With a grim air of finality and a total disregard for the attempt to turn this show into a terribly serious Space Opera, we look back over Series D of Blake’s 7.

Kicking off with a single offscreen death and ending with definitively killing off everyone else maybe, we tour a heretofore unexplored part of the Blake’s 7 universe in our clapped-out orange planet hopper.

It’s a bold vision of the future where everything is various shades of ocean, military, and gunmetal grey because of George Lucas, and Soolin joins the crew for a reason we should find out any day now.

From our new underground base we visit more quarries than ever before, on worlds like Caspar, Domo, Mecron 2, Zerok, Betafarl, some forests on Bucol 2, Xenon, and Gauda Prime, swampy Helotrix, and the studios on Pharos, Virn and Malodar to break up the monotony.

Join us as we look back at the time Blake’s 7 was unexpectedly saved from death only to be irrevocably killed again (they really mean it this time) in our Series D Retrospective.

This episode, Space Commander Brendan is joined by Councillor Joe Ford and Governor Mark Rawlins to examine further evidence of rebel activity, provided by dissident production house Big Finish. Join them as they investigate the first Liberator Chronicle, The Turing Test, followed by the full cast adventures Fractures and Liberation, before returning to Earth for the first episode of the spin off series Avalon. Spoilers abound, but almost nobody will be tied to an exploding chair provided you listen very carefully. Dayna will tell you only once…

Series D, Episode 13. First broadcast on Monday, 21 December 1981.

…And on the other side of the planet, thousands of miles away, Nathan, Brendan, James, Peter and Simon are wandering through a forest wondering why all these bounty hunters keep leaping out at them from behind the trees. But it’s not long before they hotwire a dodgem and head off down one of those holes in the ground from which everyone, eventually, fails to emerge. Will they find Servalan? Should they? Will ever they learn to trust again? Or at least to let people finish speaking before opening fire?

Join the Australian contingent of the Maximum Power podcasting team, as we discuss the memorable final episode of Blake’s 7 — Blake.

Series D, Episode 13. First broadcast on Monday, 21 December 1981.

And now on Maximum Power, our UK crew of thieves, killers, mercenaries and psychopaths band together, in the first of our two episodes on the final episode of Blake’s 7.

This week, Si thinks he’s finally located Col, who’s been away for some time, Mark’s worried that we’re all going to end up in a hole in the ground together, Pete’s quite happy to leave the Xenon base now the wine’s run out, and has Col betrayed us, has he betrayed me? It’s time to take a trip to Gauda Prime, a bad place to be, as we tackle Blake.

Series D, Episode 12. First broadcast on Monday, 14 December 1981.

This week Mark hosts a conference of non-aligned podcasters, Brendan goes to see the Federation’s acrobatic display team, Peter has an ill-advised fling, and Toby asks if are you a Zukan or a Zukan’t.

It’s the penultimate episode of Blake’s 7 — Warlord.

(“But blurbs are no more than… blurbs.”)

Series D, Episode 11. First broadcast on Monday, 7 December 1981.

Will Si, Nathan, Peter and Simon be able to escape with the Tachyon Funnel and their lives? Will their replica of Orac give more information than requested, less information than requested or just the information that’s requested? And which of the crew weighs 73 kilos?

Escape velocity is confirmed — but unattainable. Will they be able to achieve Orbit?

Series D, Episode 10. First broadcast on Monday, 30 November 1981.

Pete’s getting heist by his own petard, Tom’s sent a video of himself not stealing gold to trick us, Peter’s nearly felled by an airlock trip hazard, and Si wants to know WHAT’S THE SNAG?

Everyone gets to play their part, as this week’s episode is worth its weight in Gold.

Series D, Episode 9. First broadcast on Monday, 23 November 1981.

Pete’s forgotten his bucket, Simon’s broken his spade, Kate’s got entangled in a windbreaker, and Adam was last seen chasing an ice cream van across the dunes in high heels.

It’s Sand! Which, like Tarrant this week, gets everywhere, as he discovers that even after fixing the food machine for her, Servalan will still have him for breakfast.

Series D, Episode 8. First broadcast on Monday, 16 November 1981.

This week, Nathan, Brendan, Simon and James sneak aboard an orbital station somewhere near the planet Mecron 2, where they will encounter a series of increasingly lethal versions of Flappy Bird, in the hope of finding, once and for all, some explanation of whatever the hell happens at the end of the Blake’s 7 episode Games.

And because you will forever regret it if you don’t look it up, here’s a link to the triangular Coleco Telstar Arcade from 1997 with its Mecronian-knife shaped cartridges.

Series D, Episode 7. First broadcast on Monday, 9 November 1981.

After Mark, Peter, Brendan and Nathan intercept an ominous message from the very edge of the sixth quadrant, fearing imminent assassination at the hands of an imminent assassin, they head off to the planet Domo for a quick slave auction, followed by a tight twenty minutes of being hunted through TC1 by the man who came top of his class at RADA in Glowering and Other Menacing Facial Expressions. But will it be fun to listen to all their little plans and squabbles? Tune in and find out — as we discuss Assassin.