Blakes7 December 2001

blakes7@lists.lysator.liu.se

67 participants
252 discussions

RE: Re: [B7L] Names [was Self-insertion]
by Sally M 09 Jan '02

09 Jan '02

Nico wrote: <You're quite right. I had thought of that, but just with the Dels - that it's a future version of John, making that resort planet John 10.> Maybe there was a very famous Del a couple of centuries past - an explorer or Federation hero, whatever - called Del, and both babies and places have been named after him every since :-) re the Tarrants, I believe there was no ulterior reason for them, Terry Nation simply had a liking for the name, but it's rather fun (if stretching coincidence, but that's rather an art form in B7) to imagine that there *is* a family connection ... _________________________________________________________________ Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com

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Blake's 7 and Stargate
by Judith Proctor 05 Jan '02

05 Jan '02

I've been watching a lot of Stargate recently and I've been drawing a few mental comparisons between the that and Blake's 7. (Incidentally, if you've seen the Stargate film and not the series, the two have a very different flavour - don't judge one by the other) I always thought that Blake never followed up on Jenna's obvious interest in him because he either wasn't interested or else he was too obsessed with rebellion to have room for any other interest, but Stargate suggests a third (and very likely option). Stargate is based around the US airforce and the rule is simple, you don't have a relationship with anyone below you in the chain of command. There are several reasons for this, and they make good sense. Firstly, you cannot guarantee to act impartially - if you have to send one of your people into a dangerous situation, then can you be certain that you will not discriminate in favour of someone you are in love with? (or maybe that's a new reason for Jenna always ending up on teleport duty...). Secondly, if you're in a tight corner, you may not be able to concentrate fully on your objective if you're worrying about other things - like your beloved getting shot. Thirdly, the ban is a protection against sexual harassment (if such relationships are forbidden, then it's much easier for a woman to say no when a person with power over her makes a pass at her). In Stargate, this means that Colonel O'Neill and Captain Carter never get together in spite of a strong degree of attraction. In Blake's 7, it could well explain why Blake never makes a pass at Jenna. Another interesting parallel between the two shows is the cynic/idealist conflict. Blake, the idealist, has to cope with Avon as his perennial cynic. In Stargate, the situation is reversed where Colonel O'Neill, the cynic, has to cope with Daniel Jackson, civilian and idealist. Daniel has many of Blake's qualities. He is a passionate believer in freedom and human rights (and those of aliens come to that). He will risk his life for what he believes in, but lacks Blake's degree of fanatasism. He finds it easier to forgive. Avon's cynicism is far-ranging, he doesn't really trust anyone or anything - yet, there are times when he can make the leap of faith (whether he loves Blake or hates him, I do not doubt that he *trusts* him). O'Neill mistrusts the world on general principles and aliens in particular, but can also make the leap of faith. In his case, he trusted a man who was both an alien and an enemy (Teal'c) and it paid off. Both shows have the theme of a fight against a powerful and oppressive enemy. In Blake's case, the Federation, in Stargate's case a particularly nasty alien race called the goa'uld. Both fights verge on the impossible. The Federation are too large and the goa'uld too advanced for there to be much chance of victory. The biggest difference between the shows is in chain of command. Blake's a rebel. Providing he can convince his crew, he can do whatever he likes. O'Neill is in the opposite position. His