Blakes 7 Cast To Reunite For New Audio Drama

The surviving original cast of BBC sci-fi series Blakes 7 are to reunite for a new audio drama from Big Finish.

The new audio drama will be released in February next year and will bridge the gap between the second season finale Star One and the third season opener Aftermath. The second season closed with the attempted invasion of the galaxy by aliens from the neighbouring Andromeda galaxy while Aftermath dealt with, as the title suggests, the aftermath of the inter-galactic war.

The new audio drama will be titled Warship and will be penned by Peter Anghelides. The drama will reunite original stars Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow, Michael Keating, Sally Knyvette, Jan Chappell and Jacqueline Pearce with Alistair Lock taking over the roles of super-computers Orac and Zen. Warship will chronicle Liberator’s role in the inter-galactic war and events leading up to the episode Aftermath. The audio drama will be an hour long and will also be novelised.

Blakes 7 was created by Terry Nation, the man who gave us the Daleks in Doctor Who and the post-apocalyptic series Survivors, and ran between 1978 and 1981. Although it is (sometimes) mocked for its kitsch-factor, Abba style costumes and cheap special effects the sci-fi series never-the-less packed a powerful punch at the time with dark storylines. Blakes 7 revolved originally revolved around freedom-fighter Roj Blake (Gareth Thomas) and the crew of the powerful star-ship Liberator who waged a campaign against the totalitarian Terran Federation.

The series wasn’t afraid to shock the audience by killing off cast members or writing others out unexpectedly. The series finale in 1981 memorable ended with the main characters (bar Jacqueline Pearce’s Servalan who did not feature in the episode) slaughtered in a haze of gun fire.