The science fiction series Blake's 7 was created by Terry Nation, for the BBC and premiered 2nd January, 1978, running through till 1981. It was set in the " third century of the second calendar ", and showed a near omnipotent totalitarian government, called the Federation.

By stifling freedom and creative thinking, mainly by filling the air and water with tranquilizing drugs, and the generous use of brutal, military thuggery, they ruthlessly suppressed or eliminated their opponents.

Such is to be the fate of Roj Blake. A former resistance leader, he is brainwashed and used to betray his comrades. He's then framed and convicted on false charges and put aboard a prison ship enroute to the planet Cygnus Alpha.

However, during the voyage, Blake escapes with some fellow prisoners in an abandoned alien spaceship, which they rename the Liberator and Blake becomes an intergalactic freedom fighter, leading his dogged band of raffish outlaws against the tyrannical Federation.

The crew increases to six; Blake, computer genius Kerr Avon, the self-preserving thief Vila Restal, gentle giant Olag Gan, smuggler Jenna Stanis and Auron telepath Cally. Along with Zen, the Liberator's onboard computer, Blake's 7 proceed to become a thorn on the Federation's side.

Later in the series some characters met with death, and new characters joined. The supercomputer Orac, mercenary Del Tarrant, weapons expert Dayna Mellanby, blonde gunslinger Soolin, and after the destruction of the Liberator, Scorpio's onboard computer, Slave, becomes the newest member..

The Federation never gave up its pursuit of the outlaws. Servalan, a cold, merciless villainess, rose to command the Federation and deployed Travis to hunt Blake down. Even after Blake disappeared, she pursued Avon, with a definite love-hate relationship.

The strength of Blake's 7 lies in the character definitions and the brutal, political world in which they exist. They are not stereotypical heroes who win every time, in fact they often lose and occasionally even get killed. Characters go through heartbreak as friends and family are killed and the Federation keeps chasing. They are always on the run, never able to stop.

The series itself had no time for moralising or for promoting the message that good always triumphs, as we see in more modern science-fiction coming out today. The line between right and wrong is often shown as a thin one, and even the good guys are flawed. Blake becomes fanatical, Avon becomes paranoid, arrogant, perhaps even psychopathic.

In its low-key, low-budget way however, Blake's 7 has had a pretty good afterlife. There are fan clubs, conventions, web sites abound and a large number of hugely dedicated, fun loving fans out there that make Blake's 7 continue to live on.

Bio of Terry Nation - creator of Blake's 7

Terry Nation started his career writing jokes. He worked on many BBC radio shows, including The Goon Show and Tony Hancock, before turning to the more lucrative world of television drama. There he contributed scripts to many of the most popular shows of the 60's and 70's, including The Persuaders, The Avengers, and The Saint.

It was during this period that he created perhaps his most famous, and certainly his most enduring characters: the Daleks; the pepper pots with attitude for Dr Who. The Daleks would later go on to menace the universe in a number of series, two films, and even the Oxford English Dictionary.

As well as working on other series, he soon created his own, most notably Survivors (the tale of a group of people who survive a deadly plague which obliterates the world's population) and Blake's 7. Originally pitched as "The Dirty Dozen In Space", the challenge was to come up with a series that would appeal to both children and adults, replacing the BBC's Survivors and Doomwatch. It was a tall order, but Nation's concept (which became more like Robin Hood than The Dirty Dozen) was tremendously popular and the final episode was watched by more than 9 million viewers.

Nation wrote the entire first series and many episodes for the second and third before he moved to California in 1979. There he worked as a writer and producer for the likes of Columbia and 20th Century Fox, hoping to achieve larger scale success than he could in the UK. He continued doing what he did best, but his work did not take off in the same way as before, and it was there that he died on the 9th of March 1997 aged just 66.

With the continuing popularity of many of his series - both Blake's 7 and the Avengers seem to be enjoying a resurgence, while Dr Who continues to make money in video and merchandise sales - we can be sure that Terry Nation's imprint on the national psyche will remain for some time to come.

Terry Nation's Credits

• The Goon Show. (writer)
• The Avengers. (writer/producer)
• The Persuaders!
• The Saint. (writer)
• The Caves of Steel. (adapter)
• Doctor Who. (writer)
• Out Of The Unknown. (writer)
• Rebecca's World. (author)
• Survivors. (writer/creator)
• Blake's 7. (writer/creator)
• MacGyver.
• Ticket To Ride.