Blake's 7

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Name: Blake's 7
Abbreviation(s): B7
Creator: Terry Nation
Date(s): 1978-1981
Medium: TV series
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
External Links: IMDB Epguides
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Blake's 7 is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC and created by Terry Nation that takes place in a dystopic, interplanetary empire of the future.

It ran for four series, each of thirteen episodes, which were broadcast between 1978 and 1981. The final episode, "Blake", was widely discussed. In 1989, a fan wrote: "What drove me into fandom was the last episode; it wasn't enough. I wanted to see more, discuss it, read about it." [1]The episode caused such an uproar in the fandom that even in 2020, fans are writing Post Gauda Prime (PGP) stories.

Like Doctor Who, with which it shares many writers, directors, producers and actors, the show was made with the BBC's usual production values for science fiction shows at that time: low special effects budgets, minimal sets and most outdoor scenes filmed in one or two locations. However, like Who at its best, "Blake's 7" had consistently sharp, political scripts (in part due to the work of script editor Chris Boucher), intriguing characters and strong acting.

The show's name is an obvious nod towards The Magnificent Seven[2] In early drafts of the script, Blake had seven allies in addition to himself, but many of these characters were cut but the title was retained, with Blake now counting himself and the computer Zen to make up numbers. By the third series, Blake had left the programme and there were only five regular cast members. Other references to westerns can be found: creator and writer Terry Nation is cited as referring to the series as "The Dirty Dozen in Space".

"Blake's 7" was also somewhat influenced by Robin Hood and to a lesser extent Star Wars.

The direct and indirect allusions to Robin Hood are plentiful. For example:

... Turner notes that there are some echoes of Robin Hood in terms of character (Blake’s crew being like the Merry Men and specifically Olag Gan derived in part from the giant Little John with the characters incidentally coming together as a group over time) (2011: 240)...


Turner also argues that there are echoes of Robin Hood in terms of costume (2011: 240) (Stevens and Moore similarly note that in the episode ‘Seek-Locate-Destroy’ two of the rebels are dressed in green, one in scarlet and a large man in brown suggesting Robin, the Merry Men, Will Scarlet and Friar Tuck (2003: 66)...


Stevens and Moore, moreover, note that Travis’ plan to use Cally as bait to lure Blake into a trap in ‘Seek-Locate-Destroy’ is vaguely reminiscent of the Sheriff of Nottingham’s scheme to entrap Robin (an archery contest and the hand of Maid Marian) (2003: 66).


Blake is a figurehead for rebellion against the Earth Federation just as Robin Hood was for the people of Nottingham...


Furthermore, just as Robin Hood struck a blow for freedom so too is that Blake’s aim....[3]

Partly because it also features a Federation, whose symbol references the Star Fleet insignia, Blake's 7 fans have compared the show to Star Trek. For more information, see Blake's 7 and Star Trek.

Blake's 7 strongly influenced and was later referenced by several popular American science fiction programmes; most notably Farscape, Babylon 5 and Firefly; and arguably Spike's chip in Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a nod to the limiter device implanted in Gan's brain.[4][5][6]

Thatcherism and Neoliberalism

Philip Braithwaite suggests that with the arrival of Thatcherism, the series changed its focus from traditional moral standards and the collective well-being, to an exploration of "individualism, Machiavellian behaviour and moral relativity":

Blake's 7 ultimately presents a strong critique of many aspects of Thatcherism, from Thatcher's stated belief in individualism and independence to her authoritarian style of leadership, and reflects on some of the failings of the neoliberal economic system in its early stages. (p. 28).[7]

Blakes or Blake's?

The show itself is officially titled "Blakes 7," but fans and almost all commentary does not use this spelling. [8]

The Fourth Season and the Very Controversial Last Episode

Fans had many opinions about the developments, and the very controversial last scene in the show's final episode. Chris Boucher and Terry Nation did, too. See Nation's 1987 comments here and Boucher's 1989 comments here.

The end of the show prompted a letter campaign to bring it back: Bring Back Blake's 7!

Characters

The cast depicted in the zine, The Measure of Affection

B7 hewed to the British tradition that women of whatever class, and any working-class characters of any gender, are referred to by their given name only.[citation needed]

Cast in order of appearance:
Seasons one and two:

In season three, Blake, Jenna, Gan and Travis had left the series. The two new characters in season three were:

By the beginning of season four, Cally and Zen had left the series and were replaced by another two new characters:

Other notable characters:

Female Characters

Now, when it comes to B7 slash, there are always at least three prominent male characters each of whom have as many lines as all of the female regulars put together and, on average, all female characters in a given episode. I do argue that the writers not only wimped out Jenna & Cally & Dayna & Soolin as adventuresome characters, but that the screen presentation features the men so much more than the women that it is far easier to notice and remember Vila (who is a witty weakling, showing off as cowardly in dialogue and action instead of, like Cally, seen briefly for plot purposes) than any of the women. Some exceptions may be made for Servalan, who is a villain and also enamored of the Head Star, Avon. Overall, as far as giving the women comparable characterizations independent of the men, B7 is a washout. It's a less complete washout than Classic Trek (and Generational Trek has other problems), I have to admit. But that's about all you can say. [9]

Pairings

One fan wrote:

I never saw [the Avon/Cally pairing] on the show, until I started watching Tashery Shannon and Gayle F.'s B7 songtapes. They mostly do B/A and A/C songs, and some of the clips they use for A/C finally work for me, at least taken correctly out of context"[10] and "Lots of C/A vids out there, Lots! But everyone must think Aurons are almost monogamous...she hardly ever gets another date--there must be 20 C/A's for every one C/T, and she never gets any body else. (B7 graffiti... Cally swings A/C--D/C.")[11]

The list of other pairings in this ensemble show is long. Sandy Herrold once calculated that with:

12 major characters in B7 (Blake, Avon, Jenna, Cally, Vila, Tarrent, Dayna, Soolin, Servalan, Travis (leaving out Gan, since I've never seen him 'paired' in a songvid)) you have 61 possible pairings. So far, in my B7 vid watching, I have seen 19 pairings, so there's lots of possibilities left.

