The Rumored Blake's 7 Story Sent to the Darrows

Fanfiction
Title:	unknown
Author(s):	unknown
Date(s):	unknown
Length:	unknown
Genre:	RPF (slash or het)?, character slash?
Fandom:	Blake's 7
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Rumor has it that a fan anonymously sent a story to Paul Darrow and Janet Lees Price.

The story nor its author is ever named, and there are conflicting statements about its content and topic.

Many fans think that the story never existed and that its mention was used to embarrass and divide fans involved in Blake's 7 fic The Blake's 7 Wars. This could be quite likely as a story of this profile would almost certainly be difficult for all fans on both sides not to remember it, or for fans in the Darrow corner not rush to reveal it to garner points in that brawl. Another clue to its non-existence is that the Darrows had nothing to lose by revealing more about it in the back and forth volley of blame and finger-pointing.

It is also likely that the Darrows didn't understand the definitions of slash and were confused with terminology. Another point to keep in mind is that Paul Darrow identified VERY strongly with his character, Kerr Avon, and had made statements that revealed the meld between the two. 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.

Janet Lees Price's Comments

From "Slash Fiction" by Janet Lees Price:

I don't know if there are any writers of, 'slash fiction', in Britain, but there are in America. For the uninitiated, ’slash fiction’, consists of stories featuring B7 characters in homosexual situations or, ’deviations on that theme’!

Somewhat surprisingly, the majority are written by women and are sold under cover at some conventions or via mail order. A few have been sent to us, anonymously, and Paul has been asked to autograph copies, again at some conventions. He has declined. A glance at a few pages of those we were sent was enough! They are pornographic and sometimes, to our disgust, our real, as opposed to our character, names are used.

Fan Comments

The story of the Blake's 7 Wars were passed down orally through successive waves of fans until they took on a mythic quality, obscuring what some argued were the original reasons behind the wars (namely access to the actors and for profit conventions). And like a game of "Telephone," the information often mutated.

Below are multiple versions of events; where possible they are offered here unedited. Keep in mind that different fans had access to different information, they often had opposing goals, and all had much to protect. This means that each statement or comment needs to be read in context and with awareness (if possible) of each fan's filters.

1989

What's curious about this, is Janet's 'sudden' reaction to the 'porno' story involving 'Paul and Janet' rather than Avon and ... She takes it sound as though she just received an atrocious copy of this last Fall and that started it all. I remember distinctly her telling a small group of us about that same 'rude' story on the pool deck at OMNICON OVER A YEAR AGO! At that time, we told her about slash; where it came from, why it's called slash; why it is written; why pseuds are used, etc. FACE TO FACE with Janet Darrow! OVER A YEAR AGO! And she's acting like she just discovered it. And it's not a slash story, but heteroerotica. And some in the fandom have been 'hearing about this story for several years now. But I don't know anyone who has ever actually seen/read a copy, except the Darrows! She has been sent at least one genuine slash story - 'Dearly Beloved/Rogue' - anonymously!

1995

Yes, Actor slash does exist for B7, I'm not sure if someone else will have already answered this though. In fact, Paul Darrow brought a court case against some slash zine editors because his wife was so offended by slash, and in particular Paul Darrow/Gareth Thomas Slash. This is a long and involved story, so I won't go into it in depth, but perhaps it's best that the people on the B7 net don't find out that it does exist, you know how some of them can get!

By now someone better informed than I am may well have replied to this, but in case they haven't--

I think most of this story is pure rumor. To the best of my knowledge, after asking around about it for some time, the only people who have ever claimed to have seen such a thing as B7 actor slash (or at least B7 actor smut, since there is some question as to whether this one alleged story, if it ever even existed, was slash or het) are Paul and Janet Darrow. At the time of the infamous Controversy (ca. 1989), they claimed to have been sent anonymously an explicit sex story dealing with themselves (and in some versions Gareth Thomas) under their real names. However, the details of this incident, including the date when it was supposed to have taken place and the content of the story, changed with every telling; and the opinion of many is that the Darrows made the whole thing up.

[...]

I did acquire another interesting bit of information on this issue at Escapade. [J C] told me that a friend she considers reliable told her that she had actually seen the notorious story. Paul Darrow himself showed her (J C's friend) the first page only, so she didn't know what kind of story it was, but it did exist. BUT, she said, that was back in 1981! So even if such a story existed, it probably had little or nothing to do with organized fandom. He was, after all, a big star at the time, and stars are liable to get all kinds of strange and unwanted attention from the more peculiar members of the public. Perhaps during the Controversy the Darrows dragged up an unrelated incident from the distant past and pretended it had happened more recently in order to elicit sympathy for their anti-slash stance (which was less a matter of principle than an excuse to attack people they were mad at for other reasons).

