Mark Sheppard really should play Avon in Syfy’s Blake’s 7 reboot
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!
Syfy is apparently racing ahead at speed Standard by Six with its remake of Blake’s 7, the classic British show about criminals who join a political prisoner to fight an evil space empire. This show will live and die based on the character of Avon, and there’s one actor who’s uniquely qualified to play him.
Avon, of course, is the sarcastic computer expert who is both an indispensible part of Blake’s crew and a huge liability to Blake — likely to betray the rebel leader at any time. In the original BBC version, writers Terry Nation and (more likely) Chris Boucher gave Avon the lion’s share of the insanely quotable dialogue, with a sharp barb for absolutely every occasion. And yet, Avon also shows immense vulnerability, and develops one of the all-time great conflicted love stories with Blake, the man he says he wants to be free of.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!