Well, late in the game once again, but here goes anyway.

Sally wrote:

<<[a] three things about Blake's 7 as a series that make it special for them, and different from other shows?>>

I have recently tried to think what it is that still attracts me to Blake's 7, years after I should have put away such childish things, and found several factors. However, few of them are indigenous to this show, but when push comes to show, I would name these (just don't expect simple, straight-forward answers):

1. Dialogue. It's not just the abundance of catchy one-liners, for after all even the few good sitcoms out there are capable of producing similar in their best moments, but, in best cases, Blake's 7 ability to create and sustain a line of intelligent, poignant and often biting dialogue that is extremely streamlined, functional, sometimes even austere, but seems much more complex and intricate than it actually is. In best cases, this is exactly what it is (for some reason, "Rumours of Death" always suggests itself as the first example, but I have suspicion that nearly any Chris Boucher-scripted episode might do) and that is rare. Mind you, there are often times when I'd wish for more variation, especially to make characters more different from each other, because after all just having sarcastic bastards thrown at you eventually gets just as boring as a galaxy full of Shiny Happy People (this is the same kind of critique that I would level at some of the "character interaction" in the series: in best cases, it's absorbing; in worst cases, it's nothing more than forced and formulated bickering that makes you reach for the FFWD button), but in an age when too much television dialogue is written by dyslexics for aphasiacs to perform with the comatosed as the obvious target audience, I'm simply thankful that a series like Blake's 7 ever got made.

2. Basically the whole moral quagmire of it. Again, this goes beyond just the fact that there is no moralising and the line between good and bad is often wafer thin. I like the ideas that are sometimes stated in few episodes ("Star One" and "Blake", particularly), but more often suggested by the overall mood of the series. Ideas like that rising against oppression is vital and right, but still perhaps futile, that good people can and have to do terrible things to fight that kind of oppression but that they cannot just shrug away the ramifications of their actions but are brutalised in the process. And that in the end, "nobody is indispensable".

3. Characterisation. Yes, the characters are a big part of the show's endurance, though not the most vital one. Some of the more memorable characters (for different reasons) have come from this series, though I would hardly call it unique in this respect. Similarly, the incompatible group dynamic, the we're-all-in-this-together-so-shut-yer-gob-and-help-me-with-this theme is not original at all (though I like it), but B7's version is, at its best (largely the first two seasons, less so on the third and almost not at all in the fourth), cheerfully irreverant and devoid of too much uncomplicated competence in the face of adversity a'la Howard Hawks. But perhaps the most appealing and special feature about the characterisations of Blake's 7 is the attention, again in the best cases, given to non-regulars and small guest parts. Taking once again "Rumours of Death" as my example, the presence of Grenlee and Forres plays important part in elevating this episode for me, and though I'm moved by the tragedy of the ending (this being one of the few times that I can honestly say I feel sorry for Avon), it's their death that disturbs me more in successive screenings than that of Anna. Hence the characterisation has three facets that make up its appeal: (some) interesting individual characters, the turbulent groups their contrasts create and the little people who frame their stories (by usually getting trampled underfoot).

<<[b] if you can think of them, one thing in each of just three episodes that somehow lifted that episode for you?>>

1. "Dawn of the Gods": [ZAP goes the salvage team] ORAC: Fascinating. ZEN: Confirmed. (Nicely understated, yet amusing little scene, and there is precious little else to recommend in this episode)

2. "Deathwatch": The staging and direction of the duel between Deeta and Vinni. If it wasn't for Gerald Blake's quasi-Sergio Leone-isms here, this episode wouldn't be half as good as it is. They cover up a multitude of sins.

3. "Trial": TRAVIS: Some of us weren't hypocrites, were we, Par? (This episode has lots of things to pick up, but somehow this small moment is the most memorable and evocative to me. Perhaps because it's because it so nicely flashes that somewhat twisted sense of Kameradschaft between Federation thuggish troopers. Perhaps it's because it is ambivalent and can be read in various ways in connection to several of the themes thrown around in the episode. Perhaps it's because its one of the best moments for Croucher's Travis.)

Runners up: the look on Vila's face as he tries to steel himself to go to the teleport section in "Bounty" and Cally kicking Blake's arse in "Time Squad".

Kai