Continuing my project of incorporating the music from my list of the Top Ten Science Fiction Television Shows into my Musical Monday series, this week's choice is from the dystopian British television series Blake's 7. This series has sometimes been called the anti-Star Trek due to its bleak and cynical vision of the future, and this assessment is not far off. In many ways, the show seems to have intentionally subverted the tropes used by Star Trek, inverting what was good and hopeful in the previous series into a twisted and horrifying parody.
Just to demonstrate how dark Blake's 7 truly was as a series, the sequence that runs here is the final scene of the final episode. Avon, the central character on screen, is the last member of the seven left standing after a collection of twists and turns have led to internal dissension and apparent betrayal. Avon, suspecting that Blake has turned against the rebellion he helped created, has killed him (that's the body that Avon straddles at the very end), after which another person revealed themselves to be a Federation spy. The troops that enter and surround Avon are Federation soldiers - essentially the minions of the evil government that Blake's group has been striving against for the entire series. Although not shown, it is implied that Avon dies. The evil Federation wins.
Despite this, the series is brilliant. The setting is interesting, the characters are well-written and well acted. Granted, the special effects are awful, a fact that is true for most classic British science fiction shows, but the characters and stories more than make up for it.
Note that this version has been slightly modified from the original ending. In the original, after the screen went black, there was a brief period of silence followed by the sounds of a firefight. Some people have declared that based upon the various gun sounds, they think Avon lived and defeated the Federation soldiers, although I have to say that seems extraordinarily unlikely.
Previous Musical Monday: The Doctor Who Opening Theme (1974-1981)
Subsequent Musical Monday: It's Not Easy Being Green by Big Bird
Game, Movie, and Television Music Musical Monday Home
No comments:
Post a Comment