Jacqueline, Pearce AKA Servalan of Blake's 7 is dead to me

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Oh don't, love, don't break my heart.

She was a delicious part of my youth, what a camp, vamp drag queen in womens' body legend. I adored her so much in everyway.

Legendary, hot, dark, evil, sensual. I just feel so saddened.

After her cancer she moved to Africa, how delicious

Her blog from there was lovely, total charm

R1 So true. Sunday evenings were what I waited for when Servelan would appear. What is it about such characters that has us gay guys in a tizzy?

R3 Gods, sex on legs, strong as hell, funny, asshole, deadly, hot....just your typical gay man x

I adored her on "B7"! She was just delicious, a bitchy, evil, powerful thing, she was so much fun! And she'd wear huge evening gowns and three-layer eye liner into space battles, I adored her.

And BTW, that is one show that needs to be remade. It'd be perfect for an era when people are losing trust in institutions.

And she had such a wardrobe!

I am American and watched the series, too!

Admit it. If you were made Queen of the Galaxy, you'd dress like this too!

Bless her, she could really work it...

Linky stinky, R9.

Yup, she was one of the sexiest women on British television.

Even gays were entranced:

God she was fabulous!

Not convinced she was that great an actress as such - but she was gorgeous and had presence and seemed more than a little wicked - and the whole effect was a fabulously camp, adult confection.

She turns up guest starring in various eps of sixties and seventies uk shows - but kinda faded into obscurity after B7 - and given how popular she and her character were - was a little surprised.

I did hear rumours of prima donna behaviour on set as her character became more important and gave every sign of building cult status - and gather that by the end of third season she regarded it as the Servalan show and felt very much the star of it all... have heard this from many fannish sources over the years - but otoh - you know how bitchy fans are (to paraphrase Jennifer in VOTD!)

Was always a bit sad reading her occasional blog posts over the years. Sounded like she was broke and didn’t get much work except con appearances - and that her move to Africa was based on low living expenses and maximising what funds she did have. It sounded like she was practically living in a hut. And later - when she became sick with breast cancer - would travel for treatment.

A friend recently ordered and boxed set of Blake’s 7 - we all remembered it so fondly and loved it back in the day - but we only made it through a few episodes together before giving up, Maybe we’ll go back to it sometime - but it was pretty clunky. Sometimes it’s a mistake to go back and revisit those things you loved when young....

Sorry R10. One of her best shots and there's few versions on the net! Let's see if this works...

Glad to see someone else who appreciates her, R12, she was just too delicious for words on "Blake's 7"!

It really is a pity she never found a big role like "Dynasty", everything Joan Collins did Jacqueline Pearce could do better.

[quote]She turns up guest starring in various eps of sixties and seventies uk shows - but kinda faded into obscurity after B7 - and given how popular she and her character were - was a little surprised.

She was a guest star in the 1985 'Doctor Who' story, 'The Two Doctors'.

She played an evil character who had some similarities to Servalan.

It starred Colin Baker (the 6th Doctor) with the return of the 2nd Doctor, Patrick Troughton, (best known to American audiences as Father Brennan in "The Omen").

It also had the return of 1960's companion Frazer Hines, the Scottish Highlander who Diana Gabaldon based the Sam Heughan 'Outlander' character on.

Okay, which one of you complied this?

It's too bad that this thread didn't get more replies.

What's impressive is that the character of Servalan was originally only going to be in a couple of episodes and was going to be played by a man, but Pearce's impact in the role led to her becoming a long-term character.

She moved to Africa for financial reasons in the beginning, but she quickly threw herself into the cause of protection for wild animals, and she fell in love with this work and with the people. She came to regard her need to travel for treatment as a huge distraction from her work.

I've heard stories of her being bit of a diva on set, but nothing too dramatic. And her behaviour at conventions was impeccable. The fans loved her, and she loved us. Much missed.

R17 - it was a long time ago now. And it looks so dated and hasn’t really held up over time. But god it was a big deal back in the day!

