Sunday, December 25, 2022

Blake's 7 (series 2)

Picking up at the cliffhanger from last series, Avon demonstrates that the Liberator would have to be in an entirely different part of the galaxy to meet the prophecy.  Let's just avoid that area.  Easier said than done.  The true owners of the Liberator finally arrive to recover their advanced ship and bring it home.  Yes, it is exactly that part of the galaxy they were supposed to avoid!  All looks grim, but Orac has some tricks to make the prophecy true-ish.  The efforts to destroy the Federation escalate as do the attempts by the Federation to eliminate Blake and his band.

Unlike the typical series of the time, there is an overarching story here.  The achievements of one episode will feed into the next.  Likewise, the failures of an episode will impact later ones.  It is not the adventure du jour.  Blake has decided to destroy the central control computer of the Federation, which takes multiple episodes to discover.  In the season finale, they arrive to destroy the Star One computer only to discover that an alien invasion from another galaxy is inbound!  Now, Star One is the best defense against invasion.  The situation is so desperate that the Liberator summons the Federation fleet to assist, but they will have to start the fight alone!  See you next series.  Ha!  Another desperate cliffhanger.

Overall, this is a great series.  There is constant dissension between Blake and Avon, which is one of the best parts.  Blake is admirable for his idealism and determination, but Avon is level-headed and often has to save the day.  One of the downsides of the show is that the villains are very often dumb to allow the heroes a chance for survival.  However, this is a two-way street.  Almost as frequently, Blake allows Space Commander Travis or Supreme Commander Servalan survive when he could easily have killed them.  Far too often, he uses half-measures which both increase the risks to his crew and reduces his chance for success.

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