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Scorpio Crash

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This is a fresh depiction of the crash of the Scorpio when it was shot down over Gauda Prime from the cult sci-fi show Blake’s Seven.

Unlike the TV series where it dragged the model over studio based shrubbery, I wanted to make the crash look more dramatic and final – as was the episode that showed Scorpio’s fate.

I like to thank :iconaxeman3d: for the superb references of the Scorpio. Not easy to find on the web! Check his site out; has loads of awesome 3D models!

To those not familiar with this vessel, this is the Scorpio from Blake’s Seven’s Fourth and final season. She was the “successor” to the infamous Liberator that was the flagship of said series for three seasons prior.

Blake’s Seven is a 1970’s TV series telling the story of a resistance fighter called Roj Blake who after being framed by a dystopian and despotic interstellar government called The Federation, is sent to a prison planet. However in the process, the transport he is on discovers a derelict and powerful starship of unknown origin. With said alien ship, Blake and his crew of fellow dissidents go on a crusade against the Federation, striking numerous blows against it and blasting anything the Feds could send. Many had dubbed it the UK’s answer to Star Trek; the only thing similar is that they have a teleporter, but both stories are universally different.

Alas, the actor who played Blake, one Gareth Thomas, hated the series and wanted to leave, allowing his deputy Kurr Avon played by Paul Darrow, to take over and run the ship throughout series Three. By the end of that run, the Liberator was captured by the Federation but had been contaminated by cosmic intense radiation and said legendary ship was thus destroyed; everyone thought that was it.

However, a fourth series was commissioned “out of the blue” and as a result, our heroes needed a new set of wheels to carry on the adventure.

Alas what they got is the Scorpio; think the Liberator as a Bugatti Veyron; the Scorpio a Robin Reliant (plot wise, it made sense; I mean the chances of finding a second more powerful Liberator type ships borders on the ludicrous). The fourth series was not liked, ratings slumped, people cried out for the return of Blake, the Scorpio and its base felt out of kilter, and attempts to make her a new “Liberator” with its teleporter and onboard AI only made feelings worse, and it tried to be what it once was but it never made it.

The show is also famous for its iffy special effects, dodgy sets, ludicrous costumes, and “overall naffness”.

Yet…the series is (rightfully so) regarded as one of the greatest sci-fi shows ever made; a true masterpiece with its dark undertones, flawed heroes, failed hopes, strong characters, bold concepts, and great scripts. It has influenced many, many shows including Andromeda, Red Dwarf, Star Gate, Babylon Five and Farscape just to name a few; it depicted women as equals, and was not afraid to break many traditions.

However, its crowning achievement is that the last ever episode simply called “Blake” aired on Christmas day in 1980 ended in a way that would cast this ‘joke’ of a series into Sci-Fi immortality by doing the one thing no one has had the guts to do since; on one phrase, one misinterpreted sentence, the heroes are finally and fatally beaten; leaving us with a powerful metaphor – you can fight the power but the power will finally win.
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JacMacin68's avatar
The Jupiter 2 from the original Lost in Space was always crash landing on planets without much of a scratch on her outer hull.Guess she was built tougher than Scorpio.