Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

The cliffhanger to Blake’s 7: Crossfire will be resolved in a new three box-set series coming from Big Finish next year.

Paul Darrow, Jan Chappell, Michael Keating and Steven Pacey all recreate their roles from the classic TV series, with Alistair Lock providing the voices of computers Orac and Zen. And continuing on from her debut season last year as Dayna, Yasmin Bannerman also reprises her role with the cast of Blake’s 7.

Four new adventures see the Liberator crew starting to rebuild after a Federation in chaos:

Damage Control by Trevor Baxendale
The Hunted by Iain McLaughlin
Figurehead by Scott Harrison
Abandon Ship by Steve Lyons

The Liberator is badly damaged and falling into a star, Avon is close to death after a gunshot wound to the stomach and Cally is unconscious – there seems no hope in our series opener Damage Control by Trevor Baxendale.

The Hunted by Iain McLaughlin sees the President of the Federation track them down, and Avon and Vila find themselves hunted once more.

The Liberator is still crippled in the third story and Cally is determined to find someone who can help, but old allies become enemies in Figurehead by Scott Harrison.

And the final story of the set, Abandon Ship by Steve Lyons, finds the Liberator at breaking point and the crew must rely on the help of the imprisoned engineer Ozaban – but can he even be trusted if they can’t trust each other?

Restoration Part 1 will be released in January 2019, with Part 2 released in July 2019 and the concluding Part 3 in November 2019. Each release will be available from Big Finish at £28 on CD or £25 on download.

According to producer and director John Ainsworth: “Restoration carries straight on from Crossfire Part 3 – the old President usurped Servalan, possibly killing her, the Liberator limping away sucked into the gravity well of a blue star… Also in the finale of Crossfire Tarrant discovered the truth about his parents and witnessed the death of his other brother, so we’ll see the repercussions of that and a changed Tarrant amongst the crew.

“What I encouraged the writers to do, particularly Trevor Baxendale who set up Restoration (similarly to Steve Lyons setting up the Crossfire series) is find at what point do the crew give up on the Liberator, and how do they face the possibility of admitting defeat and moving on?”

A new Blake’s 7 novel, Uprising by Christopher Cooper, will also be released in January.