Blakes7 August 2001

blakes7@lists.lysator.liu.se

51 participants
264 discussions

Re: Location, Location, Location
by Betty Ragan 15 Aug '01

15 Aug '01

Dana wrote: > Blake's easy sense of command, for instance, could > stem from being raised as a privileged older son Personally, I'm almost convinced that he was the youngest child in his family. I've read some (rather interesting) research on birth order and personality, and, statistically speaking, you're apparently much more likely to find the kinds of rebellious tendencies Blake evinces in youngest siblings than in oldest or middle ones. Apparently, leaders of revolutions are much more likely to be younger siblings, based on studies of the French Revolution and other historical events... And Blake, IMO, just fits the whole "youngest sibling" profile to a T. > one might suggest that Avon IS a bastard and therefore > a bastard. Avon as literal bastard is an idea you see a lot in fanfic, and it seems like a pretty plausible one to me. The man obviously has a chip on his shoulder that's been there for a very long time, and having grown up under some kind of social stigma, or in a disadvantaged social position due to something like illegitimacy could certainly explain it. Then again, so could a lot of other things. It is, in any case, somehow hard to imagine him actually having a *happy* childhood. > He certainly isn't overly impressed by the sacredness > of marriage vows. In fairness to him, though, we don't really know for sure whether Anna was married when they were involved or whether he knew about it, if so. And even if she was and he did, we still don't know how she might have represented the state of her marriage to him. He might have believed she was separated, or divorced... For all we know, he might have fancied himself as her white knight, whisking her off-planet and away from an abusive relationship. We certainly don't know anything about his views on marriage in general. -- 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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Re: [B7L] The view from the top
by Sally Manton 15 Aug '01

15 Aug '01

Andrew W asked: <Okay, so why is it that if Space Command is a rotating space station (or series of stations, as has been suggested), the view out of Servalan's window is always static?> Ummm ... Servie actually suffers from space-sickness, so the windows are actually just trompe-l'oeil? Didn't think so ... _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

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Not quite a crossover
by Mistral 15 Aug '01

15 Aug '01

Since it's a bit slow . . . Some of you might like to know that James Marsters (Spike on _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_) is going to do a guest appearance (that supposedly may turn into a recurring role if they can work out the shooting schedule) on _Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda_ this coming season. I suppose it's as close to an on-screen Buffy/B7 crossover as we're ever likely to get. Mistral -- "Ad hoc, ad loc, and quid pro quo. So little time! So much to know!" --Jeremy Hilary Boob, Ph.D.

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RE: RE: [B7L] Location, Location, Location
by jacquispeel＠netscape.net 14 Aug '01

14 Aug '01

"Rhonda L. Stroud" <rstroud(a)qwest.net> wrote: > Dana Shilling >> The series doesn't give us a lot of information >> about many aspects of daily life, including civil >> law. If we assume a property system something >> like Elizabethan England, though--a system >> dominated by elder sons, with an obsessive concern >> about "legitimacy"--it could explain a lot. >Keeping in mind what Ellynne said earlier--that American's don't write >giants well because they don't occur in their native mythology--it's >interesting that Americans and English often assume that the most common >method of inheritance is primogeniture. > Until the reforms in the early part of twentieth century in some parts of England (I use the term correctly) inheritance normally went to the youngest child, or was automatically divided among all children (relics of Viking practices etc) - I forget the terms offhand 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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new CDs and signing session
by Judith Proctor 14 Aug '01

14 Aug '01

The second CD in the Dalek Empire series is now available. My stock arrived this morning. I enjoyed Gareth Thomas's performance in the first one and hope to listen to the second one tonight. There will be four CDs in the series when it is complete. Gareth's character is one of the leads. We're also now stocking the full range of Big Finish Dr Who adventures, both the ones with B7 cast members in and those without. (I'm listening to them myself now. I've just finished 'The Fires of Vulcan' which has a really good cliffhanger running through it. The Tardis has been found, embedded in the ash around Pompei, by archeologists. You know what they say, the special effects are better on radio - maybe that's why I seem to like Dr Who better on audio than I do on TV!) We've also got Tomorrow People CD from Big Finish - their first CD for this show. The first Kaldor City CD - Occam's Razor - with Paul Darrow playing the lead character, is now finished and being duplicated. I hope to have copies in a week or two. This series of CD's follows on from the Dr Who story "Robots of Death" by Chris Boucher and involves Carnell the psychostrategist (from the B7 episode 'Weapon'). Paul Darrow, Peter Miles, Patricia Merrick and Peter Tuddenham will be doing a signing for Kaldor City on 1st September 2001 from 12.00 - 4pm at: 10th Planet, unit 36, Vicarage Field Shopping Centre, Ripple Rd, Barking, Essex. 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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Location, Location, Location
by Dana Shilling 14 Aug '01

