ORBIT (Blake's 7 convention)

Convention
Name:	ORBIT
Dates:	August 3-5, 1990
Frequency:
Location:	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Type:
Focus:	Blake's 7
Organization:	Down/Safe Productions, Inc. (JAF Box 8138, New York City, New York, 10116)
Founder:	Laurie Cohen, Celeste Hotaling-Lyons, Jon
Founding Date:
URL:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

first page of a flyer

second page of a flyer

ORBIT con booklet, front. Cover image by Gail Bennett

ORBIT con booklet, back. Cover image by Gail Bennett

ORBIT was a Blake's 7 convention held in a Holiday Inn in Newark, New Jersey over the long weekend of August 3-5 in 1990.

The convention was named after "Orbit", the show's fourth season, 11th episode. The tagline for the convention tee shirt was "With Friends Like These....", an in-joke reference to that episode. The tagline for the convention booklet was "You're Always Safe With Us!", also an in-joke reference to that episode.

Guests included Paul Darrow, Michael Keating, Janet Lees Price, and producer/director Vere Lorrimer.

Cost: $45 attending, $10 supporting.

Attendance was limited to 600.

This was the only American con that Paul Darrow attended, a decision that cited "pressures of work" This decision is also very likely a result of the chilling effect on this fandom due to the Blake's 7 Wars:

Paul and Janet just confirmed their appearance. This will be Paul's only stateside convention for 1990. Michael Keating has told Down/Safe Productions that “he will make every effort to appear and is 99% sure". At this time Terry Nation is still planning to attend. Many uniquely entertaining events are being considered at this time, including the performing of B7 sketches written by Terry, a reprisal of the one-man show Paul performed in Guildford recently, and much more.

At the con, the Darrows talked about Janet being a guest:

Paul: I've been to quite a lot of conventions without Janet, and then suddenly it occurred to us, not just at that time, but it's been gradually building up over the years, that why should we?

Janet: Because we added it up. If you added up all the months, weeks, days, odd weekends, where we've been working apart, or Paul's been away on tour, it added up to nearly seven years out of the marriage. Now it has its advantages that it keeps it fresh, and coming home is wonderful. So it's a sort of honeymoon every time you get together, but you see, when I'm not on tour with him, 1don't know what his day is, and 1make a life of my own directing my amateurs, and when you meet at a weekend, there's so much to talk about, there's no time, and we thought why do we do this -this is awfully silly.

Paul: Yes, and when Laurie, Celeste and Jon invited me to this some time ago, and they said well, we'd like a commitment because we'd like publicize it, and we know you cant commit, but will you do that and we came to an arrangement, where I would look upon it in a professional sense. And I thought if I'm looking on it in a professional sense, why can't Janet come too? So I called Laurie and Celeste, and they said oh, no we'd love to have Janet. So, we never had asked before and now we do, don't we?

Touching on The Blake's 7 Wars, Slash at the Con

The turmoil of The Blake's 7 Wars was very much on fan minds at the time of this con.

As someone who lived through the feud and was a concom member for STARDRIVE, the proposed series of B7 cons of which grossly inaccurate reports triggered much of the widely public side of the feud, and then for ORBIT, the con which we did after STARDRIVE was cancelled, I'll put my two cents in. Yes, there was never any court case, although there were snotty threats (which had nothing to do with smut, but which tried to scare certain folk into not using Paul's likeness in any way). Having seen personal letters Paul and Janet wrote to members of the STARDRIVE and ORBIT concoms during the height of the nastiness, I can certify that slash was a minor concern at worst. (For the record, I had already published Blake/Avon under my own name at the time I was invited to join the STARDRIVE concom...)

Further accurate information? People on both sides behaved like asses. And it had no particularly chilling effect on slash, as far as I've been able to tell. At this remove, that's probably all that's important.

