Ability over Appearance: Tarrant was originally written as a man of 35-55. When 24-year-old Steven Pacey was cast, the character was changed from seasoned veteran to cocky young upstart.
Tarrant had a lookalike brother (with a bouffant wig) in "Death-Watch".
Peter Tuddenham, in scenes where Orac was talking with Zen or Slave. Tuddenham could reportedly do this with no need for ADR, he simply used two different microphones, one for Orac and one for Zen/Slave. That said, there are only a *very* small number of scenes in which the computers talk to each other.
Jan Chappell was both unable and unwilling to return for Season 4. It was planned that she'd return for the first six episodes, then three, then finally just the first, in which she was hastily killed in an explosion without ever appearing onscreen.
Gareth Thomas actually insisted on this as a condition of coming Back for the Finale, hence the unusually graphic blood effects used when he gets shot. In the end it turned out to be academic, as the mooted fifth season never happened.
Speaking of the finale, the series ends with the characters being shot in slow-motion. The actors were told that if they wanted to stay on for the next season, their character would be stunned and if they didn't, then their character's dead.
Gan became the first character to be killed off when David Jackson complained about how little he'd been given to do.
The final episode also reveals that Jenna died offscreen at some point.
Bad Export for You: It's currently not available on DVD in the US, though you might be able to scrounge up some VHS tapes. Also, as of August 2021, all four seasons are available on Britbox for streaming.
Paul Darrow and Brian Croucher were both considered for Blake before being cast as Avon and Travis Mark II, respectively.
Jan Chappell was considered for Jenna before being cast as Cally.
Candace Glendenning (Rashel in "Weapon") had auditioned for the role of Jenna.
Alan Lake (Chel in "Aftermath") had auditioned for the role of Vila.
Creative Differences: Gareth Thomas left the series after two seasons partially because he disliked the direction the show had taken, going from straight science-fiction into sci-fi fantasy, which he felt went against the original premise.
Josette Simon did not look back on the show with fondness, believing that the showrunners took advantage of her naivety and lack of confidence to get her to play a "hot exotic warrior woman" part that she saw retrospectively as both sexually and racially demeaning. She declined to reprise the role for Big Finish's audio plays based on the series, with the role eventually being recast.
Jacqueline Pearce was unhappy with the final season, claiming that it ran out of steam and ideas. That said, she named "Sand" from that season as her favourite episode.
When it comes to individual episodes, Michael Keating's least favourite was "Ultraworld" and Steven Pacey allegedly disliked "Assassin" because it made Tarrant look like a gullible idiot.
BRIAN BLESSED is embarrassed by his guest role in "Cygnus Alpha" because he felt he overplayed it. Yes, really.
Creator Couple: Paul Darrow's wife was asked to guest star in "Blake". She agreed on the condition that her character be killed by Avon because she found the idea amusing.
Darkhorse Casting: When Josette Simon was cast as Dayna, she had recently graduated from RADA and didn't have an Equity card.
Dawson Casting: Possibly the case with Dayna: though Josette Simon is actually quite a lot younger than other members of the principal cast, she was still in her early twenties when the show was made, but at several points it seems like the character was meant to be in her mid-teens (such as when she refers to herself as a "girl" at one point, explicitly contrasting this with Cally's allusion to herself as a woman moments before). A lot of her other traits (her obvious sexual curiosity around Avon and Tarrant, her quite childlike desire to be comforted when frightened despite her usual badass demeanor) could be meant to indicate that the character was intended to be younger than she looked, but might just as easily be put down to her isolated upbringing alone with her father and foster-sister.
In April 2000, producer Andrew Mark Sewell announced that he had bought the rights to the series from the estate of Terry Nation, and was planning to produce a Made-for-TV Movie set 20 years after the finale of the original series. In July 2003, Sewell announced that he, Paul Darrow and Simon Moorhead had formed a consortium called B7 Enterprises that had acquired the rights and was planning a television miniseries budgeted at between five and six million U.S. dollars. Darrow would play Avon and the series was to be televised during early 2005, depending on " ...many factors, not least financing". Darrow subsequently left the project during December 2003, citing "artistic differences".
