I know it's not DW, but Blake's 7 is clearly from the same stable and has plenty of crossovers, and I am sure is beloved in these quarters.

Sad to read that Blake himself, Gareth Thomas, has died.

http://www.blakes7online.com/news.php

Sad news indeed, Chuff.
For a while there in the late 1970s Blake's 7 genuinely rivalled Doctor Who. The first couple of series were essential viewing for me.
Roj Blake. Great character, acted with great conviction by Gareth Thomas.
And now he's teleported for the last time.

He appeared in an episode of the first series of Torchwood as well as several Big Finish audios

That is sad! I watched every episode of Blake’s 7 on DVD last year and enjoyed every moment. My favourite character was Tally, although I thought Glynis Barber was pretty hot too! Still do really.

There were a few people from Doctor Who in Blake’s 7. Namely Richard Hurndall and Colin Baker.

Also, there were a few Blake’s 7 cast members in Doctor Who, too. Namely Paul Darrow and Jacqueline Pearce. Paul Darrow was in DW twice if I recall. He played a UNIT soldier in The Ambassadors of Death, and was in Timelash with the Sixth Doctor.

Rest in peace, mate!

Very sad to hear the news about Gareth Thomas.

I rewatched Blakes 7 about eighteeen months ago and like Tiggerpooh enjoyed it all.
Its a great series overall.
Although not my favourite character ( Avon has that ) I liked Blakes initial earnestness, his flawed heroic nature. turning into a reckless fanaticism about destroying tjhe Federation over the first two series.

I think the series missed him initialy but it did allow for Avon's darker more complex character to emerge and it was good to see that final reunion even if it was all a tragic tragic misunderstanding.

Oh I really want to watch it again now!

RIP Gareth Thomas

Funny because In real life, Gareth Thomas and Paul Darrow were great friends, however Blake and Avon weren't. Avon wanted to take over the ship.

Ooops wrong thread
Apologies

Michael Keating appeared in The Sunmakers and two Big Finish audios
Sally Knyvette appeared in one Big Finish audio
Jan Chappell and Brian Croucher (the second Travis) appeared in spin-off video Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans
Peter Tuddenham provided voices in Ark In Space, Masque of Mandragora and Time and the Rani.

I wonder if this will 'provoke' any of the remaining Blake's 7 actors into appearing in Dr Who?

I know Paul Darrow has been in the old series, but not the new one as a proper guest star.

As an aside, may I say that I think Jacqueline Pearce left it far too late to appear full frontal on national television.

RIP Gareth Thomas. The big federation in the sky finally eliminated him but he gave them a good run.

Blakes 7 was a Terry Nation classic and certainly deserves a mention on the forum.

That same episode Colin Baker was in featured Valentine Dyall as well(Black Guardian)

Yes, sorry to hear about Gareth Thomas as well. I agree with what's been said, I still think Blake's 7 is this day the closest Doctor Who has ever had as a serious rival and what I love about is that it has the feel of Doctor Who there with loads of actors both regular and guest members who have been in Doctor Who. It has the same writers, directors and at times even the same scripts! I think the second episode has one character threatening to shoot prisoners unless Blake gives himself up. Sounds familiar? Try Destiny Of The Daleks written by....????!!!!

It also has the same vibes as late 70's Who as well. (Understandably as the show was made around that time)

Back to Gareth Thomas though and for me the best Series were the first two when Blake was in them. The First Series is the best,the strongest and freshest and a lot of that is because of Gareth Thomas and I thought he was excellent in the role.

Good as Paul Darrow was, the last two Series were never quite the same for me.

And the same props, sometimes the same costumes, and occasionally the same monsters!

... and Dudley Simpson's music!


Last time I watched The Sunmakers, I thought "this could be Blake's 7"

I liked Series 3 but series 4 was mostly awful.

Avon was my favourite character but he was a lot better when Blake was around. Never really appreciated how good Gareth Thomas was until after he had left.

Lots of cross overs between the two series, most importantly Terry Nation and David Maloney of course. Brian Croucher was in Robots of Death, I don't think anyone has mentioned. Robots of Death had to be the biggest crossover between the two series half the sand miner crew, the writer, the director etc etc.


Have just started a rewatch in tribute to Gareth and in the first three episodes already we have Jeremy Wilkin, playing a guy called Tarrant (very Terry Nation) Revenge of the Cybermen, Leslie Schofield (Face of Evil), Glyn Owen (Power of Kroll). Pamela Salem (Robots and Remembrance) and Brian Blessed have all turned up.

In terms of tone and content, Blake's 7 was a big step change from Doctor Who. I'm surprised my mum and dad let me stay up to watch it, but I guess they just saw it as sci-fi.

