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Any other Blake’s 7 fans here?

Is the Licensing requirement only for watching live over-the-air transmissions? Assuming one could get a signal without something as obvious as a mounted antenna, wouldn't it be difficult to catch someone using a capture card or usb receiver? 🤑 Do they go house-to-house looking for televisions, and fondly remember the good old days of giant CRTs.

Have seen a few 90s video games with extremely low res FMV that fans have upscaled to HD, so perhaps just outsource it?
TV sets send out an Intermediate Frequency signal when they are being used, even only as receivers. This can be picked up and located with the proper equipment. That way even if the set is only using an indoor antenna it can be found if it is turned on.
 
I have a small site about a Japanese family sci-fi series called Star Fleet.
I know a very talented fan who ran the DVD rips through an AI upscaling process and the results were amazing: and that was only up to 720p.
There may be a follow-up in 1080p some day.

As I recall, it was the French DVD which was beautifully remastered already that was used for the upscale video.
It might not work as well on rougher source material.

To do that process properly, was a difficult undertaking, all by itself, because the French and English DVDs have different framerates due to NTSC/PAL, which need to be reconciled. The credits are different lengths etc.
The "next episode" sequences are different etc.

It's bizarre because some of DS9's CGI has already been re-done to breathe a bit of life into a documentary blu-ray that they did not-so-long ago.
So, to start the project off made sense to them on account of a documentary, but to do the whole lot doesn't make sense to sell the whole show.
 
WOW I feel like I made all of this happen. :LOL::LOL::LOL:

Question is if it is like a tax how do you get around it? And is it a tax amount that hurts to pay? PLUS can you prove you strictly watch physical media and there by negate the tax? 🤓

And just so we mention the thread topic, I am into Season Three and I have to say they have slightly lost my attention with Tarrant. Love Dayna, but Tarrant is gently rubbing me the wrong way... 🤣 I'm loving the challenge for Avon, but adding the Tarrant character seems almost like a gimmick. Oh how great Servalan is. I will say I did just watch episode 3.5 THE HARVEST OF KAIROS and the whole thing just felt like a sloppy mess. The show usually tries to shove too much story into each episode, but they usually make it work. This episode did not work for me.
 
I remember, last time I watched it, which was about a year ago or so, I dropped off a bit of the way into season 4.
Without wanting to spoil things too badly, the end of season 3 comes as a major system shock as they lose (what for me is) a major selling point of the show.

That weird bug thing in the episode was pretty cool but they way the shot was set up wasn't clever. (Filming it outside seemed like a big mistake). I seem to remember the episode involving an Apollo lunar capsule inside a warehouse or something.
I'm going to have to watch that one again to refresh my memory.

At the moment, I'm watching Nash Bridges, which is a lot more enjoyable, after I finished Miami Vice, which had a bit of a wobble towards the end and became too unpleasant to really enjoy in some episodes.

Thing is, to prosecute someone, the private companies acting on behalf of 'TV licensing' have to prove the individual guilty, not the other way around.
I have heard stories of TV licensing plugging in TVs that were unplugged to frame members of the public.
My way around that was to detox the house of broadcast TV completely: remove all the antennas and cables to make the house a lot smarter and more streamlined.
It also makes things easier when it comes to doing re-pointing.

There is a bit of a perceived inverse correlation between the number of satellite dishes etc on a house and the IQ of the occupants.

The actual cost of the license is only about £150/yr (same as two tanks of supermarket E10 'petrol') and it hasn't been allowed to scale with (massive) inflation to try and sweeten the 'deal' of having to pay for OFCOM-controlled messaging.
 
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At the moment, I'm watching Nash Bridges, which is a lot more enjoyable, after I finished Miami Vice, which had a bit of a wobble towards the end and became too unpleasant to really enjoy in some episodes.
After Michael Mann got bored and went off to do other things, Miami Vice supposedly never manages to recapture its former glories. I can't testify to that yet as I've only seen up to season 3.

Sorry I don't have anything to contribute to Blake's 7 discussion, I've never actually seen it. The cheapness of the production puts me off. I didn't realise it ran for so many seasons though. I do know how it ends - will be interested in seeing your reaction to that Looney!
 
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It really is a '70s thing, where they made it intensely bleak: Blake's 7.
It is 1984 in space, but some ideas they had were just impossible to carry off on the budget that they had.

