Blakes7 May 2001

blakes7@lists.lysator.liu.se

84 participants
897 discussions

Re: Gan defense
by Helen Krummenacker 10 May '01

10 May '01

> To my > >sentimental ears, "my woman" conveys "a woman who was mine - as in, > she > >was everything to me, but I don't need to explain that to you, it's > too > >private, and you see my meaning". > > Jenny objected: > > But think about it. "My woman." Not "Sarah," or "Becky," or "Jill"; > not > "someone I cared for" or "a woman who meant a lot to me." Very > cavemannish > really; it doesn't give her a name or a face or even suggest that > there was > anything at all between them. > It's normal. I say "my husband" instead of "Allan", if I don't expect people to know who he is from the name, in relationship to me. If I wasn't married to him, I'm not sure what I would call him: "my guy" would be less juvenile than boyfriend, less explicit than lover and less of a mouthful than anything else. > And, leaving the internal logic of the story aside and seeing it from > a > technical standpoint: why would the scriptwriter make her Gan's > "woman" and > not Gan's "wife" (which would have been a more effective pathos > conveyor and > leave the audience less puzzled)? > > What is he trying to convey by > having Gan > say "my woman"? > Laws that did not allow certain people to marry? We know of married lawyers and scientists, but was marriage recognised in the working classes? Or that someone had forgotten whether it had been established that the marriage contract existed in the future and used the same terms?

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Dayna's family
by Ellynne G. 10 May '01

10 May '01

"Jenny Kaye" <jennycat55(a)hotmail.com> wrote: >As the local populace wanted to kill Hal, Dayna and Lauren, I think it's >unlikely that they would have got any help from that quarter. Sorry, guess I wasn't as clear as I could have been. I'm thinking anyone going to the aliens on the corner (or the seashore, as the case may be) would have to be pretty desperate with no place else to go. Hence, someone whose tribe or whose main supporters within the tribe had largely been wiped out. Desperation leads to desperate choices and there have been more than a few cases of people in wartime fleeing to a traditional enemy even when they weren't sure of their welcome. Especially >when it is the Sarrans that Dayna is practicing her skills by killing. Well, since Dayna was no more than a year old when they moved there, I don't think the killing started till later. The >script states that Lauren was a child when she joined the Melanbys, there is >no evidence that Lauren was also accompanied by anyone else. It may be that Hal Melanby is trusting and confides all to people he barely knows. Then again, maybe the man who was blinded and tortured holds a few things back - or doesn't want to overwhelm the new guest with all the nitty-gritty. If Avon's the first new face he's seen (uh, so to speak) in 20 years, it may be Hal has forgotten much of the fine art of conversation. >Both Dayna and her father mention that she has learned, and is learning, to >master all weapons ancient and modern. There's no reference in the script at >all to her learning how from the Sarrans or anyone else. As I tried to say, this was just a thought. But weapons such as bows, spears, swords, etc. take a high degree of training and skill to become fully expert in their use, rather like various sports or ballet. I remeber reading about a famous ballerina who, to the end of her life, made sure there was someone in her troupe who would watch her perform and critique her honestly because it was the only way to make sure she was in top form. I've also seen sports nuts literally spend hours repeating the same action over and over again to get it right and keep it right. Also, I've never heard of anyone becoming a major expert in one of these fields without someone who could tell them what they're doing wrong and how to do better. Also, no use reinventing the wheel. One of the Romans' advantages in war was training their soldiers to stab rather than swing (which leaves the swordsman open). Swords had been around for centuries. Many of those they conquered had been aware of them for at least decades. There was still plenty of sword swinging. So, Dayna has a high level of expertise with weapons that, my understanding is, she would not have mastered without a trainer - renting the video wouldn't cut it. Hal couldn't be that trainer. It's unlikely he would know one offworld or could try and find one on another planet. Sarran is covered with people with at least a fair degree of weapons knowledge. Ergo, a Sarran trainer seems the most likely to me. Since the problems in Lauren's adoption had already been pointed out, the idea that this person brought Lauren along seemed likely. Occam's razor and all that. Ellynne ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.