I do agree, by the way, that the show lost something when Blake (and Jenna) left at the end of season 2. Blake was clearly the hero of the piece and after he left I didn't ever feel there were any characters who were obvious hero material.

I just remember it all being very grim and scary, no warmth from any of the characters. But still very exciting to watch every week. And I loved the Liberator set (very iconic still, I think). Not so keen on Scorpio though.

Loads of directors worked on both Blake's 7 and Doctor Who -
Not only David Maloney, but also Pennant Roberts, Michael E Briant, Mary Ridge, Douglas Camfield, George Spenton Foster, Fiona Cumming, Andrew Morgan, Gerald Blake and Derek Martinus.
Writers too - obviously Terry Nation, but also Chris Boucher in a major way, and Robert Holmes.
And the number of cross over actors are way too numerous to mention.

From what I recall of Blake 7 it was really good at the start when Blake was actually in it. It got progressively worse after he left -i.e. when Avon took over, becoming the star of a show (based on a guy who was no longer in it, and aside from the fact there was no longer seven crew either). But that's not to say Avon taking over was at fault the show got worse, in fact he was the best thing about the show with no Blake in charge. As the show became more erratic in terms of good stories, it lost much of its strong viewing audience (including me) who only occasionally tuned in. Then came the grand finale, and from what I recall it was both a tragic and brilliant end to the show, and definitely worth tuning in for.

Would that be a fair assessment for someone who occasionally watched it no more than once around 35 (good grief -is it that long?) years ago?

Blakes's 7 is a must have still to add to my DVD collection and "right up there" (with Space 1999) now that I have all the original remaining Who stories.

Indeed. It seemed odd to me to have a series called Blake's 7 in which Blake didn't appear, and neither were there really 7 main characters...

edit - aha, I see that Mr Seta has posted virtually the same as me at the same time!

..spooky or maybe Whovians think along the same lines

Sad to hear of Gareth Thomas death. I watched Blakes 7 but was never into it as much as some. In fact iirc there was a long-lasting concerted public attempt to bring it back in the days where making such a cause known was far harder than it is now.

It never did ofcourse and its a rather sad marker of time that the lead actor has now passed away.

RIP.

The quality is obviously subjective, but the viewing figures remained very healthy up until the end, indeed a lot healthier than Season 18 of Who! Only one episode of the last series got less than 8 million and it was nearer the 9m mark for a number of episodes. ('Blake' got 9m on the nose.)

Ahhh....Blake's 7. Very enjoyable series. Didn't see much of it on first transmission, but collected the BBC videos after catching some 'bootleg' episodes in the Mid Eighties. I'm very fond of it. It certainly got 'camper' as it went along, but I don't mind a bit of camp! Would say Season 2 is possibly the best but tbh it was always pretty variable and some of my favourite episodes are from Season 3 (Eg Aftermath; Rumours of Death, Sarcophagus and Terminal) and the much maligned Season 4 (Rescue, Games, Sand, Orbit and, of course Blake) Speaking of....

Before I saw the full run of B7 I really knew him from the series 'Morgan's Boy' which I thought was brilliant. Would really like to see that again. A very fine actor and by all accounts a nice man. RIP, Mr Thomas.

Blakes 7 (S4) was the very first series I recorded on VHS - and still have it somewhere.

Always amused me the titles had the missing apostrophe through all four series.

ISTR there was an Open University programme about themes and characters that discussed (dissected more like) the opening episodes of S1. I think it featured Poldark and Penmarric too.

Totally agree, all these things make you feel like it's watching Doctor Who in disguise!


I think nearly very episode I could spot at least one actor who's been in Doctor Who. Even remember Richard 'Captain Yates' Franklin cropping up somewhere along the line!

Just a quick note of Paul Darrow. I would never diss what the guy done for the show. He carried the last two series brilliantly but as with recent series of Doctor Who no amount of superb acting and characterisation is good enough if the scripts are rubbish.

I think maybe the show should have finished after the second series. It went away from what the show's title and the show itself was originally about. A bit like Doctor Who in the early Pertwee years.

Would have loved a Blakes 7/Doctor Who crossover episode.

I met him when I did a couple of Blakes 7 conventions a few years ago. They were two of the most chilled events I ever did, having attendance lists of only a couple hundred. As a result, many of the guests socialised with us. (In fact I remember during the later event Brian Croucher socialised a bit too much and had to be put to bed! :lol

I still have a script that was written for Gareth & Brian to perform for the Aftermath convention '08 on the Saturday night, where they reprised their characters for an almost Satre like scene.

He was a nice man who enjoyed meeting the fans. Very sad news

He had a terrific rapport with the other cast members, especially Paul Darrow at conventions.