BBC renews HIS DARK MATERIALS before the first season even finishes shooting

The BBC has renewed their TV adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials for a second season, which is impressive as Season 1 is still shooting and may still be a year away from airing.

The BBC, Bad Wolf Productions and New Line Productions are working on the project, which is envisaged will span five seasons of eight episodes apiece. The TV series is apparently one of the most ambitious in the BBC's history, with the cost of the daemons cited as a major issue. Although the show isn't in the Netflix/HBO band (usually around $6 or $7 million per episode for a new show), it's apparently not far off and shows a new ambition by the BBC to compete with American studios in terms of scale, at least for certain signature shows. Whether this means they're going to give Doctor Who a much-needed budget increase after years of starving their most successful drama series of funds is another question.

His Dark Materials will continue shooting through the end of this year and will air on the BBC in the UK in the second half of 2019. American broadcasters HBO and Netflix are still competing for the US rights. The early renewal means that production should be able to roll into the second season and allow the BBC to air the seasons more closely together than has been the case for some of their recent shows.

Jessica Jones: Season 2

Jessica Jones has defeated her nemesis, Kilgrave, but the victory brings her little joy. She continues to survive from day to day, exposing adulterers to make ends meet and relying on the bottle to get through the tough days (which are most days). But a new case heralds a painful moment of personal revelation, one which will have dire ramifications for Jessica and her friends.

The first season of Jessica Jones jostles with that of Daredevil at the apex of the Netflix subset of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Netflix's Marvel shows are grounded, smart and beautifully-shot, although in terms of story and character they tend to be all over the place; Jones and Daredevil were great, Luke Cage and Iron Fist rather more variable and the team-up show The Defenders only okay.

Fortunately, the second season of Jessica Jones is rather more than okay. It's never in danger of replicating the emotionally raw, intense storyline of the first season which pitted Jones against the mind-controlling Kilgrave (played with powerful, dark charisma by David Tennant), but this is mainly because it's too smart to try. Instead, the second season opens with setting Jones new challenges in the form of her friend Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor) going through a difficult patch, a new landlord arriving who quickly develops problems with Jessica and a new case arriving which seems ridiculous but rapidly becomes deadly.

Season 2 of Jessica Jones opens quietly, with a number of slow-burning episodes dedicated to building and exploring character. The character who benefits the most from this is Jeri Hogarth (a never-better Carrie-Ann Moss), Jessica's lawyer-turned-sometimes-client who is faced with both personal and professional difficulties and deals with them in her own, increasingly ruthless way. Carrie-Ann Moss kicks more backside in this season than she has in anything since The Matrix and the show makes full use of her formidable screen presence, making up for her being slightly under-utilised in the previous Marvel Netflix shows.

This slow-burn approach gradually gives way to more impressive episodes full of plot development and character twists, giving the season a feeling of escalating action culminating in a surprisingly sombre, intimate finale (with less of the flashy, cliched "final battle" feel to it as in some of the other Netflix Marvel shows). This structure works really well, although it's not without the risk of people dropping out of the show long before things start picking up. Still, whilst Netflix insists on these shows having 13 episodes rather than the 8 or 9 most of them feel like they deserve at best, the creators have to come up with better ways of filling those hours (Iron Fist's second season in fact has a count of only 10 episodes, which shows Netflix may be listening to this complaint).

Thematically, Season 2 of Jessica Jones is about family and what happens when your family is not torn apart by outside forces (like Kilgrave last time out) but from within, by secrets and hidden vices and lies. The characters are put through the emotional wringer several times over and unexpected, shocking events mean that the status quo is not going to be put back together again. Yet the second season impressively ends on a note of hope and optimism for Jessica, having just taken her to her darkest moment, perhaps a nod to the fact that this character deserves more than to just have bad things happen to her again and again.

It's not a perfect season. Trish's story starts off well but then goes off the rails later on, with Taylor clearly at a loss on how to portray her character's bizarre addiction storyline, and a couple of storylines feel like wheel-spinning for the sake of it, but these issues are pretty minor compared to the ones that have blighted some of its sister-shows.

Easily the best season of a Marvel Netflix show since the original Jessica Jones almost three year ago, Season 2 is well-written, fantastically-characterised season of television which takes bold risks (like the near-absence of an over-arcing villain) and comes up with new ideas to refresh the increasingly stale slate of shows in this universe. Fresh and compelling, Season 2 of Jessica Jones (****½) is well worth watching. It's available on Netflix worldwide now.