I have seen: Blake/Avon, Blake/Jenna, Blake&Tarrant, Blake/Travis Avon/Blake. Avon/Jenna, Avon/Cally, Avon/Vila, Avon/Tarrant, Avon/Dayna, Avon/Soolin, Avon/Servalan, Jenna/Blake, Jenna/Avon Cally/Avon and a couple of Cally/Tarrant Vila/Avon, Vila/Tarrant, Vila/Dayna (1/4 of a single vid) Tarrant&Blake, Tarrant/Avon, Tarrant/Dayna, Tarrant/Soolin, Tarrent/Servalan Dayna/Avon, Dayna/Vila? Dayna/Tarrant Soolin/Avon, Soolin/Tarrant Servalan/Avon, Servalan/Tarrant, Servalan/Travis Travis/Blake, Travis/Servalan.[12]

Early Fandom and Distribution

The series was not broadcast in the US until the late 1980s, when video recorders were neither cheap nor common in the UK until after that time, so videotapes could not be shared. Fans in the US received tapes made by pointing a portable videocamera at the television screen during an episode. These camera copies were poor quality and their quality diminished as they were copied and passed on. A joke circulating among American B7 fans after the series was broadcast in the US was, "My tapes were so bad, I didn't realise Travis was played by two actors!"

Other fans would often put together videotape "recruitment" packages:

When setting out to hook a new victim into the B7 universe, Ann Wortham used to put together a "special gift" of a videotape that would start somewhere around STAR ONE, run about 6 episodes in sequence ... and then run out in the middle of the seventh! This had the inevitable effect of sending the hapless recipient screaming to the telephone (usually in the middle of the night), demanding more episodes at the top of their lungs. Before the advent of all-B7 media fanzines, it also had the effect of sending them to their fanzine collections to dig up something—anything—in the way of a B7 story to read and temporarily satisfy their craving.[13]

The inability to access the show impacted fans across the world. In 1994, an Australian fan complained about the decline in fan clubs and the lack of reruns:

"How's life Down Under? Does Australia still have much of an active B7 fandom, or have things quited—oops—quieted down there much as they have in the US?

B7 fandom in Australia is pretty much in a doldrums, as far as organised clubs go. Liberator Australis died a while back. The only active club related to B7 is New Horizons, which is a British Media SF club—the same group of people who put out the Enarrare' zine...

The ABC (Australia's equivalent of the BBC) doesn't help, when they say they will *never* show B7 again, and now they say they will *never* show Doctor Who again! Not that they were treating it with any respect by showing it at 4:30 am like they were doing last year! Grrrr. And if the ABC don't show it, I doubt any of the other stations will. I can't imagine any commercial station showing an old British SF show—the TV stations don't think much of SF..."[14]

The show was often broadcast at unusual times and in unexpected places:

Re the exact running dates of B7 in Communist Bulgaria: I don't know the answer, but the way I learned about it was from a LOC to the old Federation Archives in which a B7 fan recounted the experience of being a tourist in Bulgaria, and (I think) walking around in a B7 T-shirt and having people come up to her on the streets to express their own enthusiasm for the show. So that would place it approximately in the late 80's, I should think.[15]

Participation in the Fandom by TPTB

The actors, writers and producers of "Blake's 7" were frequent guests at conventions, wrote fanworks of their own, wrote intros to zines, and were very accessible to fans. While many fans enjoyed this close contact with the celebrities, this close intermingling had some devastating effects. See The Blake's 7 Wars.

Terry Nation, the show's creator, stated in 1978 that he did not want to support zines or clubs that had a focus on something other than Blake's 7. A reporting of correspondence in August 1978 between Nation and two fans in the UK:

[Carl Hiles]: Below is a reply to a letter I sent to Terry Nation asking for some information to print in future newsletters.

[Terry Nation]: Thank you for your letter. I think I should make it clear from the start that I do not want material about Blakes 7 to appear in magazines that are dedicated to other television series as in the case of your Star Trek club. There are a great many clubs starting up that are exclusively devoted to Blakes 7 and of course these have my first loyalty.
[Carl Hiles]: I have written to Terry Nation three times now asking for the names of some of these clubs and have had no reply yet. I have also written to Seveners, the only Blakes 7 club I know of. Carole Fairman, president has written that as far as she knows there are only 1½ Blakes 7 clubs. The other is something to do with Omicorn but run as a separate club.[16]

Brian Croucher was GoH at 1987's Eccentricon in Australia. He agreed to reprise Travis in Harpic Productions' live game show parody, The Nearly-Wed Game. Based on Australian TV's The Newlywed Game (formerly The Marriage Game), the concept was to pose questions to SF media couples who had "nearly wed". Travis was teamed with a local cosplay Servalan lookalike. Other pairings were Zaphod Beeblebrox and Trillian (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and Admiral James T. Kirk and Dr. Gillian Taylor (fresh from the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home). The compere was Maltz the Klingon (Ian McLean in cosplay) from Star Trek III, who was frequently and hilariously upstaged by Travis.

  • Maltz (left) hosts the Nearly-Wed Game, 1987. Brian Croucher (right) reprised Travis.

    Maltz (left) hosts the Nearly-Wed Game, 1987. Brian Croucher (right) reprised Travis.

