Firefly and Blake 7 Parallels by qino

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Firefly and Blake 7 Parallels

POSTED BY: QINO
UPDATED: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 17:15
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Monday, May 29, 2006 9:06 PM

I don’t know if this has been done before, (a quick search didn’t help) but after seeing Blake 7 listed on a poll of great Sci-Fi series I started to remember some of the details from oh so long ago; I think I saw it on PBS in the late 80’s and realized some interesting similarities:

Serenity and Liberator then Scorpio, (Liberator was a one of a kind, while Scorpio was much more rustic but in both cases the small ship was their home)

Malcolm and Blake: two leaders with very unclear pasts but the wits to keep ahead of the law and forge a crew together despite their tendencies to quarrel.

Zoe and Avon: Zoe was much more supportive while Avon was as much likely to be plotting to kill Blake as to help him.

Wash and Zen then Slave: the ships of Blake 7 didn’t have actual pilots but interactive computers that ran basically everything; Zen was literally the mind of Liberator while Slave was barely any help at all. At least Wash and Slave provided some comic relief.

Jane and Soolin: while neither of these characters were ‘bloodthirsty’ they both seemed to be shooting or hitting someone in nearly every episode

River and Cally: Cally was a reluctant telepath and used her power rarely but was invaluable in those instances as was River when she was coherent enough.

Alliance and the Federation: Both galactic entities share similar traits while the Alliance was broadly oppressive; the Federation was a good deal more thuggish because of the value of the Liberator and also Orac.

Points that don’t match up but are worth mentioning from Blake 7:
Orac-a stolen portable super computer that had many unknown abilities
Severlan(and her henchmen)- the bad girl who hunted the crew of the Liberator

I’m sure I’ve missed a few similarities but someone who’s seen Blake 7 more recently or is a bigger fan will have a better memory, but I wonder if Blake 7 didn’t influence the darker version of the future that Joss created.

EAC

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Monday, May 29, 2006 9:16 PM

AGATSU

Well, everything is influenced by everything these days. It's kind of impossible to come up with totally new ideas.
Never heard of Blake 7, though.

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Monday, May 29, 2006 11:40 PM

CHOO1701

Wiki-Wiki:

Blakes 7: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blakes_7

"Remember, always be yourself. Unless you suck."-Joss Whedon

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Tuesday, May 30, 2006 12:18 AM

DESKTOPHIPPIE

You could say that River is Orac. She's viewed by the Alliance as a piece of technology, which they have spent a great deal of time, energy and money developing, that has many unknown abilities. Which is why both Orac and River are so valuable to both sides.

The genius comes in making River a person instead of just a weapon or piece of technology, or even a secret that could bring down the Alliance. At first, Simon is the only one who sees River as a person and not a weapon/fugitive/heap of trouble. Mal and the others do too, although Mal isn't afraid to exploit Rivers abilities, however he feels about what the Alliance did to create them.

Another thing both shows have in common is the overall moral ambiguity and the grey area both inhabit. When do rebels become murderers? How far should they go to overthrow a corrupt government? At what point does righteous anger become revenge? These are the topics both shows explored so well.

I'll also add that Blakes 7 had one of the best series finales in the world ever. I thought it was ~the~ best, until the Angel series finale. :)

Desktop Hippie: at one with the 'verse

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Tuesday, May 30, 2006 12:18 AM

SIMONWHO

Indeed, one of the stars of Blake's 7 said on the DVD that a remake was unnecessary as the show had been brought up to date by Firefly among others.

I agree that there's an element of similarity but it's probably more noticeable because most sci-fi is told from the perspective of the forces of authority, not the outsiders. But B7 did have quite a few stinkers of episodes.

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Tuesday, May 30, 2006 4:47 AM

THEONETRUEBIX

Wednesday 5th April 2006
THE SIGNAL #6

http://signal.serenityfirefly.com/shownotes.php?e=2060

Sci-Fi Review: Blake's 7, written by Jill Arroway, read by Claire Musso

Just FYI.

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Tuesday, May 30, 2006 6:34 AM

GIXXER

Servelan. One of the two great haircuts of TV.

(The other one is Maggie's from Northern Exposure.)

Janine Turner really looks good, I must say. You couldn't date her without getting dead, obviously, but still...

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Tuesday, May 30, 2006 7:36 AM

MSG

Avon certainly has some Jayne like qualities (morality and self interest wise)

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Tuesday, May 30, 2006 11:19 AM

RMMC

Quote:
Originally posted by msg:
Avon certainly has some Jayne like qualities (morality and self interest wise)

Not to mention wating the ship for himself.

