Blake's 7: The Early Years - Jenna

Apr 18, 2010
Steve Rogerson

Blake's 7: The Early Years - Jenna - Image by B7 Media

Two audio adventures from the classic science-fiction series Blake's 7 featuring smuggler Jenna played by Carrie Dobro, also starring Benedict Cumberbatch

B7 Media followed up the original “The Early Years” Blake’s 7 audio story “When Vila Met Gan” in 2008 with prequels looking at the back stories of Cally, Travis and Avon and these two adventures for smuggler Jenna Stannis. Both were written by Simon Guerrier and star Carrie Dobro as Jenna and Benedict Cumberbatch as Max Townsend.

The Dust Run

The story starts with Jenna being tortured and she agrees to tell the story of how she met Townsend. They were spacer kids who grow up together. Townsend was a dreamer, they had fun, they competed, they kissed, but Jenna also snogged one of the kids, a girl called Minka, at least that’s what she told Townsend.

She met Townsend again when they grew up and he was now in a Federation uniform. They start flirting but still competing and challenged each other to the Dust Run. If Townsend wins, the prize is sex. They steal a couple of shuttles to do a race through asteroids without the use of computers – it all depends on pilot skill. However, they trigger a security system.

Townsend abandons Jenna when her ship hits trouble but she manages to return, and meets up with Townsend again. Technically, Townsend won the race so Jenna invited him to her room, but he didn’t show up.

The Trial

“The Trial” picks up where “The Dust Run” ended and Jenna faces trial defended by Townsend.

We now find out where Jenna was when she was telling the tale in the first story. She has been captured by the Federation and we learn she was arrested with a man called Nick (played by Stephen Lord). Townsend advises her to massage her story to incriminate Nick (who he has told her is dead) and make it look better for her.

Nick and Jenna’s plan was to sabotage a Federation tracking system so that the real news from Earth would get through and they hoped that maybe people would pay for that rather than take the Federation’s free broadcasts. She was, however, also smuggling medical supplies.

One of the highlights is Jenna taking her clothes off, something she never did in the television series, but given this is audio the results are left to the listener’s imagination.

Availability of Blake’s 7 The Early Years

“The Dust Run” and “The Trial” are available on a combined CD. They are also available as part of a boxset along with five other audio adventures – “When Vila Met Gan”, “Point of No Return”, “Eye of the Machine”, “Blood and Earth” and “Flag and Flame”.

Blake’s 7 Trivia

In the original Blake's 7 television series, Jenna was played by Sally Knyvette. Though Jenna only appeared in seasons one and two, there were references to her in seasons three and four.

Science fiction fans will probably remember Carrie Dobro for the three roles she had in Babylon 5 – Dureena Nafeel, Brakiri and Dr Harrison. She also played Dureena Nafeel in the Babylon 5 spin-off Crusade.

Writer Simon Guerrier is probably better known for his Doctor Who work, which includes various novels and audio dramas.