Some Examples of Fourth Wall Violations

  • In The 1988 Blake's 7 Bootlegged Zines Discussion, Terry Nation got personally involved in a fan dispute.
  • Avon: A Terrible Aspect is a 1989 fanfic by Paul Darrow.
  • Reflections in a Shattered Glass (1989) includes Terry Nation's Introduction to the fic/zine: "I read the opening chapters and found myself intrigued and absorbed. I was hooked. I read on with growing fascination and ever-increasing questions. Where was the story going? What was happening here? Had Joe written himself into a corner from which there was no escape? How could he make sense of what seemed an impossibly contradictory plot? With the questions answered, the manuscript came to an abrupt end—a cliff-hanger of classic proportions. Desperate to know what came next, I called Joe."
  • Many contributions by the celebrities to Horizon Newsletter, including reading and judging their fic, poems and essays; from comments by Paul Darrow in Horizon Newsletter #9 in 1983: "It is fascinating to read such erudite compositions, but extremely difficult to establish who should be first, etc. In the end, the winner came in by a distance. All the others, I felt, were of almost equal merit".
  • At the convention Gambit, Gareth Thomas read aloud a poem by a fan named Mary G.T. Webber. A fan recalls: "[Gareth] said it was the best Blake poem he had ever read and then didn't he call the lady out and hug her or something?[17]
  • "Interview with a Monster" was a play written by fan Teri White and starring Gareth Thomas. Thomas said Teri's play was closer to his own self than anything he'd ever done, and that performing it would be intensely difficult because it was, even more than acting usually is, laying his soul bare.[18]

Fannish Perspective

See also: Timeline of Blake's 7 Fandom

In the 1980s and 1990s, Blake's 7 fandom was one of the largest gen or slash communities and merited its own categories in the Fan Q Awards. Blake's 7 began broadcast after Star Trek had concluded and before the first Star Trek movie was made; hence its fandom participated in the normalization of many common fannish practices of today; for example the social history of slash and print zines. Like most pre-web fandoms, early Blake's 7 fan fiction was sharply divided into slash, explicit het (referred to in contemporary zines as "adult") and gen.

With the rise of the internet, it gained two mailing lists; Lysator and Space City (later Freedom City), both of which are, as of 2020, largely inactive. There were also two major archives; The Blake's 7 Library and Hip Deep in Heroes before a small number of fans moved to Livejournal. As of 2020, the UK-based fan club Horizon still operates a relatively popular message board, which is largely used for discussion rather than for posting transformative fanworks.

The Blake's 7 fan community declined during the 21st century, and was small enough to be considered a Yuletide fandom [19] until 2013, mainly because the challenge rules were changed and the fandom's archived works were counted towards the total. However, there was an upsurge in activity on Livejournal and Dreamwidth in the early 2010s. As of 2020, the fandom continues to be active on Tumblr, Discord and AO3, with fans writing stories, making art, memes and fan videos, and (particularly on Tumblr) making gifs.

Rumours of a remake have been circulating for many years – most recently in 2013[20] – but as of 2020, no remake has been produced. However, B7 Media, which owns the rights to produce new Blake's 7 material, have produced a re-imagined Blake's 7 audio series[21] (2007) and Big Finish have been making Blake's 7 audios with the original cast since early 2012; neither series has made a significant impact on transformative fandom (see Blake's 7 (Big Finish Series)).

Fan Comments

1989

A fan wrote in 1989:

What I find compelling about B7: fallible heroes fighting against insurmountable odds; a cold, unreachable type as one of the leads; plots that go off at unpredictable angles; and most surprising for a continuing series, discernible change in the characters over time and most of it not for the better.[22]

1990

About B7, it is an incredibly complex show, and I do advise anyone who might give it a chance to start with #1 and proceed in order to #52. The characters are so intricate it is scary. I still haven't worked up the courage to attempt even a vignette on any of them. But I love watching to sift for new aspects and ideas. And if ANH is fun to rewatch for the foreshadowing of things in ROTJ, B7 is full of that. It was 4th season of the show that hooked me. I think I had chills when I went back to 1st season and saw anew where they began, knowing how far they would eventually go. It put everything into new light. [23]

1994

A certain amount of verisimilitude enhances the fantasy, sexual and otherwise, as any number of B/D writers have explained at various times. I just didn't see it because the characters were such pricks, which nothing can cure. Not that I mind, in the midst of a thorough-going B/D story with the right proportion of boiling hormones and spilt blood, but the proper state of Bodie and Doyle is slightly revolting, rather than artistic, charming or madly repressed about anything. [24]

1997

I found all these tapes of my prior fandom, Blake's 7, and was curious to see how I felt about them now--so I watched them all. Crikey. I couldn't believe I'd been so passionate about this show once--the acting was pretty damn cheesy, the sets and special effects were laughable, many of the plots were, too, and I *hated* Paul Darrow's nasal voice and could barely stand listening to it! I found myself enjoying Vila and Servalan the most, and thoroughly disliking Avon and Blake and most of the others. Odd how time and distance can alter one's view of a fandom. I mean, we're talking about something I spent thousands of dollars on and 6 agonizing days traveling by train (coach!) to the east coast and back just to see Darrow and Keating at a con. Sheesh. [25]

Fanworks Overview

For a full listing of Blake's 7 fanfiction on Fanlore, see Category:Blake's 7 Fanfiction
front cover of a reprint of The Epic

Fanfic was published in zines from 1977 onwards. An early post-1st season story, written not long after the first season ended and before the second season was broadcast, was simply titled The Epic as it was at the time (50,000 words) the longest B7 fan story ever published.

As with the original Doctor Who, Blake's 7 was broadcast before the watershed (before 8pm) and expected to be suitable for children, so episode scripts when televised could not include explicit sex nor swearing. Very early fanfic written while the series was being broadcast was generally expected by fan editors and publishers to correspond to BBC pre-watershed standards; though swearing might be permitted, even heterosexual relationships could not be explicitly sexual. Horizon began to produce adult fanzines featuring only heterosexual relationships (even an early reference to male-on-male rape was objected to) in the early 1980s, when the series was no longer being broadcast.

The first Blake's 7 fan fiction website was The Aquitar Files, which appeared in early 1996.

A fan in 1994 commented on the differences between British and American Blake's 7 fan fiction:

On B7 fiction, must agree that many Brit-authored efforts are less, well, juicy than the U.S. production. Several large-scale stories (including Seaman's Ghost exercise in masochism for Avon and the reader) were well-constructed and admirable for a number of reasons, but I just couldn't get into them emotionally. I put it down to a difference in style: dry, dystopic SF is a British tradition. I still wonder (vaguely) how some of those stories worked out in the end. But I can't make myself read 200 pages to find out.

