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Highly Original Sci-Fi, before its time
Blake's 7 was a new and different sci-fi series when it aired between 1978-1981. It used "Dr.Who" like special effects but was dominated by a superb cast and amazing writers. In a nutshell, Blake's 7 is about a group of renegades taking on an evil empire. Blake's 7 used intelligent ships, AI's, transporters, telepathy, robots, virtual reality and other concepts that would dominate sci-fi series that followed it. This includes everything from ST:NG to Babylon 5, Firefly, Farscape, Stargate and Battlestar Galactica.

Blake's 7 also introduced a concept that was not seen again until Babylon 5. After the first season you do not see Blake until the 4th season. This is a stunning storyline. The original Blake's 7 crew is:

Blake (Garreth Thomas) - The idealistic leader
Avon (Paul Darrow) - The logical, and cunning 2nd in command.
Cally (Jan Chappell) - The telepath
Jenna (Sally Knyvette) - The damsel in distress
Villa (Michael Keating) - The thief
Zen (Peter Tuddenham) - The ship

The arch-villian of the series is Servalan (Jacqueline Pearce) who hunts the heroes at every turn. Some of the best acting in the series revolves around Avon and Servalan. If they weren't trying to kill each other, they would be lovers.

Blake's 7 is often underrated as a sci-fi series by those too entranced with newer special effects. Blake's 7 should be approached like Babylon 5 or Andromeda. It is a series that had time enough for the characters to mature and change.

The first sci-fi series with a story arc - please give us DVD
In a review of Deep Space Nine several years ago on Amazon, I said it was the best sci-fi series of all-time. I think that's true. But my all-time favorite remains this show. This show was many things. It was an anti-Star Trek, in which the "Federation" was a corrupt empire, and the 7 protagonists are terrorists / freedom fighters. It was a study on how NOT to run a revolution (or at least a commentary on how revolutions fizzle and fail due to human nature and the mistakes people make). It's a show about charisma, and how leaders are defined, followed, and despised. And it is a show about power - how those in power will commit every crime and atrocity to keep it.

Low production values aside, this show had decent depictions of intergalactic space travel, artificial intelligence, and even featured one scene in which Blake drew a battle diagram using a palm pilot-like device. But more important was the character development and dynamics during the show's 4 seasons. We had a leader who was envied and disliked by some of the people who chose to follow him. We had a villainess (Jacqueline Pierce) who ranks among the very best ever on television. And most significant, this show gave us the contemporary "story arc." This is the continuation of the main plot lines from one season to the next, complete with season-finale cliffhangers. That's the template for the "new" Star Trek series in a nutshell.

In short, Blake's 7 is the greatest work by the late Terry Nation (creator of Dr. Who's Daleks), and deserves a life on Region-1 DVD for current and future fans to enjoy. It is campy, smart, dark, and a lot of fun. In the meantime, check out the definitive book on Blake's 7, John Kenneth Muir's thesis, the History and Critical Analysis of Blake's 7:

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Release this in the US!
Blake's 7 was an extremely well done British sci fi series from around the early 80s or late 70s. As in any series, there's some clunker episodes, but the dialogue is always stellar and extremely witty. Tanith Lee wrote two episodes (and appears to recreate the Avon-Vila relationship in her book Kill the Dead). Basically, Blake's group are rebels against a huge interstellar dictatorship. The special effects are the level you'd expect from an ordinary tv fx studio 20-30 years ago - so what? There's also some really nice, memorable fashion and set design.