Blake’s 7 re-united in ‘Warship’ from Big Finish

There are several iconic sci-fi TV programs ranging from anthology programs such as One Step Beyond, Way Out, Twilight Zone and the Outer Limits as well as adventure serials such as Star Trek, Doctor Who and of course Blake’s 7.

‘What’s Blake’s 7?’ I hear you ask. It’s only the most amazing and exciting TV sci fi series that you have never heard of.

Set in a not too distant future where interstellar travel, ray guns and questionable fashions are the norm, Blake’s 7 split from the norm by presenting a universe ruled by a fascistic paranoid regime that controlled the population through fear, coercion and drugs. The only person bold enough to stand up to the Federation was Roj Blake, but he was betrayed, tried and publicly humiliated by having his mind wiped and placed on Earth as a drone. When he is approached by some members of the rebellion who want to revive the cause, he becomes witness to a bloodbath after the Federation guns down a peaceful assembly, leaving Blake the only survivor.

Tried and found guilty (again) for crimes that have been invented and corroborated by force, Blake starts to go mad and is sent to a penal colony. En route, the prison ship encounters a living alien craft that is not only sentient but sensitive to Blake’s cause. With a very small band of malcontents, Blake starts his revolution anew, and the galaxy trembles.

Blake’s 7 is so radical not only in the fact that the heroes are terrorists but also because Blake is sort of a loony. His intentions are so intense and important to him, that he often loses sight of all else and can cause more harm than good. When he appears to die in the midst of an intergalactic war that he caused, one of followers reluctantly takes over as leader, but Avon’s story is an altogether different situation.

Big Finish have already released an excellent set of audio adventures set within the first two years of the series’ four year run, when Blake led the crew in a search for Star One, believed to be the heart of the Federation’s power base. This story is also set in that time period, but whereas the previous trilogy starred Gareth Thomas (Blake), Michael Keating (Villa) and Paul Darrow (Avon), this one will bring back far more fan favorites and promises to be a major event for fans of the series.

The cast of Blake’s 7 is reunited in a new full cast adventure. The original cast of Terry Nation’s acclaimed series Blake’s 7 are reuniting for a special audio episode, to be released in February 2013 (in a licence deal with B7 Media).

Written by Peter Anghelides, Warship finds the spaceship Liberator acting as the sole line of defence against a massive alien invasion fleet, while Blake and his crew desperately await the arrival of help from the most unlikely of sources – President Servalan and her Federation forces…

“This is the Blake’s 7 episode that we’ve always wanted to hear,” says producer David Richardson. “It fills in the missing gap in the mythology, following the Galactic War, and ultimately to Blake and Jenna’s departure as members of the Liberator crew. And it tells a whole lot more too – that alien attack force is actually far more destructive than expected, but the Federation may just have a surprise line of defence…”

“I’m delighted to see Big Finish tackle their first full cast Blake’s 7 story,” says Andrew Mark Sewell, Executive Producer of B7 Media, “and it’s great that Peter’s script so perfectly captures the spirit of the original to tell (and complete) such a significant – but previously unseen – part of the whole mythos.”

Warship stars Gareth Thomas as Roj Blake, Paul Darrow as Kerr Avon, Michael Keating as Vila Restal, Sally Knyvette as Jenna Stannis, Jan Chappell as Cally, Jacqueline Pearce as Servalan and Alistair Lock as Zen and Orac.

The hour-long story will be released in February 2013 as a double disc set, with the second disc comprising interviews and behind the scenes material from the historic cast reunion at the recording session. It will retail for £12.99 on CD and £9.99 on download from bigfinish.com.

A novelization of the episode will also be released in February 2013, in ebook form only. The book will retail at £4.99, and expand upon the cataclysmic events and key developments in the story.

A series of enhanced audiobooks entitled Blake’s 7: The Liberator Chronicles and a range of original Blake’s 7 novels are also available from Big Finish.

Via BigFinish.com

If you are unfamiliar with Blake’s 7, there are VHS sets available in the US market, but sadly the rights to the DVDs are not available and that situation may not change for some time. However, you can watch it streaming on youtube (somehow) and I cannot recommend it enough. The program was produced in the late 1970’s by the BBC and has production values far below Doctor Who at that time… so be kind.

Dalek Empire 1.2: The Human Factor

‘The Human Factor’

By Nicholas Briggs
Released August 2001

The Daleks are half-way to conquering the galaxy, and they have Susan Mendes to thank for it. Recruiting her help as a spokesperson demanding better conditions, food and rest in exchange for hard work, she has earned the name ‘Angel of Mercy.’ At her side is the beleaguered fallen knight of Velysha named Kalendorf.

While Mendes is preaching her message of hard work for better conditions, Kalendorf is laying the seeds of a psychic message for the slaves to await a signal. Traveling the ring of Dalek-occupied planets, he and Suz are attempting a risky operation of subterfuge, a long game that gambles the safety of the free planets in exchange for a coordinated strike against the Dalek Empire.