Into the Badlands: Season 2

Baron Quinn's machinations have come to naught. His former Regent, Sunny, is now a slave in a mine outside the Badlands' borders. The Widow's military campaign threatens the lands now governed by Quinn's son, whilst Veil has given birth to her and Sunny's son. MK is being trained in the use of his unusual powers by those who know it best. But nothing is quite as it seems and a new sequence of events threatens to plunge the Badlands into chaos once more.

The first season of Into the Badlands was terrific pulp fun, a show operating on clearly a limited budget but one that told a solid story using some superb actors and fight choreography. The second season is a serious improvement. The show's had a hefty budget increase, with lots more use of CGI, more sets and even more spectacular action scenes. More importantly, the story is a lot stronger this time around, more firmly rooted in the characters and their interpersonal relationships.

Which is not to say that Into the Badlands has lost its edge. The show remains resolutely bonkers, with characters backstabbing one another on the regular, hordes of extras being killed at the drop of a hat and some episodes featuring more story developments than some shows manage in entire seasons. The pace is sometimes too frenetic, with the show feeling like it has too many ideas to jam into its runtime despite Season 2 having twice the episodes of the first season.

The series feels more epic, a combination of the greater episode count, the aforementioned budget increase and the fact that the show is now shot in Ireland, which gives it more bang for its buck than shooting in Louisiana (which requires several changes of location for major characters, since they clearly can't recreate the same environments perfectly). It does mean that the show's former specific geographic setting - the Badlands were supposed to be between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi - becomes rather vaguer in the second season until the producers just give up. There's more of a political feeling to the second season as well, with the Widow vs. Quinn conflict of the first season opening up with the other barons and their factions introduced and explored.

This is all great stuff, but it's really the characters that drive the show forward. Everyone gets their time in the sun. Sunny (Daniel Wu) is more driven and relentless in his quest to escape and return home, Veil (Madeleine Mantock) gets far more screentime as she finds herself in an awkward situation and the Widow (Emily Beecham) remains as driven and impressive a character as ever. Waldo (Stephen Lang) gets a lot more to do as well and the show benefits from his gravitas. Lydia (Orla Brady) doesn't have much to do, though, and one of the season's weaker points is how it seems to be constantly trying to find something for her to do, resulting in a number of tedious subplots until she finally rejoins the main story near the end of the season.

The best character of the second season, though, is newcomer Bajie, played with charisma by Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Paul). Once you get used to the odd site of Frost without Simon Pegg being nearby, he turns in an excellent performance laden with humour but also showing an unexpected dramatic depth, especially once his backstory is revealed later in the season. Earlier on he proves to be an able foil for Sunny, and you eventually realise he's playing the Pigsy to Sunny's Monkey King (Into the Badlands is based, albeit loosely, on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West), complete with his own impressive (if shambolic) fighting style.

There's not much to knock the second season of Into the Badlands (****½) for. Sometimes the pacing is a little too fast, and maybe a few plot twists would be more effective or emotionally devastating if they'd been allowed time to breathe, but beyond that it's as compelling and fun a slice of pulp fiction as the first season, but with much better production values, effects and even better fight sequences. Hugely enjoyable. The season is available in the United States on DVD and Blu-Ray, and in the UK on Amazon Prime Video.

The Golden Fool by Robin Hobb

Fitz has returned to Buckkeep, but it's far from the hero's welcome that might have been imagined. He serves the Queen and spymaster Chade incognito, posing as Tom Badgerlock, bodyguard and servant to the visiting "Lord Golden" (in reality, the Fool, likewise in disguise). He now has to train Prince Dutiful in the ways of both the Skill and the Wit, whilst also investigating the threat the Piebald (militant Witted rebels) pose to the crown. But delegations from overseas arrive, one from the Outislands to the north and another from the Liveship Traders of Bingtown, both emissaries bringing opportunity...and great danger.

The Golden Fool is the middle volume of the Tawny Man trilogy, as well as the eighth book in the wider Realm of the Elderlings series, bringing the overall series to its halfway point. Its predecessor, Fool's Errand, was one of the stronger single novels in the series, with a very good, mostly self-contained storyline. The Golden Fool, alas, isn't quite as strong at standing on its own two feet, but it is very much what readers have come to expect from a Robin Hobb novel: introspective, brooding but also a deeply human work of fantasy fiction.

The Golden Fool centres itself on Fitz's relationships at Bukkeep, with Queen Kettricken, Chade, his foster-son Hap, Prince Dutiful and, most notably, the Fool. The Fool has always been the most enigmatic character in the series (for all that he is the only character to appear in every book to date) and Hobb has been very careful not to give away too much of his secrets. This book doesn't really get into that either, instead being more interested in the ambiguities of Fitz and the Fool's relationship.

