Beyond the Roundels

... to the bunch of my flisters I like to call the Gauda Prime Gang, especially since most of them know exactly what I mean, and clearly go in for ironic birth dates. But, no, really - best wishes and a happy day to meneleth, aralias, rosied, jaxomsride2 and to whuffle! May your day be entirely unlike the anniversary we're commemorating. ♥


And with that, also fellow commiserations to all us Blake's 7 fans, for Gauda Prime Day is upon us once more. What could possibly go wrong now, indeed? (Thanks, sallymn, for all the most perfect icons!)



(And, as ever, if you don't know what I'm talking about and you have any interest in SFF and any toleration for old time Brit TV, you should find out, especially now that it's actually available via BritBox! You can thank me next year. In short: watch B7. It's old, it's super-influential, it's shaky, it's still much much too relevant, it's the snarkiest, and it's very awesome and somehow great fun and terribly bleak all at the same time.)

... to aralias, meneleth, whuffle, rosied, & jaxomsride2 who all share this very special day!


And also of course a very unhappy fortieth Gauda Prime Day to everyone who knows what that means! (I remain as amused as ever that so many of the people above do know - so happy birthday/commiserations! Celebrate as appropriately as you may! Possibly... XD)


I hadn't realised it was 40 years till yesterday! Anyway, in lieu of something more, I've been repointing people to my Why Classic Who Fans Should Watch Blake's 7 post and aralias's similar but different why you should watch blake's 7, f-list.

It is old and creaky TV now, but for anyone for whom that is not a barrier who can get hold of it, it is hands down one of the best TV rides I've ever had, with some of the best characters, and I recommend checking it out. For a short-lived BBC SF show (4x13 50min eps), it's had a very long impact and almost all the current crop of TV SF are in some way its grandchildren - its children being Babylon 5, Farscape and Firefly, who all took important aspects from it. (JMS drops in the odd Avon quote in homage, just to prove it.)

(It also has Ben Steed, but we can talk about that when & if anyone gets to S3.)

Anyway, it is genuinely awesome. I know this is sad and weird of me, but when I reached the end after other Classic Who fans bullied me into giving it a go about 12 or so years ago, I just stood up and clapped. And then was v relieved there was no one else around. But... yes. It was one hell of a ride, and they'd all been right, and I loved it.

... first to graycardinal and to selenay! May you both have an excellent day! ♥


And of course, to the very best TV show ever - 56 years and counting!

Have a celebratory vid:

( A thing that looks like a police box standing in a junkyard - it can go anywhere in time and space? But that's ridiculous! )

... to *takes deep breath* graycardinal librarylover82, and selenay! May you all have a great day!

And belatedly (sorry) to shivver13 on the 19th!


... and also a very happy 55th anniversary to a certain rather wonderful TV show:



(Hopefully with this being the 55th anniversary, some more vidders will feel moved to go all the way up to Twelve and Thirteen, but in the meantime, this is a pretty great overview.)

It seems to be a Red Letter Day today. First off, Happy Birthday to:

meneleth, rosiedlotrfan, jaxomsride, whuffle, and (last but very much never the least) aralias! May you all have a wonderful time (and curses on the heads of all those who combine b'day and Christmas presents (well, unless they're really good ones))!


However, as at least three of them know only too well, it's also B7's Gauda Prime Day. *removes non-existent hat*

I've posted these two things before, including last year, but it only feels right to post them again now, because 2016. The vid is spoilery (as ever), but the meta is not. It's also short and I really do recommend taking a look, even if you don't know Blake's 7. Because 2016.


The Cave (S4 Vid by elviaprose).

Another Man's Freedom Fighter by The_Dancing_Walrus (G, 929 words. Meta.)


(For those who don't understand: I once wrote a non-spoilery guide to Blake's 7. It won't explain, because spoilers, but at least you know what I'm on about in the more general terms. Creaky old TV, as ever, in the even shorter version.)

I love that of all my fandoms, only two of them have a special day attached and one of them is an anniversary that's all about joy and hope and ridiculousness, and the other is... well, Gauda Prime Day. But sort of oddly bleakly hopeful anyway, I think.

Happy birthday to whuffle, rosiedlotrfan, jaxomsride, and aralias! May you have a wonderful day!

Or, at least, as definitely two (three?) of you know, the best day you can, considering that this is Gauda Prime Day. May you keep your chins up, never lose your snark, keep the rebellion going, and probably you should watch fanvids and sigh?

Here are some appropriate vids I happen to like. It goes without saying that if you don't know B7, they're spoilery as hell. But if you don't know B7, you won't be, ah, celebrating Gauda Prime Day:

The Final Chapter

Intergalactic Space Crusaders

Last Man Standing

Cartoon Heroes (Slightly cheerier S4 vid, if you don't want angst!)

The Cave

My Life Would Suck Without You


And Another Man's Freedom Fighter - the piece of B7 meta you really should read. (♥ Also, it's not spoilery!)

*heads off to rewatch Blake*

... to the lovely a_phoenixdragon! I do hope you manage to have a wonderful day, whatever else may be going on! ♥

... to the very lovely dimity_blue! May you have a good day! Here's sending you all the best wishes I can! ♥

... to 10littlebullets! Don't know if you're still around, but I hope you're having a good day, whatever you're doing!

... to the lovely persiflage_1! May you have a wonderful day! ♥

(Something random and small should be making its way towards you in rl.)

... to the wonderful liadtbunny! I do hope you're having an excellent day, with all the gloomy old 70s telly you could possibly wish for. ♥


Also, in another note, there's a blog out there where the user has been reposting LJ posts without permission. (They seem to have set it up in some automated way to repost any posts tagged with "fanfic" or variations, or entries from selected blogs, possibly, but it includes anything tagged with that - random meme posts, challenge announcement and in one case, someone complaining about the blog stealing their posts, so they obviously don't bother looking at their own content.)

It's here

I've requested that my posts be removed. (They seemed to have taken all my entries tagged fanfic since July, regardless of fandom.)

I noticed (when going through the "fanfic" tag) entries stolen from john_amend_all, liadtbunny (happy birthday! your fic has been stolen!), kaffyr, and also still_lycoris, who isn't on my flist, but I know some of you know.

I'm actually a lot less bothered than I probably should be about people stealing my fic, but I do very much object to someone reposting my LJ entries wholesale, and I may need to make a lot more things flocked for a while, because if it's possible to set up something like that for one tag, who knows who else is doing it for whatever kind of topic? Clearly a public entry really needs to be something I don't mind being more public than I'd planned on.

(I'm posting this publicly and tagging it "fanfic" though, because if the blog ends up with a whole lot of posts warning the world against itself, it serves the blogger right. You know, can we go back in time and prevent the invention of Tumblr or something? Not everything is made to be reblogged and context is a thing that exists, even on the internet.)

... to glinda_penguin! I hope you're having a wonderful day! ♥

... to livii! Hope you're having a wonderful day!