darry wrote on 2022-10-27, 02:33:
I've heard and read much about Blake's 7, but haven't actually gotten to watching it . It is on my "to see" list, though .
IMHO, there's lots of great stuff to discover from the 70s and 80s originating in the UK . I'm currently trying to convince my wife to watch the original run of Terry Nation's Survivors with me.
If you can find Blake's 7, then try to watch it from the first episode onward. Most of it's episodes are self-contained, but there are background story arcs too. Ignore the mostly lousy special effects, the few bad episodes, and the recycled stories and concepts of some of the lesser episodes, because at it's best, the program is superb, with really good and intelligent ideas and dialogue. And the final season (season four) was mostly very much inferior, sadly, though it did still have some great highs, included the fantastic final episode.
I am a big science fiction fan, and I'd say that B7 is the greatest television science fiction ever.
And if you're looking to try another British cult TV program, you might want to try the 1970 TV program Sapphire and Steel. This is a science-fiction/fantasy horror program, which is really good, very unusual, and very atmospheric. The program is mainly about two people (or whatever they are), and they are named, or at least who seem to represent the elements of Sapphire, and Steel.
Apparently, time itself is alive (or conscious, or self aware, or something) in some way, and it resents life, and tries to destroy it by creating paradoxes or traps to cause life never have arisen in the first place. And some elements of the universe, who might be chemical or metalic elements, try to defend life, by defeating Time's machinations. And if you're confused by that now, then watching the whole series probably won't make you much less confused.
By the way, it might sound vaguely like a Marvel superhero concept, but it's nothing like that at all. It's mostly set in the modern day (well, around 1980, when the program was made) and is about two agents, called Sapphire (played by Joanna Lunmley) and Steel (played by David McCallum), who appear unnanounced at a given time and place, to help people (normal humans) who are threatened or in danger of being hurt by something that's usually related to time. We learn almost nothing about Sapphire and Steel, or the few other 'elements' who we see, but we see various elements do have specific abilities, such as being able to rewind time for a short while, telepathy, the ability to deeply analyse an object just by touching it, etc. When Sapphire and Steel arrive, we learn of the current situation, the plight of the humans involved, and we see Sapphire and Steel investigate and situation and try to resolve it.
The program was low budget (1970s British science fiction...), with minimal effects, and only a small cast of actors, and the program is mainly made up of (often great) dialogue, and off-screen occurences, there is little violence shown, and I can understand if modern audiences watched it and became bored, saying that it was too slow and boring. But the thing is, it was a masterclass in building up suspension. There were six stories, each with around six or eight half-hour episodes, and the writer/producers really knew how to create intrigue and get your imagination going. Modern TV and films often don't require your imagination, because they show you everything, but in Sapphire and Steel, the danger and messed up feelings, along with the claustrophobia and fear of the unknown, really do emanate from the program. It's not pleasant, but it is fascinating and very thought provoking.
If you do manage to track it down, then (like Blake's 7) try to watch it from the first story onwards. It's not the sort of program where you can easily pick up the thread half-way through a story. It, like Blake's 7, is available on DVD.