From a fan in 1994:

As a member of the Orbit concom, and the person who enforced what slash policy we did have in the one minor instance that we took action, I want to stop in its tracks the idea that “there was supposed to be absolutely, positively no slash whatsoever allowed at that con.” This is just not true. The rule was that slash should not be in the public spaces where the actors would see it. A flyer advertising a slash zine was posted in one of the elevators; after a brief consultation with the con chairs, I took it down and went to the dealer whose flyer it was, who was dealing out of her room, and explained that we had no problem with her advertising her stuff, but could she please keep the flyers to the third floor and above; the guests didn’t generally go anywhere but the con function space on the first floor and their own rooms on the second. We explicitly felt that if they wandered around elsewhere, it was their own lookout. The dealer said she had no problem with this. (I don’t remember what dealer it was, but it was someone I had bought zines from; it may even have been M. Fae or Nancy. I wish I remembered.) We had no objection to slash at the con; but we didn’t want the actors coming face to crotch with it, which meant policies of no slash zines displayed on dealers’ tables, slash art in the art show, or slash discussion on panels with the actors. I think there was a flyer for a slash zine on a flyer table, which we left there (that’s much less noticeable than at eye-level in an elevator).

I don’t think we ever even talked about songtapes in relation to this; actors tend not to go to songtape screenings. And let me say that plenty of the concom were slash fans, and we were perfectly aware that we were keeping it away from the actors not because we were down on slash, but purely out of self-interest; we didn’t want to deal with them getting upset at us. I remember one gathering before the con at Laurie Cohen’s apartment that Paul Darrow was going to drop in on, as he was in New York at the time, and every time the doorbell rang the couple of zines that were being passed around went under the sofa cushions until we could see if it was Paul or a fan arriving.

Scene of a Lost Unfinished Sequel to "Avon: A Terrible Aspect"

Darrow's partially completed sequel to Avon: A Terrible Aspect was auctioned off at this con.

From the Winter 1991 issue of Aspects:

At ORBIT, Paul auctioned off the first twelve chapters of his novel, "Avon: The Rest Is Silence". Emerita Farber was the successful bidder and now she is considering making the story available as a mini-zine, with the proceeds going to charity. If you would be interested in purchasing a copy, please drop a line to Emerita at [address redacted].

See more about this topic at Avon: A Terrible Aspect.

Photos

• 

  from Aspects #9, photographer was Mindy DeLapp

• 

  from Aspects #9, photographer was Mindy DeLapp

• 

  from Aspects #9, photographer was Irene Hirota

• 

  from Aspects #9, photographer was Pat Harris

• 

  from Aspects #9, photographer was Mindy DeLapp

Video Tapes

Videotape footage from the convention can be found as part of the "S. Hereld Collection of Blake's 7 Fanzines and Fan Fiction" located at the University of Iowa fanzine archives.

The 4 videotapes sold with convention footage contain:

Tape 1: Opening, Director's Panel, Dramtic Reading

Tape 2: Paul Darrow's One-Man Show, Panel: Avon Wins?

Tape 3: Panel: Vila Restal - Hero?, Darrow's Acting Workshop, Keating's Comedy

Tape 4: Panel: Orbit, Panel: Avon/Vila, Closing, Staff Party

Video Tapes Review

In 1993, Sandy posted the following review of the convention videotape to Lysator. It is quoted here in its entirety with permission.

"The Orbit convention had Paul, Michael and Vere Latimer. Paul and Michael appeared to be having a blast: they did one panel where they were supposed to answer questions 'in character.' With in a couple of minutes, they had: switched characters, started playing other characters on the show (Michael playing Jenna was only eclipsed by Micheal playing *Tarrent*--hilarious).

In another panel following a group-watching of Orbit (it was the name of the con, after all), a fan asked Paul if Avon would really have pushed Vila out. He said (paraphrased) of course he would, and any of you would have done the same if it had been you. Michael was then asked if Vila would have pushed Avon out if he had had the gun, and he insisted he wouldn't have. They played up to each other a lot; there were a number of running jokes: Vila actually making all the clothes on the liberator; Vila moving out of Avon's room after Orbit (including some wonderfully silly camping between them).

Vere was a good speaker, with some stories of shooting incidences; Paul probably has the best memory for episodes of any of the cast. Maybe he just gets asked more questions. Michael seems to be the most comfortable; 'on' but still relaxed, not manic.

