The War That Almost Broke a Classic Fandom
Blake’s 7 fans and actors mixed regularly at cons and on the pages of zines—until an anonymous letter changed everything.
It started with an anonymous letter.
It was the tail end of 1988, and the letter addressed fans of the British sci-fi show Blake’s 7, which had gained a cult following in the United States. Printed in a popular letterzine, it concerned rumors that the show’s actors, who had been appearing at fan-run conventions on a largely volunteer basis, would deliberately switch over to professional conventions to milk money out of fans.
The letter singled out an unnamed prominent Blake’s 7 actor who was trying to launch a pro con for himself, along with scandalous “quotes” about how he didn’t want to spend time with fans, how he wanted to run fan cons out of business, and how he wanted to control the sale and content of fannish literature.
It was obvious to all who read it that the subject was Paul Darrow, the actor who played computer expert Kerr Avon, a lead character in all four seasons of a show with a constantly shifting cast. Darrow was incredibly popular in the fandom, and a mainstay at fan-run cons. The letter concluded with a suggestion to move toward fan conventions without any guest focus at all—in short, who needs him?
At the crux of the letter was a reasonable consideration of fan- versus pro-run conventions, but everything around it was inarguably inflammatory, an attempt to raise arms against a specific bad actor (pun not intended) in the fandom: “I won’t be controlled; I won’t be taken advantage of,” the anonymous writer said. “I won’t line a greedy actor’s pockets…in short, I will fight this attempt at a hostile ‘Federation’ takeover.”