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Re: Gan's woman
by Alison Page 10 May '01

10 May '01

'my woman' vs said woman's name: Jarriet reminisced >>I concluded that when we were merely acquaintances he preferred to preserve a field of privacy around her, which he relaxed once we became friends I don't think it is so much a question of privacy as necessary information. If you use the name, about someone they've never met, they are non the wiser. Once people have made the name/role connection you can use the name instead. I think 'partner' has become a more common term since 1979. Back then bohemian types who naughtily lived together without marrying used to say 'my lady' (shudder) or 'my old lady' (paradoxically much less shuddersome). I don't think either of those would be terms used by Gan, so 'my woman' will have to do. Suppose he'd said 'the trooper had killed Bobby' - who would have known what he meant? It could have been his budgie :-) Alison ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by MIMEsweeper for the presence of computer viruses. www.mimesweeper.com **********************************************************************

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Re: [B7L] Re: FC: SFX card game
by Marian de Haan 10 May '01

10 May '01

Sally wrote: >Steve wrote: ><However, contained in my set was the card for Kerr Avon. Here are his ratings (all out of 10): <snip> > ><Snogability: 6> > ><blink> call me biased, but I'm sure there's a miscount somewhere there ..?< Depends on who's doing the the ratings. Judging by the fact that Buffy gets snogability 9, I suspect it to be a man, in which case 6 isn't bad at all :-) ><Fashion sense: 5> > >Let me guess. They've seen DeathWatch and Pressure Point.< In that case he's doing rather well because for *those* costumes I would have given him 1. Marian

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Re: FC: SFX card game
by Sally Manton 10 May '01

10 May '01

Steve wrote: <However, contained in my set was the card for Kerr Avon. Here are his ratings (all out of 10): <snip> <Snogability: 6> <blink> call me biased, but I'm sure there's a miscount somewhere there ..? <Fashion sense: 5> Let me guess. They've seen DeathWatch and Pressure Point. _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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Re: [B7L] Re: Gan's woman
by Sally Manton 10 May '01

10 May '01

Harriere wrote: <When Gan discusses the issue with Jenna, they're acquaintances; maybe he might have opened up more later, but at this point he wishes to give her only the basic information required.> They're a reticent crowd, after all. We never hear the names of Blake's murdered siblings, or Avon's brother; neither those relatives nor Jenna's mother are ever mentioned again, nor are *any* family/friends of chatterer Vila. Cally never mentions her clone sister till they're off to Auron; Tarrant never mentions his brother till faced with his image in DeathWatch, and the rest of the Tarrant clan is a closed book (which is lovely for fanfiction, because we can shoehorn Dev in there somehow). None of the Scorpio crew (except possibly Avon) knew Soolin's history on Gauda Prime, for all that she'd been with them a year and was friendly with Dayna. _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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Re: [B7L] The End (Was: Re: scripts and other ephemera)
by Jenny Kaye 10 May '01

10 May '01

"Sally Manton" on why Avon stands over Blake's body wrote: > >*Why* triumphant? Not just that I don't see it in his stance, but what has >he got to triumph about in shooting Blake? He's free of him at last. Jenny _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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Re: Gan's woman [was [B7L] Re: Blakes7 digest, Vol 1 #393 - 14 msgs]
by Jenny Kaye 10 May '01

10 May '01

Harriet wrote: >Jenny wrote: >>And the fact that he doesn't give her name, or even say "my wife" >>or "my lover", but "my woman". Creepy. > >Not necessarily - I quite like those languages where "my man" and "my >husband" are expressed by the same words. But in this case, I assume >that they weren't married, and then you get into the tired old >what-do-you-call-them thing. <snip> To my >sentimental ears, "my woman" conveys "a woman who was mine - as in, she >was everything to me, but I don't need to explain that to you, it's too >private, and you see my meaning". In my personal meandering off-canon, >the woman was pregnant when she died. But think about it. "My woman." Not "Sarah," or "Becky," or "Jill"; not "someone I cared for" or "a woman who meant a lot to me." Very cavemannish really; it doesn't give her a name or a face or even suggest that there was anything at all between them. And, leaving the internal logic of the story aside and seeing it from a technical standpoint: why would the scriptwriter make her Gan's "woman" and not Gan's "wife" (which would have been a more effective pathos conveyor and leave the audience less puzzled)? What is he trying to convey by having Gan say "my woman"? Even David Jackson, IIRC, thought it was a bit tough and insensitive-sounding. Jenny _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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No changes, please ...
by Sally Manton 10 May '01