The tape ends with Michael and Paul doing dramatic readings, first separately, and then doing Julius Caesar together. Very Nice......

....All in all, I very much enjoyed the tapes, and recommend them to others. Unfortunately, all of the ones I have are fairly low quality, and I don't think they'll con down one more generation. If other people have sources, post them."

Con Reports

See Avon Club Newsletter #41 for a con report by Jean Airey.

I was super-neo at Orbit, and no doubt clueless. I'm unsure where I got the idea that slash was not permitted at the con. (Possibly from one of my roommates, an anti-slash Christian Fundamentalist who keep saying things like, 'It's so nice to be at a con where none of that horrible, nasty stuff is allowed.'). In any case, I wasn't the only one laboring under a misconception. Mary van Deusen was very nervous about showing some of her slash vids after the music video workshop. Her husband knocked on the door while we were dubbing 'Looking For Love'; we all panicked! Mary slapped the vcr off (thus ruining the dubbing attempt), while Carol and I threw our bodies in front of the monitor. We did manage to re-do the dub later, with Mary's husband nobly standing guard at the door. It added a lot of spice to the viewing; we were sure we'd be busted by the con police and kicked out. What a letdown to discover we were perfectly safe all along. [The] video workshop: It's my fondest memory of Orbit, and a turning point in my life. Carol and I were there with Mary from 9:00 am until past 6:00 that evening. We didn't even stop to eat that entire day. People thought we were nuts, 'wasting' all Sunday fooling around with vcrs when we could have been chasing after the guests, but I've never regretted it for a moment.

This August saw the return once again of Blake's 7 fandom to that legendary gardenspot of cons -the infamous Holiday Inn North in lovely Newark, New Jersey. Fans from all corners of the U.S. and overseas gathered for ORBIT -certainly one of the most unique and enjoyable S7 cons in recent memory. Guests were Paul and his wife Janet, and Michael Keating. Terry Nation, originally scheduled as a guest, sadly was not able to make it because of his health. However, on short notice, Vere Lorrimer, director of many S7 episodes, and producer of the fourth series, stepped in. All the guests did their utmost to keep everyone entertained, keeping to a very full program schedule, as well as numerous extra "surprises" throughout the weekend. The con organizers had come up with some rather unique programming ideas -some of which apparently were suggested by the guests themselves -which made ORBIT a very special, exciting con experience.

Friday's program included several small workshops led by the guests. Paul's workshop on dramatic acting was limited to about 30 people. A few brave souls got up and did some dramatic readings, and then the majority of the session Paul entertained the attendees with stories from his acting career -complete with some wonderful accents and impressions. Those attending Paul's second workshop the following day did not get off so easily -they were divided into small groups, and each group was given the assignment of acting out the last 2minutes of the episode "Blake." Running concurrently with Paul's workshop were a joint workshop on directing given by Janet and Vere and a workshop on comedic acting given by Michael (roars of laughter could be heard emerging from the room).

One of the many little surprises of the weekend occurred later that afternoon, when an unusual number of people were converging on the con suite. Were they handing out extra delectable goodies? No -something even better. Paul, Michael and Vere were doing dramatic readings! Michael read from Death of a Salesman and Paul treated the group to some readings from Shakespeare. However, the highlight was unquestionably the joint reading from Macbeth. Paul, Michael and Vere had the entire room in hysterics as the three witches -- and they seemed to be having a wonderful time themselves! The official Opening Ceremonies did not begin until 5:00 that afternoon and included a brief panel and question/answer session with all the guests. This was followed by a big-screen viewing of the episode Gambit, with Paul and Michael on the microphones making choice comments throughout. That evening the Contributor's Party was highlighted by Paul performing his One Man Show, which he recently had done as a fund raiser for a British amateur theatre group. By popular demand, Paul did a repeat performance on the following day. It was a first come, first served basis and fans started lining up to fill the small room more than an hour ahead of time! It provided a unique opportunity to see yet another side of Paul in a more intimate theatrical setting. For nearly 2hours he kept the audience fascinated as he talked about his career in acting, acting itself, and interesting and humorous stories drawn from his many years in theatre and television. The audience was also treated to dramatic readings from various plays, including Look Back in Anger and Hamlet. Paul capped off the show by reading a short excerpt from his unfinished fifth season novel (leaving all wishing they could read more), and finished up with a stirring reading from Henry V.