This has been true of some, but by no means all, of the British-tradition SF I've read. And I did get through some fanfic, such as the EPS sagas (including Machiavelli Factor and Mindfire), but in retrospect those aren't half as breath-holding suspenseful and dramatically focused as the longer stories in, say. Southern Seven's early issues. The Brit writers in general paid more attention to science and some kinds of local color, but it's so labored, to my reading mind. Do you think the difference is pacing, or what?

I haven't thought about whether the difference carries over to slash, though I wouldn't be surprised if it did, at least in B7. Suggestions, comments? I don't see this same problem in B/D work in British writers — though there are differences of tone between stuff out of Britain and elsewhere. But the British stories in B/D were often harder-edged (which the Brit B7 stories were, as well; it suits both shows' backgrounds) and didn't have the flattish feel that plagued so much of B7 in, say, the early Horizon. [26]

Common Tropes in Fanworks

Sue Clerc collected numerous tropes in her 1993 essay, Recurring Themes in Blake's 7 Fan Fiction.

A fan in 1993 commented on happy endings and fiction for this series:

Many bad stories are written when someone gets a great idea for a story, and writes it for the wrong fandom. My jaw still hurts in bad weather after I broke it reading "Proposed zine looking for all happy-ending feel-good B7 stories... [27]

"Avon Ducked and Other Survival Tips"

The 1994 Lysator FAQ explains common post-Gauda Prime scenarios: "There are many, many ways to explain the survival of various characters. Fan fiction is rife with stories that let Our Heroes live to fight another day. Here's a brief list of some of the more common ploys, each of which has a myriad of variations. ... :

Avon ducked and the troopers killed each other in the crossfire.
Vila was shot in the back but fell the wrong way, ergo he wasn't shot.
Avon-and-Blake-set-all-this-up.
Servalan-set-all-this-up.
Orac-set-all-this-up.
Something-else-set-all-this-up.
It was the clone.
The Dallas version: the 4th season was all a dream.[28]

Slash

cover of The Big Boy's Book of 1001 Things to Do in Zero Gravity with a Federation Hand Blaster, which contains the first BLake's 7 slash story printed in a zine, Licence

Relations between the gen fandom and slash fandom varied over time. Unlike other contemporaneous fandoms, many Blake's 7 zines, especially some from Ashton Press, had both gen and slash stories. But because actor cons (see below for more info) were very common, gen fans often thought of the slash fans as an embarrassment. A quotation from Paul Darrow, "Why is Gareth always raping me?", was frequently used by anti-slash fans to show how inappropriate the actors thought slash was, as well as blurring the line between the actor and the character.

In 2003, B7 Media's executive producer Andrew Sewell gave an interview in which he said he would do everything he could to root out slash fandom from Blake's 7 fandom.[29] "I think slash is distasteful. The actors that are represented do not appreciate it. And some produce this stuff on the web. I think it is bad taste. It has no reflection or bearing on what the show is and it is not a tribute to Terry Nation's legacy. I think it is an abomination. I think what is an abomination is the pornography. I have no problem with fan fiction, but I do have a problem with pornography.[30]

Asked what he planned to do, he said: "They will find out how I am going to clamp down on it. The moment you start doing something of an extremely dubious nature of the pornographic variety or for a commercial benefit without acquiring the rights, I and my partners will take a dim view of that."[31]

One fan's response to Sewell's statement said:

...I have noticed that there has been an anti-slash tirade by the new Blake's 7 brand owners. It strikes me that Blake's 7 has had the most anti-slash problems of any fandom, and in a brave-new-Internet-world in which slash sits happily side by side with het and gen fic in other fandoms (Buffy, Smallville and Pirates of the Caribbean are among many that spring to mind), this is saddening, and strangely old-fashioned. The anti-fandom comments coming from people actually trying to make money out of fans (who therefore should be keeping us sweet!) also seem misguided and (rather sadly) homophobic. I hope that it does not discourage anyone to post fic. In fact, in a spirit of defiance against the "rebranding" of our fave show, I hope that it encourages us to write and draw and vid and Photoshop more "abominations". And I rather hope the new owners of the brand read some fic, as over the years since B7 ended we've thought through every Post Gauda Prime scenario possible, and could save them a lot of time.[32]

In 2009, fan Lillian Shepherd commented on Blake's 7 slash written while the show was on the air: "Certainly, most Blake's Seven fan fiction written in 1978-1981 was circulated on set. Oddly, the porn usually rose to the top, or so we were informed by David Jackson [the actor who portrayed Gan]." Another fan responded: "I'm not at all surprised the porn rose to the top and I'm happy to hear David Jackson admitted it. Of course, Mr. Darrow ordered it immediately delivered to his dressing room. (Oooh, sorry, that was evil)." Shepherd replied: "Read it! Hell, David wrote (or, to be more precise, taped) his own satiric R-rated fic, though I felt very privileged to hear the tape, as there were only a couple of copies, the original being made for the fan (Anne Harding) who he later married. The reason there was no B7 slash published in the UK until after the show finished was, in part, due to Pat Thomas promising Gareth Thomas that she wouldn't allow that kind of thing. You didn't cross Pat!"[33]

In 2015, Shepherd expanded on her previous comments and speculated on the relative lack of B7 in UK fandom:

The production and actors in a TV show might have an effect on the series fan fiction. The various fan clubs in B7 fandom were close to the show (the Liberator Popular Front's first act was to invite the whole cast to a party, and about half of them turned up) the director's secretary was a fan, so was one of the cameramen – which was how we got to see shooting scripts before broadcast! – and one of the actors became engaged to and later married one of the committee. He also made a scurrilous fan fiction tape for his girlfriend...

This had a downside in that all the published fan fiction ended up being passed round the studio, with the explicit stuff right on top.