10 May '01

I always like a bit of taffy after a critique, so ... We've done what changes we'd like. Now, would anyone like to give us: [a] three things about Blake's 7 as a series that make it special for them, and different from other shows? [b] if you can think of them, one thing in each of just three episodes that somehow lifted that episode for you? (For instance, I *know* Kairos is somewhat dodgy, but I love the portrayal of Avon as single-minded scientist intent of shuffling the leadership onto Tarrant; it works so well just for this brief post-War period for me.) _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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Re: [B7L] We can't *all* be geniuses ... (long)
by Sally Manton 10 May '01

10 May '01

Jenny wrote: <Oh, he does act stupid. There's a lot of Gan's actions which are put down by a lot of people (including the crew) to his being stupid-- not checking to see if Jenna was behind him on Cephlon, or tearing out the computer banks in "Breakdown."> The second instance is an invalid example, IMO, since it could have been caused by scrambled brain impulses caused by the malfunction. So you have one example of stupid behaviour (and I could add a second one, the temper-tantrum-moment with the handcuffs in Bouty when Vila is trying *not* to blow Blake's head off). But of course <veg> the odd dumb moment is so *unusual* in our crew. Personally, I consider Blake, Avon, Jenna, Tarrant and Soolin - at the *least* - to be very bright in their different ways. So ... Want to ask Avon how he thought sending that message to Servalan (in Hostage) would help? And why his brain turned off once he went down to Exbar? Why he turned his back on Sara in MoD? Why in Rescue, when he clearly didn't trust Dorian, he left his gun in the other room while he took a bath? Want to ask Tarrant why - after stating very firmly and loudly that he trusted no one but himself - he swallowed that whole incredibly silly story from Norl in City? Or why he insisted in DotG that *everyone* goes down with the ship? Want to ask Cally why - when she *knew* Gan had tried to throttle Blake - she *let him go*? Want to ask Dayna why at the end of Kairos she meekly teleported Servalan to safety instead of into open space? (oh, and want to ask Servalan why she decided to trust Dayna with her safety?) Or why - when Avon *told* her in Powerplay to 'shoot anyone who isn't me', she still managed to get captured by Klegg's men without even wounding one of them? Want to ask Blake why he had so much trouble keeping up with the Twinfoil's explanation in 'The Web'? Why he repeatedly let Travis and/or Servalan live? Why in MoD he left the unsealed box with an incredibly valuable neutrotope lying around where at the first bump it would fall? Want to ask Soolin why she decided to help Tarrant in Warlord, risking the whole alliance they'd worked for, the security of the base and all of their lives so he could have his little romantic fling? Want to ask Vila about that dropped knife in Cygnus Alpha? Or playing the with loading bay controls on Albion? Or believing Blake's mind-rape-induced lies in 'Voice'? For that matter (and that episode), want both Avon and Jenna why - when they *knew* Blake's mind was decidedly awry - when he said 'give the mummy a bracelet', they gave the mummy a bracelet? (Jenna doesn't have *many* 'where-in-the-world-have-I-put-my-brain' moments, but she does seem to persistently be several steps behind Avon and Blake (the dreaded 'what's going on, Blake?' bits) so that they have to explain things to her - Redemption is especially bad on this point). Want to ask the whole lot of them why they didn't notice Cally was missing in SLD???? Or that Jenna *saw* their discarded handcuffs in Bounty and said nothing??? And that's just the ones I can come up with now. After all, they're all under incredible stress - under sentence of death, caught up in a probably unwinnable war, and constantly fighting (sometimes even the enemy <g>). It would be very surprising if any of them *didn't* act stupid on occasion. Gan may be more phlegmatic than Avon or Blake or Tarrant, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't feel stress as well. After all, speaking as someone whose claims to brilliance are ... errr, yes, well ... I wouldn't like to claim for for one minute that I'd even do half as well as he does, let alone better. Not under the circumstances. Sally PS - anyone else got any 'maybe-I-should-have-stayed-in-bed' moments they particularly treasure? _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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Blakes7 May 2001