History of Blake's 7 - Origins (1975-1976)

Origins (1975-1976)

In 1975, Terry Nation attended a meeting with Ronnie Marsh, the BBC's Head of Serials, to discuss ideas for new television series. Marsh was looking for formats for co-productions with American television channels. Nation suggested a number of ideas, mostly for crime dramas, none of which appealed to Marsh. . According to Nation, “...the interview was drawing to a close when I surprised myself by starting to detail a new science fiction adventure ‘Have you got a title?' someone asked. ‘Blake's 7’ I replied without hesitation”. Marsh's notes of the meeting survive and record the pitch Nation made as follows: “cracking Boy's Own/ kidult sci-fi. A space Western adventure. A modern swashbuckler. Blake's Seven. Group of villains being escorted onto a rocket ship (transported) which goes astray & lands on an alien planet where inhabitants are planning to invade & destroy Earth. Possibly live underground”. Nation left the meeting with a commission for a pilot script and “...the bewildered feeling that I could not trace the source of the idea”. Nation submitted his pilot script, titled “Blake's 7 – A Television Series created by Terry Nation”, in April 1976, sub-titling the draft episode Cygnus Alpha.

Nation's pilot script broadly resembled what would become The Way Back, the first Blake's 7 episode to be transmitted, although the agent who betrays Glyd's group and plots Blake's conviction was named Cral Travis, rather than Dev Tarrant in the transmitted episode. The proposed characters for the series were: Rog (later changed to Roj) Blake, Vila Restal, Jenna Stannis, Kerr Avon, Olag Gan, Arco Trent, Tone Selman and Brell Klein. The descriptions of Blake, Jenna and Gan are similar to those of the developed characters. However, Vila's character is somewhat different, described as “thirty five, good looking athletic”, he appears more similar to the popular fictional character Simon Templar than the Vila portrayed on screen. The Arco Trent character was described as a powerful figure in the Administration who had become a scapegoat for a group of corrupt officials involved in arms dealing. Arco would plot against Blake but would gain respect for Blake after Blake saves his life. Arco's sidekick would be Avon, a self-serving, treacherous coward. The characters of Selman and Klein did not appear in the pilot script, which noted that these characters would join the series in a later episode.

Marsh asked Nation for a draft script for a second Blake's 7 episode in June 1976. Nation delivered Space Fall, in which the spacecraft Liberator is introduced, in mid-August. On 12 November 1976, Marsh commissioned Space Fall and confirmed the series for full development. Marsh asked Nation to deliver a further five scripts. It was intended that 13 episodes of Blake's 7 would be produced to replace the police drama Softly, Softly: Taskforce. Nation would write the first seven episodes, the following four would be written by other writers and Nation would write a two-part finale. Blake's 7 now officially entered production.