A strange kind of year

It's been an odd start to the year.  On the one hand, the UK has left the EU under a wave of banner and flag hoisting people who have no notion of how much damage they will probably have done to the British economy, spouting that this is democracy in action despite supporting an electoral system whereby the interests of the majority of the electorate is ignored.  Oh, if only coffin dodgers weren't so nimble, with their artificial knees and hips fitted while under the care of the immigrant health workers they so despise.  Where's an 'angel of mercy' masquerading as a nurse when you need one?

On the other hand, I have started gluing and painting the Space Marines I have owned for years.  This is both cathartic and a step towards actually gaming again.  If anything can cure my ennui it will be cleansing the galaxy of xeno filth while measuring weapon ranges and AOE with tape measures and plastic templates.  It should be made available on the national health.

I've always veered towards the Dark Angels as my preferred army. Partly because the Dark Vengeance starter set has the DA as its loyalist army but also because they sound mysterious, with their Fallen and the rather weird, fractured planet they are based on.  It is SF bombast as both extreme and suitably odd - something which suits the WH40K universe brilliantly.

My other SF interests are Star Wars, Doctor Who and Star Trek, in that order.  Star Wars was a childhood love of mine.  Everything about A New Hope pushes my buttons.  The vast canvas of a galaxy at war, with advanced technology, a powerful magic which can help tip the balance (in the guise of the Force), plucky underdogs fighting a massive, unaccountable empire where authority is enforced by a twisted, cybernetically enhanced henchman (Darth Vader obviously) was always too much for me to resist.

But, God bless DVDs: Blake's 7 has been able to rejoin this pantheon.  The complexity of the characters, the clever scripting and the questions of good vs bad (or goodish and not so badish) make more sense now than it did when I was a child.  The effects may have aged but the characters and the storylines haven't.  God bless Blakes 7 and the Liberator, and all who flew in her.