Blake's 7 - Killer (1979)

Another of our irregular: "Not really a spacesuit but..". blog posts.

From the second series of Blake's 7, episode 7; Killer, are featured these ill considered outfits.  If I remember correctly - I worked through the box sets a couple of years back - these are not spacesuits but rather protective outfits worn by a Federation boarding party.

Now I'm not going to tell you they look like this fella...

...because that's sort of obvious but I might mention that they look very similar to these suits...

..from Come back Mrs Noah, (1978) blogged all the way back in December 2010.


Steve

2001 A Space Odyssey - Recycled

It's a reasonably well documented fact that after production of 2001 wrapped, Stanley Kubrick ordered the models, props and costumes scrapped so that they wouldn't resurface in other film productions and lessen his original in the way that they did in Forbidden Planet, for example.  Now bits of that film have turned up all over the place and for decades after.

Well Stan's plan was a good plan and it almost worked... but for the fact that nobody was watching for those cheeky skip-pickers that worked for B.B.C. tv.  Now these guys were expected to make something out of nothing on a regular basis and turn in movie quality work for pocket money prices.  And they did for the most part and I was and remain a huge fan of what they achieved.  They furnished my childhood dreams and made the imaginable seem real.   And they also managed to get their hands on one of these;

Two of these;

And a couple of these as well;

Which then resurfaced in the 1972 Doctor Who story The Mutants

The Blake's 7 first series, second episode story; Spacefall from 1978

The Doctor Who story The Pirate Planet also from 1978

And another Douglas Adams penned Doctor Who from the following year; The City of Death, 1979

And do you know, given the gaps between some of those appearances, I'd put good money on the fact that there are more of these random acts of unauthorised recycling as yet unreported.
If you know of any others then drop me a comments and I'll add them to the list along with a name check.  I'll say thanks now in advance though because for reasons I can't yet find the time to sort out, I remain unable to reply to comments on my own blog except within these posts

So, Joshua, many thanks for your kind comments the other day and I will check out your recommendation.

Steve

Blake's 7: Headhunter (1981)

From the final series of Blake’s 7; Headhunter is the 6^th episode of the fourth series.

Now travelling aboard the Scorpio, the remnants of Blake’s original 7 are stuck in an airless ship , while a headless killer android tracks them down...and not to congratulate them on their stunning fashion sense.

These suits are just horrible, cheap bike helmets with additional techno-fins to give it that unnecessarily futuristic comicbook look.  It's an odd design choice given that A; it really is just horrible, and B; it doesn’t even tie in with the fact that everything on the Scorpio was meant to have an industrial, functional and less fantastical look than what had previously been seen when they were all flying about on The Liberator.

Did I mention that I think these suits are horrible?

 

Steve

Blake's 7: Dawn of the Gods (1980)

From the third series of Blake’s 7, episode 4; Dawn of the Gods sees the use of these rather spiffing Spacesuits, worn by a number of the Liberator crew whilst popping out side to explore the artificial planet of Crandor.

I kind of like them.  The gold colour is unusual, they look much better than you would expect a BBC budget to run to and there’s a touch of the retro and the futuristic all mixed in together.

 

 A good effort.

 

Steve

Blake's 7: Voices from the Past (1979)

 

Blake's 7 was the story of a group of rebels fighting against the tyrannical Federation that rules over the Earth.  A sort of space age Robin Hood.  The show was created by Doctor Who writer and Dalek creator Terry Nation.  It ran for four seasons on BBC 1 and was aimed very squarely at an adult audience.  Some of the effects work was a little poor to the eye but at its heart the show was never about the flash and bang of space Oprah it was a tale of freedom fighters, cold criminal minds and political prisoners trying to overthrow an oppressive regime.

 

Unless I've missed something out, there isn't a space suit in sight until episode 10 of the second series in a story called Voices from the Past. This one saw Blake donning something a little spacey to go visit mining asteroid PK118, where he hopes to find some support in his efforts to raise a rebellion against the Federation.

Nothing too exotic here.  I would like to get a closer look at the helmet but my guess is that it's been seen in some other show prior to this.  The suit looks like it was run up for this episode by the shows costume designer.

Steve