Let's Have a Blake's 7 Reboot. Why Not?
Jul. 20th, 2020 09:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labingiFor my July author newsletter, I've given up trying to be cool and am embracing the voices in my head, which means—what else?—I'm going to write about Blake's 7 and why it's finally time for a reboot! [Newsletter essay posted here.] For the uninitiated, Blake's 7 is a 1970s BBC space opera about a band of freedom fighters striving to overthrow the totalitarian Terran Federation. Long beloved for its mature themes and fantastic characters, Blake's 7 has been teased for a sequel or reboot since the 1990s, an idea most fans detested. "They'll ruin it," they chorused (probably rightly). For years now, the reboot has been moribund. But I contend the time has come. Our current moment opens up fascinating possibilities for modernizing the show's wrenching social commentary.
(Extremely light series spoilers follow.)
To me as an American viewer, one of the show's most interesting worldbuilding aspects is class privilege, the depiction of which, I suspect, is partly intentional and partly just the BBC in the 1970s. The Federation is caste-constructed society, with grades ranging from Alpha to (at least) Delta. It is notable that Blake's revolution against the Federation is led Federation Alphas. Of series regulars, five characters (Blake, Avon, Jenna, Tarrant, and Dayna) are strongly suggested to be Alphas, leaving only four to represent all other people (Cally, Vila, Gan, and Soolin). (I am not counting the series' three computers.) Of these four, Cally is a foreigner (alien); Vila is explicitly a Delta; Gan's grade is not stated but he seems accustomed to taking orders, which leads me to conjecture he's not an Alpha. Soolin originates as a farmer from the provinces and may or may not have a Federation grade.
By and large, the Alphas are the leaders. Blake, Avon, and Jenna dominate the pecking order in the first two seasons. With Blake and Jenna gone missing, Avon, Tarrant, and Dayna dominate it in the third season, with Soolin becoming a strong presence in the fourth. Cally is a strong, self-motivated character but shows little penchant for ordering others. With a couple of notable exceptions, Gan is a follower, and Vila is, to some degree, dismissed or scorned by everyone, though Blake is pretty decent to him.
So the elites lead a revolt to overthrow the elites. It's reminiscent of the centrality of the bourgeois to the French Revolution or the landed (often slaveholding) gentry to the American Revolution. This centrality of privilege is fascinating—and probably due to the dynamics of British class—feels natural and realistic in all its muddled complexity. But perhaps for the same reason, the series does not really unpack it. It's there, but it's rarely explicitly noted.
A reboot would have a golden opportunity to explore this privilege. To what extent can a corrupt regime be overthrown by the very group that profits most from it? To what extent will their revolt inevitably reinscribe the systems of inequity they hope to abolish? And if you're Vila, say, how much to do you put up with it? How much do you throw your lot in with Blake and company to be belittled, ridiculed, and bossed around in hopes of escaping a more terrifying domination? And if you're Cally, say, and can see what's going on from the outside, how much do you call it out? Is it worth fighting that battle in the midst of the larger battle?
And then there's Gan, the most underutilized regular in the series. Gan is mostly a pliant follower, but there are a couple of episodes where he asserts himself: "Cygnus Alpha" (1.3), where he ends up in charge by virtue of the none of the Alphas being there, and "Shadow" (2.2) where he puts his foot down against allying with drug dealers. These flashes of spirit feel like uneven writing (pervasive in the episodic world of 1970s TV), but imagine if this were a character arc, the realization of a lower grade person that he ought to have an equal voice. After all, doesn't Blake want a society where "free men can think and speak," as he puts in "Space Fall" (1.2)?
Imagine if these depths were really plumbed. Imagine if race were thoughtfully added to the mix so that, instead of Dayna and her father being the only black people in the galaxy, the dynamics of race hundreds of years in the future were creatively engaged. Perhaps by this time, almost everyone is brown. (This seems realistic to me.) Perhaps only peripheral communities show great racial variation, possibly making Soolin the only white character. But perhaps colorism is alive and well; the Federation has a lot of -isms. Perhaps Vila is darker than everyone else—or perhaps he's lighter. Not only would that be an opportunity to give meaty roles to racially diverse actors; it could be a highly relevant, defamiliarizing lens for exploring racial privilege in our own world.
So I say it's time! We have the corrupt governments. We have the inequities. We're at a pitch-perfect moment for dusting off this provocative, emotionally gripping saga and exploring what it all means for a new generation. And, no, the sets won't be made of cardboard—but please let's keep the focus where it always belonged: on an amazing cast of complex, gray characters clinging to hope in an agonizing, dirty dystopia.
But let me know what you think, B7 fans. Do you agree?
(Extremely light series spoilers follow.)
