Thursday, April 23, 2009

ANTI-HERO WEEK #4--BLAKE'S 7

To this dismay of many, and to further whittle away any credibility (HA!) I have as a critic of entertainment of any stripe, in my formative years, I watched a lot of Doctor Who. I remember distinctly that it used to come every afternoon on PBS, right after Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and even to my young, unsophisticated five-year-old mind, managed the heretofore thought impossible task of making Mister Rogers world (in which his man-cave/babe lair is a gateway to another world full of puppets and a light rail system) seem so much less gonzo than what was going on in Doctor Who.

I won't get into that here--Doctor Who, not being an anti-hero, is not going to be covered this week. I bring him up, because just about the time I was getting my head around Doctor Who, another show came over from Britain, and it functioned as night-and-day from the bizarre, but ultimately light-hearted Doctor.

Enter Blake's 7. Blake's 7 shares a lot in common with Who--they were both BBC shows, and both frequently at times looked as if the budget had been assembled in much the same way as you and your friends throw in money to cover a dinner bill when you all go out to eat. But, just as Who transcended its cheap and cheerful milieu with its own quirky charm, Blake's 7 transcended it's low-budget by being . . .well, dark.

Our lead character is a former revolutionary who got his memory erased, then got captured again and railroaded to life in prison, his entire crew is comprised of fellow criminals who barely get along at he best of times, they're hopelessly outnumbered by Federation, and the Federation are actually pretty competent, all things being equal . Their one advantage--the Liberator--is barely under their control at times, and when it gets destroyed they have to settle for a far inferior ship.

. . .and oh yeah [SPOILER] Everyone dies at the end.

Despite the fact that like Doctor Who it was done on the cheap and there's something about British actors in "futuristic" attire that makes a "camp it up to ridiculous levels" switch flip to "on" in their brains, but for my impressionable enough mind, it was one of my first experiences with the concept of the anti-hero, and even more importantly, a facet of it wherein the characters were just as much "hero" as they were "anti." I was too young to appreciate the deeper conflicts in the show, such as the one between Blake's freedom fighters and the totalitarian Federation, or the give and take between Blake's idealism and Avon's cynicism and how both of them drifted in the others direction from time to time.

None of that much mattered to my impressionable Star Wars-picked brain--I just wanted to see spaceships and ray-guns and stuff like that. My appreciation of the deeper stuff came later, and formed the backbone of my appreciation for the anti-hero later in life, and as such, was a worthy addition to Anti-Hero Week and not something I pulled out of my ass at the last minute or anything.

23 comments:

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

This sounds really interesting... I'm going to have to dig around, see if I can find it.

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

Have to admit, I'm a bit wary of it, though... seems like the camp factor would eclipse anything else, wouldn't it?

Kazekage said...

Well, it will definitely look like something made in the mid-to-late 70's, and that's something you either accept and try to sift out the muck for the gold or ya don't. Your mileage may vary and all that.

Well, it's had a R2 release on DVD, and alas we haven't gotten an R1 release as well. Pity--I'd like to see it again myself and see how well it held up and how much I'd pick up on now.

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

Only one way to find out. ;)

Did they DVD the entire series?

Kazekage said...

Just remember: The Star Wars Special Editions were what came of the desire to wash the 1970's out of Star Wars. Sometimes things are just of their time. :)

They did for Region 2, I know. An R1 release hasn't happened for God only knows what reason.

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

Well, yes, but the 1970s also produced the Star Wars Christmas Special. Some crypts should remain sealed. :)

Kazekage said...

Yeah, but how long did that crypt remain sealed, after all? ;)

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

The urban legend goes that Lucas is still trying to track down and destroy all the physical copies. He's also funding a tech lab to create a special virus that will scour the Internet and delete all traces of the abomination...

Kazekage said...

And yet, the very act of trying to suppress the information only makes it that much more widely disseminated. There's a lesson about spreading the disease you're trying to fight in that somewhere.

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

Exactly. His cause might've been better served by not drawing attention to the horrible spectacle of Chewie's father masturbating to Diahann Carroll...

Kazekage said...

Man, right? When that thing's been bootlegged so often people even know the New York newscaster in the commercial breaks, you have failed to suppress it with an intensity and determination only seen in successes. :)

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

Which in turn makes him look like even more of a moron. Bad enough he made that monstrosity to begin with, now he's gone and arguably made it more popular than any of his other movies (or at least more sought-after). All that effort just to see Carrie Fisher with pupils the size of small moons...

Kazekage said...

You know, now that you mention it, I would totally buy a DVD of Carrie Fisher ripping the Holiday Special a new one. She was mighty funny on the Star Wars discs, when she was allowed to talk. :)

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

You're assuming she actually remembers being there. From what I've heard, that poor girl was on enough drugs that she could've had a time-travel adventure with Abe Lincoln and Keanu Reeves and she'd draw a blank the next day.

Kazekage said...

True. Very true. However, she would probably make her complete lack of memory of the experience into a hilarious story intercut with "man, I did THIS?!?" You can't buy entertainment like that!

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

True... I'd pay good money to see the look on her face when they get to Leia singing the Life Day Song.

Kazekage said...

You're making me with this was really more and more, now. Finally, some Star Wars stuff I'd be interested in!

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

Oh, George. You've finally managed to amuse us. Just not in the way you wanted. :)

Kazekage said...

Has he ever? I watched all the Star Wars movies over the Fourth weekend, and I was amazed at how awful the comedy stuff plays when you're not six years old.

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

And how cringe-worthy the drama is. "I am your father" still holds up well, but lordy lord Mark Hamill's Big No had more ham than a butcher's shop. Who knew the guy would pull off one of the best Jokers in the history of Batman ten years later?

Kazekage said...

Well, the drama's clumsy and obvious because Lucas writes like someone who wants to be a technician. That there are any genuine bits at all they happen accidentally or as a result of improvisation or just as lucky accidents.

Honestly? I'd never have guessed it, as everything else I'd seen him in just kinda wasted him, but as the Joker (most especially in the Batman Beyond flick) he did such amazing voice work it's amazing he didn't get into it sooner.

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

So who do you attribute the accident to? The actors? The viewers being generous enough to wrap the Bad around until it's Good again?

There's a Youtube clip of Hamill demonstrating the Joker laugh at some con or other. I got chills.

Kazekage said...

Both. Think of it as a positive version of the law of unintended consequences. :)

I gotta find this, I think! :)