people will do whatever he orders them to. (There are exceptions to this, but they are extrememly rare and usually Daniel who hasn't got military obedience ingrained quite so deeply in him) O'Neill, however, has to follow orders himself, no matter how much he may dislike them. He's a maverick by nature, but he will nevertheless (with extremely rare exceptions) do what he's ordered to do. It's interesting to compare the way the two shows treat their female characters. CArter initially suffered some of the things that Jenna and Cally had to put up with. It tended to be a case of "we've got a female character, what shall we do with her?" Early episodes written around her tended to look at a woman rather than an officer. Jenna had to suffer 'The Keeper', Carter had 'Emancipation'. Then, it's as though the penny dropped. They started writing for the officer rather than the woman and she becomes a character you can believe in, competent in a firefight, skilled as a scientist and with a mind of her own. Carter probably beats Cally's total count of being taken over by aliens (I have't counted, but there's certainly several cases), but *everyone* in Stargate seems to get taken over by an alien sooner or later - it goes with the job <grin>. (except Teal'c - he's immune for reasons that at least have some plausibility). My own personal theory as to why Carter seems to come out of it better than Cally and Jenna is *uniform*. In Stargate, everyone dresses the same. If O'Neill's in camouflage gear, then Carter's in camouflage gear. If he's in uniform, then she's in uniform. Stargate seems to be the one show where the main female character isn't dressed in mini skirts/skin-tight leather/bondage gear/brightly coloured pastels. I suspect this may have had an influence on the way the writers approached the character. It certainly affects the way I react to her. An intelligent female character, an astrophysicist, who gets to do all the interesting things with everyone else. Where was she when I was growing up? Unlike Jenna and Cally, she also gets called by her second name as a rule. It's Daniel, the civilian, who always gets called by his first name. But being a civilian, he's the one who gets to call Carter 'Sam' (short for Samantha). I guess it's a bit like (what I see as) the class distinction in Blake's 7. Upper grades like Blake and Avon are called by their second name, whereas lower grades like Vila are called by their second name. In Stargate, the distinction is military/non-military, but with loads of fine shadings as to who is allowed to address whom as what within the military. <grin> and the other thing that reminds me of B7 is that Stargate kills off the entire cast on several occasions... For anyone who's got this far and hasn't seen Stargate, the series is just starting from the first epsiode on Sky 1 on New Year's Day. Each episode is on twice a day - 6am and 6pm. It's an episode each weekday. It's a good opportinity to watch it from the beginning. Some of the worst episodes are near the start. The first two are pretty good, then there's a couple of really poor ones, then it picks up pace as the actors got settled into their roles and the writing improved. Basically, stick with it through the duff ones and you'll be rewarded with some much better stuff (there's several early ones that feel like Classic Trek: visit a planet, catch a silly disease, earn undying thanks of locals by curing it, move onto next planet.) Once they worked out where the series was going and started having episodes that related to the gao'uld threat, then it gets much better. The last four episodes of the first season close/second season start, are wonderful. Judith -- http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7 - Fanzines for Blake's 7, B7 Filk songs, pictures, news, Conventions past and present, Blake's 7 fan clubs, Gareth Thomas, etc. (also non-Blake's 7 zines at http://www.knightwriter.org ) Redemption '03 21-23 Feb 2003 http://www.smof.com/redemption/

