Favorite Blake's 7 stories, and why?

[Deja Q]

There's a LOT in Blake's 7 that's enjoyable. From all 4 seasons.

In season 1, the first three stories (The Way Back, Space Fall, Cygnus Alpha") set up the series and its fascist Federation beautifully. "Seek-Locate-Destroy" introduces the character of Travis. "Duel" takes the star trek episode "Arena" and makes it its own. "Proejct Avalon" is another good outing. "Breakdown" centers around Gan and the morality of the crew, even if some of the plot fails in terms of logic. "Bounty" is an awesome Jenna-revolving episode. "Deliverance" is decent as well, and "Orac" ends the piece on a prediction of destruction.

Season 2's gems include "Shadow" (the first storyline from the eminent Chris Boucher), Horizon (about puppet leaders, exploiting slave labor, et al), Pressure Point (the first episode where things don't go entirely as expected and also features heaping doses of political interplay). At this point, the rest of this season introduces a story arc (a novel appraoach for 1970s tv) that would, albeit in a limited way, be referred to in subsequent seasons about destroying Control. "Trial" has some great Travis scenes, but the alien/Blake subplot is iffy but I will give them credit for trying. The better episodes include "Killer" (the best Robert Holmes story that works very well as stock sci-fi as well as being a great character-driven B7 episode, giving Avon a few gem lines), "Countdown" (a great Avon-based plot with some of Blake's best comments made), "Voice from the Past" follows up on a minor story arc developed for the first three episodes of season 1. "Star One" tops the season beautifully that leads into war...

Season 3 is the one season that feels less like Blake's 7 than any other. The first two stories "Aftermath" and "Powerplay" have some nice set pieces and are fun runarounds for introducing new characters that had potential (Dayna and Tarrant). They're worth watching, but the best gems are "Rumours of Death" (which concludes the Avon character's background/subplot), "The Harvest of Kairos" (corny at times but holds its own), Sarcophagus (A weird but interesting fantasy piece from Tanith Lee), "Death-Watch" (an undisputed classic from Chris Boucher), and "Terminal" - what was to be the series finale; but season 4 was commissioned at the last moment.

Season 4 is the final season (1981), though a new series (2005) will continue the legacy, 20 years from this season's ending. I have a soft spot for "Rescue", though the episodes between that and the next classic "Headhunter" are lackluster at best (because they were hastily written at the shock decision to have a 4th season made). But "Headhunter" starts a trend of solid scripts. "Assassin" is enjoyable, if not predictable. "Games" is kitchy campy fun but not for newcomers to the series. "Sand" is a terrific classic from Tanith Lee. "Gold" is another fun episode, but not campy. "Orbit" is Robert Holmes' only other noteworthy episode. It's got a few uncomfortable moments but it more than makes up for it with a couple of surprise twists... "Warlord", the penultimate episode, is a MUST-SEE. And "Blake", the finale, continues where "Warlord" left off. While it does drag at times and whose effects fail it horribly, the basic ideas are there and you won't forget the ending any time soon.

[Deja Q]

1. One little kick to tread on Trekdom waters.

:-)