Timeline of Blake's 7 Fandom

Fandom:	Blake's 7
Dates:	1975 – present
See also:
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Timeline of Blake's 7 Fandom

1975

• The series is proposed to the BBC by Terry Nation

1976

• April: Nation submitted first script

• November: The series entered production

1977

• June: Blake's 7 announced to the press

1978

• Blake's Seven Information Service and Appreciation Society UK fanclub was founded

• First edition of Liberator Popular Front Newsletter, an early newsletter, and Liberator, an early anthology fanzine, both from the Liberator Popular Front fanclub; Liberator 1 carried fanfiction by Anne Lewis & Janet Ellicott

• January–March: Season 1 of the show first aired in the UK

• August: First edition of Resistance Communique, an early newsletter

1979

• Defects of Loneliness was published. It was the first fan fiction novel in the fandom.

• Horizon, a UK fanclub, was founded.

• January–April: Season 2 of the show first aired in the UK; Gan died and Orac joined

1980

• Star One, the first Blake's 7 convention

• The Avon Club, a UK fanclub for Paul Darrow (who played Avon), was founded

• January–March: Season 3 of the show first aired in the UK; Blake & Jenna were replaced by Tarrant & Dayna

• April: First edition of the Horizon Newsletter

1981

• First issue of B7 Complex, the first American all-B7 zine

• January: First issue of Chronicles, a long-running Australian gen anthology zine

• May: The Teal-Vandor Convention, a one-day UK convention

• September–December: Season 4 of the show first aired in the UK; Cally, Zen & the Liberator were replaced by Soolin, Slave & Scorpio. The show ended with the bleak episode 'Blake' (21 December), set on Gauda Prime; 9 million viewers had their Christmases spoiled

1982

• Edgecon (UK convention)

1983

• Slash fanfic began to be published in 1983: an early zine that included same-sex as well as mixed-sex relationships was The Big Boy's Book of 1001 Things to Do in Zero Gravity with a Federation Hand Blaster, first published August 1983, which includes what may be the first B7 slash story, Licence, pairing Del Tarrant with Jarvik, a character who appears only in a third-season episode 'Harvest of Kairos'.

• The first known B7 all-slash fanzine was E-Man-Uelle. The first two issues were published in 1983 (issues 1 to 8 came out roughly twice a year between 1983 and 1987). While badly produced and badly typed, these zines were the first to publish some B7 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.

• The first Scorpio: a series of British mediconventions, Oak Brook, IL, last one was held in 1989

1985

• BBC started to release videos with highlights of the series on four tapes

• April: Changing by Jane Carnall is published in "touched", a Jenna/ofc story that's the earliest known Blake's 7 femslash

1987

• October: First of the Gambit series of American genzines edited by Jean Graham

1988

• The Blake's 7 Wars

• DSV (Blake's 7 convention) held in New Jersey

• Orac (convention), a "Alpha Grade Blake's 7" convention was held near San Francisco, California. Actors Paul Darrow (Avon) and Michael Keating (Vila) were among the invited guests. The convention slogan was "Organized Rebellions Ain't Cheap."

1989

• Scorpio: a series of British mediconventions, Oak Brook, IL, the last one.

• Gambit convention was held in New Jersey

• Freedom City convention

1990

• Stormforce 7 was established around this time in Wellington, New Zealand
• April: Orac 90, an "Alpha Grade Blake's 7" convention was held near San Francisco, California. Actors Paul Darrow (Avon) and Michael Keating (Vila) were among the invited guests. The convention slogan was "Organized Rebellions Ain't Cheap."

• August: ORBIT was held in Newark, New Jersey

1991

• BBC started to release the complete series on video

1992

• November: The first mailing list was launched; Lysator was named after the "Lysator Academic Computer Society", one of the first Internet-connected sites in Sweden.

1994

• February: Star One published, the first of a series of genzines edited by Judith Proctor

• May: B. King & D. White Blakes' 7 Site is in existence; perhaps the earliest fansite?

1995

• March: The Generic Slash Defense Letter was posted to Lysator.

• September: Space City, a slash-friendly mailing list was spun off Lysator to allow discussion of slash and adult topics without controversy.

