Blake’s 7: Review: Warship

By Peter Anghelides

Big Finish, out now

Blake is injured, there’s an invading force from outside our galaxy, and Avon has control of the Liberator. What could possibly go wrong?

In an interview in Vortex, author Peter Anghelides comments that with this ebook adaptation of his script for the recent audio (see our review here), he gets the chance to be Terrance Dicks. I think he’s actually underestimating himself: what this version of Warship reminds me of most is Nigel Kneale’s novel (not novelisation), Quatermass, based on the 1979 TV serial.

In that, Kneale told the same story, with much of the same dialogue, but often with information imparted to the reader in a very different manner to the way it appeared on screen. Anghelides has done the same here – if you’re expecting some of the audio tricks to be simply replicated on the page, you’re in for a surprise. Interior monologues that have to be heard for the audio are rewritten for the book in an appropriate manner, and there are some interesting nods to the history of the show, both in terms of its TV incarnation and its Big Finish revival.

If for some reason you don’t feel that Blake’s 7 should be an audio series, then pick up the book so you don’t miss one of the best 21st century new stories for the show; if you’ve got the audio, then you’ll enjoy the chance to revisit it in a different form.

Verdict: A great complement to the audio. 8/10

Paul Simpson