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Self-insertion (was Re: [B7L] Re: Blakes7 digest, Vol 1 #787 - 11 msgs)
by Sally M 04 Jan '02

04 Jan '02

Tim wrote: <Most fiction has a degree of self-insertion, if I'm honest, even fan-fic. It's almost impossible to avoid it.> Agreed. Even with characters that have been given to you by the series/film/whatever, you remake them at least partly by the actof writing. <After all, you could write the piece, and then simply do a search/replace to swap your own name with a different character name before you show it to anyone.> <grin> and that brings us to another point, names. How do people go about picking/creating names, and what do you think of the names used in the actual series? A lot of them are names that are in use now (Anna Grant, Hal Mallanby and Lauren, Bellfriar, Carnell, Travis, etc), or slightly changed (Roj, Del, maybe Deeta from Dieter?). Apart from a few flourishes like Servalan - a brilliant invention - and Egrorian, the names given to most of the characters are fairly plain ... _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.

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Where to publish?
by Nico Mody-Nikoloff 04 Jan '02

04 Jan '02

After all the discussion about on-line stories and zines and their relative costs to different people, I'm now confused. I'm very new to all this, and started writing B7 fiction a few months ago after the series was reshown here, before I even realised there was any out there. I'm close to finishing "Vila Restal's E-mails". I'm planning to put them on-line, and was going to put my other stories there too as I finish them. However, now I'm wondering if this is the best option. So I have some questions: 1) Which gives the widest readership - web pages or zines? 2) What are the pros and cons of each for writers? 3) Which do readers prefer? It's cheaper for me to read stories on-line but I do find hard copies much more pleasant to read from. However I suppose this will differ by country because of relative costs. Nico

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Re: Blakes7 digest, Vol 1 #787 - 11 msgs
by Helen Krummenacker 03 Jan '02

03 Jan '02

Question on opinions of Mary-Sues... In your opinions, is it bad to do a self-insertion fanfic? Not for Blake's 7, but Harry Potter, I've had an idea I've been toying with for a long time, that would put me and a few other people I know at Hogwarts. It's pretty blatantly Mary-Sue-ish, in that I'd have some dramatic adventures, but also realistic, in that I'd have humiliating moments, difficulties dealing with people, and it would NOT connect directly with the Harry story arc. (i.e., I'd be at the school but not helping Harry solve his problems, I'd have problems of my own). I don't suppose that's much of a description, but does that sound to fans who know the series like an interesting spinoff or a mere excercise in vanity? And yes, I am my real age in the story-- that's the first clue there's a mystery-- owls rarely fail to make a delivery, but three Wizards were NOT informed of their abilities until they reached adulthood due to owl interceptions.

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Spelling query
by Nico Mody-Nikoloff 03 Jan '02

03 Jan '02

Just a spelling query for my fiction. I've seen variations on some words and names in the B7 universe. I've decided on 'tarial' instead of 'tarriel' or 'tariel' cells, but which is the accepted spelling of the following? Is it: Zonda, Keezarn, Kerril and Malodar as on Judith's site and in the Sevencycopaedia or: Zondar, Kezarn, Kerrill and Malodaar as I've seen elsewhere on the web and in some zines? And does it matter? Thanks, Nico

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androids
by jacquispeel＠netscape.net 01 Jan '02

01 Jan '02

Would Vinni have been created at the same time as Robot Avalon? And why, if cloning and the creation of artificial species is frowned upon(which is contradicted by 'Animals' and, possibly, the links) is there not a similar policy towards the creation of lifelike robots? In 'Project Avalon' however the exchange between Servalan and the scientist which indicates that such robots were fairly common (standard model ... will do). (And why is Travis watching that screen of 'falling circles': he waves someone out of the way to look at it.) 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: Re: [B7L] Names [was Self-insertion]
by jacquispeel＠netscape.net 31 Dec '01

31 Dec '01

"Nico Mody-Nikoloff" <nico(a)farsight.co.nz> wrote: >Harriet Monkhouse wrote: > >> Nico wrote: >> >There are also >> >some very similar pairs which should have been avoided - a Doran and a >> >Dorian (yes, a shameless steal from Oscar Wilde), a Dev and a Deva >> >(perhaps >> >he was really another Tarrant), a Hana and an Anna. And I think there's a >> >Keller and a Keiller. >> >> No, the similarity makes them more realistic. We do meet a lot of >> people with similar names, so avoiding such echoes would be artificial. > >You're quite right. I had thought of that, but just with the Dels - that >it's a future version of John, making that resort planet John 10. > >Nico > 'Deva' could be a variant of 'David'/'Davy' etc 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] Servalan
by jacquispeel＠netscape.net 31 Dec '01

31 Dec '01

"Helen Atkins" <selil66(a)hotmail.com> wrote: >Was she named after the serval, because she shares so many characteristics >with servals, or did the writer/s just like the name? > As for the name being originally intended for a 'male character' (as was suggested a while back) - Soolin has the same terminal (pun intended) letters. 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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series 5
by jacquispeel＠netscape.net 31 Dec '01

31 Dec '01

Series 5 Following the recent discussion about S5 - perhaps the only way for a TV series to have been done would be to 'do something completely different' - rather than the same mixture of 'rebels fighting the Federation and each other, and occasionally meeting interesting sentients and others.' Any ideas for such a 'completely new angle'? Detective/researcher XYZ is a touch cliched (ditto 'it was all a dream'). 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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Blakes7 December 2001