Season 2 Overview

The second season of Blake’s 7 had been one of varying quality, due in part to scripts falling through at the last moment, leading to others either being moved up the running order or last minute commissions. This didn’t seem to affect the show’s popularity as the ratings, although slightly lower than the first season, remained steady with an average of 7.1 m viewers for the season overall.

The introduction of new writers had a mixed effect on the show, with some like Chris Boucher writing the best episodes of the season, but some others being decidedly average and taking time to get the hang of writing for the Blake’s 7 universe. Allan Prior and Roger Parkes would return in the third season with new episodes, but it would be another year before Robert Holmes returned to write for Blake’s 7 sadly.

Big changes were on the way though for the third season. David Maloney and Chris Boucher remained on board as Producer and Script Editor, but the show lost two of its biggest stars. Gareth Thomas left the show to return to the RSC (after repeated ribbing by other actors who looked down on his TV work according to some reports). Also leaving was Sally Knyvette, who was reported disappointed by the development of Jenna, who returned to studying and took a BA.

This meant two new characters were to be introduced in the new season, Del Tarrant and Dayna Mellanby. But we’ll come to them a little later.

Firstly let’s see how well Blake’s fight against the Federation is going up to the end of season 2:

The winners aren’t so clear-cut as in season 1. Blake and Avon come out best in three episodes each, but then so does Servalan. Orac, Cally, Travis, Avon and Vila, Ushton and Rashel all come out best in one episode apiece. Blake and his crew are still winning their battle.

The most deaths attributable to each side is rather clouded by there being some big battles with lots of deaths on both sides- Blake’s attack on Space Command in Trial and The Federation attack on Albian in Countdown being two examples. The deaths seen on screen add up as follows though:

Blake and co: 11

The Federation: 18

Travis (on his own): 6 (one of whom is Gan)

The oft heard complaint from the female stars of Blake’s 7is that they had nothing to do except look pretty and occasionally operate the teleport. For one member of the team this is certainly true. In reverse order the results are:

Blake: 1

Jenna: 4

Avon: 6

Orac: 7

Vila: 11

But way out in front is:

Cally: (a whopping) 20

Poor old Jan Chappell.