TV Series - Blakes 7 BBC 1978 -1981 - 3 1/2 stars out of 5 stars

Many things from Star Trek are gleamed into this very dark and somewhat dated via a lack of good production values,a BBC  weak spot of those  days,EXCEPT the hopeful future that is the Trek world.Rather this is far bleaker than say Star Wars or even the new Battlestar Galattica. I found it quite interesting with many different ideas that make it  both funny and scary in a 1984 way.Of added interest is the creator of this series is Terry Nation of Doctor Who fame.I viewed it years ago and have revisited because of unconfirmed reports that the Sci-Fi channel was going to update the series.Trailer URL follows the picture and a IMDB summary is below.Not for the very young or FX driven and is violent tho not graphically so.

In the third century of the second calendar, a corrupt galactic federation, with Earth at its center, drugs its billions of citizens into placid submission. A rebel named Roj Blake, who once tried to organize a resistance group to overthrow this regime, was caught and divested of his memories. But Blake's revolutionary spirit is revived when he witnesses a mass slaughter by police that is covered up by the federation officials. He escapes exile on board a prison spaceship and, together with a lovable band of outlaws, takes over a vacant alien space cruiser of awesome drive capability. Naming their new ship as "The Liberator", Blake and his group travel the Milky Way to seek any opportunity to undermine the evil federation. Written by Kevin McCorry <mmccorry@nb.sympatico.ca>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRuqTQYSJMI

TV Series - The World Wars - 2014 - 3 part mini-series - 3 1/2 stars out of 5 stars

The History channel makes highly questionable documentary type mini-series.This 6 hour 3 parter that ran over the memorial days holiday week is no exception.First the good news.The series endeavors to connect the 2 World Wars as no series have ever done before.Most series center on one war or the other.The actors portray most of the characters rather well according to whats known of these deceased leaders.The bad news is that you can spend years studying these wars as to cause and effect,6 hours is far to brief and the inevitable debates over certain things relevance to the total picture of the war,will be many.Mine was a statement of"3 remaining US Carriers"in the same sentence after the Pearl Harbor attack,giving the impression that carriers were lost in said attack,which they were NOT and thus a key point in the war in the pacific.Also it was painfully obvious the history of Japan between the wars was ignored as were its leaders,in favor of Stalin,Hitler,Churchill,Roosevelt and Mussolini.I don't even want to get into the Generals.That said,its still a useful tool to study the ideas about one thing leading to another or as they say"connect the dots"Watch it ONLY after seeing the BBC's"The Great War"and Tymes TV's "World at War".They are the definitive 26 episodes series about both wars.The Great War being WW1 and World at War being WW11.So the trailer URL follows the picture and a IMDB summary is below.Enjoy it a little :)

The World Wars tells the story of three decades of war told through the eyes of various men who were its key players: Roosevelt, Hitler, Patton, Mussolini, Churchill, Tojo, DeGaulle and MacArthur. The series examines the two wars as one contiguous timeline starting in 1914 and concluding in 1945 with these unique individuals coming of age in World War I before ultimately calling the shots in World War II.
- Written by Jiilo_Kim

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z1bVXdYwyM