Chronological Blake's 7 Listening Order?

lidar2
Castellan

You know, now that you mention it, I actually do rather like Attack of the Cybermen ...

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Chronological Blake's 7 Listening Order? Mar 14, 2023 14:11:16 GMT

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Post by lidar2 on Mar 14, 2023 14:11:16 GMT

Jan 11, 2023 19:22:17 GMT miles601 said:

Below is the best attempt I can make at a Travis Series B timeline along with placement notes:

“Allies and Enemies - No Name”
Weapon
“Clone Masters - Rule of Life”
Pressure Point
Trial
“Outlaw” Part 2 Outlaw
Hostage
Voice from the Past
Classic Adventures Series 1 “Fractures, Mirror, Cold Fury, Caged”
“Outlaw” Part 3 Traitor
Gambit
The Keeper
“Andromeda One”
Star One

Outlaw Part 1 Commander
Chapters 1-4 are set prior to Series A. they depict Travis' first encounter with Blake and how he obtained his artificial arm and eye. He first meets Commisar Ura Lekta.
Chapters 5-7 are set after "Orac" and depict how and why the Travis from Series A transformed into the Travis from Series B.

Part 2 Outlaw
Chapters 8-18 follows the episode B-6 ”Trial". Travis escapes his court martial in a pursuit ship with a crew of mutoids. He travels to the planet Galitox and encounters a group of criminals. His pursuit ship and mutoid crew is lost. He departs Galitox in a pirate vessel. My opinion is that this event sets up the fact that in B-8 "Hostage" Travis is working with a group of crimmos instead of a mutoid crew. He again encounters Ura Lekta.

Part 3 Traitor
Chapter 19-28 happens after the events of B-10 “Voice from the Past". In Chapter 19 Servalan and Travis meet aboard the Starliner Monarch to discuss his failure with the Shivan gambit on Atlay. Travis travels to the planet Sauron Delta and becomes aware of the invasion force from the Andromeda galaxy. He then travels to Jevron following his leads regarding the alien invasion and again meets Ura Lekta. Travis then boards the star freighter Barre heading for Freedom City and meets Docholli leading in to the events of B-11 "Gambit".

The main story (disregarding the framing sequence set after the events of "Star One") of "Andromeda One" follows on from the events of B-12 "The Keeper" and lead into B-13 "Star One".

-"Clone Masters - The Rule of Life" should be placed after B-3 "Weapon" (it references Travis killing the Blake clone) and before B-5/6 "Pressure Point"/"Trial" since Travis is clearly working still working as an official member of the Federation during "The Rule of Life". As he speaks to clone-Travis he speaks to the possibilities "...if the time ever comes to break ties with the Federation..." for Travis and clone-Travis to work together to be invincible. He would not be considering the possibilities of breaking ties with the Federation after "Trial" since that break would have already occurred.

-"Allies and Enemies - No Name" should be placed prior to "Trial". I would personally place it prior to "Weapon" to show what Travis was up to during the earliest parts of Series B. Travis is clearly working for the Federation in this episode. He pushes Arlen back towards becoming a Federation Officer. I do not think this would be a priority or mindset for him after the events of "Trial". He might work with a criminal elemental to usurp the property of the citizens of Vanstone, but I doubt he'd care as much about convincing Arlen to return to service for the Federation if the story was set after “Trial”.

Classic Adventures series 1 "Fratures", "Mirror", "Cold Fury", and "Caged". These stories happen after "A Voice from the Past" and before "Gambit". They are a bit tricky to reconcile with the events of Part 3 Traitor from "Outlaw". In Classic Adventures series 1 Travis is back in command of group of pursuit ships and working in the service of The President. In Chapter 19 of “Outlaw” Travis reflects on “One or two other doomed attempts to seize the Liberator”. I would fit Classic Adventures series under under this umbrella.

The best way to reconcile everything is to consider that there is an untold story set after "Hostage" whereby Travis begins to work more directly for the President in order to try to capture Blake. With the President as his patron he is given a new set of pursuit ships. He disguises himself as the injured Shivan but that scheme fails ("Voice from the Past"). He then boards his pursuit ships and chases after Blake and Liberator crew (the beginning of "Fractures"). His time working on behalf of the President comes to a conclusion as Blake and the company escape from the Cage prison facility (they learn about the existence of Docholli). Travis then meets with Servalan aboard the Starliner Monarch (Outlaw Chapter 19) and heads off to Sauron Delta to follow his own leads.