That's not to say there isn't any action - the plot turns on a very brutal sword fight - but it's definitely a quieter and more introspective book than even the norm for Hobb. At first I thought the detailed account of Fitz's everyday comings and goings for the Fool, Chade and the Queen was a prelude to a more traditional fantasy narrative (as was well-done in Fool's Errand) but instead it turns out to be the whole book. This makes The Golden Fool a prime example of "middle-book" syndrome, one which exists to bridge the start of the story to the end.

Still, even a slow, bridging Robin Hobb novel is a cut above most fantasy. The prose is exemplary, the characterisation is absolutely first-rate and it's a brave and refreshing fantasy novel where the most important thing that happens is a quiet (but brutally honest) conversation between two old friends. And it does leave the story in a very interest place for the next novel in the series, Fool's Fate.

The Golden Fool (****) is available now in the UK and USA.

Why THE BANNER SAGA is one of the finest works of fantasy of the last few years

The gods are dead. The sun has frozen in the sky. An ancient enemy, the dredge, have returned and invaded the lands of men. Both humans and their allies, the giant warriors known as varl, have to unite to fight them...but a greater threat is stirring. Something has happened to unbalance the world, and it is falling into darkness. From opposite ends of the continent, two great caravans, one of veteran varl soldiers and another of frightened refugees, seek a place of safety and solace to regroup. Factions within the human and varl camps threaten their alliance and their unity in the face of the threat. The fate of the world comes to rest on the shoulders of a tiny handful of people, and the banner they carry across the land.

Recently a truly remarkable epic fantasy trilogy was completed. The Banner Saga has arrived in three instalments, released in 2014, 2016 and 2018 respectively, each accompanied by tremendous critical acclaim but variable sales. Now the entire trilogy is complete, the series is getting reviewed and talked about as a whole and I suspect its profile and praise is going to keep growing in the coming years.

You may be asking "Who's the author?" but The Banner Saga isn't a book series. Instead it's a series of video games, available on the PC and all consoles (including the Switch). It is the work of Stoic Studios, a company formed by three veterans of BioWare who left the company after spending five years working on Star Wars: The Old Republic, and other BioWare titles before that. The company was founded because the team felt working in the confines of a big studio owned by a behemoth super-corporation was not good for creativity, and they knew the games they wanted to make could not be created in such an environment.

The Banner Saga is an epic fantasy saga that borrows elements from the old Viking sagas, Anglo-Saxon history, classical mythology, The Oregon Trail and Battlestar Galactica. With graphics resembling an old Don Bluth cartoon and a musical score to die for, there really isn't much else out there that looks like this game. It's also a rich epic fantasy story in its own right, one which if it was a novel and written well would be one of the most remarkable achievements in recent genre history.

The story is rooted in the two Menders, Juno and Eyvind. Menders are this world's sorcerers, or the closest things. They can manipulate the natural elements, but their greatest success is in pulling shattered and broken things back together again, making them a formidable presence on the battlefield (where they can repair shattered armour and rebuild fallen walls). Somehow Juno and Eyvind have done something to upset the natural order of things, and as the games unfold you gradually tease what it is they have done and how it can be fixed. But the main thrust of the saga is carried by the characters of Rook and Alettee. Rook is a woodsman, a skilled archer, diplomat and negotiator, and Alette is his (somewhat) naive and trusting daughter. When their village is destroyed by dredge, they have to form and lead a caravan of refugees halfway across the continent, along the way allying with other refugees, fighting off their dredge pursuers and learning who to trust and who to hold in suspicion. Key decisions can carry massive consequences: an innocent dialogue choice can kill major characters early in the story (who might otherwise survive all the way to the end of the third game). Choices made early on can determine whether the world survives, dies or falls somewhere between. This is very much a game of choice and real consequence (according to rumour, the trilogy was partially inspired by the writers seeing what happened to BioWare's video game Mass Effect 3, also a complex trilogy with lots of promised consequences which fizzled out at the end with three very similar endings, and not wanting to wimp out again).

It's a beautiful game with a wonderful atmosphere which also works very much as a real work of fantasy. Most fantasy video games use genre tropes but don't really engage with the genre very well (recent honourable exceptions include Tyranny, The Witcher 3 and Dishonored). The Banner Saga has that unsettling and uncanny way of fusing the familiar to the unfamiliar and strange, something which becomes more prevalent as the series continues and approaches its end.