We seem to have forgotten someone who does fit in. Qino, you forgot Jenna, the pilot of the Liberator (the original ship in B7). Jenna was a smuggler (another tally on the similarities column) who piloted the Liberator for the first 2 series of B7. She was tough, smart, and was actually the second-in-command as Avon, while highly intellignet, couldn't be trusted. That later changed somewhat, but Jenna was very much the Zoe to Blake's Mal...but she was only a part of it. She wasn't a soldier fighting/having fought for the same cause as her leader. That part of the Zoe role went to Cally, who was a guerrilla freedom fighter.

Cally fought and believed in freedom and joined the crew when her 'platoon' were wiped out. She joined the crew strictly to follow Blake, thus also filling in part of the Zoe role. But Cally did a double-duty, in terms of relating to Firefly roles. She was also a telepath who kept getting influenced by others, much as River is by her mind. Both, while initially buffeted by the influx of information, eventually manage to get the upper hand intime to help the rest of their crew.

Wash's humour and lack of fighting abilities, runs more along the lines of Vila than Slave. Vila was a thief, a very highly talented thief (he'd said of himself there wasn't anything he couldn't get into or out of--provided he was scared enough), much as Wash was a highly talented pilot. Their humour was often at the expense of others on the ship, who generally deserved it or just at the seemed hopelessness of the current situation.

I also see Book and Gan as somewhat alike. Both were the voice of reason and restraint, cared about all their crewmates, and generally got along with them all. And...both apparently had violent pasts which they were now restrained from (Book by taking up the cloth and Gan by means of an inplanted device.)

Dang, you're right....there are a lot of similarities.

******
RMMC

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Tuesday, May 30, 2006 1:00 PM

LIVLASS

tarrant could be simon, all ideals and good looks. soolin and jayne, yeah, they were first looking for money and got suckered in. i would say wash and villa, more than the computers. altho villa wasn't a pilot, he DID have an overactive libedo. as for servalan, ... hello?! the operative! could also be travis. yeah, travis. he was single minded and just wanted them dead. servalan wanted to play cat and mouse.

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Wednesday, May 31, 2006 4:54 PM

QINO

Wow, so many good replies I’m not sure I know where to start but this is as good as any…

Book and Gan: Book had a hidden past (presumably military) but was now quite the pacifist, Gan was restrained by a collar device (if I recall) which would kill him if he killed and also suggested a dark past but both survived their series with out taking any lives but causing a great deal of damage and distraction to those who were out to harm the crew.

I didn’t mean to forget any of the other characters like Jenna and Tristan and Villa but B7 had such a large group that kept coming and going and dying compared to Firefly which didn’t loose anyone until the movie (hope that doesn’t spoil it for any newbies!). The other most interesting part was how the traits of one character in B7 were shifted into at least two people in Firefly and vice versa. Jayne is the best example, willing to kill and betray if it suited him and was also not the bright one on the crew but was definitely a source of info regarding weapons and thieving. Avon had the killing and betrayal down pat but was easily smarter than everyone else except Orac. Vila was the professional thief but was too much of a coward to ever be useful in a fight. These B7 characters also overlap with other Firefly members; Malcolm was a decent thief in his own right but was also not shy about picking a fight or using guns when needed. Someone also mentioned that River was definitely the smartest (no argument here) but Avon was not hobbled by morality or psychosis, and Orac was simply a very smart computer.

The more I think about it Simonwho was right in that Firefly was very much a series in the model of B7 brought up to modern times, a mismatched group, on the run, outside the law and fighting to stay free, alive and away from the big bad ‘Government’.

But a final note lest anyone consider that I think B7 was really the progenitor of Firefly, Blake 7 was by and large far simpler and campier than Firefly and had a number of episodes that really were a waste of time. But like Firefly, B7 did have several very memorable episodes that explored how to tell great stories within a Sci-Fi setting and that may be the only reason anyone still cares that B7 was made.

EAC

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Wednesday, May 31, 2006 5:15 PM

RMMC

Quote:
Originally posted by qino:

But a final note lest anyone consider that I think B7 was really the progenitor of Firefly, Blake 7 was by and large far simpler and campier than Firefly and had a number of episodes that really were a waste of time.

Yeah, I won't mention 'Gold' or 'Sand' here, okay?

Quote:
But like Firefly, B7 did have several very memorable episodes that explored how to tell great stories within a Sci-Fi setting and that may be the only reason anyone still cares that B7 was made.

It's the first show I know of that let one of the main characters go dangerously insane during the course of it. I've seen it happen since, like in Farscape, but not before.

Thanks for the nifty thread!

*****
RMMC

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