I remember reading an interview with an actor who’d been a regular in the hugely successful and popular UK show, Upstairs, Downstairs. They’d visited parts of America to promote it to fans - and when they were in Boston (I think it was!) - there were moved to proclaim the day of their coming a regular local holiday - Upstairs, Downstairs Day... the tour and fan turnout had been incredible!

But to fifteen or so years ahead and he’s visiting the city again - and it’s all who? What? No one seemed to remember. Fame is fleeting!

And I guess it’s hard for us to understand how big that impact was as there wasn’t nearly the competition for viewers’ time. Everyone had a tv - no computers or smartphones - and a limited range of channels to watch. Completely fragmented now. Different environment.

[quote]it was a long time ago now. And it looks so dated and hasn’t really held up over time.

Well, the original Doctor Who series was a long time ago, but they are still releasing the DVD's of the old shows and people are still watching them.

I looked at Blake's 7 not too long ago and I thought some of it held up pretty well compared to a lot of other sci-fi shows of the day.

R20 - yeah - early dr who was even cheaper and clunkier than Blake’s 7 - but it’s a great concept - and kind of has an unlimited story arc - it’s still durable today! B7 felt like it was building to a good guys versus bad guys climax - and once that happened - there’s not much left to do. At least with that bunch of people in that particular timeline... (and also: that horrible fourth and final season!)

Funny too - there’ve been so many great companions in Dr Who over the years - but very few of them seem to have had much of a career post-dr who. It seems a little sad to me. Bet everyone of them when cast as a series regular assumed this would really give their career a huge boost - and in just about every instance - once their travels in the Tardis were over - that was about it for their careers.

Personal anecdote: I was a complete sci-fi nerd and when B7 was on, my bffs were all much the same. One of my friends loved B7 sooooo much! Huge fan girl - and a really nice person whom everyone liked (and still do!). Anyway - one of our friends was a model builders for ads and tv & film here in Oz - and he’d been to the UK and met some of the special effects people at the bbc - and the guy who built the model of the Liberator (from the second season - when they actually got a proper model built!). So when he got back to Oz, he knew how it was built and what bits of plastic to order - and so for this girl’s 21st birthday - she received a beautiful replica model of the liberator in a glass case. It was stunning! So beautifully built - apparently even better than the bbc version - as you can get away with stuff on a model built for the camera that you can’t when it’s built for being looked at closely - by devoted fans!

He also made us replica B7 guns that lit up like the ones on the show. A few of my friends had B7 costumes to wear with them to cons - and I know there were a few servalan-ed costumed fans at those cons too. Great friends - great times!

[quote]that horrible fourth and final season!

I think I read that they thought the show wouldn't be back after the 3rd season -- that's why they destroyed the Liberator and Zen.

So when it came back for the 4th Season, they needed a new set/new ship. So they devised "Slave" as a replacement for Zen.

Of course, the show never really recovered from Gareth Thomas deciding to quite as Blake after Season 2. They came up with a couple of decent replacements (eg. Steven Pacey was hot and a good actor) but it's hard to continue a series when your lead actor quits.

Fourth season kinda pointless on the whole - and seemed mainly a response to fans wanting it back. One of my pet peeves was how they had problems coming up with enough for two action-oriented female characters to do. Dayna and Soolin’s skillsets were too similar - and Soolin was the new kid on the block - so Dayna became marginalised and mostly irrelevant. For no good reason really. Just added Soolin to fill out the numbers I guess. And Pacey’s character was also not very well drawn. Waste of talent.

Hope they will do a memorial service for her in London.

Has there been a funeral yet, R24?

There was a private service according to a post on her Facebook page.

My dad LOVED her, and Josette Simon.

I Don’t think too many of the classic Doctor Who companion actors got into it thinking it was going to be a huge career boost I think they just viewed it as a job, temporary and ephemeral. I mean none of them had any idea that we’d have VCRs and DVDs and digital downloads. It just was what it was. Most of them had good long careers working in television, theater, film, radio and many of those still living still do.

Louise Jameson who played Leela left the show to appear on stage in Shakespeare. It just wasn’t that big a deal to her. The production staff of the show definitely wanted her to stay. So it’s not like she was ousted.