Which brings me to why there was no B7 slash in this country until the show had gone off air. When Pat T was editing the first 'adult' B7 fanzine, Alternative Seven, she went to see Gareth Thomas in 'The Canterbury Tales', met him at the stage door, and bore him off to the bar to feed him vodka and slimline tonics. She told him about Alternative Seven. Naturally, his first question was: "Who does Blake get?" to which Pat said, "Well, in one story so far, Cally." "Oh," came the disappointed response, "why not Jenna?" At which point Pat told him that "If things go the same way here as in the States you're lucky it's not Avon". She had to spend the rest of the evening feeding him more booze and promising him that she wouldn't let such a thing be published. Such was her rep in fandom that, until she went back to the States, it wasn't.[34]

Luckily, slash fans pay little attention to TPTB. Slash fanfic began to be published in 1983; an early zine that included same-sex and mixed-sex relationships was The Big Boy's Book of 1001 Things to Do in Zero Gravity with a Federation Hand Blaster, which was first published August 1983 and includes what may be the first Blake's 7 slash story, Licence, pairing Del Tarrant with Jarvik, a character who appears only in the third-season episode Harvest of Kairos.

The first-known Blake's 7 all-slash fanzine was E-Man-Uelle, the first two issues of which were published in 1983 (issues 1 to 8 came out roughly twice a year between 1983 and 1987). While poorly produced and typed, these zines were the first to publish some Blake's 7 fan writers who later became better known in other fanzines and other fandoms: Julien, Jane Carnall, Julie Kramer, Bryn Lantry and others. These zines were stories pairing Kerr Avon with either Roj Blake (Blake/Avon) or with Vila Restal (Avon/Vila), which remain the most popular slash pairings.

Hermit.org hosts a link to fansites hosting.[35] Many early stories are still only available in fanzines: the slash library is an institution at British slash conventions. For more information, see Zines

The Fandom Implosion of 1989: The Blake's 7 War

Main article: The Blake's 7 Wars

In the late 1980s, relationships between some BNFs and many of the Blake's 7 actors imploded; many fans, desperate for information in an era before the Internet, blamed slash fans for the implosion. In retrospect, slash had little or nothing to do with the implosion and had more to do with some fans' personal access to TPTB, as well as attempts by some of the actors and Terry Nation to monetize and formalize conventions on their own terms.

B7 Online

1990s and early 2000s

Blake's 7 fandom was an early participant in online communities. The fandom went online in 1992 when the first mailing list, called Lysator (often shortened to "the Lyst") after the "Lysator Academic Computer Society"—one of the first Internet-connected sites in Sweden—was opened.[36] Lysator was very active for many years. Several members of the community collaborated to produce a full set of episode transcripts to facilitate discussion and provide fans who had no access to the series with a way to enjoy it. As of 2017, they are still available at Lysator and Judith Proctor's site.[37][38]

Personal fan pages appeared from 1994.[39] In the 1990s, when Blake's 7 fandom hit the Interet, a lot of newly-online fans were quite startled when they heard of slash for the first time. Slash fans on the various Blake's 7 lists and newsgroups grew tired of repeating the same arguments, and drew up a The Generic Slash Defense Form Letter[40] still available on the net. In 1995, Space City, a slash-friendly mailing list, was spun off from the Lyst to allow discussion of slash and adult topics without controversy. This was replaced by Freedom City in 1999.

The first online Blake's 7 fiction website was The Aquitar Files e-zine launched in 1996. Hammer to Fall, founded by 1998 as the "Blake's 7 Story Archive", was possibly the first website to call itself a multi-author archive. Print zines continued to be important throughout this period.

Some fans embraced online fandom, citing greater access to communication and fandom content. Others were horrified at the exposure and increased visibility. From a January 1996 comment by a fan:

I hate computers. I'm roadkill on the information super highway. I'm truly sorry to hear there's B7 slash available on the net (or whatever). I'm afraid some highly moral person will stumble onto it and raise a stink. My husband was surfing (?? Is that the term??) the net and discovered a B7 list or lists. Did he have fun sneering at the comments! I absolutely hated it! I feigned disinterest. At least with this APA and fanzines, there's PRIVACY!!!!!! I don't want my 13 year old daughter looking over my shoulder at a computer screen — or my husband - and discovering EXACTLY what I mean by ADULT fanzines. Oh, well, I know I'm in the minority....AGAIN. And what am I writing this on? The damned computer — and I honestly really would rather have a typewriter!!!!!! [41]

Fans associated with this period of production include:

.

In 2011, Neil Faulkner wrote the meta essay Sorry, but I've been pondering, which posits that a "new wave" of fanfiction distinct from the more "traditional" approach to B7 fic appeared in Blake's 7 fandom in the latter half of the 1990s and the early 2000s.

The Move to Livejournal

Fandom moved onto Livejournal in 2003–2005; the mailing lists and archives continued to be used but printzine publication tailed off. Within the year, communities such as b7_rpg were founded, with several more (largely founded by Vilakins) appearing throughout the decade. (For more information, see Websites, Lists and Communities.) Several ficathons were held in 2004–2006. Blake's 7 fielded several hundred recs in 2003–2007 on Crack Van.

Fans associated with this period of production include: AstroGirl, babel, Executrix, Hafren, Lyssie, Pink Dormouse, redstarrobot, Sally Manton, shimere277, Snowgrouse, Van Donovan, Vilakins, Zenia

2010s

Text from the Federation

In around 2012, several fans began posting material (including gifs and archive material) to Tumblr - some of the main figures seem to be: destructobot, perfectchichi, lileclaire.

These fans were only active for a few years, with new fans joining later in separate movements though their content continued to be re-blogged for some years.

Blake's 7 takes on popular Tumblr community/memes were founded, most notably: Fuck Yeah, Blake's 7 (most active in 2010-11) and Texts from the Federation (2014-2016). sirjohnsmythe ran Secret Santa for several years, and other users, particularly bruinhilda organised live re-watches. In 2017 Jaelijn proposed that Tumblr users create a digital zine, Rebels and Fools, which is still active as of 2020.

In 2013-2016, there was a (small, but significant in terms of output) resurrection of the Livejournal/Dreamwidth fanfic community, led to some extent by fandom-recruitment posts written by Lost Spook[42] and Aralias.[43] Not all fans who posted new around this time were new to Blake's 7 (although some were, and had previously been interested in classic Doctor Who) - many, such as Executrix, were simply encouraged by activity in a previously quiet(er) fandom. Several Russian fans also participated in English-language fandom. New Livejournal/Dreamwidth communties were founded, including Blake's 7's first kink meme, Sexually Liberated! (2014-) and BlakeFest. In 2015 Aralias published the paper zine Pride and Prejudice, which featured a new cover from Suzan Lovett.