It's the same problem as Dr Who, where, with a time machine that can take him anywhere and at any time in the universe, 90% of episodes take place in Islington. :LOL:

It might still be worth giving it a whirl. If you can stomach some of the worst episodes of Space: 1999, then you can manage B7 no problem
Put it on in the background while you're folding socks.
There is some eye candy about the place: the interior of the ship is very cool and Jenna's not too bad on the eye either.
The liberator ship itself is very impressive and memorable to me. It certainly has an awful lot of firepower.
It feels like an Excalibur (not just in the cosmetic similarity to the B5 ship) but because it's an absolute gift of power that just presents itself to this bunch of misfit freedom-fighters.
Ultimately, there's one great character: Avon who carries the show along for way longer than they should've made him try and becomes the show's one redeeming feature by the end.
 
If you can stomach some of the worst episodes of Space: 1999, then you can manage B7 no problem
That counts me out then! Whenever I've tried to watch Space: 1999 I've always found it terribly embarrassing. Cool ships, though. UFO, on the other hand, was decent from what I remember. Always liked Ed Straker.

Other than that and Red Dwarf, I generally can't get into British TV science fiction, which is odd since I'm British but I've always preferred the American shows, I'm not sure why.
 
You know, that's very true isn't it?
When you look at B7 and Space: 1999, there is a real mawkish and weird quality about those shows.
They're almost quite punishing to watch.

UFO was a terrific show in its first season because it was quite a hard sci-fi and it was a purely military challenge against an alien military force.
After a point, it started getting very supernatural and psychedelic towards the end (in its short second season) and it started to contradict itself about some of the few things that had been determined earlier-on about the aliens.

So you can kind of see how UFO started to veer off towards the weirdness of Space: 1999: even before its full "Series 2" was scrapped and turned into 1999.

I remember Gerry Anderson saying that Terrahawks was by far his least favourite production that he'd done.
For me, I'm not a fan of everything about Terrahawks, but I like it on the whole a lot more than Space: 1999.

Even Star Trek TOS, which was done years than 1999 earlier was a lot less bizarre and easier to watch, by my recollection.

It's a very interesting observation. It's one I need to think about a bit longer, but you're definitely on to something.

Do you think it's in any way related to differences in humour as well?
American sitcoms are very easy to digest, whereas, things like Monty Python, The Goon Show and even the Hitch-Hikers Guide, to a certain extent, are a bit more of an acquired taste.
 
I remember Gerry Anderson saying that Terrahawks was by far his least favourite production that he'd done.
For me, I'm not a fan of everything about Terrahawks, but I like it on the whole a lot more than Space: 1999.
I did enjoy Terrahawks as a child, but then again I was only 4. The only thing I really remember about it now is Zelda.

Even Star Trek TOS, which was done years than 1999 earlier was a lot less bizarre and easier to watch, by my recollection.

Original Trek is in my top three shows of all time, but there are definitely episodes that are so weird as to be unwatchable. Shore Leave, The Alternative Factor, and that one with the giant cat for example. And there are just episodes that are plain bad, but they're outweighed by the good stuff. The fact that they had writers with science fiction pedigree definitely helped.

It's a very interesting observation. It's one I need to think about a bit longer, but you're definitely on to something.

Do you think it's in any way related to differences in humour as well?
American sitcoms are very easy to digest, whereas, things like Monty Python, The Goon Show and even the Hitch-Hikers Guide, to a certain extent, are a bit more of an acquired taste.

I'm not sure about humour - to be honest, I don't find most American sitcoms funny, but I also don't get Monty Python or Hitchhikers. I did see someone once suggest that US science fiction tends to be more militaristic while British science fiction, at least on TV, is more about loners or rebels. I'm not sure that entirely fits, personally, but maybe there is a trend there.

