BBC Sci Fi Classic, 1978-81, Created by Terry Nation

This is a wonderful show in the style of "Dr  Who", that  inspired other sci fi favorites like "Babylon 5". I saw the show for the first time in 1988 on PBS, and I've been a huge fan ever since.

The story revolves around a futuristic Earth, which is held in bondage by the totalitarian Terran Federation. Blake, a political dissident and freedom fighter, organized a failed coup against the Federation. After being betrayed, captured and put on public trial for mass murder, he was "rehabilitated" (read "brainwashed") by the Federation and used as a poster child for Federation propaganda.

When the series opens, Blake is considered a model citizen of the Federation, and remembers nothing of his past exploits as a rebel. When he is contacted by some of his former followers who reawaken his memories, both of his politics and punishement by the Federation, he purposes to renew his efforts to fight, and is once again arrested and put on trial.  He is sentenced to a life on a penal colony called Cygnus Alpha, never again to return to Earth.

While on the prison ship, he meets up with a team of other inmates, some true criminals, others being punished for their beliefs like Blake himself. The team then begins an adventure that takes them throughout space, as they become guerillas against the Federation and its allies.

• A natural leader (Blake).
• A brilliant computer expert (Avon).
• A talented, though cowardly, thief (Vila).
• A telepathic resistence fighter (Cally).
• A skilled pilot (Jenna).
• And a man of tremendous strength (Gan).
• The seventh member of the crew is the master computer of their alien starship (Zen of the Liberator)  - a ship far superior to anything available to the Federation's Supreme
•  Commander (Servalan) and the officer she assigns to destroy the rebels (Travis).

• A surly machine which can assimilate enough facts to predict the future (Orac).
• A weapons expert (Dayna).
• A former Federation pilot (Tarrant).
• And the fastest gunslinger in the known worlds (Soolin).

The BBC televised fifty-two episodes of Blake's 7, thirteen each for the spring seasons of 1978, 1979, 1980, and the autumn of 1981. Each set of stories reveals changes in the team, in the enemy, and in the relationships among them.