The New Blake’s 7?

I refused at first to consider this news, because you know we’ve been here before. Blake’s 7 has been teetering on the edge of a remake for the last fifteen years. It’s always come to nothing.

The biggest problem for fans to overcome is the casting issues. Because this isn’t like Battlestar Galactica, not at all. The cast and characters of Blake’s 7 are ingrained deeply into people’s memory of the show. The question of ‘but what about Avon’ is actually kind of confronting to many, because the idea of seeing anyone other than Paul Darrow circa 1978-1981 is hard to wrap your head around.

Luckily for me, I listened to the rebooted version of B7 done for radio back in 2006, and thanks to Daniela Nardini, Colin Salmon and the rest of the excellent cast, I am on board with the fact that these characters can be recast into a new ensemble and everything that was great about them will still be there. (though I wasn’t a fan of their Vila, turns out Michael Keating is the hardest one to replace)

I struggled with the fact that Jenna in the radio version had an American accent, but I think that was largely because everyone around her was British so it felt jarring. The very Scottish Servalan, on the other hand, was surprising and lovely. While I’d love to see an all Brit version of Blake’s 7 for this reboot, it’s pretty unlikely.

However, I’ve figured out how Syfy could turn the new Blake’s 7 into something spectacular that fans would get behind, AND follow the spirit of the original by having an older, more grizzled and battlescarred cast – all they have to do is cast the entire ensemble from the beloved former examples of them getting science fiction very right: that is, Farscape, Battlestar Galactica and Eureka.

Such as for example…

BLAKE – Joe Morton

Blake is a hard character to get right. He’s not the straight out hero that he is mostly inside his own head. He should certainly not be a shiny young pin-up boy. He’s getting to that age (not quite middle age) when it’s a bit harder to get up once you’ve been knocked down. He’s also obsessive, selfish, a born politician prone to making long virtuous speeches, and he settles into an authority role a little too comfortably, where-ever he goes. Joe Morton’s portrayal of Henry Deacon had a lot of these elements, and he also showed a far more complex range whenever the character went off the rails, or edged towards villainy. He’d be a surprising casting choice for Blake but would carry it off magnificently, ensuring that the character doesn’t slip into the one-note Good Hero Man that there is a danger the narrative might expect of him.

[FIRST ALTERNATE: Jamie Bamber]

JENNA – Katee Sackhoff

Jenna was one of my favourites, a character with great potential who unfortunately all but disappeared in her second year of the show, suffering from the “let’s keep the ladies safe on the ship” syndrome. But she was tough, snarky and highly capable, a smuggler and expert pilot whom the crew relied on very deeply. I’d like the new show to make sure she is seen as the headline act that the character always should have been, and casting is the best way to do that. Who better than Sackhoff?

FIRST ALTERNATE: Gina Torres, who is not in any of these shows but can play anyone she likes in the cast at any time, including Avon

VILA – Wil Wheaton

As with Blake he shouldn’t be a young kid, but someone with a few years under his belt. Comic timing is essential. Sadly some of the best comic actors from the shows I mention are just too damn tall. As a coward and a drunk, Vila needs to be played by someone who can balance humour and misery in entertaining ways, and steal everyone else’s thunder with his lines.

FIRST ALTERNATE: Neil Grayston

SORRY EVERYONE FORGET WHAT I JUST SAID! Obviously Mark Sheppard must be Vila.

GAN

Ugh, this is a hard one. The character arguably contributes the least to the original team, and would be the easiest to edit out of the story. On the other hand with a bit more development and good casting he could be pretty awesome – and this is the point at which I realise that D’Argo from Farscape was basically Gan. Same premise and set up. If you put a great comic actor like Colin Ferguson in the role, Gan would be awesome but probably at the expense of Vila. Instead you need a pure straight man, someone to be the humorless muscle and be sacrificed when it’s most convenient. Which… yeah. Better to leave the character out, I feel.

AVON – James Callis

I know, I know. We don’t want a repetition of Gaius Baltar stuck awkwardly in the middle of Blake’s 7 But as Dr Grant in Eureka he showed that the slimy nature of Baltar was entirely acting – he’s brilliant at playing stone-faced characters who are entirely selfish but may or may not be your friend. He’d be brilliant.

FIRST ALTERNATE: Talmoh Penikett

CALLY – Erica Cerra

The danger with Cally is that being the telepath, she be cast and written as the ‘soft,’ nurturing or spiritual female character to balance out the ‘tough’ female character – Deanna Troi to Tasha Yar, or Zan to Aeryn Sun. Cally is certainly spiritual but she’s also tough as nails (there are no soft characters in Blake’s 7) and in the early days her ability to shoot people and glare at them is far more essential than any magical mind-sharing business. Sure she has that too, but she mostly uses it to unsettle people WHILE SHE SHOOTS THEM.

FIRST ALTERNATE: Gigi Edgely

SERVALAN – Claudia Black

My first choice for this essential role was actually Ming-Na but she is on the SHIELD cast so probably won’t be available. And as soon as I opened this up to Farscape alumni as well as the other shows, it became obvious. For this role you need hard as nails, sense of humour, extreme lack of a sense of humour, glamour, deathstares and withering banter. She could totally pull it off.

FIRST ALTERNATE: Tricia Helfer

SECOND ALTERNATE: Virginia Hey



TRAVIS – Ben Browder

Because evil, why not?

FIRST ALTERNATE – Jamie Bamber, Talmoh Penikett or any of the flinty-eyed blokes who didn’t get into the first ensemble and are willing to sport an eyepatch.

OTHER CAST WHO WOULD BE HANDY TO HAVE AROUND ON OCCASION:

DEL GRANT – Colin Ferguson

ANNA GRANT – Sally Richardson-Whitfield

AVALON – Felicia Day

AND SOMEDAY, ONCE THE CAST START JUMPING SHIP FOR OTHER SHOWS:

TARRANT – Niall Matter

DAYNA & SOOLIN – actresses we haven’t heard of yet because these two characters actually can be cast pretty young

In conclusion, I miss Eureka a lot.

EDIT: Obviously the whole point of this post is for you to all post your casting suggestions too! Use whatever metric or acting pool you like. Entirely peopled with Doctor Who actors? British accents only? Go for it!