Let's Talk January: Blakes 7!

navaan asked me for some Blakes 7 thoughts!

First, a quick introduction to Blakes 7. B7 was a BBC science fiction show that ran for four series in the early 1980s. It was a dystopian show about a rebel against the oppressive Federation named Roj Blake, who steals a super-high-tech spaceship while being transported to a prison planet and escapes along with a motley group of smugglers, burglars, and embezzlers, who he then drags into his rebellion. It is most notable for being witty, sardonic, morally gray and bleak while also managing to sport some of the most utterly insane costuming choices known to humanity.

Blakes 7 was the first fandom I ever wrote fic for, and I entered it in the most roundabout way possible: I was in a graduate-school class on media theory and there were readings on fandom, something I had never heard of in my life. I found and read Henry Jenkins's "Textual Poachers" and Camille Bacon-Smith's "Enterprising Women" (both highly recommended, by the way, although the fandom they describe is pre-Internet and thus very different in some ways) and both of them mentioned Blakes 7 as a key text, so I decided to find and watch it, and I was hooked immediately. The relationship between passionate idealist Blake and the cynical, cold-hearted Kerr Avon was so very interesting, and their tug-of-war about trust and friendship was completely enthralling. It didn't hurt that they spent a lot of time staring intently at each other or saving each others' lives by throwing their arms around each other.

Here are some images of Avon and Blake Being Intense together (the images and text are taken from this page:

( Really old but very specific spoilers below the cut. Also, 80s BBC fashion. YOu have been warned. )