Gauda Prime Day

[altariel]

As well as the shortest day, solstice, whatnot, today is Gauda Prime Day, the 24th anniversary of the first screening of Blake, the last episode of Blake's 7.

I was nine. It screwed with my head. I still haven't recovered. Huzzah!

Comments

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

Well, if it made you what you are today, it can't have been all bad. :D

[kendokamel.livejournal.com]

Heehee!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

LOL! Bitter, twisted, cynical, paranoid...!

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

I went upstairs and howled for an hour or so, and spent the next two days of school doing nothing much but write about how I felt about it endlessly in my journal.

Thank God I wasn't online then.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I don't remember crying, but I remember running upstairs and hiding my face in the pillow.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I actually shed tears. What I remember is sitting with my mouth open trying not to make any noise because no one at home understood (my brother was watching it with me, but he just got up and said "Wasn't expecting that!" and went away).

[altariel.livejournal.com]

no one at home understood

*sympathy!* My sister was upstairs in the bedroom (not even watching!) and thought I'd gone completely mad.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Oh! You used the same link! I noticed you'd posted as I was about to do mine, but didn't look at it in detail until afterwards. And I've just had a phone call from the friend I mentioned visiting last year, in whose house I first saw Blake, and I've arranged to go and exchange presents this evening.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Hope you don't mind me posting that link, I love that post. Enjoy your evening!

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Everyone will think I copied it off you now! No, seriously, I'm very flattered.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

"He ruin'd me, and I am re-begot
Of absence, darkness, death — things which are not"

[kerravongenius.livejournal.com]

I was 11. It scarred me for life too.

There were only two times in my childhood when the whole school was in shock, after Gan's death and after we'd seen "Blake". I'll never forget wandering around the playground hearing people say, "They're not dead. They couldn't kill all of them." Then others added, "Well, they killed Gan and Cally.

I started my PGP just to make the misery go away.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

And Zen! Don't forget Zen! (I think I was saddest about Zen; I wasn't yet watching when Gan died so it didn't have the impact.)

[kerravongenius.livejournal.com]

Don't mention Zen!

It broke my heart. The best spaceship ever, lost! Zen, dying like that! And then Cally! :(

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

That's why I started writing fanfic. So I suppose it's not all bad.

And Terry Nation said Avon and Vila had to survive in Tony Attwood's book and he wanted to do a new series with them.

[gfk88.livejournal.com]

You just brought it all back !

The youngsters of today wouldn't understand the shock we felt, I think, now that more or less every programme has main characters dropping like flies every other week. In our day it hardly ever happened - or so it seems to me. And when it did it wasn't blabbed out in the papers for weeks beforehand either.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

You just brought it all back !

Quick, a cup of tea and a sit down!

Ooh yes - season 1 of Spooks is being shown on the Hallmark Channel at the moment, so I'm finally getting a chance to catch up (I think they're edited a bit, though).

[gfk88.livejournal.com]

Ooh yes - enjoy.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I didn't see the first two seasons on first transmission, and read Attwood's episode guide obsessively throughout my teens. It was so great to see them when the videos finally came out. I really hope the DVDs do finally come out in your region (or you lay your hands on a multiregion player).

[hafren.livejournal.com]

I was too old for all the crying (about 30) but I recall being pretty stunned.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

I didn't see "Blake" until my teens, when the oh-so-appreciated UK-US fandom connections made mutual exchanges of blurry, fourth-generation tapes commonplace. That's when I fell for Blake's 7 and The Professionals. I'd been warned incessantly about the final episode pf B7, but still I wasn't prepared for the emotional impact. I'm still impressed that TPTB had the courage to pull it off so unflinchingly. And yes, I still haven't recovered.

*holds lighter and observes moment of silence*

[altariel.livejournal.com]

the oh-so-appreciated UK-US fandom connections made mutual exchanges of blurry, fourth-generation tapes commonplace

Wow, yes, I remember watching TNG that way. That would be a brilliant way to have been introduced to B7.

[kathyh]

I was 24. It screwed with my head. I still haven't recovered!

Perhaps we should all sue the Beeb for mental scarring...

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

And demand they buy us all free Season 4 DVDs as compensation.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Because god knows it'll hurt handing over cash for season 4.

[jomacmouse.livejournal.com]

It hurts enough looking at the prices for the first three series in Australian dollars :(

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Damn right!

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

It was The Moment of television, like no other moment before, and none after.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Definitely.

[the-wild-iris.livejournal.com]

Aw, sorry! Hope that you can also remember them as they were.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't have them any other way :-) We're going to watch the fabled, fated episode over supper.

[temeres.livejournal.com]

As I recall, I wasn't too shocked, but then I'd already been informed (by the BBC) that this was to be the very last episode and it wasn't too difficult to work out that they were all going to die. More a matter of curiosity, to see just how they were all going to get bumped off.

The end of the 3rd Season, though - immediately after Terminal, I had to go and lie down in a dark room for a while.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I was stunned and made up so many ways for them not to be dead that I was amazed when I watched again about 4 years ago and found that Vila wasn't hiding safely under a table. :-(

Mind you, I almost didn't watch the reruns because my shock and anger was still so vivid.

[raspberryfool.livejournal.com]

I think i wasn't so much angry that they all died - just rather miffed and sad that was the end. Had i been fifteen instead of thirteen, i'd have been angrier.

But it's hard to remember just how i felt, to be honest.

That announcer didn't do me any favours though - but at least she didn't lie to us.

Anyway, GP Day condolences.

*insert reverent silence*

[hafren.livejournal.com]

And of course GP day is now also same-sex partnership day - there must be a story in that somewhere!

[kerravonsen]

I wasn't shocked so much as resigned -- because in the hiatus between Season 3 and Season 4, they were showing The Omega Factor, which Chris Boucher was also involved in (I can't remember in what capacity). It was also a fairly bleak-ish show, Our Hero was certain that there was some kind of conspiracy going on, and every episode he would always miss out on getting the evidence. So when "Blake" aired, my reaction was "Typical Chris Boucher!" (grumble grumble).

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I really must get hold of 'The Omega Factor'...