Blake's crew changes over the two seasons, so it's hard to count who are Blakes 7. For sure, there's Jenna, Avon, Vila, Cally and Gan, but you have to count Blake and at least one of the computers to get 7. Life for Blakes 7 is pretty good. Jenna found a treasure trove in Liberator, including clothes. They dress beautifully, especially Avon who is prone to tight leather. I believe the story went that the red leather outfit was so tight he had to be helped to the ground for a scene where he ends up there. I'm also remembering a story he told of getting a gift of black leather underwear from the leathermaker. Avon is clearly the sex symbol of the show, even while Blake is still there, but it's Blake who ends up with his shirt off.

This is considered the Robin Hood in space show, but it differs in that there's a real psychological change among people forced into close proximity under great stress over time. There are long stretches of boredom for the crew (rarely for the audience) and they play games, nap, listen to music and exercise. Over the years, you can see the change most strongly in Avon. Where his replies to Blake were frequently sarcastic, by the middle of the second season Blake tells him to be careful on a beam down and Avon answers simply that he will. The early Avon would have had a ripping riposte. But toward the end of the second season, the old Avon is back with a vengance. It's as though for a short while, Avon had finally found a peace and a happiness with Blake, and then lost it. And before Avon has a chance to regain that peace he had, Blake is gone.

Avon's constant refrain to Blake was that he wanted Liberator and he wanted to be free of HIM, Blake. But those were lashings out, attempts to get under Blake's skin, not real reasoning. When Blake is gone and Avon finally has what he said he always wanted, he simply backs away and lets Tarrant and the others dominate. It's not until they've almost messed things up for them all that Avon finally lets go of his malaise and steps forward to really be the leader of the ship. Avon's crew now consists of only Vila and Cally from before. Dayna, Tarrant and Soolin only know Blake by reputation, and they never saw the softer Avon that existed when Avon was still with Blake.

Throughout this third season, Avon let's out the worst side of his character. He's selfish and hard, interested only in vengance and profit, it seems. It's only at the end of the third season that you discover that Avon has actually spent the year in a search for Blake.

By the fourth season, believing Blake to now be dead, Avon is so hard that he seems to be insane. And that wonderfully easy smile of the first two seasons is completely gone. When Avon smiles now, his teeth clench and your blood runs cold. There is no peace for Avon until the end of the fourth season when he finally believes he is about to find Blake. But Blake is still having a deep impact on this Avon. Suddenly Avon is a revolutionary, fighting the Federation just as Blake would have wanted him to. For one last time, thinking that he's going to finally find Blake, Avon smiles again as the Avon of old, a tragic irony considering what is in front of him. The last teeth-clenched smile of the series will break your heart.

Romance on the show is always doomed. Jenna isn't going to get Blake, and Cally and Avon aren't going to get together. And no one is going to have anything to do with Vila except a girl that he leaves to stay with the crew. There's always a bit of dark attraction between Servalan and Avon, and even Tarrant gets a chance at a softer and sadder Servalan, to Avon's disgust, but Tarrant's best hope for love dies at Avon's hand. And even though Avon feels he has a good reason, it's not an action made to promote crew togetherness.

Servalan is a magnificent character. Her acting is superb, her motions ballet. We're given periodic looks into her life and see some of what made her who she is but, for the most part, she's at peace with the person she's become. She's a survivor. She survives early pain and a failed early love. She sees the man she thinks she could really love die in front of her. And still she survives. When she loses her position as Supreme Commander after the alien attack, she reemerges as Commissioner Sleer, killing anyone who might break her cover. But when she opens up to Tarrant, one really has to wonder if he's actually seeing the real woman underneath the Federation commander.

The scenes are often staged as pure art, and the costumes only add to the richness. The movements of the characters often seem ballet-lke in their grace and complexity. Most screen captures of this show are frozen images of fine art.