Interestingly while LJ/DW fandom was mainly focused on the ship Blake/Avon (influenced by key figures, and to some extent because the platform[s] continued to play host to influential B/A fans from zine-era, such as Judith Proctor and Willa Shakespeare) and Tumblr seems to have initially gone this way, by 2016-17 Tumblr fandom became increasingly focused on Avon/Vila (again influenced by the fans active there). As of 2020, a variety of (both slash and het) ships are favourited by Tumblr users, including a resurgence of Blake/Avon.

It is also worth noting that most of the (extensive and still growing) documentation of the fandom on Fanlore took place from around 2009 onwards.

Fans associated with this period of production include:

2020s

2020 has seen a resurgence of enthusiastic Blake's 7 fan activity on Tumblr with new fans creating fics, art, vids, memes, and communities. These fans include: foreignobjecticus, hadescavedish, Bunn1cula (founder of Gauda Prime Social Club Discord server), Emmaliza, locked-behind-the-walls

Gauda Prime Social Club member chrysopoetical suggested the following as fanfic trends associated with the Discord server:

  • fics tend to be on the shorter side
  • lots of kink. lots of boundary-pushing kink: finding the things that haven't been done before, and doing them
  • relatedly re: "doing what hasn't been done before," a lot of rarepairs and minor character appreciation. love for Gan.
  • carrying on from the previous wave that started in 2013 or so, we lean heavily pro-Blake. Blake might've actually usurped Avon as the prime locus of hurt/comfort.
  • however, i'd say a hallmark of the 2010s wave is that it leaned optimistic as a whole. the current wave does not. Hurt/comfort is heavy on the hurt, sex is as likely to deepen everyone's problems as it is to fix them, happy endings are few and far between. Can't say I blame us: we were born of the Time of Plague after all.
  • a lot of exploration of trauma as a theme[44]

For even more information about Blake's 7 online fandom, see Lists and Communities and Archives.

Conventions

Small, fan-run conventions were arranged in the UK in the early 80s. The second of these (The Teal Vandor Convention) took place in Holborn, London and was run jointly by the two UK clubs - Liberator Popular Front and Horizon. A number of the cast and some production staff attended (unpaid!). British Blake's Seven fandom also had a significant presence at the 1979 World SF Convention in Brighton UK.

flyer for Orac (1988)

Conventions - some were fan run with actor guests and some were professional.

In addition, not all conventions focused solely on Blake's 7 but were often bundled with other sci-fi and fantasy shows.

The multifandom con, Escapade, had many Blake's 7 panels.

Zines

Print Zines

Online Zines

These either started out as ezines, or were archived on the web after going out of print.

Websites, Mailing Lists and Communities

Play By Mail

Fans in the early-to-mid 1990s role-played by mail.

B7 fandom isn't the only group to have its controversies. The play by mail community had a fairly heated debate recently as to whether people should be allowed to play homosexual characters in postal games. That was about the time my first slash story was accepted. I thought: if they can get this heated over people playing gay characters (even without explicit sex), what

in heaven's name would they say about slash? I chickened out and asked the editor to change my name to a pseudonym. (I'd originally submitted it under my own name) Now, I wonder if I did the right thing. [48]

Mailing Lists

  • Lysator
  • Space City
  • Blake 7 Chat And Fic "Blake 7 Chat And Fic". Archived from the original on 2006-11-09. Description: "Avon and Vila, Or Blake and Avon? Tarrant and Avon? Vila and Callie? SuLynn? Jeanna? Can Orac play naughty??? You decide...come share a story or a discussion with the list...General, hetero and slash fiction based on the BBC series, Blake 7 are all sought with intent. Discuss the 52 eps to death as well...What makes these characters so immortal after over 25 years. I'm gonna ask here that the authors remember to share with this list when you're sharing with others. We can only get pleasure from the sharing if something is posted to the list. And readers, play your part by feeding the authors. Its more important than you may realize. All the stories will be considered direct submissions to the multi-fandom/lists list archive. Because this archive handles several hundred lists, I don't have time to notify each writer as their stories go up so I recommend you join the direct submissions/announcements list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Makebelieve if you want to be informed. I have neither the time or the inclination to moderate the posts for minor ears, joining tells the world you are over legal age. Be honest. Finally, if you spam the list I will remove it AND you without warning. We don't need spam in our files. I do however encourage chatter onlist. It tends to stimulate ficcies, and that's what we're here to inspire, aren't we. Oh yea, and its been requested that you include your couples in your posts, please do this. some readers would rather only read the pair they like and not wade through the rest. See ya on the flip, luvs..."
  • Slash Blake 7 "Slash Blake 7". Archived from the original on 2003-10-27. Description: "Discuss the Blake 7 Series...Share a slashy story...what are the actors doing now? Here is a place to discuss and share. I'm gonna ask here that the authors remember to share with this list when you're sharing with others. We can only get pleasure from the sharing if something is posted to the list. And readers, play your part by feeding the authors. Its more important than you may realize."
  • Horizon Blake's 7 e-bulletin: "For all the latest news about Blake's 7 and its cast and crew from HORIZON, the Blake's 7 Appreciation Society".
  • Audio-Visions

LiveJournal

There are several Blake's 7 communities on livejournal, most have very low to no traffic as of 2010.

Fanclubs

Several early Blake's 7 fan clubs sprang up in the UK during and immediately after the first season was broadcast (1978-1979); one of them, Blake's 7 Appreciation Society [49] is still active forty years later.

See Category:Blake's 7 Fan Clubs for a full listing of clubs.

