The Series D Retrospective

In (slightly late) honour of the 44th anniversary of Gauda Prime day, we’ve reconvened to look back on the series as a whole. The gang’s all here, except for Mark who’s holding the door open for us when we’re ready to leave. He’ll be fine. Join us as we pit our heroes together in a series of Death-Watch matches, chuck Nation, Boucher, Maloney and Lorrimer into a slave pit on Ursa Prime with nothing but a nappy full of mangan to defend themselves, and finally decide once and for all that the...

And now on Maximum Power, our intrepid seven have reconvened to report on the latest remastered Blake’s 7 episodes to be shown on the big screen at the BFI. While Pete, Tom, Dan, Zoe, Col, Hannah and Si are still squeeing about what they’ve just seen, they are interrupted by a mysterious stranger, and this time not in bandages! Could this be their éminence grise? And what can this mysterious stranger, Richard Ashton, tell us about the new Liberator’s origins? Meanwhile back in the studio, Si...

With a grim air of finality and a total disregard for the attempt to turn this show into a terribly serious Space Opera, we look back over Series D of Blake’s 7. Kicking off with a single offscreen death and ending with definitively killing off everyone else maybe, we tour a heretofore unexplored part of the Blake’s 7 universe in our clapped-out orange planet hopper. It’s a bold vision of the future where everything is various shades of ocean, military, and gunmetal grey because of George Lucas,...

This episode, Space Commander Brendan is joined by Councillor Joe Ford and Governor Mark Rawlins to examine further evidence of rebel activity, provided by dissident production house Big Finish. Join them as they investigate the first Liberator Chronicle, The Turing Test, followed by the full cast adventures Fractures and Liberation, before returning to Earth for the first episode of the spin off series Avalon. Spoilers abound, but almost nobody will be tied to an exploding chair provided you...

Blake. Series D, Episode 13. First broadcast on Monday 21 December 1981. …And on the other side of the planet, thousands of miles away, Nathan, Brendan, James, Peter and Simon are wandering through a forest wondering why all these bounty hunters keep leaping out at them from behind the trees. But it’s not long before they hotwire a dodgem and head off down one of those holes in the ground from which everyone, eventually, fails to emerge. Will they find Servalan? Should they? Will ever they learn to trust again? Or at least to let people finish speaking before opening...

Blake. Series D, Episode 13. First broadcast on Monday 21 December 1981. And now on Maximum Power, our UK crew of thieves, killers, mercenaries and psychopaths band together, in the first of our two episodes on the final episode of Blake’s 7. This week, Si thinks he’s finally located Col, who’s been away for some time, Mark’s worried that we’re all going to end up in a hole in the ground together, Pete’s quite happy to leave the Xenon base now the wine’s run out, and has Col betrayed us, has he betrayed me? It’s time to take a trip to Gauda Prime, a bad place to be,...

Warlord. Series D, Episode 12. First broadcast on Monday 14 December 1981. This week Mark hosts a conference of non-aligned podcasters, Brendan goes to see the Federation’s acrobatic display team, Peter has an ill-advised fling, and Toby asks if you are a Zukan or a Zukan’t. It’s the penultimate episode of Blake’s 7 — Warlord. (“But blurbs are no more than… blurbs.”)

Orbit. Series D, Episode 11. First broadcast on Monday 7 December 1981. Will Si, Nathan, Peter and Simon be able to escape with the Tachyon Funnel and their lives? Will their replica of Orac give more information than requested, less information than requested or just the information that’s requested? And which of the crew weighs 73 kilos? Escape velocity is confirmed — but unattainable. Will they be able to achieve Orbit?

Gold. Series D, Episode 10. First broadcast on Monday 30 November 1981. Pete’s getting heist by his own petard, Tom’s sent a video of himself not stealing gold to trick us, Peter’s nearly felled by an airlock trip hazard, and Si wants to know WHAT’S THE SNAG? Everyone gets to play their part, as this week’s episode is worth its weight in Gold.

Sand. Series D, Episode 9. First broadcast on Monday 23 November 1981. Pete’s forgotten his bucket, Simon’s broken his spade, Kate’s got entangled in a windbreaker, and Adam was last seen chasing an ice cream van across the dunes in high heels. It’s Sand! Which, like Tarrant this week, gets everywhere, as he discovers that even after fixing the food machine for her, Servalan will still have him for breakfast.