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Blake's 7
Q&A-BEN AARONOVITCH
Q&A – BEN AARONOVITCH
Lead Writer > Episode 1 > Rebel
GENERAL QUESTIONS
What inspired you to re-imagine the original series for audio rather than simply write completely new adventures or perhaps even a sequel? Are you worried about how fans will react to you rewriting what many consider to be a cult classic that should be left well alone?
The way I see it you either have faith in your abilities as a writer or you don’t. These are good scripts written by good writers and I believe that they have an intrinsic integrity that should be judged entirely on their own merits.
How do the new audio adventures differ in tone from the original series?
Dramatic styles have changed since the late 1970s in keeping with that the audio dramas have a more ‘naturalistic’ style than the original series.
What have you retained of the original series stories?
We’ve retained a surprising amount of the original stories but retold in a new way and of course adapted for audio which is quite a different media from television.
Are there dramatic changes in the way the characters are realised? Will we for instance recognise the characters if we’re old fans, or will we be surprised – is Vila still comic relief, Avon still a cold calculating bastard?
The characters should be instantly recognisable to fans of the original series, especially Vila and Avon. But what we’ve tried to do is bring some depth to those characters who were less well drawn in the original – specifically Jenna and Gan.
What are the challenges of working on audio versus television?
The principle challenge is depicting action without having a character say, for example, ‘My god he was shot in the shoulder and spun round to the left where he smashed into the console and activated the self destruct.’
What do you think will get people excited about these audio adventures?
The stupendously action packed, character driven drama filled total brilliance of them. Our aim is to produce something so compelling that people end up listening to it at 3 am in the morning because they want to hear one more segment before they sleep.
What’s the best thing about writing for Blake’s 7?
The characters are brilliant.
How does writing for Blake’s 7 compare to writing for Doctor Who?
Blake’s 7 is much more an ensemble piece so you have to make sure all the characters are getting their moments and pulling their weight.
How did you get involved with the project?
I met Andrew Sewell at a production of one of Andrew Cartmel’s plays and he said he had acquired the rights to Blake 7 and I asked who I had to kill in order to work on the show.
What are you working on now?
That would be telling.
SCRIPT SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
The script opens with Avon talking, he seems to be looking back – is this an older Avon?
I’m afraid that’s beyond your security clearance citizen.
How did you decide where to follow the original storylines, and where to divert?
The writing process doesn’t work like that. I took the basic ideas underpinning the stories and the essential narrative thrust and then wrote them as if they were original scripts. Stealing any good lines that were appropriate of course.
We start the audios (as with the original show) with Blake already having a revolutionary career behind him – did you ever consider writing a prequel to cover this time?
We did develop a two hour long episodes dealing not just with Blake’s early revolutionary career but with earlier lives of Avon, Jenna, Gan, Vila and Servalan as well. While I stand by these as drama’s they didn’t really have enough oomph to launch the audio series. It was a useful exercise though because now we have a detailed back story on the main characters and that’s vital if you want to add depth to a characterisation.
Blake is spoken of, but not part of the action, for quite some time – was this a conscious decision and if so why?
Absolutely deliberate and a classic ploy – show what a threat he is to the Federation by showing how concerned Servalan and Travis are.
Who’s your favourite character from the script?
It’s Vila, it will always be Vila – you just got to love the guy.
Travis is shown as a fairly straightforward tough guy – will he reveal hidden depths?
Travis has a beautifully realised character arc that is just too good to rush.
Did you ever consider changing Blake’s framed crimes?
We had some discussions about it but in the end we felt that if you’re really serious about discrediting someone those are the charges to make. They’re so heinous that even if he was found not guilty the mud would certainly stick.
There’s a new character, Mezin, is she one of your creations or a group effort and why no Cally?
Mezin was a one shot character created for the first episode who just refused, as some characters do, to die at the appropriate point in the story. The way we have it planned Cally’s introduction and joining the crew will be a whole story arc in its own right – we didn’t want to rush her either.
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