Blake's 7 (Big Finish Series)

Title:	Blake's 7 - The Classic Adventures and Blake's 7 - The Liberator Chronicles
Creator:	Big Finish / the original B7 cast
Date(s):	2012-
Medium:	primarily audio plays, some novels
Fandom:	Blake's 7
Language:	English
External Links:	https://www.bigfinish.com/hubs/v/blake-s-7
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Blake's 7 (Big Finish Series) is a series of tie-in audio plays to the British science fiction television series produced by the BBC and created by Terry Nation, Blake's 7, produced by Big Finish. As officially licensed tie-in material, the audio plays feature both the original cast and a series of guest stars.

Established in February 2012 with the first set of three audio plays, Big Finish continue to produce Blake's 7 audios as of August 2021. They have indicated that they will continue to do so despite the recent deaths of three major actors, Gareth Thomas/Roj Blake in 2016, Jacqueline Pearce/Servalan in 2018 and Paul Darrow/Kerr Avon in 2019 and are currently actively releasing the Worlds of Blake's 7 series.

Individual Audio Plays

The Big Finish range is split into two categories, The Liberator Chronicles, audio plays generally narrated by one character with another in a supporting role, and the Classic Adventures, full cast audio plays. While they function as separate series for the most part, there are some cross-influences, such as the presence of Del Grant on the Liberator in the second series of the Classic Adventures following the third set of The Liberator Chronicles. The most recent series The Worlds of Blake's 7 primarily feature side characters of the original show as main roles, but are described as full cast. In this case, and in contrast to the Classic Adventures, "full cast" can be taken as referring solely to the narrative format rather than the involvement of many or most main characters of the original show.

For fuller information on the individual stories, see Wikipedia: Blake's 7 (audio drama) or the Big Finish website.

The Liberator Chronicles

Cover of the first set of The Liberator Chronicles

As of 2020, there are 12 sets of The Liberator Chronicles, and the series is considered concluded. Each set consists of 3 individual audio plays.

The Classic Adventures

As of September 2020, there are five series of Classic Adventures and one special: two untitled sets, The Spoils of War, The Way Ahead (40th Anniversary Special), Crossfire, and Restoration.

Cover for the first Classic Adventure, Warship

The Worlds of Blake's 7

In February 2021, Big Finish announced a new series, The Worlds of Blake's 7, which features further full-cast audios and seems to focus on expanding the stories of side characters from the original TV show. The first two sets, for example, feature rebel leader Avalon as main character, who originally appeared in Project Avalon. This series seems to be Big Finish's chosen route to continue telling Blake's 7 stories without or with only secondary involvement of the original main cast due to the passing of many of the original actors. However, The Worlds of Blake's 7 audios also include original main cast members, such as Sally Knyvette (Jenna Stannis), Jan Chappell (Cally), Stephen Greif and Brian Croucher (both Travis) and Michael Keating (Vila).

Other Material

Aside from the above series, Big Finish has also released a variety of other Blake's 7 material, primarily a set of tie-in novels and associated audio books.

Fandom Impact

Despite the fact that Big Finish have now produced more hours of Blake's 7 content than were contained in the original show, the impact on transformative fandom has been minimal.

However, the Big Finish plays themselves show involvement by fans-turned-pro, such as Una McCormack, and are therefore considered something between a pro-work and a fanwork by some fans, also because they engage with the TV show canon in similar ways that fanworks of the TV show do.

Fannishness of the Audios

While all audios are set during the show, and so constitute missing scenes, some draw specifically on canon storylines.

The Armaggeddon Storm and its wider story arc, for instance, references back to the TV episodes Countdown and Rumours of Death and expands on the role of Del Grant.

The Way Forward features a Post-Gauda Prime frame narrative (a first for the Big Finish range), and Warship fills the gap between series 2 and 3 of the TV show.

The Worlds of Blake's 7 consists entirely of spin-off stories featuring and expanding on side characters of the original show.

Throughout, there are also a number of original-to-Big-Finish characters, or OCs, some of them with direct (familial) links to the original TV show characters.

Fanworks

There are few fanworks that directly reference Big Finish material, though some do exist.

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Add more examples of fanworks explicitly referencing BF, if known

Fanfiction

• Ghosts May Be Fun by NannaSally, Gen, following on from Ghost Ship
• Fanficer by Bruinhilda, Gen, inspired by and following the novel Mediasphere
• Trust by fififolle, Slash (Del Tarrant/Del Grant), again set after Ghost Ship. This fic evidences the increased interest in the character of Del Grant and shipping him with others after his vastly expanded role in Big Finish.
• Portions of the Soul of Man by aralias, Slash (Blake/Avon), following False Positive, showing that the Big Finish audios also inspired works for pairings already established through the TV series.
• Uncaged by sparkycola1, Gen but heavily Avon and Vila, following on Caged from the first set of Classical Adventures.

Fanart

• Inspired by LC-1.1. by mohi-chan on Tumblr, a rare example of fanart directly inspired by the Liberator Chronicles, here The Turing Test.

Fan Reactions

Generally, however, the audio plays have been received positively by the fandom.

The Horizon forum has a section reserved for discussions of the Big Finish tie-ins as of 2020, and is running a communal re-listen of the Liberator Chronicles as of September 2020. Earlier discussions on the forum took place under a section titled New Blake's 7.

A fan discussed the target audience of the first audios in January 2014, saying:

I do think that Big Finish are writing mainly for old fans of the tv series, and I feel they sometimes try to prove their commitment to long-term fans (and deep knowledge of the show) by referencing or anticipating past and future events in the series timeline (if that makes sense). I think you will miss out on certain references and resonances if you don't see more of the tv series.