On October 31st 2005, B7 Enterprises announced that it had appointed Drew Kaza as non-executive chairman, and that it was working on two projects - Blake's 7: Legacy, a two-part, three-hour mini-series, which would be written by Ben Aaronovitch and D. Dominic Devine. and Blake's 7: The Animated Adventures, a 26-part children's animated adventure series written by Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Marc Platt and James Swallow. In an interview with Doctor Who Magazine, writer and producer Matthew Graham said that he had been involved in discussions to revive the series. His concept was that a group of young rebels would rescue Avon, who had been kept cryogenically frozen by Servalan, and then roam the galaxy in a new ship named Liberator.
On 24 April 2008, Sky One announced that it had commissioned two sixty-minute scripts for a potential series, working alongside B7 Productions. On 4 August 2010, the station said it had decided not to commission the series. B7 Productions said the decision was " ... obviously disappointing", but that the development process has resulted in the " ... dynamic reinvention of this branded series". It said it was confident it would find another partner to develop a new version for television.
In July 2012, Deadline reported that a remake for US television networks was being developed by the independent studio Georgeville Television. Syfy announced on 22 August that Joe Pokaski would develop the script and Martin Campbell would direct the new remake.
On 9 April 2013, The BBC reported that a new series would be broadcast by Sy Fy. Other media reported that a full-series order of thirteen episodes had been placed.
The series is full of unexpected explosions: the reactions (shrieking and/or being thrown through the air) were often genuine, because the directors neglected to warn the actors about just what was going to go off and where.
The ending is a crossover of this and Wag the Director: Gareth Thomas was fed up with the show and really determined that Blake would be so unambiguously dead that there would be no way to bring him back if the show got renewed again. Therefore at every opportunity he went back to the special effects crew to ask them to put another Squib and bloodbag under his costume. As a result, when the shooting scene finally happened the blow to his chest was hard enough to really wind him and leave him cut and bruised.
The series had wound down after Series 3, with a solid ending that satisfied most everyone involved. That was, until the cast and crew were watching the programme during a party, only to hear the announcer mention that Series 4 would air later that year. It was the first anyone — supposedly including the writers themselves! — had heard about a fourth series,note Allegedly the Head of BBC Television was watching the episode at his home, and was so impressed he rang the presentation department and requested the show's return to be announced at the end of the episode and some were contractually obligated to other things. The slap-dash nature of things required killing one cast member and finding a replacement quickly, as well as designing and building a new ship for the crew to fly, as The Liberator was destroyed at the end of Series 3.
In the final season, the BBC demanded that the metal studs on Avon's boots should be removed, as they were "unacceptably aggressive".
Killed by Request: One of the most famous examples in British TV is Gareth Thomas, who played Roj Blake. He left at the end of the second season, when the character was Put on a Bus, but got fed up when he was called back for a second return appearance in the final episode of the fourth season. Unaware that it would turn out to be the last episode of the show anyway, he refused to do it unless he was absolutely and unambiguously Deader than Dead at the end, and actually conspired with the effects team to make it one of the bloodiest TV shootings of the era, with so many Squibs being loaded onto his chest and stomach that it narrowly avoided breaching contemporary taste and decency standards and left him with slight physical injuries when they all went off.
No Budget: The series was allocated the same budget by the BBC as Softly Softly Taskforce, a low-key contemporary police procedural which it was replacing. The per-episode effects budget, for example, was £50. Expect to see plenty of sets, costumes, and props nicked from Doctor Who, or perhaps some baking tins stuck on the walls. The special effects designer spent his budget for the entire series on the first episode to be filmed, "Space Fall", because A New Hope was debuting at around the same time. The actual first episode, "The Way Back", went so far over budget it affected the rest of the season — and became one of the best stories in the series.
No Stunt Double: Paul Darrow performed most of his own stunts. In retrospect, he thought he must have been mad, as some of them were quite dangerous.