But all is not going well. Kalendorf and Suz see things very differently. While Suz feels that she is actually doing good, Kal reminds her that she is a collaborator with the deadliest creatures who ever lived. Dalek Empire is an ensemble cast, but much of the weight lays on the should of Gareth Thomas (of Blake’s 7 fame) as Kalendorf and the amazing Sarah Mowat as Susan Mendes. Their interactions are electrifying and very reminiscent of Blake’s 7 in many ways. These people are not out to make friends, they are fighting the war of survival.

Following her path is a love-sick Alby Brook and a former newscaster Gordon Pellan using a broken down craft to trace the Daleks movements and monitor their transmissions for mention of Susan Mendes. After crashing on the oceanic planet of Guria where rebel forces are moving toward a victory, Pellan’s will snaps. Adrift on the rocks of an alien world, he watches his ship sink to the murky depths and feels his fingers go numb. All this for some girl?? Alby reluctantly explains that he’s an agent of Space Security, a post that he reluctantly took up to remove a stain on his personal record.

After a life of hard knocks, he had little choice. But when the Daleks attacked, Suz stayed behind while Alby ran off to save his hide. She showed him such kindness and bravery and… he wants her back. Pellan thinks that it might have more to do with Mendes’ connections to the Rhinesberg Corporation and a top secret Project Infinity, but Alby dismisses it without a thought.

Alby and Pellan are discovered by a patrol of Daleks on trans-solar discs

Playing Alby Brook is Mark McDonnell who forms the other half of the Dalek Empire story. Much of his drama is spent pining after Suz which can get grating so I commend him for keeping the story going and making it come alive. A tortured and lost soul, he has hinged his whole life on one woman whom he barely knows. She has become the ‘Angel of Mercy’ to the slaves of the Dalek Empire and the personal savior of lowly Alby Brook. In reality, she’s neither. One can hear the inner turmoil in Suz’ head as she is both obeyed and berated by the Daleks in equal part. They put her on a pedestal and make her feel like scum all at once. Somewhere in between is the real Susan Mendes.

When they are rounded up by Daleks traveling on trans-solar discs, they are surprised that death is not forthcoming. Instead, Alby is shown to Suz via a video communication link for a brief period of time, just enough to confirm that they each have a chance at a reunion. Suz and Kalendorf had been hovering over Guria watching the Daleks appear to face defeat before rousing to a crushing victory that apparently destroys the city structure where the rebel forces had collected.

The Daleks had been watching Susan Mendes very carefully. She gave the slaves of every planet on the brink of misery a sliver hope and that hope would make them more efficient workers. If hope existed, there was something precious that could be lost and that could be used to control the workers. In much the same way they watched how Suz and Kalendorf interacted. Whereas at first they seemed close they had become spikey toward each other. A born freedom fighter, Kalendorf resented collaboration with the Daleks and rubbed the celebrity status that Suz enjoyed in her face. He was no longer important to Suz… whereas Alby Brooks was.

Suz and Alby clearly loved each other, and that love could be used against them. The Daleks had tracked Alby’s progress as he chased her across the galaxy with little more than a slim hope that she may be alive. That could be dangled over her.

Susan Mendez had given the Human Factor to the Dalek cause, the most formidable weapon of all.

The gripping conclusion reveals that Alby and Pellan had indeed escaped, at the cost of Alby’s legs, now replaced with robotic ones. Before he can get over the shock, their stolen Dalek ship is intercepted by a rebel cruiser and boarded. As Alby and Pellan insist that they are not working with the Daleks, the soldiers open fire…. a sterling cliffhanger!

Heavily influenced by the old Dalek Chronicles comic strips by David Whitaker and Terry Nation, Briggs’ Dalek Empire reads like some weird forgotten action comic lost in the annals of time. But Briggs has added these wonderful folds of sophistication to his scripts that are masterful. His characters move through the narrative with strength of purpose and the danger of the Daleks hangs over the proceedings like some dreadful murder of crows.

The Daleks are due to return in a massive story in which the Doctor faces every iteration of the creatures ever made in ‘The Ruins of Skaro,’ yet I wager most fan of the BB Wales Doctor Who series have lost interest in the metal monstrosities at this point. I can’t really blame them. In each appearance they have lost more credibility and have less and less impact. Personally I’m fine with the new model Daleks (isn’t that a prog rock band?) but most everyone else thinks they’re laughable. Rose felt bad for them, Tennant waltzed around them (and helped them), Smith threatened them with a cookie. They’re a joke, surely.

(I mustn’t be one-sided about bad Dalek stories as the classic series had its share. Compared to Doomsday, The Chase is absurd and Death to the Daleks seems to be a better idea for a home video game than a TV program… but the new program just treats the Daleks as an after-thought. They lose out to Rose and a recovery truck in Parting of the Ways, are less important than a pig-mutant’s love for a showgirl in Daleks Take Manhattan, and Victory of the Daleks hinged on an android imagining he had experienced love. In their most recent appearances, they are relegated to one of many aliens out to get the Doctor, shoulder to shoulder with Judoon… I ask you, is that fair?)

So what makes the Daleks so cool? Why keep bringing them back?