I can think of only one thing I've ever seen published in a zine that used a B7 actor's name in a sexual context. It's a poem. I tried to track it down, to give the precise reference, but now, of course, I can't find it. Anyway, it was a short, vague het thing in which Avon and Cally are in bed together. As part of their love-play they have pet names for each other, and she calls him "Paul." All I can say is, if that little poem had anything to do with all the (as far as I know) otherwise unfounded allegations of B7 actor slash, then it was a damn tiny molehill to have generated such a mountain.

I'd be very interested indeed in any further ACCURATE information on the matter.

As to your comments re Gareth Thomas and Paul Darrow - there is a very long story behind all of that, and I don't have all the details, but I can tell you a little bit of it. When Paul came to Australia, someone gave him a slash zine to autograph (there are some totally brain dead morons in fandom!). His wife and himself were both mortally horrified by this (someone said it even had a Gareth/Paul story in it), and he took some action.

You're totally right about Paul Darrow hating slash, although these days I think he tends to ignore it, and just requests people not to send it to him or to ask him to autograph it. (I think the Paul/Gareth story was probably apocryphal - everyone's heard of it, no-one's ever read it.)

A couple of footnotes to your comments about Paul Darrow and Gareth Thomas, and the slash story. I understood that the convention where Paul was given (or saw, it depends on whom you talk to) a slash story was in America, though I may have misunderstood. I'd also heard that the zine had a Paul/Gareth story in it - though to my knowledge, and again I'm willing to be corrected, no such story has ever been published. In fact, the whole rumour for the existence of this story seems to have originated from Paul and Janet Darrow themselves, certainly I've heard the tale from those who knew only about the fan wars' from their side, and was told this tale then.[...] Totally agree with you that thrusting slash in the faces of the stars is pretty stupid, though one or two have been known to express an unhealthy interest!

1998

If you go back in time a few months and read a post by Yvonne Harrison involving fanfic for Blake's Seven, I think you'll see that the performers DON'T appreciate stories written about them and whether or not they jump each other's bones.

In fact, the actor in question had been lovely to fans, had been, in fact, sitting with them and having drinks and talking and was fascinated by the phenom of fanfic until someone mentioned a story about him and his wife.

He was, needless to say, seriously upset and from being open to his fans and supportive of fanfic, turned one hundred and eighty degrees and opposed it vehemently, if memory serves.

1999

In 1988-89, the Blake’s 7 fandom was seriously damaged when some of the actors in the show, who had become friends with a good number of the fans, were shown samples of slash stories. Taking offense to the portrayal of their characters as homosexual, and seeing this type of writing as a betrayal of their friendship with the fans, the actors sought to ban the slash authors they knew from fandom and to rid the fandom of slash. As with all of the other forms of "official" sanctions against slash, the furor eventually eased, and slash fiction continued to be written. (Langley, June 17th, 1999)

2005

Now, two things happened that made Paul Darrow go batshit. First, gave him porn. I've heard different versions of the story: It was b7 slash, it was RP slash, it was het featuring Paul and his wife, it was given to him as a well-meaning but dreadfully inappropriate gift, it was leaked by someone else to get the author in trouble, etc. Whatever it was, he got it at the worst possible time, read it, and went ape. (Now, I think he's a huge jerkoff for various reasons, but I don't blame him for this.

2007

Oooh! I have information on WHY RPS is forbidden in Blakes 7.

Way back when, there was a conference in Australia. There were 'zines available at the conference, and one of the zines contained RPS. Paul Darrow read it (I am not sure whether he was browsing and found it or had it presented to him) and was NOT IMPRESSED. Neither was his wife, who was with him at the time. (Nothing to do with anything. I just heard this from someone who was there, and thought you might like to know)

I've heard roughly the same story (and another version where the story was sent to him by post and he subsequently turned up to a con with it, breathing fire). However, I don't know of anyone who has actually *read* this RPS story, or can produce a copy of it, or can even say who wrote it or what it was about or what zine it was. So I'm always a bit hesitant to actually say it existed. Because, well. Given the turmoil in B7 fandom at the time, I wouldn't trust Paul Darrow not to embellish the truth on something like that. If you do know any of the other details, then I'd love to hear them. I've always been curious about what really did happen, and a lot of the people who were involved in the fan wars and are still around really don't like talking about it, for perfectly understandable reasons.