Blake's 7 Region One?
 

What's the deal with Blake's 7 not getting an American release? After BBC Worldwide went through rights hell with current concept owners, Blake's 7 Enterprises, everything seemed to be going smoothly. It might not be as popular as things like Doctor Who or Are You Being Served?, but you would think that it would still get a North American.

What really makes things hard to understand is that the BBC America Shop had a listing for Season One, saying that it was being planned for the next year (2004). Now the listing is gone, and if you write to them the reply is that it's not currently on their schedule!

What happened? Did BBC Worldwide Americas get cold feet? Will it ever be released here? You would think that someone like Acorn Media - masters of releasing obscure British television - would have an interest if BBCWWA didn't.

Can anybody through me a bone on this subject?

You might do well to become familier with the search function, as this question has been asked here and here already.

In short, its not the BBC's fault. As I understand it, the current rights holder (blake 7 enterprises) was being real tightasses with the show. There were plans for a US release, but they changed their minds - something to do, I imagine, with the rough times that the new shows is currently undergoing.

And frankly, I wouldnt want the US set anyway. They intended to release the whole series - all 52 episodes - in one package. Not a bad deal . . . until you consider that they wanted the whole thing on 10 discs. At that rate of compression, the show would look like serious CRAP. That and all extras were scrapped - a bare bones release.

No, do yourself a favor and get the R2 sets.

Besides the futility of crticizing a non-existant release, there's a possibility that 10 discs could comfortably hold all 52 episodes without being compressed to hell. The discs could've been double sided, double layer, which could hold 3 episodes per side with room to spare.

I dont care if all 52 are one disc! I want this set and no, sorry I am not going to buy for a region free player for just one series.

So anything NEW on this show yet?

The one series simply gives you the reason to buy the player, everything else out there that isn't available here makes you wonder why you didn't do it sooner.

Because some of us don't care to purchase anything else?

I cant see any reason other than B7 to get a region player. Not at this time. Not worth the money to waste. I would take B7 even if looked like a bootleg VHS copy

Have you even shopped any of the international sites and seen what is available? There is a ton of stuff, and it's pretty easy to pick up a region free DVD player. Heck, it's not all that hard to get one in a US store and hack it to be a region free. I bought a Phillips DVD player as a gift for a family member that could be hacked, and that thing plays PAL DVDs better than my Malata, and it only cost about $80.00. Going region free was an experience much like getting my first DVD player-I wondered why I didn't do it sooner. I once thought like you, but you really don't know what you are missing out on unless you take the time to check out the international sites, and I never spent too much time doing that until I went region free.

Exactly. All of a sudden you have a door opened fwhich leads to different cultures and film styles...most of which we never get in this country. For the price of a back-up player, you unlock a door to a whole different experience. Making the decision to purchase a player so I could finally watch Spaced was the smartest thing I've done in the past few months.Hearing those Carpenter commenataries denied to me by Uiversal & Columbia have also been worth the price of the player. And thanks for reminding me, Blake's 7 got moved up to the top of my wishlist.

nothing new yet?

Then you could buy the REAL, official VHS releases that were put out by BFS Video in the early '90s.

The "compressed, crappy quality" non-release everyone was talking about was to have been farmed out to BFS, the small Canadian company who did the VHS releases. From what I remember, they were not only going to be jammed onto 10 discs, but they were also going to simply be using the same video masters that were used for the VHS release, not the nice, cleaned-up masters that BBC Resources used for the R2 PAL release.

If the BBC saw fit to licence it to BFS again (as they did with the VHSes), then they must not feel there is much of an American demand for this show. If you REALLY want it, I'd buy a cheap Philips player and the R2 sets, or buy the VHS tapes. No point in waiting for a R1 release. It's probably not gonna happen anytime soon.

You can get a nice Philips machine that can be hacked to region free for less than $60 in most areas. I'd hardly call that "expensive."

A quick look on Half.com and eBay, though, tells me that the BFS VHS videos are all out-of-print and are selling mainly for "collector's" prices (i.e. $10 and up each) as they're the only way to legally get Blakes 7 in North America without importing. I'm sure if you add it all up, the $50-60 for the player plus the DVD sets will probably still be cheaper than buying the tapes, plus you'll get a remastered picture to boot.

If you're worried about the extra money you'd be spending on a player, you could always sell your old player.


FWIW, I'm making do with my British PAL VHSes.

Still no word for us region 1 guys?

It's been a while since I've heard any talk of a region 1 release for Blakes 7. Anyone heard anything?

I've heard nothing about a R1 release.

That said, Amazon.co.uk is featuring the R2 Series 1-3 for £22.97 each, and Series 4 for £17.97.

Nothing yet?

What a great show! Used to watch these during the Sci-Fi Friday nights on public television. I have wanted R1 sets of these for as long as I've wanted The Wonder Years on DVD.

Just go region-free. There's an awful lot of goodness out there - as you'll find, once you go region-free and start looking.

The mighty region-1 might well boast the largest selection of titles, but there's still plenty you can't get there that you can in other regions - and not just region-2 either.

Not that I've heard and to be honest I doubt we'll see anything soon. As others have mentioned region free is the way to go...

Before I do that are they gettting all the season? I dont want to get it and end up with only a few seasons.

They've already released them all. I've had the full run on Region 2 discs (UK) for over a year now.

^ There are some crazy sounding special features too that R1 probably would not get the luxury of were releases ever to find their way to us. But... last time I checked, the prices were outrageous. Have they come down to earth in the past year and a half or so? Also I would have to get a new player, which is not in the budget now either.

All four seasons have been released.

The prices vary, of course, if you're not in the UK, you may not get the lowest price available because lots of stores here don't ship internationally.

Last time I looked though, Amazon were on of the lowest, with each set at about £18, which at the moment is roughly $36. However, if you're outside of the EU you can take 17.5% off that because you won;t have to pay the European sales tax called VAT.

Amazon properly deduct this for someone in, say, the USA.

There is also an exclusive (to Amazon.uk or at least so they say ;)) box set that included all the seasons.

Amazon UK's discounts on the individual season sets dropped sharply, so if you want the series, it's much cheaper to get the complete series box from Amazon UK; the complete series box runs £75 (~$153) after VAT is removed, compared to about £103 (~$211) for the individual releases. The exchange rate is terrible right now, but that's life.

You'd also save on shipping, because Amazon (almost uniquely) treat multi-disc sets as single items; hence the big set would count as one item, the single sets as four.

However, it's possible that something this expensive would incur import taxes and stuff. I know the US tax-free import allowance is considerably higher than the British limit (which is about $35), but it;s possible that something priced $150 would be over even the more generous American thresholds.