is when a character realises their own depths.

I'm surprised you didn't notice, I thought they all often changed quite a lot.

Especially Tarrant. One episode he was an idiot, the next he was doing equations with Avon. And Vila. One episode he was the hero getting the girl and saving everyone, the next he was telling Orac riddles and falling apart. One episode Dayna was the cool warrior, the next she was hanging on the boys' arms like a damsel in distress.

I think Vila is closer to Much- seems like an idiot but actually isn't. Gan was 100% Friar Tuck, he even wore what looked like a monk's habit.

I read that even the actors got fed up with the inconsistent writing of their characters, and on IMDB it says that Paul Darrow got so fed up that he decided to play Avon as if he was losing his mind, which was very convincing IMO. What he did to Vila was horrific, I never forgave him for that.

Re: Cally. I think in the 1970s and 80s, they didn't know what to do with alien characters and had limited ideas. In modern shows, aliens have a wide range of storylines.

yes there is a limit to the capacity of memories. That's why old people get forgetful.

I can't say I'd really noticed characters varying wildly between episodes.  For example, when Vila has a moment of sly brilliance - or as once happened - got the girl, I thought it was showing a bit of depth to a put-upon character. When he pretended to be drunk to avoid duty ('Headhunter') it worked in plot terms and to the viewers because he had previously been unreliable for that reason.  The attitude to drink and drugs in the series in general is that they are a way of coping with dystopia (Animals) and a means of control, so I think that is reflected in Vila's addiction.  Is Vila the outlaw closest to Friar Tuck?  Blake is Robin Hood, Gan is Little John, Avon is Will Scarlet;... (this equates Vila to Much though).

I did notice that Cally getting taken over became quite repetitive (nothing against the actor or character: I liked her calm and quiet dignity, and in fact some of those episode, particular 'Horizon' are favourites).

about matter's writers work related,

i have always thought, that someone who did script for sherlock holmes in elementary, made cardinal error, assumed it to be true without asking someone autistic tiny thing, 

sherlock claims somewhere that his memory has limited capacity, so he needs to choose between whats inside

my intake of data recently is undergoing some deep hunger issues, and there is already so much inside it's like looking into eyes of the abyss on all of it to start looking in,

so i wonder if there could possibly be a limit to capacity of memories,

nowhere any reference to that dilema

The problem I find with Blake's 7 is that it isn't linear. We can read things into it BUT what they did in the 1970s/ 1980s was have a different writer for each episode, so each writer saw the characters differently and they don't make sense e.g. in one episode, Vila would be a drunken idiot, Avon would be a b4st4rd. In the next episode, Vila would be sneaky and cool, Avon would be thoughtful and polite. 

Even the actors got fed up with the inconsistent writing.

Modern shows are more consistent with their characters and they are more believable.

Allo Allo?

I just read my last post, I start losing it, it makes no sense, the craziest madhatter of all times, me, 

that's what it supposed to mean:

I watch and read for all of twists and plots, that is what I find interesting most

i do not care what's the ending or whose involved sometimes at all

sentences in those two lines are desciption of my approach to reading/ watchiong, every time like that.

tough sometimes I am interested in the ending or persons involved

What?

I go through watching/ reading because of twists and plots, psst i did not say it, i do not care what's the ending or whose involved, 100% correct desciption every time

Yes you should watch Blake's 7. It is NOT hopeful and optimistic though, it is quite the opposite. Pretty grim and dark but interesting in some ways.

I reckon I would like it, I like good space operas

I can't stand those telenovelas happening on earth our times, what my 3 sisters used to watch using TV standing next to my PC monitor !!!!!, so I had to endure it too, those brazilian production, A HORROR

btw there is a chain of scifi books, amazing spaceopera, involving dead coming back to life by taking over boddies of the living, something every sentient race has to go through on its own or perish, required to join Galactic CouncilI, humans could not understand what those blasted aliens are talking about by forestalling their application to join Galactic Council, apparently it cannot be triggered prematurely by a member of that race, some preordained rule at the bottom of all creation blah,blah:P oh, important bit, there are Space Pirates, main character is like them claiming he is not, Joshua Calvert is a Casonova in fact, and 2nd richest woman in all the planets is in love with him, his style is a woman in every port, like every good and self respecting sailor by heart should do LOL

I read it first time 25 years ago, there was no attempt to make into TV Series or movie yet

by Peter F. Hamilton:  The Reality Disfunction, Neutronium Alchemist, The Naked God, a trilogy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reality_Dysfunction

it's no1 on my list of scifi to recommend, I am sad to say but The Expanse comes 2nd, among those modern writings

I absorb it all, like a sponge :P

few years later I try it again in a different language