The Annotated Blake’s 7 - Redemption

Your body's cold, there's not a hand to hold

Before we get stuck into Series B and ‘Redemption’ proper, just one item of outstanding business …

Inter-Spiral Space

The nine months between Series A and Series B felt like a geological age to a ten year old. There was a general lack of ‘merch’, which was noticeable even then. The uncertain status of Blake’s 7 as a ‘kidult’ series perhaps spooked away any interested parties. It still seems incredible that it was left to Lesley Judd on Blue Peter to show you how to home-craft a teleport bracelet; a toy manufacturer would surely have cleaned up there. But then, the show was off-air most of the year, unlikely to sell to America, and had no guaranteed long-term future - in the busted UK economy of 1978, not a goer. But then, there were no toy jaunting belts either, and they would’ve made somebody an absolute mint.

The clumsy references to various sci-fi brands in the marvellously silly ‘I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper’ by Sarah Brightman and Hot Gossip - a hit in November ‘78 - include the line ‘fighting for the Federation’, which was certainly taken at the time as a reference to our show rather than to Star Trek.

What we had instead of merchandise were playground games. Unlike Cowboys and Indians or World War II, playing at Blake’s 7 enabled mixing of the sexes. A boy would be despatched to fetch girls. ‘We need Jenna and Cally’.

But aside from the first Hoyle book and a perfunctory and off-the-point interview with Terry in Starburst, there was very little in the way of licensed product in 1978. With one exception - the 1979 Annual.

This was, needless to say, a ridiculously exciting artefact in its day. Just owning a good clear photograph of the Liberator was precious balm to the childish soul.

Did Terry jot down brief ideas for the stories in this, I wonder? The use of the word ‘Mutoes’ in one story, and the appearance of accelerated plant life - one of his favourite devices - cause me to wonder. Some of the planet and character names sound convincingly correct, too. But then, the supporting feature ‘Blake’s Wonders Of The Universe’ - a kind of galactic scrapbook of mind blowing alien sights - is strangely reminiscent of the Cosmicomics short stories of the postmodern Italian novelist Italo Calvino, and I’m almost positive he had nothing to do with this book.