Tag Archives: Paul Darrow

From Revelation to Genesis

Last month, I discussed Paul Darrow’s novelized sequel to the television series Blakes 7 titled Lucifer. In the TV series, Darrow played Kerr Avon, a computer genius who was recruited from a prison ship by the series’ title character Roj Blake to fight against the oppression of the oppressive Earth Federation. By the time the series reached the end of its fourth and final season in 1981, Avon was one of the two characters who appeared in the largest number of episodes. Perhaps surprisingly, Garreth Thomas’s Blake was not the other one. Instead the other was talented thief Vila Restal played by Michael Keating.

As noted in my review of the novel Lucifer, we learn that Avon is the only member of Blake’s band of freedom fighters to have survived the series. At the end of that novel, Avon was reunited with the supercomputer Orac and had confronted his nemesis and one-time Federation President Servalan. As the sequel opens, Avon and Orac are on the run from just about every power faction in the known galaxy, including mercenaries sent by the leaders of the Federation and Chinese agents who are seeking to take power when the Federation inevitably falls. Both power factions want to get their hands on Orac for their own purposes. However, Orac is exactly the thing that gives Avon an edge with so many people after him. Orac helps him infiltrate a pirate stronghold to get fuel for his ship, which doesn’t endear him to the pirates at all.

In effect, the first of the sequels is the story of Avon and Orac on the run while the galaxy’s powerful and elite conduct their machinations to see who will ultimately control the galaxy and exercise control over the vast panoply of humanity. The machinations feel like the stuff of Shakespearean drama as the rich and powerful unleash plots to take down their rivals and send assassins against each other. Meanwhile, Avon does what he can to stay out of anyone’s crosshairs while ultimately trying to figure out what his ultimate objective really is.

All of this really sets up the final and best book of the trilogy, Lucifer: Genesis. The final novel picks up where the second one left off. Avon is on the run and those who survived the political maneuverings of the previous book want to get their hands on Orac. Of those in power, only the Chinese seem to take the philosophical perspective that they might ultimately build an even better computer given time. Still, they don’t want Orac to fall in anyone else’s hands before they can accomplish that feat. At this point, the novel steps back in time to the beginning of Blakes 7.

Now we’re taken back before the beginning of the series. We learn how a young girl is born to a band of pirates. The band is destroyed by the president of the Europa Federation Kyril Alan and his daughter takes the girl to raise as her own. She’s named Seraph Alan but comes to be known as Servalan. Of course the Europa Federation becomes an integral part of what will be the Terran Federation. Meanwhile, Blake recruits his freedom fighters, including Avon. As the book proceeds, we are treated to scenes not shown on the series. We have conversations between Blake and Avon that examine their relationship. Later, when Blake is gone, Vila and the others try to decide if they’re still even in the freedom-fighting business under Avon. Of course, Avon and Servalan confront one another and realize they are two sides of a similar coin.

At last the book returns to where it started. Avon decides the only thing left for him to do is return to Earth. Of course, given all that’s happened, Avon is unlikely to be welcomed as a hero and we soon realize that in the end, his only friend and companion is none other than the AI, Orac.

All in all, I found Darrow’s novels a fitting and satisfying end to the tale of Blakes 7. That said, it’s certainly not the only possible ending and if I explore others, I might find there are others I would enjoy more. Still, if you’re a fan of the series, I think this trilogy is worth a look. If anyone reading this has read them and perhaps other sequels, I’d enjoy hearing what you thought and what other sequels you might recommend.

