Season 2 of Terry Nation’s late ’70s cult BBC sci-fi adventure saga arrives on Blu-ray following the huge success of the release of last year’s debut season. This second set is another triumph. The buffed-up episodes genuinely look bright and shiny and brand new, enlivened by wonderful new model visual effects to replace the shonky originals (which are also still available to view as alternatives for purists), and come with a raft of stunning and extensive new special features that put even recent Doctor Who Blu-ray releases to shame.
With Nation himself unable to write all thirteen episodes of the season as he had the first year, season two opens up Blake’s 7 with some slightly more thoughtful and nuanced episodes written by script editor Chris Boucher, Doctor Who veteran Robert Holmes, Roger Parkes, and Allan Prior. Boucher episodes such as Shadow and Trial struggle to balance the needs of two concurrent storylines, and Holmes’s Killer and Gambit suggest that he was more comfortable in the quirky world of Doctor Who than Blake’s 7’s ostensibly grittier universe. But Nation is still around to deliver his trademark gung-ho action adventure in season opener Redemption, which not only resolves the season one cliffhanger but explains the origins of the gang’s monolithic spaceship, the Liberator. Nation also penned mid-season format-shaker Pressure Point, which sees seven become six. All in all, it’s a strong sophomore season that starts to flesh out the group’s strongest characters even as it ends – unbeknownst to its fans at the time – with the loss of its lead character and another underdeveloped secondary one.
Fans are more than well served by a string of frankly remarkable new supporting documentaries alongside archive material ported over from previous DVD releases. Maximum is an eighty-odd-minute documentary that looks in almost forensic detail at the life and times of the magnificent, misunderstood Jacqueline Pearce, who played the show’s iconic recurring villain Servalan. This is Pearce laid bare – almost literally in one sequence detailing her later life as an occasional artist’s model – with contributions from co-stars, partners, lovers, friends and acquaintances and all points in between. It’s an astonishing and brave look at the often-difficult life of an actress who worked alongside Anthony Hopkins in her youth and who was expected to become one of the most acclaimed actors of her generation.
Equally fascinating and just as poignant is Toby Hadoke’s investigation into the life and career of David “Gan” Jackson, with the help of scrapbooks of his work curated by his widow Ann, and Matthew Sweet’s interviews with Brian Croucher (who took over the role of Space Commander Travis, Blake’s thuggish eye-patched nemesis) in Season Two and designer Roger Murray-Leach. Both extended interviews offer wonderful windows into the past thanks to Croucher’s reminiscences of his time living and working in London’s East End and Murray-Leach’s tales of the low-budget/high stress environment of the BBC in the 1970s. Compelling stuff.
It’s all topped off by a gleaming new near-two-hour documentary about the making of the whole season with contributions from many of its guest stars and archive footage from those no longer with us. Blake’s 7 would never be the same again as it moved on from its second season (and undoubtedly the series three boxset… next year, please, BBC?… will tell us the whole story, warts and all) and this wonderful and exhaustive release is another essential purchase for fans of both the series and the history of British sci-fi television.
BLAKE’S 7: THE COLLECTION – SEASON 2 is available now on Blu-ray.