Saturday's schedule was non-stop, beginning in the morning with a panel featuring Paul and two fans, discussing the topic, "What If Avon Had Won?". This was followed by an autograph session with Paul and Janet, while Michael held another comedy acting workshop. Michael hosted a panel later that afternoon entitled "Vila Restal: the Hero for When Your Tastes Grow Up", which was followed by an autograph session with Vere.

There were numerous opportunities throughout the weekend to take photographs with the guests - several formally scheduled sessions, as well as a couple impromptu photo sessions. One such session followed the banquet Saturday evening, and yielded some of the most humorous moments of the weekend. Finished with his own autograph line. Paul suddenly appeared standing in line for Michael's autograph, clutching a photograph of Vila. Everyone gathered around to watch Paul play the shy fan -"Oh, Mr. Keating, could I have your auto¬ graph?" Michael was more than happy to oblige, and Paul sat in Michael's lap while he signed the photograph, adding his own artistic touch - glasses and a mustache.

Following this silliness the Art and Charity Auction got into full swing. Bets were being taken on just how late the auction would actually run - based on past cons, quite late was the general consensus. Janet started a contest having people guess the exact time the last item would be auctioned off (the winning time was 1:13 a.m.!) and the lucky winner with the correct time received Janet's carved wood nameplate from the opening ceremonies panel. A number of lovely art pieces and photographs were auctioned by the guests, as well as various items donated for charity -including original scripts, costumes and props from the B7 show. However, the item fetching the highest price of the evening was the only copy of the first 12 chapters of Paul's unfinished fifth season novel, Avon, the Rest is Silence. After tempting the group by reading a few choice selections, Paul auctioned off his creation, which ultimately garnered $2000 for the con charity.

Sunday started a little later in the day with a showing, most appropriately, of the episode Orbit. Michael and Paul had few comments to make, but entertained questions following the screening. The next item on the program was another unique "surprise" -this time engineered by Vere. He had devised, along with the help of the B7 "Trivial Pursuit-ship" game, a Blake's 7 trivia mastermind game. B7 fans were selected as contestants, (based on their ability to answer the trivia questionnaire included in the registration packets). Paul, Janet and Michael asked the questions, and if, after two tries, the fan panel could not answer, it was thrown out to the audience (the audience seemed to know all the answers!). The questions were tough, but not impossible -and eventually one finalist emerged as the victor.

Following Vere's Mastermind game, the con attendees settled down for the weekend's final panel -Paul and Michael doing a panel as Avon and Vila -in character. It was interesting to see the visible change as they both slipped into character. However, although some poignant questions were asked by the audience, the panel quickly developed into somewhat of a Liar's Panel with Avon and Vila. In short order, things degenerated into some wonderful silliness as Michael and Paul did their impressions of other characters from the show as well. Michael presented hysterical impressions of Avon, Tarrant, Jenna (the best one yet), while Paul did Servalan and Cally. Michael also did an interesting Orac.

Ail too soon it was time for the Closing Ceremonies. Again the guests and the con committee had a surprise in store. After the usual speeches and thank yous, Vere stepped forward and shared a song he had written to the tune of the Blake's 7 theme. The words were projected on the screen in the front of the hall, and led by the guests, the audience had a sing-along! It was a very special way to end a very special weekend. The con committee is to be commended for putting on such a unique and enjoyable con, and of course, a big thank you goes to the guests, who gave 200% throughout the weekend to make sure everyone had a great time.

Some years ago I began a con report with the words "It was the best of cons, it was the worst of cons." Today I can start one with "It was the best of cons." Period.

The con was ORBIT, sponsored by Down/Safe Productions and held August 3-5 in Newark; New Jersey at the Holiday Inn North. There are three basic elements that go into making a great con; the guests, the con committee, and the hotel. All three came together this time in what could very well be the last of the major Blake's 7 conventions.