Less visibly, Orac's voice was provided in "Orac" by Derek Farr, who had played his creator Ensor, but in later episodes by Peter Tuddenham as Farr wasn't interested in playing a regular role.
The minor Federation official Ven Glynd was played in "The Way Back" by Robert James and in "Voice From the Past" by Richard Bebb.
Post-Script Season: The show ended its third season with the destruction of the Liberator and the (apparent) death of Servalan. When the fourth season opened, they had to take the show in a radically different direction to compensate for the changes.
Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: Sally Knyvette wore extra hair in the first season to make her blonde hair appear fuller. She was allowed to use her normal hairstyle in the second season.
Recycled Set: The bridge of the prison ship London, seen in the first three episodes, is a partial redress of the shuttle flight deck from Moonbase 3.
Rule 34 – Creator Reactions: Paul Darrow (who played the show's initial Lancer and later protagonist Avon) was 'very very seriously unhappy about fics depicting his character engaging in m/m sexual activity (a particular problem as Avon was the show's Launcher of a Thousand Ships, most of which were slash). This interacted with other fandom conflicts to create a humungous fandom civil war.
Science Marches On: According to Chris Boucher, the writers talked over the series with Doctor Christopher Evans at the National Physical Laboratory, who liked all the concepts (except telepathy), even the teleport which he considered would happen sometime, "and it was in Star Trek so what the hell." With the audio series, the teleport is dropped for being unrealistic (but ironically they keep Cally's telepathy).
Sequel in Another Medium: Paul Darrow wrote an official spin-off novel, Avon: A Terrible Aspect, which as the title suggests concentrated on his character, and explains Avon's early life and the events that led to him being imprisoned for internet fraud. He also wrote the Lucifer trilogy, featuring an older Avon after "Blake".
Technology Marches On: Most obviously in the solid-state computers that Avon reprograms by rewiring their circuits.
Torch the Franchise and Run: Terry Nationtried this with the end of Season 3. He torched the Liberator, revealed the "Blake" they found to be a hallucination, stranded the crew on the rear end of the galaxy, etc. That didn't work. Undeterred, Chris Boucher made damn sure to try harder torching the replacement ship, and all the cast at the end of the following season. This time, it worked.
At the time he wrote the final episode of the fourth season, Chris Boucher knew that a fifth season was still a possibility, if only a very slim one. He therefore deliberately wrote it in such a way as to allow all the main cast to be either dead or just stunned, depending on whether they wanted to return for a fifth season or not. Terry Nation was reportedly unhappy with the ending because he wanted the series to have been left more open-ended.
Un-Cancelled: Apparently the first anyone knew of the fourth series was when it was announced at the end of the last episode of the third. The BBC's Director of Television, Bill Cotton, was enjoying the episode so much he phoned the transmission staff mid-episode and told them to announce that the show was returning.
Pip and Jane Baker submitted an unused episode called "Death Squad", in which Blake, Gan and Jenna would infiltrate a Federation facility attempting to create 'super-soldiers' by administering drugs to humans, leading to Blake and Gan becoming exposed to the drugs and Jenna being held by Servalan as an inducement for the scientist behind the plan – was abandoned. This was ostensibly on cost grounds, although Boucher had concerns about the quality of the script.
An unused episode from Series C would have seen the crew searching for Blake and finding his grave.
During a writer's strike Paul Darrow wrote an episode script for Series D in which the crew desert Avon, marooning him, concentrated on Vila being more heroic than he had been for that series and also being the one who saves Avon by convincing the others to go back for him. Chris Boucher said no. Another rejected Darrow script, "Man of Iron" (involving an android called Gabor), is available to buy from the official Blake's 7 fan club. It's reputedly terrible.
For the opening titles, Nation had originally envisaged a vast computer that would print out pictures of each of the characters; these would be deposited in a tray marked "Enemies of the State" before the appearance of the title caption.
Elisabeth Sladen was offered guest roles a number of times. Her husband Brian Miller appeared in "Horizon".