'Lentila' on Horizon Forum (14 January 2014)

Another fan in 2014 said:

We played the Big Finish audio episodes with the original cast, during our long road trip to Nevada last month. They were all excellent and worthwhile. The most notable moment came when Brian Croucher's voice emerged and the two of us burst out laughing; it's such a distinctive sound.

Leah Rosenthal on [email protected] (1 Apr 2014)

A review on the Horizon website on the Classic Adventure Fractures reads

I thought this was a terrific drama, and was utterly gripped. The dialogue was great, complete with the flashes of humour that typify even the darkest episodes of B7. The original actors return to their roles as if they'd never been away, although Paul Darrow does sound more like Season 4 Avon than he did in Season 2. It was great to hear the return of Brian Croucher as Travis. Although he only appears at the beginning of this episode, the cast listings for future releases confirm that we've by no means heard the last from him! The sound design, which includes the Liberator sound FX, inventive use of multi-layered voices and subtle music were excellent; created again by Alistair Lock, who also provides very credible performances as the voices of Zen and Orac.

Jackie E. on Horizon (12 January 2014)

Fans on Tumblr similarly commented on / joked about the change in the actors' voices from the TV series to the Big Finish audios:

[blakes7facts]

Fact 034: Michael Keating keeps a painting in his attic that allows him to perform the audios with the exact same voice he had in 1978.

[comarum]

A lesser known fact is that the painting is actually of Paul Darrow, and as time progresses it will inexorably make PD forget, series by series, how to do Avon’s voice. S1 Avon is already long lost.

In Issue 2 of Rebels and Fools, Tumblr-based fan bruinhilda reviewed seven 'favourite Liberator Chronicles' (Solitary, Logic, Promises, Spoils, The Sea of Iron, Ministry of Peace and The Armaggeddon Storm), saying:

We love our Blake's 7 audio dramas. Anything that will continue the adventures of our favourite gang of hero criminals is welcome, and Big Finish can certainly deliver. [...] [The Liberator Chronicles] format has resulted in some of the most memorably Blake's 7 audios, largely because of that first-person point of view. These are personal stories, and we're privy to the narrating character's thoughts and feelings as the story unrolls.

bruinhilda in Rebels and Fools #2, p. 36

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Add some more diverse fan review quotes etc

Actors' Involvement and Comments

A group photo of the cast taken for the release of Warship

Many of the original actors involved in the Blake's 7 TV series reprised in their roles for Big Finish, though arrangements had to be made for the actors who had already passed away at the start of the Big Finish range.

Paul Darrow, who played Avon, was interviewed by Big Finish for the first Liberator Chronicles. In the transcript available on the Big Finish website, he is quoted as expressing enthusiasm for the audio projects:

What’s it like being back in the role? Oh, interesting. Very interesting. The scripts are good [...]

Paul Darrow, interviewed by Paul Spragg

Re-casting

As several original Blake's 7 cast members had passed away by the time Big Finish was planning the first (full-cast) audios, several characters had to be either re-cast or left out of the stories in the role of narrators.

Left out in this way was Olag Gan, actor David Jackson having died in 2005. As of August 2020, there has been no major audio content involving his character created by Big Finish - though Gan has appeared in some of the novels.

Immediately recast was the voice of the computers Orac and Zen. Originally played by Peter Tuddenham (died 2007) in the TV show, Alistair Lock took on the role for Big Finish from the first audio in which either appeared.

The role of Travis, played by two different actors in the TV series, was taken up primarily by one for Big Finish, Stephen Greif. The other, Brian Croucher, has not been involved in any of the The Liberator Chronicles, though he reprised in the role in the the first series of the Classic Adventures.

As of 2021, there has been no Big Finish audio set in series 4 of the TV show, so the character of Soolin, played by Glynis Barber in the TV show, has not yet appeared. However, Glynis Barber starred as original-to-Big Finish character Magda in The Way Foward (the 40th Anniversary Special).

Also as of 2021, there seem to be no plans to recast the actors who passed since the beginning of the Big Finish range, all of whom portrayed major characters: Gareth Thomas, who played Blake, Paul Darrow, who played Avon, and Jacqueline Pearce, who played Servalan. While Gareth Thomas's death could originally be navigated by setting audio plays in series 3 or later (as Big Finish did with all Classic Audios after the first series), as Blake had left the Liberator by then in the original TV show, the subsequent death of Paul Darrow presents a larger obstacle. Big Finish have stated that '[t]here are no plans to recast Avon with a new actor'. In February 2021, they announced a series of stories featuring side characters, The Worlds of Blake's 7, and the remaining original cast members in secondary roles, which can be considered a response to this.

Dayna

For the first series of Classic Adventures set in Series 3, the absence of the character of Dayna Mellanby owning to the non-involvement of actor Josette Simon was turned into a plot point.

Yasmin Bannerman as Dayna, Big Finish promotional picture

When Dayna was set to return again for The Spoils of War and further Classic Adventures, Big Finish re-cast the role with actor Yasmin Bannerman, whose likeness was subsequently also used for Dayna in all cover arts.

Joining the cast for the first time is Yasmin Bannerman, taking the role of Dayna, a part previously played by Josette Simon. "Of course, we invited Josette to return to Blake’s 7,” says producer John Ainsworth, “and although pleased to be invited, she declined the invitation. So, we’re delighted to welcome Yasmin as the new Dayna."

As it turns out, Yasmin was not unfamiliar with Blake’s 7, having watched the series when it was first shown. “My brothers and I were huge Blake’s 7 fans as kids and watched every single episode from the first till the last,” she says. “Dayna was my heroine. I loved her. In an era when very few people of colour were to be seen on TV and fewer in any positive light, Dayna was a young black woman who was smart, accomplished, courageous, driven and kick-ass! She made me so proud. Needless to say I was absolutely gobsmacked to be offered the role. My brothers are thrilled!”

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