Blake's 7 fans (myself included) have been here before.
The adventures of a band of freedom fighters battling a corrupt Earth Federation and stumbling upon an ultramodern alien starship, the Liberator, Blake’s 7 was the brainchild of Terry Nation. He was already fêted for creating the Daleks for Doctor Who and the post-apocalyptic series Survivors. The latter made for chilling viewing in lockdown.
Despite a restrictive budget and starting within a week of the original UK cinema release of Star Wars, Blake’s 7 was rarely short of ambition and quickly became a hit, averaging 9.22 million viewers for its first series. Nation had planned for the Daleks to appear in the second series, but this was blocked.
Talk of reboots has percolated for years. Back in 2013, Microsoft planned to bring the beloved sci-fi series to Xbox LIVE! However, Deadline reports a reboot is in the works from Doctor Who and The Last of Us director Peter Hoar.
“The Blake’s 7 story is legendary because they were given the [British police show] Softly, Softly slot that was intended for police drama with a budget intended for one big set and a few location shoots,” said double-BAFTA winner Hoar, whose credits include It’s a Sin and Umbrella Academy. “At the time it felt like it meant something. Those shows got into my veins. I could tell they didn’t have money but I was able to compartmentalize and enjoy the ride knowing that the sets wobbled.”
Hoar compares Blake’s 7 to Disney+ hit Star Wars: Andor, which he thinks is a success not because of its circa-$25 million per hour budget but “because of the integrity, wit and sophistication.”
On the subject of Doctor Who on Disney+.
“I don’t think anybody would doubt the skills at the front line of that show but something went wrong,” he added. “I think there were lots of areas you could point fingers at but ultimately it wasn’t a better show with more money. And that’s a good thing, because we haven’t got the money anymore, nobody has.”
Hoar has opened a "genre-based" production company, Multitude Productions, and has acquired the intellectual property (IP) for the iconic 1970s and 1980s cult sci-fi hit, along with executive Matthew Bouch and producer Jason Haigh-Ellery.
Bouch said: “We’re driven by our passions but also seeing that there is a gap in the market in the UK – particularly with the well-publicized dropping off of Doctor Who – for genre-based British IP.
“We look back at when we were young with a degree of nostalgia but also thinking about the 70s and 80s as we were growing up and the amount of genre material that was available, whether it was Blake’s 7 or the Narnia adaptation. We are looking to the international market and seeing if there is a way of dovetailing that British low-budget sensibility with international markets. We know in the U.S. there’s a big contraction and we all need to think about finding ways to make things more economical.”
Buy the original Blake's 7 series on Amazon (affiliate link).
Until a reboot is down and safe, what are your thoughts on Blake's 7? Let me know in the comments below.