Discord

  • Rebels and Fools (associated with the digital fanzine of the same name. "Do you like chatting about Blake’s 7? Do you like to bounce headcanons around? Are you a content creator and love sharing ideas, cheering on others and collaboration? Are you always looking for a beta or some feedback? Are you working on your submission for issue 5 and just want to share the ideas and the struggle? Are you looking for a safe and inclusive environment to talk B7? Good news! There is a Discord channel dedicated to any and all B7 chatter! You will need a Discord account to join us (you can make one with only an email, a nickname and a password). You do not need a microphone; chat is text-based. Like the zine, the Discord channel is open to all pairing preferences. Also note that the Discord operates under the assumption that all participants are of age in their respective countries. There might be discussions not suitable for minors.")
  • Gauda Prime Social Club (cheeky, mostly NSFW chatter and memes with off-topic discussion welcomed)

Archives

One of the challenges facing Blake's 7 was that, as an established fanzine fandom like Star Trek, discussion of online fan fiction was often met with hostility.

For example, in 1993 on the Lysator mailing list one fan asked:

"I know this question has been asked before, but I never saw the answer. What I'd like to know is whether there's any B7 fanfic available over the network. And if there isn't, what exactly are the barriers? (I'm assuming that writers want to be read, and readers want to read -- and the net seems a natural way to distribute stuff.) So what's the story?"[50]

She received a swift and negative response:

"I posted a message about ftp sites for fiction, and received a reply

(off-list) that it's considered rude to compete with the zines by putting files on "the circuit". And that people write for zines for a) editing; b) distribution; and c) free copies of the zine.

Fair enough. What I'm now wondering is whether anyone has ever suggested an e-zine? This would be based on a theme, edited, and released as an 'issue' - only instead of being distributed through snail mail, with paper correspondance, currency conversion problems, etc. it would be distributed through the net. You'd lose the artwork and aesthetic quality of good formatting, so in some sense you'd have an inferior product, but you'd get the content, fast and free. And it would be the editor's responsibility to ensure good content. This would satisfy a), b), and c). (I'm assuming that no one's in this to try to make money...). Yes, you'd be competing with existing zines -- but hey, competition's part of life.

What are the problems with this idea? If you have any thoughts, please reply to me on or off list.

(Where I'm coming from: I'm involved in the local gopher and in trying to start a community Freenet. We are digitizing everything that isn't nailed down by copyright. Just preparing for the post-Gutenberg revolution...)"[51]

Her question was met by silence, until one list member finally explained:

"I have heard a few concerns about electronic publishing, however, chief of which seems to be the impossibility of copyright control. Once a piece is in the ether, anyone with a keyboard can adapt, adjust, mutilate or destroy it very easily--granted, this could be done with hard copy too, but the ease of access in electronic format is awesome. "Circuit" stories (stories already released to unpublished circulation) were already vulnerable to this sort of tampering, and so seem fair game for e-access, but I think most writers prefer to have their works of genius have the modicum of protection granted by being published in a printed zine. There are also several newsgroups devoted to the airing of fiction of one sort or another, which seems to provide a venue to those who are interested in releasing their brain children to the ether--"[52]

In short, in 1993, there seemed to be little interest in or tolerance to the idea of online fan fiction.

In 1998 when a fan asked: "Where can I get me some of this fan fiction," his question was answered with four responses regarding information about how to purchase zines.[53]

Fortunately, that changed over time and several fan fiction archives were established.

Other Fanworks

Fanvids

The vast majority of Blake's 7 fanvids were made in the 1980s and mid 1990s. Not all these vids have survived conversion to the digital age.

20th century

  • Mary Van Deusen created 68 fanvids, mostly in the 1980s, which were distributed by Horizon and are still available on her website for downloading. 61 of those are available in a YouTube playlist. They were seen by Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow and Terry Nation in private showings.
  • A memorably heartbreaking videotape fanvid contained scenes from the last episode to the song Send in the Clowns.[54]
  • True Believer by Viv Nichols of the Media Cannibals
  • Crimson & Crystal (sung by Julia Ecklar), vid by Cybel Harper
  • Comedy Tonight and Hotel California by Mary Van Deusen are extremely clever uses of images to create something entirely different from the show.
  • Studs in Black Leather set to "Everywoman's Lament" by Jillian Courtenay - a clever filk song that pairs "Nights in White Satin" with fandom's fetish for men in black leather
  • Hold On by Liz J. - Sandy Herrold wrote: "A good video; made even more by the line, "Don't you recall how you felt when you weren't alone," The clip is Avon in the third season, it has stuck in my mind ever since."
  • Cold--Biography of a bastard in 4/4 time by DeeJay -- Sandy Herrold described it as "Every clip in order, to a song that was made for Avon, as if narrated by Vila"
  • Some of the most innovative vids of the 80s were made by Gayle F and Tashery S, including Walking and Falling, and Continental Drift. Both can be found on their Shadow Songs vid collection.

Most of Blake's 7 fandom had become quiescent by 2000, however, a few computer vids did appear online. In 2002 both Morgaine and Xanthe offered their vids here and here respectively (sites are offline, archived versions are offered where available).

21st century

Other songvids by fans can be found under the vidder's name here on Fanlore. A few VCR-era songvids are listed below where the vidder's name cannot be identified

  • "Where The Boys Are" - this vid was shown at Zebracon 1995

Filk

Blake's 7 has a long history of filk songs, both those presented in written lyrics in fanzines and those recorded on tape, including at least three full cassette albums. Most of these were created in the 1980s and 1990s. As of 2020, filk seems to have large disappeared from the fandom. However, the fourth issue of Rebels and Fools (2020) featured a series of filk lyrics by sothatsagoodthing set to Lana del Rey songs.