Nicholas Briggs and company know just what makes them so scary. It’s not the rayguns that make the Daleks so effective, but the calculating evil inhuman minds hiding behind an impassive baleful electronic eye. Throughout the Dalek Empire series, the Daleks are shown as devious creatures that are almost inscrutable by the human resistance. Every loss in battle makes the resistance fight back harder but what is most terrifying of all is victory against the Daleks.. because surely there is some pre-meditation in a tactical loss. These Daleks are so terrifying that they strike fear into humanity just by existing. Even their silence is haunting.

In many ways, Briggs is using the idea of a Dalek as written by David Whitaker in Power of the Daleks and Evil of  the Daleks, two major works that cemented the horrifying and alien menace of the creatures from Skaro. They seem to emerge from the darkest pits of a nightmare, an endless army of unstoppable mechanized death.

If you are a stranger to the Dalek Empire series, you must seek them out. A polished production with a stellar cast and telling a gripping drama that operates on the large space operetic scale and on the smaller human end of the spectrum, it is unsurpassed in the annals of Doctor Who audios (except perhaps for the Cyberman series).

Told in four separate sags, this is part two of the four-part Dalek Empire I series, followed by The Dalek War (4 parts), Dalek Empire III (6 parts) and Dalek Empire: The Fearless (4 parts).

Dalek Empire 1.2: The Human Factor can be purchased at your local retailer (such as Mike’s Comics) or directly from Big Finish in CD or streaming media format.

Doctor No. 7 delivers the ‘pandorica speech’

Via i09
The seventh incarnation of the Doctor may have lasted from 1987 to 1989, but actor Sylvester McCoy is still kicking his straw hat and question mark-topped umbrella about at conventions. Still very active in the Big Finish line of audio adventures, he lent his voice to the speech from the ‘Pandorica Opens’ episode of the BBC Wales Doctor Who. Addressing a sky full of foes from every adventure, the Doctor challenges the might of the largest army ever assembled with nothing more than his unpredictable nature. Pure McCoy, really.

A fan caught the entire scene on camera for everyone to enjoy.

Sylvester McCoy’s adventures are available on DVD and CD.

Recommended:

Doctor Who: The Curse of Fenric

Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks

Doctor Who: Survival

Doctor Who: Ghost Light

Dust Breeding (Dr Who Big Finish)

The Fires of Vulcan (Dr Who Big Finish)

Doctor Who- Crime of the Century

After the dismissal of star Colin Baker and the departure of script editor Eric Saward, Doctor Who was in a state of confusion and distress (not to name-drop the charity single). Andrew Cartmell brought new vitality and direction to Doctor Who in 1987. After an admittedly rocky start (the production team had little to no warning that Colin Baker was not coming back and had no idea who would play the 7th Doctor), the 1988 and 1989 series were amongst the most interesting and ambitious ever seen in the program’s history.

As the last script editor of the classic Doctor Who program, Cartmell developed a new sense of mystery around the character of the Doctor, making a character that had become rather predictable new again. In 1989, plans were made for what would be the 27th series. This would see the departure of Sophie Aldred as Ace, the arrival of a new companion and possibly the regeneration of the 7th Doctor into a new incarnation. With the cancellation of the classic Doctor Who program, these plans never came to fruition.

The 25th and 26th series of Doctor Who have a strong influence on the 2005 revamp that featured a head-strong independent contemporary companion (much like Ace), new mysteries around the Doctor and what he can do along with developing the Doctor into a god-like character that was ‘far more than just a Time Lord.’ This period also resulted in a long and popular original novel series that attracted new readers and kept the legacy of Doctor Who alive after it dropped from the airwaves.

Crime of the Century was to have been the second story in the 27th series, opening with a scene in which a young aristocratic thief would open a safe to find the Doctor contorted inside, happy as you please, welcoming the new companion with the phrase ‘What kept you?’

Just announced by Big Finish, Crime of the Century continues the ‘Lost Stories’ series of audio projects.

Via TardisNewsroom:
STARRING SYLVESTER MCCOY AND BETH CHALMERS
(Duration: 120′ approx)

CAST:

Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Beth Chalmers (Raine Creevy), Ricky Groves (Markus Creevy), Derek Carlyle (Nikitin/Parvez), John Albasiny (Colonel Felnikov/Party Guest/Waiter), John Banks (Metatraxi/Walnuf/Gunman), Chris Porter (Sayf Udeen/Valentin)

SYNOPSIS:
The year is 1989. In London, safe cracker Raine Creevy breaks into a house – and finds more than the family jewels.

In the Middle East, the kingdom of Sayf Udeen is being terrorised by Soviet invaders and alien monsters.

And on the Scottish border, a highly guarded facility contains an advanced alien weapon.

These are all part of the Doctor’s masterplan. But masterplans can go awry…

RELEASE DATE: 31 May 2011

Order here at the Big Finish site.

Forthcoming Big Finish releases for the missing 27th series include Earth Aid by Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel (starring guest actor Paterson Joseph) and the U.N.I.T. story Animal by Andrew Cartmel (guest-starring Angela Bruce as Brigadier Winifred Bambera from the 1989 adventure Battlefield).

Click here to listen to a trailer for Animal.