Product description

Blake's 7 - Limited Edition Complete 20 Disc Box Set (Exclusive To Amazon.co.uk)

Price:
RRP: £129.99
Average customer rating: 4.5

Binding : DVD
EAN : 5014503218928
Label : 2 Entertain Video
Manufacturer : 2 Entertain Video
Publisher : 2 Entertain Video
Release date : 2006-11-06
Title : Blake's 7 - Limited Edition Complete 20 Disc Box Set (Exclusive To Amazon.co.uk)
Audience rating : Suitable for 12 years and over
Format : PAL
Number of items : 20
Region code : 2
Studio : 2 Entertain Video

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-01-12 rating:

Fantastic Television
Dated, quirky, mono and mostly 4:3 Aspect ratio - yet still a superb series. Not flashy and in your face but intelligently scripted with thoughtful story lines. Deeper and more serious ethical dilemas are explored than Star Trek or other popular television of its time. The imperfect crew develop believeable characters through superb dialogue and acting. Its every bit as good as I remembered and then some. Its television that demands your concentration if you are to truly appreciate its qualities. The four series box set offers remastered/restored DVD quality, but remember its based on nearly thirty year old original video/TV stock!! Expectations should not anticipate modern standards.

review by: jonathan5158 date: 2007-10-22 rating:

Brave, bizarre, occasionally awful, dated, hugely influential, and a lot of fun
Blake's 7 is possibly *the* maddest TV show you can buy, at least until the extremely weird "Luna" appears. It mixed some serious thinking about politics and totalitarianism (B7 is HUGE in the parts of Eastern Europe where it has been shown) with spaghetti western violence, huge amounts of camp, insane costumes, and cardboard sets mined with generous quantities of explosives. Some scripts were brilliant, most were good, a few were awful. Many featured dialog that would have made Oscar Wilde proud, and cunning plans that would have awed Black Adder. It inspired most of the space opera TV that followed it, and probably contributed the genes for the modern plot arc to TV like Buffy, The Shield, and Deadwood - and perhaps even for hero/villain characters like Spike, Vic Mackie, and Al Swearengen. It's TV that takes intelligence, empathy, and the ability to occasionally forgive something very silly if you're going to get the most out of it.

review by: A Likely Lad date: 2007-03-20 rating:

This Set Has Failed To Use The Advantages Of The DVD Format.
Blake's 7 is a very entertaining sci-fi programme but is destined to remain forever in the shadow of Doctor Who, in the final analysis Doctor Who was a huge success and Blake's 7 was a failure.

By failure I don't mean that the show was rubbish it's just that it arrived at a time when Star Wars had just been released and it couldn't compete, Doctor Who had been there since 1963 and had cemented it's position as Britain's best loved sci-fi programme so Blake's 7 had to acknowledge it's lesser cousin status from the very beginning.

The programme however did things that Doctor Who, Star Trek and most others would never have dreamed of, it gave us a disfunctional crew as 'heroes', we had terrorists, murderers, rapists, thiefs, smugglers, bullies and cowards and a total paranoid in the brilliant character of Avon who didn't give a damn about the rest of them. The lead villains were just sick psycopaths that just existed to be as evil as possible and bring down Blake's crew.

The crowning glory for Blake's 7 is these wonderful characters played by actors that gave it their all despite the primitive effects and some really terrible episodes, and of course it gave us a never to be forgotten final episode where the entire crew loses it's fight with the federation and ends on a world famous freeze frame, this episode alone is the main reason that Blake's 7 is remembered as it has become a piece of iconic television, the finest end to a television series ever, no happy endings here.

This boxset is a wasted opportunity however in that the episode prints appear to have been sourced from the VHS releases of the series from the 1990's, there has been no effort to remaster the pictures or sound and the extras, what there is of them were lifted directly from the single series boxsets. I bought this set because I like the show and it's cheaper than the four seperate seasons but I almost wish I had stuck with my old video tapes of the episodes because despite the advantages of DVD there is no difference.

review by: Sherman Firefly date: 2007-02-22 rating:

The old ones are the best ones!
Blakes 7 has to be the best BBC sci-fi drama since the creation of Doctor Who in 1963, the reason for this? Terry Nation! The man with the brains behind both series. In this day and age of CGI effects taking the centre stage, and becoming the heart of a series, it's great to go back to this and see the brilliant, strong and believable characterisation of all of the cast members, the power play between the benevolent, idealistic and honourable resistance leader Blake and his opposite, Avon, computer expert, a man of cold, ruthless interlect, also a leader in waiting. The cheeky thief Villa is played to comic perfection, a man who does not have the making of a great revolutionary or resistance fighter, but who is so vital to the existance of all of the crew if a door stands between them and freedom. Jenna, the beautiful and talented pilot at the helm of the Liberator, a tough professional smuggler and fighter, but scratch the surface and find a heart of gold underneath. Gan, the gentle giant to his friends, but a formidable hand to hand fighter and Blake's bodyguard. Cally, a humanoid alien with telepathic powers, a female freedom fighter outcast from her own people, the Auron. Zen, voiced magnificently by Peter Tuddenham, the ships computer with a dead pan sense of humour and an underlying trace of human emotion that shows itself in the last episode of series three. Also lets not forget Orac, the super computer with a personality problem and will of it's own that can access all other computers with out a direct link and control any hostile computer system for it's own and the crew's end.

As with all good guy's you have to have the bad guy's, and what better bad guy's than Servalan, played by Jaqueline Pearce and space commander Travis, played by Stephen Grief and later Brian Croucher. Servalan, Supreme Commander of the totalitarian Federation, beautiful, stylish, corrupt, self serving, and scheming, a woman who total power has corrupted totally. Travis, servalan's right hand man, a hungry tiger on a leash, driven, remorseless, authoritarian, given the task to kill Blake and his crew, partially for the federation but mostly for his own need for revenge on Blake, a character that probablly has it's origins in the Nazi SS officers of world war two.

