Before turning attention away from Blake's 7, I have to give a shoutout to series villains Servalan and Travis. If you enjoy good old-fashioned evil perpetrated by classically trained British actors, this is the stuff for you!
Servalan
- Character: Servalan
- Actress Jacqueline Pearce (born 1943)
- TV show: Blake's 7
- Occupation: Supreme Commander of the Federation
- Marital status: single (potential husbands likely to have limited lifespans)
- Hobbies: fashion, man-eating, galactic domination
- Notable accessories: fancy dresses, lipstick
- Pros: intelligence, strong will and deviousness well-suited for villainy
- Cons: high heels don't travel well in BBC quarries
- Best quote: "Power became my lover."
Servalan could be described as an intelligent British Joan Collins in space. At first bent on defeating Blake, she later turned her attention to domination and expansion of the Federation. She always wore elegant outfits, even while out in the field, and clearly enjoyed having her way with men. Jacqueline Pearce made Servalan a truly memorable character and one of the mainstays of Blake's 7.
An excellent fanvid of Servalan set to Queen's "Killer Queen":
Here is a bizarre schtick by Jacqueline Pearce at a convention of unknown date in Chicago. She bashes men and then tells a very strange Not Safe For Work retelling of Cinderella. I am not embedding the video because I'm feeling strangely prudish about the melon business. You have been warned!
Tale of Two Travises
- Character: Travis
- Actors: Stephen Greif (born 1944) and Brian Croucher (born ?)
- TV Show: Blake's 7
- Marital status: single (probably snogs the Mutoids when nobody's looking)
- Hobbies: Hunting Blake, torture, sulking
- Notable accessories: tight black jumpsuit, eyepatch, artifical arm, puffy ring that shoots an explosive ray
- Pros: dedication to the job
- Cons: gets a lot of crap from the boss
Greif's Travis with Mutoid
Travis was a psychotic Space Commander obsessed with killing Blake. He could never escape being Servalan's lackey, which gave him a somewhat tragic, oppressed quality.
Here Greif's Travis prepares to attack with the help of his mutoids, troops with unquestioning loyalty and enhanced physical strength but dependent on blood serum infusions. Later in this episode he sort of sexually harasses the pretty Mutoid, then throws her to the wolves. This is incongruent with a later episode in the series where it is shown that he took care of his "men". But maybe that was a literal statement.
Croucher's Travis doesn't get a whole lot of love from the fans. If you want to watch him other than his death scene, you'll have to seek out full episodes on YouTube. I personally enjoyed his portrayal, but then I always liked the men in black. Dr. Who fans might recognize Croucher as the guy in "Robots of Death" who gave the Doctor a hard time and received an Avon-eque insult in return.
Servalan inappropriately touching Croucher's Travis
UPDATE: after having seen the extremely stinky episode "Voice From the Past" and succeeding episodes, I can see why some fans might dislike Croucher. I think the blame partially rests with the writers and directors, but Croucher's vague cockney accent and intermittent poor line delivery don't help either.
I actually liked the Travis character in season one. But I definitely did not like Croucher's Travis. Not rugged, not determined, and not even a bit scary. He was a total wimp in comparison to Grief's portrayal. I would have far preferred it had the writers simply created a story line where Travis had died vs. recasting him with Croucher. In fact, I find those episodes difficult to watch (i.e., what a let-down).
ReplyDeleteI say Travis should have died when Greif was in the role and Croucher should have been cast as a different villain with a very different name altogether
ReplyDeleteTravis should have died and Croucher been cast as a different villain with a different name
ReplyDeleteI think that they have explained away how the physical change took place 'off screen' in the audio drama's expanded universe... its nice that they have done this although I would have liked a comment from Survalan, something like, "ah, I see youve changed your face again"... something like that would've worked wonders I feel. Regardless, I love the show...
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