It's also a story that doesn't get too rooted in exposition. A bit like the Malazan saga you are dumped into the story in media res and have to get on with things. Fortunately, the game isn't quite as obtuse and as things unfold you quickly pick up on the basics: the varl are ancient and long-lived, and are also going extinct, as one of the gods created them but forgot to give them any way of procreating (all the varl are male). With the gods all killed in a massive conflict, the varl are doomed to die out. This gives the entire race an air of tragic power as they refuse to go quietly into the night. The dredge are also faceless, remorseless killers in the first game, but some revelations later on make them a far more understandable and relatable species. Like Steven Erikson's novels, a key theme of the trilogy is compassion: behave too ruthlessly or mercilessly, and you may doom yourself, but make just choices and you may win the day. That's not to say that you should be too trusting and not even coldly ruthless when it is really required (the emergence of a powerful rival political faction in the second game creates a huge amount of tension, and their sometimes blatantly corrupt tactics need to be answered by swift action and occasional Littlefinger-esque behind-the-scenes intrigue). Finding the balance is key.

The gameplay is solid. The game is divided into two parts: in one you're guiding your caravan across the landscape, making decisions on when to stop for food, when to make camp and sorting out issues that arise within the caravan, settling disputes and working out how to ration supplies. When you meet enemies, the game moves to an XCOM-style turn-based combat system, where you have to choose which characters to take into battle. Characters gain levels, becoming tougher and more formidable in combat, but the mechanic to level them up is also shared by currency. This leads to tough decisions like whether to level up your fighters to better face a new enemy type that has appeared, or buy more food to make sure the caravan doesn't starve. Later in the trilogy this restriction eases so it becomes more possible to improve your fighters. One awkward touch is that it's possible to turn characters against you, so you may level up a formidable fighter only for them to turn traitor on you.

The worldbuilding is remarkable. A huge map can be studied at any time and it is absolutely covered in locations which can be clicked on for notes on the lore. The world is fantastic and I hope we see more of it in the future. It's also the setting for two other titles of note: The Gift of Hadrborg by James Fadeley is a prequel novel to the series which sets up some of the characters and events. It's been well-reviewed, but I haven't read it yet. Warbands is a tactical miniatures game which, alas, was not well-received on release, which is a shame because the world and game certainly have potential to be translated to a new format.

In summary, The Banner Saga is a remarkable piece of fantasy fiction, a great game trilogy and an example of the genre at its best. It is well worth a look.

Netflix bring forward THE WITCHER to 2019, announce filming dates and casting details for Ciri

Netflix have moved forwards the production timeline of The Witcher. Originally the show was going to debut in 2020, but it should now premiere in late 2019 instead.

We also know now that production is slated to start on 18 October 2018 and will conclude by 31 March 2019. The production will be based in Budapest, Hungary, with additional filming in Poland. That suggests that Netflix could get the show on air by around November, depending on post-production requirements.

Casting details for the character of Ciri have also leaked from the British casting company involved:

The requirement for an actress to be "BAME" (Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic) has excited some comment in quarters of the Internet, who have pointed out that in both the books and video games, Ciri is definitely a white character. However, "BAME" is also used in a British context to refer to white, non-British people (particularly those of Slavic descent, so a Polish actress would be considered "BAME"). There have been calls for a Polish actress to play Ciri, given that a British actor (Henry Cavill) is playing Geralt and the most popular actress choices for Yennefer are French (Eva Green) and Irish (Katie McGrath). Whether that is what this is referring to is unclear.

A major issue with casting a non-white actress for Ciri is that this would also require her father and father's people to be non-white, and given that they have a hostile, aggressive and antagonist role in the story, this may have problematic connotations.

More news as it comes in.

The Banner Saga 3

The world is falling into chaos. A wall of darkness advances southwards, destroying or twisting all in its path. The surviving varl, humans and horseborn have fallen back on the human capital, Arberrang, to make their stand, pursued by their former enemies, the dredge (who in turn are fleeing the darkness). But even there they find the pressing need for unity to survive undermined by infighting and betrayal. Far to the north, the band of mercenaries known as the Ravens have passed into the darkness, protected by the menders Juno and Eyvind. Their mission is to find the source of the darkness and destroy it forever...but in the process they must expose their own culpability in all that has transpired.