The show format and characters go through constant changes with members leaving to be replaced with fresh characters, Blake, Jenna, Gan and Cally eventually leave although Blake does make a few appearances in series three an four. New characters such as Dayna, all arms and hand to hand fighting expert, Tarrant, dashing, good looking ex federation trained space pilot and Avon's possible successor. Soolin, the cool, mercenary quick draw gun fighter with deadly good looks and figure to match, in her case, looks do kill.

The scripts and dialogue are always of quality and the stories exciting, dramatic and believable due to the acting of the main cast, although some stories do stretch ones belief. There is a mixture of episode's with individual stories with no overall common running theme, and linked stories that stretch a whole season, such as the search for star one. I admit, some of the effect work and scenery is out of date, but due to the fact that the first series is now 28 years old this is to be expected, but this really does not detract anything from the overall enjoyment of viewing this again after such a length of time. Just to show the Liberator has not been totally forgotten by modern GCI, there are new, pre menu film sequences of the ship and the later Scorpio. Wouldn't it be nice to have all the effect scenes replaced by such means? Or an option on the DVD to view old and new scenes, such as exists on the Doctor Who Ark In Space DVD?. Still, the Liberator remains one of the most unique and memorable ship designs to be seen on TV since the TARDIS, the title music is still just as good and if, like me, you watched this as a child, it will instantly revive memories of the series. The extrs come on the last disk in the series which also contains the last episode of the season, the content of which is reasonable, out-takes, Blue Peter spots and series trailers. So in finishing, if you remember Blakes 7 from your youth or childhood or are looking to delve into the past of BBC sci-fi and see what you missed, take a look at these DVD's and bring life back to the wobbly walls, wonderful characters amd great villans. Buy and enjoy!

review by: date: 2007-01-28 rating:

The Complete Blakes 7
Blakes 7 is a remarkable science fiction series. It contains 52 hour-long episodes split up into four series of thirteen episodes that chart the life and times of a group of renegades against a corrupt Federation. This adventure has been written by a number of individuals, started off by Terry Nation but also with major contributions from others like Chris Boucher and Tanith Lee. What sets it apart from other SCI-FI is the brilliance of the script writing. This is not a serial with good special effects, reasonable acting but predictable, unimaginative stories. The actors themselves fit perfectly into the serial. The handsome Avon, ruthless and eventually the leader of the group is a fine character. Blake an idealist who leads the early series is a complex character and central to Blakes 7. The character of Vila adds to the comedy side, this lovely nervous criminal can find his way past any obstacle. Then there's Gan a giant man useful for banging heads together. The men are equally complimented by the beautiful ladies that populate this serial. Jenna is a space pilot and smuggler. Cally an alien who is not really a criminal type. These subtle characters are skilfully interwoven in the original stories. The seventh member is presumably Zen the on board computer of the starship Liberator. Set in the far future computers have personalities and can be unpleasant or sarcastic. The future shown by this serial is perhaps realistic: that of two tiers of advanced technological races and primitives. It is a recurring theme, this mix of high technology and cavemen. Blakes 7 is a serial which while some adherence to realism is present, sometimes this is sacrificed for the show. The serial does not quite manage Tolstoy's way of rendering an exciting story while still making it absolutely believable. There are a few occasions when you can almost categorically say the events would not occur the way they do. This is Blakes 7, if you can't accept these then this is not the serial for you. The universe of Blakes 7 is characterised by many features. There is no warp drive in this serial, ships fly through space at `Standard by n' speeds. The crew have access to a rare technology called a `teleport' that enables them to magically jump from one point to another. Weapons generally make a noise with little visible in the form of a trace although laser weapons do exist in the world of Blakes 7 they are only shown in later series when the special effects and budget become more plentiful. The stories in this serial are very varied. They are mostly what we would call today acts of terrorism. Blowing up a Federation complex. Stealing equipment, destroying the ever present starship fleet that is pursuing them. They are the likeable `baddies'. Blakes 7 is a mirror of SCI-FI like Star Trek and much of its intrigue is how the group will slip through the net this time. The head of the Federation is the beautiful and ruthless Servalan who is in charge of the mighty forces unable to capture Blake and his crew. Another great character is Space Commander Travis. This dangerous man adds another twist to the sophisticated character interaction that is a hallmark of the serial. Blakes 7 is not a serial for those who want computer graphics/modelling and large scale space battles. It more than makes up for this with the brilliant acting, fine scripts and lifelike characterization. As the serial evolves there are many changes. Nothing is static. Blake initially leads, the leadership is then assumed by Avon after a space war and he continues until the end. Two new characters are introduced in S3 called Dayna and Tarrant. Dayna is a gunfighter and Tarrant a pilot. These characters along with Soolin in the last series develop quite slowly adding a fine backdrop for the writers to utilize. Soolin is another beautiful gunfighter. The women in Blakes 7 add an elegance to proceedings which might be lacking in an all-male line-up. In Blakes 7 combat only forms a small part and is well done. Spaceship combat is also done to good effect and is one more plus to add to the other strengths of the serial. One aspect that comes across prominently is the aggression of almost anyone the band come into contact with. They never seem to run into a friendly freighter or someone offering assistance. The universe is a cold place with few exceptions. Contrasting this when Blake was in charge he did sometimes offer assistance usually objected to by Avon. This serial also encompasses a few SCI-FI horror episodes with sinister alien races or a robot chasing the crew around a labyrinth. There are so many elements that a few words don't do justice to such a work. You have to see it for yourself to appreciate what has been achieved. I just want to travel to the stars behind Servalans desk.

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