I don’t remember exactly when (or how) I discovered Blake’s 7, but I do know I was reasonably young and it was the latter half of the fourth and final season (“Games” being the first episode I watched). I was confused by why the show was named after a character who never appeared, until the episode called “Blake” aired. Oh. Finally going to see who this Blake is… oh. He’s dead now. Actually, so’s everyone else. That was… yeah.
I have, of course, seen the entire series since then, and when you see “Blake” after the preceding 51 episodes—and particularly after the havoc in “Warlord”, the immediately preceding episode—it’s even more bracing and terrifying. With all due respect to Paul Darrow, I’ve never believed the theory that the Liberator/Scorpio crew were merely stunned at the end of proceedings; I don’t think that shootout leaves any opening for further stories (and with Blake himself definitely dead, it would’ve felt even stranger continuing the show with his name in the title). What a way to end a series… and knowing how it’s going to end doesn’t make it any easier somehow; I recently saw a reaction video on Youtube by someone who DIDN’T know what was coming and… well, she was quite distressed, shall we say. I can only imagine how it hit its initial British viewing audience 42 years ago…
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