20th Century

21st Century

The Van Buren Sound

Other Fanworks

Further Reading/Meta

References

  1. ^ from Comlink #40
  2. ^ Although the show's name is Terry Nation's, it is worth noting that Boucher and Paul Darrow (Darrow portrayed Kerr Avon) were both big Western fans, as was Nation. Nation stated in an interview in Freedom City Gazette #3 that "Blake's 7" was like The Dirty Dozen in space. Some DVD commentaries clarify that some of Darrow's favourite Avon moments are nods to Westerns that were written for him by Boucher; for example the line "Stick to action, Blake. That's what you're good at" in 'Trial' is a nod to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
  3. ^ Dr Andrew O'Day, Robin Hood in Space: Blake's 7 Series 1 and the Robin Hood Narrative, Television Heaven, 2022.
  4. ^ B7 Media: Blake's 7
  5. ^ TV Tropes: Blake's 7
  6. ^ Lost Spook commenting on Aralias's journal
  7. ^ Philip Braithwaite, “Wealth Is the Only Reality”: Blake’s 7 and Thatcherism, Colloquy: Text, Theory, Critique #35/36, 2018, pp. 28–53.
  8. ^ from a fan in 2016: " (if the title sequence abhors a possessive apostrophe, then goddammit, so do I — though if a quote uses it, I’ve decided (grudgingly) to allow the difference of opinion to stand)"
  9. ^ from Strange Bedfellows (APA) #8 (February 1995)
  10. ^ Sandy Herrold's Feb 1993 post to the Virgule-L mailing list reposted here with permission.
  11. ^ Sandy Herrold's post "Pairings in B7 songvids (longish)" from the Virgule-L mailing list dated April 4, 1993, quoted with permission.
  12. ^ Sandy Herrold's post "Pairings in B7 songvids (longish)" from the Virgule-L mailing list dated April 4, 1993, quoted with permission.
  13. ^ Subject: EHA post to Lysator on May 1, 1994.
  14. ^ Subject: Re: mscl. post by Kathyrn A. to Lysator on May 1, 1994.
  15. ^ post by Sondra S. to the Lysator mailing list dated May 11, 1994.
  16. ^ reported by Carl Hines in Starship Exeter Organisation Newsletter V.2 N.2
  17. ^ "Lucky girl! No, I wasn't there. I just saw the vid." —from a fan in Rallying Call #16 (January 1996)
  18. ^ "So that Teri needn't boast, I'll report what he said: that he wants to perform the play, along with one other short serious play that he has in hand and something lighter that he needs to find. And he used it to illustrate what he was saying about acting: that it isn't as easy as people think, especially when it goes that close to the bone. He said straight out that Teri's play was closer to his own self than anything he'd ever done, and that performing it would be intensely difficult because it was, even more than acting usually is, laying his soul bare." -- from Rallying Call #16
  19. ^ "And suddenly, I'm realizing that Blake's Seven would be legit, right? The show ended 10 years ago, it only has 4 listed interest comms on LJ (three of these inactive), it's got exactly 100 stories on FF.net, it's a British show hardly anybody under the age of 30 has seen or has necessarily ever heard of -- that counts as obscure/inactive." -- a comment in 2007 at Vehemently' journal, Archived version
  20. ^ BBC News: 'Blake's 7 cult BBC classic 'to be remade for Xbox Live'
  21. ^ B7 Media: Blake's 7 the audio series
  22. ^ a reader's LoC in Comlink #40
  23. ^ from Southern Enclave #25
  24. ^ from Strange Bedfellows (APA) #7 (Novmeber 1994)
  25. ^ from Virgule-L, quoted anonymously with permission (September 1997)
  26. ^ from Strange Bedfellows (APA) #7 (November 1994)
  27. ^ comments by Sandy Herrold, Virgule-L, quoted with permission (Jun 15, 1993)
  28. ^ Lysator, which notes it was Partly derived from a longer version posted Jan 22, 1994 by Nicole Vifian
  29. ^ TPTB's dim view of slash continues to this day. Swell, who now owns the rights to the show, has been lobbying for a remake and plans were announced in 2013 for a US remake to be shown on XBox Live.-- Wikipedia article, Blake's 7 TV revival.
  30. ^ What is the way forward for Blake's 7?, interview with Andrew Sewell, Nov 2003.
  31. ^ [[What is the way forward for Blake's 7?],] interview with Andrew Sewell, Nov 2003.
  32. ^ Emma at Liberated, an adult Blake's 7 fic archive, November 15, 2003
  33. ^ Melody: Erotica versus porn writing: I am actually going to be quasi-controversial today, Archived version, see original post for more context, December 18, 2009
  34. ^ Fandom Past - A Talk Given at Nine Worlds 2015
  35. ^ Blake's 7 fanfic online
  36. ^ [1]
  37. ^ Various authors (2003-12-31). "Transcripts of "Blake's 7" episodes,Pungenday, the 29th day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3165". Archived from the original on 2007-02-06. Retrieved 2017-05-28.
  38. ^ Various authors (2003-12-31). "Blake's 7 Transcripts". Archived from the original on 2021-11-19. Retrieved 2017-05-28.
  39. ^ For example, B. King & D. White Blakes' 7 Site has a date of May 1994 on one of the subpages. -- Wayback link).
  40. ^ The Generic Slash Defense Form Letter
  41. ^ from Rallying Call #16
  42. ^ Non-Spoilery Guide to Blake's 7 (and why Classic Who fans should watch it) by Lost Spook on Livejournal
  43. ^ 'why you should watch blake's 7' by Aralias on Livejournal
  44. ^ comment by chrysopoetical in Gauda Prime Social Club discord, September 7, 2021
  45. ^ Horizon Forum, http://www.blakes7online.com/news.php?readmore=349 (Accessed 24/08/2020)
  46. ^ Horizon Forum, http://www.blakes7online.com/news.php?readmore=384 (Accessed 24/08/2020)
  47. ^ Cygnus Alpha Events Youtube, https://youtu.be/q0VlG31cqvE (Accessed 24/08/2020)
  48. ^ from Lysator (07 Sep 94)
  49. ^ Horizon, the Blake's 7 Appreciation Society
  50. ^ Subject: Re: Electronic Fiction by Janice A. dated Sept 29, 1993.
  51. ^ Subject: Re: Electronic Fiction by Janice A. dated Sept 30, 1993.
  52. ^ Subject: Re: Electronic Fiction by Agnes T. dated Sept 29, 1993.
  53. ^ Lysator, June 1998
  54. ^ Shown by the Skaro Hunting Society in the mid-1980s. Maker unknown. (busaikko)
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