The Banner Saga is a trilogy of video games inspired by the artwork of Don Bluth, Norse mythology (but not quite like you know it) and epic fantasy. The games blend a decision-making system, where you have to make decisions on who lives and who dies as you guide your caravan of forlorn heroes across hundreds of miles, with an XCOM-esque turn-based battle system, all against a truly epic backdrop. Funded on Kickstarter, the original Banner Saga was released in 2014 to critical acclaim. The Banner Saga 2 followed to even more acclaim in 2016 and now the third and concluding game in the trilogy has been released.

Finishing off a video game trilogy can be a difficult thing to do, satisfying narrative threads built up over many hours of gameplay. Some recent series-closing instalments have been bitterly disappointing, others extremely well-received. Fortunately, The Banner Saga 3 falls into the latter category.

The game is a little different to its forebears though. The previous two games focused on multiple caravans making their way across a war-torn but recognisable landscape. The third one splits its narrative more definitively in two. In one, you have to command the defence of Arberrang, first against the attacking dredge and then against the twisted creatures produced by the darkness as it advances relentlessly. This sequence sees you having to make hard decisions on who lives and who dies, how to handle both tactical issues and political intrigue. It's a delicate juggling act, where the wrong decision can leave major characters who've grown, evolved and levelled up over three games dead. The goal of this sequence is buying time for the Ravens to do their job.

In the second part of the story, the Ravens have to travel through a landscape completely rearranged from reality, a descent into a Hieronymus Bosch painting populated by twisted monsters. This part of the game is inventive and surprising, with major backstory revelations making clear what was a bit opaque in the previous two games and new enemies appearing to be fought and destroyed.

The gameplay systems are much as before. The impending finality of the game means it can be darker and more ruthless than the first two games, with more of a chance of a major character dying for good as a result of your decisions. But the game rarely feels unfair, and if things go really badly wrong there's usually a window to reload your last save if you really don't want to ironman your way through events.

Combat remains as enjoyable as ever, although by this point your characters are at such a high level and Renown (the game's equivalent of EXP, which slightly confusingly does triple-duty as currency and reputation) is so plentiful that they're in danger of being overlevelled. Even the hardiest enemies are now a manageable threat and most battles in the game are now a cakewalk, even at the hardest difficulty levels. This is a far cry from the first game in the series where each battle was a fiendish tactical challenge. There are a couple of difficulty spikes in the battles (particularly in the final engagement), but nothing too objectionable.

At the core of The Banner Saga, though, is its story and its characters. This story has taken our heroes and anti-heroes from bucolic villages through enchanted woods to windswept prairie and into the very heart of darkness. Through it all, the characters have evolved and changed in ways that couldn't be expected. Some people have disparagingly called The Banner Saga a visual novel, and while that's really not true (between your decisions on what happens to the caravan next and the satisfying battle system, there's plenty of choices to be made), it is certainly true that The Banner Saga trilogy is the most imaginative, impressive and compelling fantasy story to appear in any medium of the last several years. It's a great story and Stoic nail the ending, treading just the right path between realistic grimness and outright nihilism, with hope, optimism and humour allowed to shine through.

The Banner Saga 3 (****½) is a triumphant conclusion to an excellent series. It's well-written, excellently-characterised and makes the player feel a real part of the life-and-death decisions made at the end of the story. It is perhaps a little too easy (although the ticking clock mechanic in the second half of the game does restore some urgency to things) and at 8 hours the game certainly isn't the longest, but overall this is a spectacularly successful ending to an excellent series. It is available via Steam for PC now. It is also available as a digital download for X-Box One, Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch.

Cast announced for Y: THE LAST MAN TV adaptation

Or, more accurately, the cast was announced back in July and I missed it at the time.

Y: The Last Man, originally a graphic novel series by Saga writer Brian K. Vaughan, opens with the death of every single male mammal on the planet with a Y-chromosome, apart from Yorick Brown and his pet monkey, Ampersand. The sixty-issue comic series explores the aftermath of this event, with various factions battling to take control of Yorick, kill him, or use him to repopulate the human race.

The principle roles for the series have been cast as follows:

• Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk) will play the protagonist, Yorick Brown, the last man alive.
• Diane Lane (The Cotton Club, Chaplin, Man of Steel) will play Senator Jennifer Brown, Yorick's mother and a high-ranking member of the US government following the disaster.
• Imogen Poots (V for Vendetta, 28 Weeks Later) will play Hero Brown, Yorick's sister who falls in with an extremist group following the disaster.
• Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel) will play Agent 355, a member of a top-secret American intelligence organisation who is - reluctantly - tasked with protecting Yorick.
• Juliana Canfield (Succession) will play Beth, Yorick's girlfriend who is in Australia when the disaster strikes and is subsequently stuck there.
• Marin Ireland (Sneaky Pete) will play Nora, the US President's right-hand woman and confidante.
• Amber Tamblyn (Two-and-a-Half Men, Django Unchained) will play Mariette Callows, the daughter of the US President and a new character created for the TV series.
• Ampersand the monkey will be portrayed through the medium of CGI.