One is the acting and characterisation. I find on a lot of US stuff, the actors look the part (although I've noticed a trend in the past decade or so for casting more beautiful twenty-somethings rather than actors who look like they could be space veterans) whereas in UK stuff we're more likely to get someone out of a soap opera and who acts like they should still be in that soap opera. Yet stick a British actor in a US genre show – Jamie Bamber, or Tom Ellis, for example – and they look the part. So maybe it's the direction and the writing? In the US there is a long history of science fiction in Hollywood, and while the UK has some of the world's best science fiction novel writers, they're not involved in TV stuff and other than Dr Who (which I have my own issues with), there's no tradition of science fiction on UK TV, and I just don't think the UK TV landscape really gets it. Since Blake's 7 ended, there has been very little besides Dr Who: one series of Terrahawks, Red Dwarf of course, a 6-episode show in the 1990s called Invasion: Earth (which featured Lovejoy's girlfriend as a fighter pilot – see what I mean about casting?), Primeval (which had a pop star from S Club 7 – again, dodgy casting choices) and precious little else that I can remember. So maybe another reason I prefer US stuff is just because I'm more exposed to it given the dearth of UK material.
 
Just a side note from this 'merican. Non-Science Fiction related one of my Top 10 favorite shows of all time is The I.T. Crowd - the U.S. single pilot episode not the beloved British Series. 🤪😜😛😝 But no yes The I.T. Crowd is always on my re-watch list. And as I've said before, I do love me some British Mysteries ... As well as some Australian Mysteries ... And thank you New Zealand for ..... Brokenwood Mysteries. It is not the greatest show of all time, but very .... I don't know what. I just enjoy watching it. It isn't great, but it is like comfort food for me. Just like the very short lived The Strange Calls (2012). 6 episodes of Australian Comfort Food. I watch it at least 4 times a year - which is easy. There are only 6 short episodes. :LOL::ROFLMAO:🤪🤓 And BTW I can't even watch Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (2004) because I get so upset that show didn't make it past 6 episodes. What a waste!!!! That show had the potential for epic comedy greatness, but was cut short. 😭😭😭
 
WHAT GREAT NEWS!!!!! I hope it is available in the U.S. :love::love::love:

Also thank you for the heads up. Looks like JONATHAN CREEK is available, but only on BritBox steaming service. I have Acorn Streaming. DR BLAKE MYSTERIES is available through my Amazon Prime, so Woo-Hoo! :D:D:D:D:D
 
Follow up - Started THE DOCTOR BLAKE MYSTERIES. Decent start, but I'm not totally hooked yet.

Finished SPACE 1999 Season One. Definitely one of the best episodes of the season. Actually made me look forward to Season Two. One thing I forgot to mention is how the dramatic music REALLY annoys me now. 😩 🙄

I have not watched more BLAKE'S 7. I've been putting it off because I know I haven't got a ton left to see. This is also what I am doing with THE ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY JR - (I find it very entertaining. Simple and Cheesy, but entertaining.) 😉
 
Finished SPACE 1999 Season One. Definitely one of the best episodes of the season. Actually made me look forward to Season Two. One thing I forgot to mention is how the dramatic music REALLY annoys me now. 😩 🙄

Extra trivia - in 1999 there was a short film called "Message from Moonbase Alpha" which was sort wrapped up the series.
 
Season 2 is just different to season 1: neither better nor worse, as I remember it.

I found a torrent of The Gathering in 720p, which looked quite good.
It was the "special" version, rather than the original one, so it was missing the zoo sequences, which I found quite interesting.

After that, I've gone onto Crusade again, for the second time in a few months.
I really love Crusade because it has the same virtue as Firefly: a 13-episode show with no bad episodes, which leaves you wanting more.
 
Some Blake's 7 // Big Finish information:

Avon: A Terrible Aspect

Coming in February 2025! Alistair Lock narrates the long-out-of-print debut Blake's 7 novel written by Paul Darrow.
 
SOOOOO just updating.

Dropped off BLAKE'S 7 in October. I'm into Series 3 and not loving Tarrant. Also feel the series had a great opportunity at the start of this series and they kind of lost their way a bit. I don't entirely blame the introduction of Tarrant, but he hasn't helped much. It isn't like he is the worst character or anything, but I feel Tarrant distracts from Avon and Avon is the show. . . . .BUT I would sooo do whatever Servalan said. :love: I guess the problem really has become the stories are struggling. It seemed to start toward the end of Series 2. Nothing is really just WOW that is great like the earlier stuff.

SPACE 1999 is a whole other kettle of fish. Literally it is like a completely different show.... and worse. Uggggh what a waste. Thankfully getting through it and shouldn't be too much longer before I can claim I saw the whole bloody mess. :rolleyes:
 
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