To analyze the elements: The guests: Paul Darrow, Janet Lees Price, Michael Keating, and Vere Lorrimer. It was Lorrimer's first American convention, as well as his first trip to America, and he was an absolute delight. He never ceased to be a gentleman, to accept the fans with delight, to take questions seriously, or to put every bit of his energy into his activities. It is no wonder at all that we have always heard good things about him from the actors in the show.

Michael Keating, by now an old hand at doing American Cons, was in fine form and — for those of you who might be interested — figure. Cheerful, helpful, enlightening—and doing an wicked imitation of Tarrant on one of the panels, he also "taught" two workshops on comedic acting. Particularly fascinating was his reading from Death of a Salesman in a "surprise" session in the fan con suite.

Janet Lees Price. Well, now. At last a British woman who can completely hold her own on a panel or by herself without for one moment using an artificial "persona" to carry it She and Lorrimer presented a Workshop for Directors which was, by all accounts, fascinating. And, although it must be somewhat daunting to be asked to do panels by yourself when you had only a "one shot" appearance in the show that has drawn everyone to the con, she pulled it off with class and humor. Given that I've heard just about every question answered that could be asked of the "regulars" I found her panel fascinating.

Paul Darrow. Whew. This man never ceases to amaze me. Arriving on Thursday evening, he was almost constantly "in sight" and available to the fans. From calming down a neo-fan who was (literally) shaking in her shoes at the first photo session at the thought of meeting "Avon" to asking a young fan to sing her "special" filksong at the closing ceremonies, to staying after the helpers' party to play Trivial Pursuit with anyone who wanted to hang around (he won), he was never less than outstanding. His schedule was a killer—beside all the "regular" panels, autographs etc he did two acting workshops, two presentations of his one-man show, and threw in an extra autograph session since some folks had missed out earlier. There are some actors who could do what he did (although I'd be hard pressed to name them), some who would do what he did, but I can't think of anyone else who both would and could.

The events at the con were special. Beside the workshops, there was also the surprise visit of Darrow, Keating, and Lorrimer to the "con suite" (a place where I have never seen any other guest even set foot). The fans who were there stopped eating (I think), playing games, and chatting and were treated to readings by all three separately and together. Although I must say that I don't think they have much of a future playing the witches in the "Scottish Play."

Then there was the con committee. Since I usually have some kind of contact with them, as do many of the fens and, certainly, all of the workers—they can also ruin a convention for me (and have, quite successfully). This con committee showed their class in clearly demonstrating they had learned from previous experience. They had their act together as well as their tempers. Managing a con with a triumvirate of coordinators is possibly one of the most difficult tasks I can imagine—but they succeeded. I had a last moment schedule change that allowed me to attend I offered to help and was handed a responsible job (its own manager gone missing due to personal job changes at the last moment) and allowed to handle it. Foolish person that I am (or masochist?) nothing gives me greater pleasure than to feel that I was able to make a difference in a positive fashion, and I was allowed to do that (as well as thanked for helping — another area some folks who run cons seem to forget). In startling contrast to almost all Blake's 7 cons I have attended and worked, this con committee did not make me feel as though I was some kind of sea sludge. Nor did they treat any of their people that way. Bravo to the con-com!

And the hotel. Suffice it to say that they got the ice machines fixed. The only problem for some people is that the meeting rooms were also a bit "icy."

The "workers" party" was the final official con event. All of the guests were there and stayed there and circulated, making a point to talk to as many people as they could. There was a country-western duo playing and someone suggested they play some "Elvis" songs and get one of the guests up to sing. (Guess who?) So we wound up with Darrow reprising his stage "Elvis," backed up by Keating and Price and assorted other fans in several wild and crazy moments. It perhaps typifies the whole attitude of the convention that the guests felt comfortable enough to do this, and also that when it was going on, one of the "triumvirate" told some non-workers who were hovering in the hall to come in and watch —and repeated the invitation until they did. Quite a contrast to the attitude of some other Blake's 7 con committees. Applause to all.