This journey of a heroic outlaw growing old and then returning to Earth reminded me of my Space Pirates’ Legacy series. In the first volume we meet pirate Ellison Firebrandt and his crew. In The Pirates of Sufiro, he’s marooned on a planet and builds a life there. As events in the galaxy transpire around him, he ultimately must act to save the Earth that abandoned him. You can learn more about my series at http://davidleesummers.com/books.html#pirate_legacy

The Aftermath of Blake’s 7

Back in 2024 while recovering from prostate cancer surgery, I watched all four seasons of the British science fiction series Blake’s 7. The show originally ran from 1978 through 1981 and told the story of a band of freedom fighters who stood up against an oppressive human Federation that had been colonizing the galaxy. The leader of the freedom fighters, Roj Blake, was portrayed by Gareth Thomas. His primary nemesis was an ambitious councilor who ultimately became Federation President named Servalan, portrayed by Jacqueline Pearce. The show was created by Terry Nation, who also created the alien race known as the Daleks for Doctor Who. One of the hallmarks of Blake’s 7 was that no one was safe. Heroes could die or move on. In fact, when it looked like his ship was doomed, Blake himself escaped to fight battles in other parts of the Federation, leaving the more ruthless Kerr Avon, played by Paul Darrow, to lead the freedom fighters for the next two seasons.

At the risk of spoilers for a TV series that ended nearly a quarter of a century ago, the series ended on a rather bleak note. It looked like out band of freedom fighters had met their match. Of course, the fight against oppressive regimes does not end and at least three characters had fates not set in stone. One of those characters was Kerr Avon and in 2013, actor Paul Darrow wrote a series of novels that tell how his character survived the events of the final episode and what happened to the Federation in the twenty years after that.

The first of those novels is titled Lucifer. As the novel opens, we find Avon stranded on an “island planet.” Apparently this is a moon-sized chunk of a planet that had been knocked from a larger world after a collision with another world. Of course, the astronomer in me questions how this island has an atmosphere left and how anyone survived the catastrophe that created the “island” but we’ll let that slide for the moment. The point is that Avon is trapped and when the Federation lands on this world to explore, he sees an opportunity to escape and reunite with one of the other lost members of the crew, the artificial intelligence known as Orac, voiced by Peter Tuddenham. The thing is, Orac is so advanced compared to other computers that whoever possesses him could be the most powerful person in the galaxy.

Meanwhile, we learn that President Servalan has been deposed and replaced by a council of four known as the Quartet. However, Servalan has not gone away entirely. She’s been under house arrest and pulls the strings of one of the members of the Quartet and is busily working to install a second puppet. When she learns that Avon is alive and trying to escape his island prison, she reasons that he must be trying to reunite with Orac, who had been presumed lost. For her, Orac could be a way for her to reclaim lost glory.

The book is told in three parts. The first part is set in the “present” of twenty years after the series ended. The second part takes us back to the end of the series and tells how Avon ended up on the island planet in a grand adventure that involves mercenaries, aliens, and a second major Earth faction, competing with the Federation. Finally, the book wraps up in the “present” as Avon and Servalan have their inevitable confrontation.

For me, the most interesting part of this book is that it gave us a more in-depth look at Earth’s political structure than the series ever did. It posits that there are still Western and Eastern power blocs. The Western bloc largely moved out into space as a colonial power and became the Federation. The Eastern bloc largely took over Earth itself. However, the Eastern bloc now has designs on moving out into space to gain its own resources. Both blocs have designs on Orac, which means they both want Avon to lead them to him. However, Avon has always had his own agenda and wants little to do with either bloc.

Blake’s 7, like many science fiction novels and series of its time, recognized that artificial intelligence would eventually become something to be reconned with. Orac was always portrayed as a willful machine, but one ultimately at the control of the humans he serves. The characterization is especially interesting given that human society is shown to still have servant classes.

If you’ve watched Blake’s 7 and want to know what happened after the end of the series, this novel presents interesting possibilities as imagined by one of the shows stars, who also talked to those who might have written revivals of the show. As I note, the science seems dubious at points and some of the technology seems dated. Still, it’s the characters that made me a fan of the series and Darrow handles them well. I look forward to seeing where the series goes in the second novel of his trilogy, Lucifer: Revelation.

If you would like to explore my own foray into the worlds of galactic politics, you might enjoy my Space Pirates’ Legacy series. you can learn more about it at: http://davidleesummers.com/books.html#pirate_legacy