Blake's 7: Region One? (1 Viewer)

[Brandon Gantt]

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 release.

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?

 

[Tory]

I don't know, but it would be good if they did. I was impatient and imported Season 1 from the U.K. branch of amazon and it plays beautifully on my Phillips DVP 642's Pal to NTSC conversion. Season 2 was suppose to come out, I think last October in the U.K. and 3 this month but due to some unknown reason Season 2 was delayed to a week from now, I hope nothing goes wrong as it is holding up a double preorder from October. It may be that more struggles to get the DVD out over there make it less likely to see it over here.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

From what I recall, BFS Entertainment (the Canadian outfit who originally distributed the series on VHS in North America in the '90s) was supposed to be putting the series out, but they got tangled up in the same rights issues that delayed the initial UK release.

There were also quality concerns over the way BFS intended to present the episodes (too many episodes per disc and not using the remastered versions, from what I hear).

The reason BFS ended up with B7 on VHS in the first place, is that BBC/Fox didn't think it would have wide-enough appeal to release it themselves. A lot of the "minority interest" products that BBCWW don't want to risk releasing in America has typically been handed off to BFS in the past (Steptoe and Son, Up Pompeii, Dad's Army, for instance). Perhaps Worldwide don't think it'll sell well enough over here to justify the release.

 

[Brandon Gantt]

Like I posted earlier, I know Blake's 7 isn't as popular in the US as Doctor Who and others, and that's why BBCWWA never released it on VHS. However, DVD is a different beast. It seem's that BBC Worldwide either altered or terminated BFS' license to the series. The home video rights in the UK are held by Fabulous Films, but with the 30th anniversary of the series looming, the BBC brought the DVDs back "in-house" to create and release something special. This appears to have happened in the US as well.

Anyway, I did send of a letter to the BBC America Shop, questioning the disappearance of Season One from their site. Here's the reply:


What those licensing issues are, I don't know.

 

[Brandon Gantt]

It's hard to believe that it's been almost 2 years since this was first mentioned. Has anybody got any news on this?

 

[Tory]

Did you ever import it? I have it all now and the UK DVDs are great. I do think these would sell to an audience here. Perhaps it could be marketed as an ancestor of cult hit tvondvd series Firefly. I got the same response from bbcamerica when I last asked but that was some time ago.

 

[TheLongshot]

Or an ancestor of Farscape, for that matter.

I have a friend of mine who is a huge Blake's 7 fan, so I know at least one person who would be overjoyed to have a Region 1 release.

Jason

 

[psicorpsranger]

So, I guess no updates on Blakes 7 getting a R1 release? LOL