To me as an American viewer, one of the show's most interesting worldbuilding aspects is class privilege, the depiction of which, I suspect, is partly intentional and partly just the BBC in the 1970s. The Federation is caste-constructed society, with grades ranging from Alpha to (at least) Delta. It is notable that Blake's revolution against the Federation is led Federation Alphas. Of series regulars, five characters (Blake, Avon, Jenna, Tarrant, and Dayna) are strongly suggested to be Alphas, leaving only four to represent all other people (Cally, Vila, Gan, and Soolin). (I am not counting the series' three computers.) Of these four, Cally is a foreigner (alien); Vila is explicitly a Delta; Gan's grade is not stated but he seems accustomed to taking orders, which leads me to conjecture he's not an Alpha. Soolin originates as a farmer from the provinces and may or may not have a Federation grade.
By and large, the Alphas are the leaders. Blake, Avon, and Jenna dominate the pecking order in the first two seasons. With Blake and Jenna gone missing, Avon, Tarrant, and Dayna dominate it in the third season, with Soolin becoming a strong presence in the fourth. Cally is a strong, self-motivated character but shows little penchant for ordering others. With a couple of notable exceptions, Gan is a follower, and Vila is, to some degree, dismissed or scorned by everyone, though Blake is pretty decent to him.
So the elites lead a revolt to overthrow the elites. It's reminiscent of the centrality of the bourgeois to the French Revolution or the landed (often slaveholding) gentry to the American Revolution. This centrality of privilege is fascinating—and probably due to the dynamics of British class—feels natural and realistic in all its muddled complexity. But perhaps for the same reason, the series does not really unpack it. It's there, but it's rarely explicitly noted.
A reboot would have a golden opportunity to explore this privilege. To what extent can a corrupt regime be overthrown by the very group that profits most from it? To what extent will their revolt inevitably reinscribe the systems of inequity they hope to abolish? And if you're Vila, say, how much to do you put up with it? How much do you throw your lot in with Blake and company to be belittled, ridiculed, and bossed around in hopes of escaping a more terrifying domination? And if you're Cally, say, and can see what's going on from the outside, how much do you call it out? Is it worth fighting that battle in the midst of the larger battle?
And then there's Gan, the most underutilized regular in the series. Gan is mostly a pliant follower, but there are a couple of episodes where he asserts himself: "Cygnus Alpha" (1.3), where he ends up in charge by virtue of the none of the Alphas being there, and "Shadow" (2.2) where he puts his foot down against allying with drug dealers. These flashes of spirit feel like uneven writing (pervasive in the episodic world of 1970s TV), but imagine if this were a character arc, the realization of a lower grade person that he ought to have an equal voice. After all, doesn't Blake want a society where "free men can think and speak," as he puts in "Space Fall" (1.2)?
Imagine if these depths were really plumbed. Imagine if race were thoughtfully added to the mix so that, instead of Dayna and her father being the only black people in the galaxy, the dynamics of race hundreds of years in the future were creatively engaged. Perhaps by this time, almost everyone is brown. (This seems realistic to me.) Perhaps only peripheral communities show great racial variation, possibly making Soolin the only white character. But perhaps colorism is alive and well; the Federation has a lot of -isms. Perhaps Vila is darker than everyone else—or perhaps he's lighter. Not only would that be an opportunity to give meaty roles to racially diverse actors; it could be a highly relevant, defamiliarizing lens for exploring racial privilege in our own world.
So I say it's time! We have the corrupt governments. We have the inequities. We're at a pitch-perfect moment for dusting off this provocative, emotionally gripping saga and exploring what it all means for a new generation. And, no, the sets won't be made of cardboard—but please let's keep the focus where it always belonged: on an amazing cast of complex, gray characters clinging to hope in an agonizing, dirty dystopia.
But let me know what you think, B7 fans. Do you agree?
no subject
Date: 2020-07-21 06:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-23 12:45 am (UTC)You wrote:
...if we can fix the awful cheesiness of some of the dialog then the story's worthwhile partly for how deception and practical realities contrive to give it an interestingly realistic bleakness characteristic of some other television of that time...
I totally agree. The bleakness is very brave and realistic, indeed, in B7. As it's generally a good reboot idea not to exactly replicate the original's story, I think there's room for a different ending, and one with a little more hope, like Les Mis-level hope, but I agree it needs to stay dark.
It seems to me Terry Nation said in some interview somewhere that he conceived of Blake and his rebels as existing at a point in history where the Federation was simply too strong to be overthrown; it would be someday, but that time was not in their natural lifetimes. The Andromedan War threw a kink in this storywise, but based on seasons 1-2, it seems like the Federation is right at the start of its real descent into fascist autocracy with the last remnants of somewhat functioning, inequitable bureaucracy dying out with the likes of Commander Leylan. That suggests its power as an empire is on the rise in the short term: it's turning the screws harder and extracting more. Actually a very good theme to explore for our times.
Thanks for your comment.