One of the problems with the B7 expanded universe timeline is the statement by the Travis clone in The Butcher's Wife that he has only existed 7 months. This compresses all the adventures between his creation in The Clone Masters boxset and The Butcher's Wife into 7 months . . . . . . which is a bit of an implausible squeeze. I think we have to assume Travis is being deceitful or else referring to Arl months which could be considerably longer than Earth months.

lidar2
Castellan

You know, now that you mention it, I actually do rather like Attack of the Cybermen ...

Likes: 5,647

Chronological Blake's 7 Listening Order? Mar 20, 2023 10:36:33 GMT

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Post by lidar2 on Mar 20, 2023 10:36:33 GMT

Dec 20, 2022 21:12:33 GMT miles601 said:

Just finished Allies and Enemies.

Saurian Major should be placed prior to Time Squad in Series A.

No Name should be placed during Series B (my preference would be prior to Trial since Travis seems firmly ensconced within the Federation structure)

Sedition is set after Star One, in the interviews after the story Peter Anghelides suggests placing it during Series D and it makes sense to place in late in Series D. I think this is the first full cast Big Finish story with the action set exclusively during Series D. (Parts of Jenna's Story and Blake's Story from Liberator Chronicles 6 were certainly set during series D.)

I also think is this is the first time Big Finish was allowed to (or chose to) mention Guada Prime by name. (Jenna's Story refers to GP as KS-33 and Clone Masters - Rule of Death seems to also have an obscure reference to "The Headsman" potentially being from GP (and possibly being Soolin).

We now have a pretty robust series of stories starring Jenna set after Star One and Warship: Fallout, Sedition, Stimulus-Response and Jenna's Story are all set in this timeframe.

I think Sedition possibly creates a problem . . . as its implication is that Blake is already on GP at the time of Sedition, whereas Jenna's Story / Blake's Story establish that Jenna was on GP first, set things up and died there before Blake arrived with the two never having met again after they went their separate ways at the start of Aftermath. Not sure how all this can fit, unless the GP reference in Sedition is taken as a reference to Jenna on GP that will enable Arlen to pick up Jenna's trail again, rather than a reference to Blake being on GP - although that is not the obvious reading of the line.

Last Edit: Mar 20, 2023 10:37:06 GMT by lidar2

jnr5 New Member Likes: 11	Chronological Blake's 7 Listening Order? Mar 20, 2023 20:54:40 GMT via mobile Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by jnr5 on Mar 20, 2023 20:54:40 GMT The reference to GP is pretty much The Auctioneer at the end telling Arlen have you heard of GP you should go check there. Jenna makes no mention of GP in the entire story.

lidar2
Castellan

You know, now that you mention it, I actually do rather like Attack of the Cybermen ...

Likes: 5,647

Chronological Blake's 7 Listening Order? Apr 17, 2023 15:52:18 GMT

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Post by lidar2 on Apr 17, 2023 15:52:18 GMT

Mar 20, 2023 20:54:40 GMT jnr5 said:

The reference to GP is pretty much The Auctioneer at the end telling Arlen have you heard of GP you should go check there.
Jenna makes no mention of GP in the entire story.

True, but presumably the Auctioneer says that because the Auctioneer knows "something" about GP and, in context, the clear implication is that is is either something about either Blake (the more likely reading of the line) or Jenna (the less likely reading) being on GP.

Possibly the Auctioneer is not referring to either Blake or Jenna being on GP and instead is referring to something completely different - but it seems unlikely and a bit coincidental if that is the case.

Given that Jenna's Story and Blake's Story from LC vol 6 establish that Blake only came to GP after Jenna's death, and that Jenna is still alive at the time of Sedition, the Auctioneer can't be referring to Blake on GP. So it is either a reference to Jenna on GP or else a coincidental reference to something or someone completely unrelated to Jenna

Chronological Blake's 7 Listening Order?

Post by lidar2 on Mar 14, 2023 14:11:16 GMT

Post by lidar2 on Mar 20, 2023 10:36:33 GMT

Post by jnr5 on Mar 20, 2023 20:54:40 GMT

Post by lidar2 on Apr 17, 2023 15:52:18 GMT