• Event Horizon (Australian convention), a science fiction convention in Brisbane, Australia.

1996

• Early fansites are linked in the January 1996 Lysator FAQ, including Adrenaline and Soma Powered Blake's 7 Pages, Lee Butler's Blake's 7 Page and Kathryn Andersen's Breezing with Blake's 7.

• May: Hermit.org was created.

• The very first online Blake's 7 fiction page was the website The Aquitar Files in early 1996.

• September: First Labor Day Party was held on Space City mailing list, an online 'fiction orgy'

1997

• The influential zine Deadlier Than the Male appeared, focusing on female characters

• April: Tarrant Nostra website was in existence

• June: Central Control launched, a directory of online B7 fanfiction, for several years an important hub site

1998

• The Blake's 7 Story Archive, later known as 'Hammer to Fall', was in existence by September

• Stadler Link published, the first in a series of genzines by Neil Faulkner

• October: ORACnid, an adult e-zine by Predatrix & Helen Patrick launched

1999

• Freedom City mailing list takes over from Space City

• January: An Avon/Tarrant Online Fiction Archive was in existence, perhaps the earliest B7 slash archive

• February: The first Redemption, then a Blake's 7 & Babylon 5 convention

• November: Liberated adult archive spun off from the Blake's 7 Story Archive

2000

• The Hermit Library was launched

• October: Bang and Blame, the post-Gauda Prime archive, was split from the 'Blake's 7 Story Archive', which subsequently became known as Hammer to Fall

2001

• December: blakes7 livejournal discussion community founded

• December: Wake for the 20th anniversary of the first showing of 'Blake' was held on Freedom City

2002

• Sleer as Folk, the first all-Blake's 7 femslash zine appears

• July: Blake's 7 article created on Wikipedia

2003

• The BBC start to release DVDs of the series

• The first Star One, a series of conventions held by the Avon: The Paul Darrow Society

• Several influential fans set up personal livejournals early in the year including AstroGirl, Executrix, Mistral Amara, Pink Dormouse, Una McCormack, Zenia and others

• April: Espresso Recommendations posts first set of Blake's 7 recs

• October: Blake's 7 recommendations first appear on Crack Van

• December: b7_rpg B7 role-playing community founded on livejournal

2004

• May: B7 Friday created, a ficlet challenge community on livejournal

• August: Blake's 7 Ficathon, perhaps the first livejournal ficathon

2005

• March: Blake Ficathon (masterlist)

• June: Blakes 7 Alternate Universe/Alternate Reality Ficathon (masterlist) & Jarriere Ficathon

• July: b7fic & b7icons created, fiction & icon communities on livejournal

• October: B7 Crackficathon (masterlist)

2006

• April: B7 Harlequin/Mills & Boon Challenge (masterlist)

2007

• The fandom was inactive enough to qualify as a Yuletide fandom

• The last Star One, a series of conventions held by the The Avon Club

• March: b7recs created as a livejournal recs community, after the fandom dropped out of the regular Crack Van rotation

• December: b7fanart created, livejournal fan art community

2008

• Aftermath convention in the UK, celebrating the 30th anniversary

• February: b7discussion created, a livejournal discussion community

• July: Hip Deep in Heroes launched, the first B7 auto-archive

• October: Blake's 7 page created on Fanlore

2009

• September: b7rewatch livejournal community starts a rewatch, with weekly episode discussions

2010

• October: b7rewatch concludes

2012

• August: A second rewatch starts at b7rewatch, with weekly episode discussions

2013

• February–March: The first Blakefest exchange ran

• March: b7_kinkmeme founded; the first B7 kink meme

• June/July: Hip Deep in Heroes, then the largest B7 fanfiction archive, went offline, meaning there was no fandom-specific archive still updating

• December: Second b7rewatch concludes

2014

• October: Second edition of Blakefest exchange

2015

• August: Hermit Library, then the largest B7 fanfiction archive, started to move to Archive of Our Own

2017

• August: The first issue of Rebels and Fools, one of the few currently produced Blake's 7 zines, is published

2018

• August: Rebels and Fools Discord server is founded

2019

• August: Gauda Prime Social Club Discord server is founded