Blakes7 November 2001

blakes7@lists.lysator.liu.se

65 participants
273 discussions

Re: Language
by Sally Manton 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

Actually, I don't think Vila is that much more colloquial than an average person (it's just the company he keeps, and I do mean Mr Ultra-Precise). He's a *bit* more relaxed in a vocab than, say, Blake, and it's enhanced by the way MK actually speaks, but the differences between grades don't seem to be all that great to me. But one way Vila is different is the unusual amount of colour and contrast in his words, the bright, playful and varied way he uses them (things like getting the dignified hell out of here) that contrasts with Avon's precision, Blake's layered, careless perfection and Cally's stiffness. Vila likes words as much as Avon does, it's part of what makes their relationship work. I wouldn't be surprised if Vila enjoys reading in his spare time, he certainly has a far greater gift for and skill with words than most of the rest of them, including the possible-Alphas Jenna, Dayna, and Tarrant ... _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

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RE: [B7L] Re: Language
by Nicola Mody-Nikoloff 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

Jen McGee wrote: > I'm working on a lot of Vila dialogue and internal monologue > right now, and I'm > really struggling with this. I know he doesn't speak > "American," but any efforts > to make him use the right style of language come across > as...well...as an American > trying to write what she *thinks* British sounds like. He > sounds like a bad > imitation of a Monty Python skit, full of cliched phrases and > forced lines. > Especially the indelicate interjections someone like Vila > would surely make--I > just can't use "bloody," "arse," or "sod" without it sounding > desperately > stilted. Or like I'm throwing in the little Brit lingo I > know to "make it sound > real." Either way it jars the scene out of believability for > me. Frustrating. Part of your problem is that there was very little swearing in the series. Vila said 'hell' a few times ("Let's get the dignified hell out of here!"), and I can quite hear him saying 'sod' or 'bastard' (in fact in my current fiction he does), but not 'arse' (or at least not out loud) as it just isn't the type of language used in B7. I also found I'd made him say OK a lot, and had to go through changing that to 'all right', which in all cases was fine. And 'guess' to 'suppose'. Due to TV, I speak mid-Atlantic, a mixture of both US and British English with some NZ special terms - e.g. I've had to ensure that they use specific British terms - e.g. 'trunks' or 'costumes' to go swimming in rather than 'togs'. Another thing Vila does is to use different grammar - he often misses out pronouns and other words - "Don't like the look of that" - and/or inverts sentence structure - "Bit mean, I call that!" That could make your language a bit more Vila-like! Nico *** This e-mail is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please delete the message and notify the sender. ***

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Re: Desperately Seeking ObB7 Mostly OT Andromeda
by Betty Ragan 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

Sally wrote: > Harriet wrote re Andromeda (which I haven't seen, so can't comment): > <Though the 2nd-season opening credits/music are infinitely worse.> > > ;-) what do people think of our own credits/music then? Well, they're 3000% better than the current _Andromeda_ ones, that's for sure. The frightening thing is, it's almost too easy to imagine how shudderingly awful it would be if B7 had taken the same approach. Picture Blake striding forward on the _Liberator_ flight deck looking incredibly Serious and Heroic and the rest of the crew moving in behind him doing their level best to match his expression while a cheesy voiceover tells us how Rebel Leader Blake has assembled his Unlikely Crew on a Daring Mission to bring Hope to the Galaxy (capital letters mandatory). Blehh! (And it's an especial pity, as I *loved* the original _Andromeda_ theme and they've gone and ruined it utterly. :() IMO the B7 opening credits (in their various versions) are OK but far from spectacular. The 1st/2nd season opening with the images of the security cameras and Blake being tortured, etc. is great in concept, as it captures the tone of the show quite well, but as it's actually executed it does, I admit, look a little bit cheesy. The swooping ships of Season 3 are maybe a bit better, visually, but they're also a lot more generic. The (presumably) Scorpio's-eye views of space and rushing planetary surface in the 4th season credits are pretty nifty looking, but I don't like the 4th Season logo nearly as well. The theme music, on the other hand, kicks ass. I remember mentioning the show once to a non-fan who responded with "Oh, yeah, I remember that show. It had a great theme song." So that must not be *just* MHO, if casual viewers can remember it as one of the main highlights 20 years later! (Have we managed to get back to enough of an obB7 yet? :)) -- Betty Ragan ** bragan(a)nrao.edu ** http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~bragan Not speaking for my employers, officially or otherwise. "Seeing a rotten picture for the special effects is like eating a tough steak for the smothered onions..." -- Isaac Asimov

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Intro Music and Intro
by Sally Manton 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

Jen McGee wrote: <Since this is my first post, I guess I'd better introduce myself.> Welcome to our humble group :-) _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

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Music videos, was site update
by Sally Manton 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

Mel wrote: <If you were making your own songvid, what music and clips would you include?> Ones that no one else has heard of, probably :-) since I'm shockingly uncool musically ... mind you, I've been listening to Sondheim's 'Assassins' on CD and found that the closing number - where they all sing "Everybody's Got the Right to be Happy" while pointing guns at the audience - I can *see* the Scorpio crew doing this!!! _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