Vila was originally described in the outline as "thirty five, good looking athletic", suggesting that he would have been a completely different character.
The original outline contained a character named Arco Trent, a powerful figure in the Administration who had become a scapegoat for a group of corrupt officials involved in arms dealing. Arco would plot against Blake but would gain respect for Blake after Blake saves his life. Arco's sidekick would be Avon, a self-serving, treacherous coward.
The first proposal for the series' conclusion, titled "Attack", involved Blake returning to lead an assault on the Federation on Earth, finally defeating them. This idea was rejected by producer Vere Lorrimer, who thought it "...would be like five men trying to defeat the German army".
Travis was originally going to be the Big Bad of the series, with Servalan just the commanding officer who he reported to in his first appearance. Instead, Servalan herself became the show's main villain, with Travis acting as The Dragon for her for the first season-and-a-half, before going rogue in the second season.
Servalan almost didn't appear in the final season, as she was seen to be killed off in the third season finale. Furthermore, Jacqueline Pearce was hospitalised with an illness. The creators devised a new villain, Commissioner Sleer, as the new Big Bad. Pearce recovered and returned to the series and Sleer became an alias of Servalan.
Cally was originally going to have red skin and hair and her eyes would turn black when she entered an alien trance (Jan Chappell would wear contact lenses to create the effect). These ideas were abandoned for being too costly.
Robert Holmes was asked to be the script-editor for the series. He declined, having just left the script-editor's post on Doctor Who, though he did recommend Chris Boucher for the job. Holmes also wrote four episodes of the series.
Originally, Gan wasn't going to be human and was going to be from a planet called Zephron which was destroyed by the Federation which he killed several of the raiders whom destroyed his world and as punishment was given the Limiter brain implant to stop him from killing people. At one point, he was a silent character.
When Gareth Thomas left the series, there were talks of recasting Blake.
On that note, Thomas left the series when The BBC wouldn't let him direct any episodes. One could only imagine what he would have done.
He wanted to leave anyway as he was offered a position with the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company, and he was acting with the RSC by the time the second season was being broadcast - as he was the lead actor, he had the clout to insist on the announcement "Gareth Thomas is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company" over the end credits of each season 2 episode, just to make clear that he was a Serious Actor who could do Proper Acting, not just silly sci-fi. It's true that during his contract negotiations for season 2 he had mooted the idea of being allowed to direct some episodes, but he always knew that it was effectively useless asking because it simply wasn't considered permissible at the time for actors to direct programmes that they themselves were appearing in.
And one can only wonder what the fifth season would have been... though it's highly likely that, at the very minimum, Dayna would have been killed off due to Josette Simon having already started to become disillusioned with the series even during the fourth season. Also, Glynis Barber revealed in a 2006 interview that she wouldn't have returned, so that would make Soolin dead as well. Steven Pacey said in 2012 that also wouldn't have stayed on:
I knew it was [over] for me. There's only so much you can do with those characters. I know it has a very strong following, and it's very good stuff in that way, but it's limiting for an actor. I wouldn't have stayed. It got quite silly, and there wasn't much I could do about it. It was very difficult, but out of my hands and in [those of] the writers.
Word of Saint Paul: Avon surviving the Bolivian Army Ending is pretty generally accepted now. The fact that the St Paul in question is Avon himself, Paul Darrow, didn't hurt this one's chances one bit. Darrow's "Lucifer" trilogy of novels feature Avon in his old age, and he played the mysterious and awfully familiar "Kaston Iago" in Kaldor City.
Glynis Barber also had a tiny role as a Mutoid in the first-season episode "Project Avalon", before getting the regular role of Soolin in the fourth season.
Part of the Blakes SevenDrinking Game — whenever a stuntman is killed, cry "STUART!" and raise a glass in honor of Stuart Fell who's likely playing the part.
The Other Darrin: The voice of Zen and Orac in the Big Finish audios is Alistair Lock, replacing Peter Tuddenham who passed away in 2007. Yasmin Bannerman also came on to take the role of Dayna, as Josette Simon declined to return.