The pilot episode of the show is shooting now and, if ordered to series, will debut on FX in 2019. The current plan is for the TV series to just be named Y, apparently due to concerns over confusion with the recently-cancelled Last Man on Earth.

Henry Cavill cast as Geralt in Netflix's WITCHER TV series

Netflix have confirmed that the lead role of Geralt of Rivia in their upcoming Witcher TV series will be played by British actor Henry Cavill, currently best-known for playing the role of Clark Kent/Superman in the DC Cinematic Universe.

Cavill rose to initial attention playing the role of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, on Showtime's The Tudors in 2007-10. The only lead actor to appear in all four seasons apart from Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (as Henry VIII), Cavill attracted positive notices for the role, especially his portrayal of a man much older than himself in the final season.

Cavill also appeared in movies such as Tristan and Isolde and Stardust before director Zach Snyder cast him as Superman in Man of Steel (2013). He has since reprised this incarnation of the character in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017). Cavill has attracted some praise for his portrayal, while the films themselves have been criticised for an overtly dark tone and incoherent scripts.

Since starring as Superman, Cavill has also appeared in films such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) and Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018), attracting positive reviews, especially for the latter.

Netflix's The Witcher TV series is based on Andrzej Sapkowski's eight novels featuring the character. Cavill is a fan of both the books and the three Witcher video games by CD Projekt Red, citing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as one of his favourite games of all time.

The Witcher is currently in pre-production and casting, with the show expected to start shooting early next year in Poland for transmission in early 2020.

RIP Jacqueline Pearce

The British actress and female SF icon Jacqueline Pearce has passed away at the age of 74. She will be best-remembered for her role as the villainous Servalan in cult BBC space opera Blake's 7.

Born in Woking in 1943, Pearce attended a convent school. When she voiced her ambition to become an actress, the nuns apparently rushed off and said a mass for her soul immediately. Pearce then made her screen debut in an episode of Danger Man in 1964. She appeared frequently on television and in film through the 1960s and 1970s, including in Hammer Horror films. She gained greater fame as a regular on David Copperfield (1973-74) and Couples (1975-76) before being cast in the role of Supreme Commander Servalan, commander of the Terran Federation's military forces, on Blake's 7 in 1978, debuting in the sixth episode of the series, Seek-Locate-Destroy.

Terry Nation originally created the role of Servalan to be a single functionary in the Terran Federation who would dispatch Travis (Stephen Grief) on his mission to kill Blake, with the intention that Travis would be the primary recurring villain of the series. However, Nation was intrigued by the idea of a female antagonist, especially one who used charm, diplomacy and wits as opposed to Travis' brute force approach, and made her a recurring character. The show's costume designer appreciated the chance to design exotic and elegant clothes for Servalan and soon her exotic wardrobe choices became as much a debated part of the show as the starships and thematic exploration of the grey area between freedom fighters and terrorists.

Pearce played the role in 29 episodes across all four seasons, more than half the episodes of the series and actually one more episode than the titular Blake (Gareth Thomas), and outlived Travis (who was killed off in the Season 2 finale). Her character of Servalan was praised for being well-developed with credible motivations and character depth, as well as her chemistry with erstwhile protagonist Avon (Paul Darrow), which could spin on a dime from mutual loathing to extreme sexual tension.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, writers who'd grown up watching Blake's 7 cast her in new projects, most notably Moondial (1988) and Dark Season (1991), Russell T. Davies' first TV project (and also the first starring role of Kate Winslet).

Pearce also enjoyed a lengthy association with Doctor Who. She was cast as the vicious Chessene in the 1985 serial The Two Doctors, where she did battle with both Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Patrick Troughton as the Second. She then starred in the audio dramas The Fearmonger (2000) and Death Comes to Time (2001) before becoming a recurring voice actor for the Big Finish audio range, most notably in the series of stories starring John Hurt as the War Doctor in 2015-17. Her last on-screen role was in an episode of Casualty in 2006.

Pearce brought erudition, wit, intelligence, charm and presence to the role of Servalan, creating one of the most iconic villains in the history of science fiction in the process. She will be missed.