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Re: Andromeda
by Steve Rogerson 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

Steve K wrote: >> But now I hear that we may not see any more of Andromeda for ages, as >> Sky has thought of a new excuse to drop it. > >Huh? What? Ratings have plummeted and apparently Sky is now putting it on hold at least until after it has run the first season of Enterprise in that slot, which probably means June or July before it returns. Sky though has been known to change its mind, but it did do teh same with season one of Andromeda, splitting it around the final season of Voyager. -- cheers Steve Rogerson http://homepages.poptel.org.uk/steve.rogerson Redemption 03, 21-23 February 2003, Ashford, Kent Celebrating 25 years of Blake's 7 and 10 years of Babylon 5 http://www.smof.com/redemption

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B7 underwear
by Nicola Mody-Nikoloff 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

Further to my silly post about what underwear the crew would wear: I forgot Vila himself (as I was quoting him from his e-mails in my story). A further quote from him: " I've gone for silk boxers (very nice against the skin) in nice muted greys and browns." Nico *** This e-mail is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please delete the message and notify the sender. ***

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RE: Re: [B7L] Re: familiar or formal
by jacquispeel＠netscape.net 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

"Ellynne G." <rilliara(a)juno.com> wrote: >On Sat, 24 Nov 2001 10:14:54 -0500 "Dana Shilling" ><dshilling(a)worldnet.att.net> writes: >> >> I'm about halfway through a "Comedy of Errors" story, where Blake's >> rebel contact, Rashel, thinks Blake is her husband, Reg Black the >> used >> spacecraft dealer (which makes perfect sense because he's one of the >> clones) and Vila's clone has a romance with Rashel's sister, and a >> gang >> of thugs repossesses Blake's teleport bracelet because they think >> it's >> the expensive watch that Reg hasn't paid for. >> >Every time I want to be jealous that someone beat me to a great idea, I'm >stopped by finding out they're doing a much better job with it than I >ever would. This sounds great. You _were_ intending to let people read >it when you were done, weren't you? (Pretty please? with sugar on top?) > >Ellynne Sometimes facts do overtake fiction - I had just started writing a (non-B7) story about a fake diary when the Jeoffrey Archer case came up (for non-Brits, among other things aforesaid JA was involved in, there was a slightly rearranged diary) - my story was quite different but... (and this is not the only time this has happened to me.) Jacqui -- __________________________________________________________________ Your favorite stores, helpful shopping tools and great gift ideas. Experience the convenience of buying online with Shop@Netscape! http://shopnow.netscape.com/ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/

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RE: [B7L] Re: Re:Blake and Vila
by Nicola Mody-Nikoloff 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

Betty Ragan wrote: > Sally Manton wrote: > > > It's also very forced, which prompts me to suggest - since > we *can't* simply > > cite Bad Writer Syndrome - that it's more for a reaction > for each other's > > benefit, as part of the sort-of-mending-fences 'pax' thing > indicated by > > Avon's open-hand gesture, than anything to do with Vila. > > I've *always* interpreted that scene that way. For one thing, any > issues of appropriateness or hurtfulness-to-Vila aside, Avon's comment > *isn't* particularly witty or amusing, certainly not enough to deserve > that kind of a reaction on its own merits. But it serves as an excuse > for Blake and Avon to indulge in that shared moment of laughter. I > don't think it *is* about Vila at all: it's about Blake and Avon > negotiating a badly-needed emotional rapprochement in one of the few > ways they're actually capable of doing so. IMHO, of course. I'd agree - it's a way of defusing tension between Blake and Avon, and I suppose a Delta's feelings aren't that important to anyone else anyway, and at this point Vila's very resilient. I don't think anyone but Cally, a couple of times, ever considered Vila's feelings. And even she joins in the inexcusable Vila-bashing after Chenga which I'm sure made Tarrant and Dayna despise him from then on. I've never forgiven Avon for that - insulting Vila while he was unconscious, then again later - obviously the two latest Alphas on board would consider him fair game after that. I think the worst B7 example of what I call the 'tinkly bits' (based on the tinkly music that Star Trek TOS used to indicate a bit of comic relief) is at the end of 'Children of Auron'. An entire race has been almost destroyed and Avon cracks that terrible joke and they all laugh. I just cringed. << DAYNA: What about Cally? Do you think she'll want to go with them? AVON: Cally will stay with us. We are closer to her than they are. Besides, a nursery of five thousand, would you want to go with them? [all laugh, Dayna passes tray, Vila and Tarrant take wafers] >> OK, it relieved tension but in such bad taste! At least poor Vila wasn't the target that time. Nico *** This e-mail is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please delete the message and notify the sender. ***

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Fwd: Re: Desperately Seeking ObB7 Mostly OT Andromeda
by Sally Manton 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

Harriet wrote re Andromeda (which I haven't seen, so can't comment): <Though the 2nd-season opening credits/music are infinitely worse.> ;-) what do people think of our own credits/music then? _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

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Blakes7 November 2001