14 Aug '01

The series doesn't give us a lot of information about many aspects of daily life, including civil law. If we assume a property system something like Elizabethan England, though--a system dominated by elder sons, with an obsessive concern about "legitimacy"--it could explain a lot. Blake's easy sense of command, for instance, could stem from being raised as a privileged older son (we know that he had a brother and sister--or at least thought he did; the whole thing could be a fabrication either by the Federation or the Freedom Party--he could certainly be the eldest and designated heir). If Dev Tarrant is the oldest brother, naturally his attachment to the status quo would be much greater than his younger (half?) brothers Deeta and Del, who would not inherit and would therefore have to seek their own fortunes, possibly outside the system. As already mentioned, Avon's presentation as a rather secretive outsider sounds a lot like Shakespearean figures like Edmund, Don John (and Richard III, whose claim to the throne requires getting several of his relatives out of the way). Instead of "hey, I'm depraved on account-a I'm deprived!" (which could be the motto on Vila's coat of arms) one might suggest that Avon IS a bastard and therefore a bastard. He certainly isn't overly impressed by the sacredness of marriage vows. -(Y) PS--readers of my fics will know that the last suggestion is not made seriously--Avon's parents are not only too happily married but too respectable for this to be the case.

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Re: [B7L] What if B7 were anime?
by Sally Manton 14 Aug '01

14 Aug '01

Ellynne wrote: <Besides, I'm afraid I love the idea of Avon being irristably drawn to a robot armor suit.> But of course - enamelled jet-black with silver stud-like bolts. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

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Re: [B7L] What if B7 were anime?
by Ellynne G. 14 Aug '01

14 Aug '01

On 13 Aug 2001 23:49:32 +0200 Calle Dybedahl <calle(a)lysator.liu.se> writes: > >>>>> "Ellynne" == Ellynne G <rilliara(a)juno.com> writes: > > > An interesting thing about anime is, compared to a lot of other > > SF/F, the way it represents robots and machines. > > Pet peeve: Anime is just animated movies from Japan, it varies > wildly > in style, content and genre. I bow to the master. I've only recently been getting into anime. However, I've always had this side interest in folklore and how story forms we unconsciously absorb can effect the stories we make. Giants, for example, are not part of American folklore [Paul Bunyan came out of 19th century add campaign] and I've yet to see an American write a story with a convincing giant. With B7, there are things I can look at and see the effect of the time period and culture (rebellion=good guys, government=bad guys, cynicism pays, female villains combine open sexuality with power, cyborgs and robots are bad, good guys wear big sleeves and earth tones) but it doesn't mean B7 didn't give them its own, very unique spin (maybe rebellion _doesn't_ equal good guys, maybe the government is the lesser of two or more evils, get too cynical and you may shoot your best friend the next time you see him, maybe Servalan stands above caricature, maybe there's a reason the cyborg has an attitude problem [but only good guys wear big sleeves and earth tones, this point is not open to debate]) Anyhow, I the few anime I was coming contact with seemed to have a totally different outlook on robots. I started thinking about it and realized the western take on robots in fiction is probably highly colored by the semi-negative view of machines that grew out of the darker aspects of the industrial revolution - machine as threat or machine as replacer/enslaver of humanity. Japan, with its rapid push to catch up technologically after Perry forced his way in, probably had a rather different industrial revolution (as near as I can tell from what I've read so far, that seems to be right [but what I've read was not in-depth and may have been colored by my reading it with this theory in mind]). Actually, though, just about every anime I've seen so far has had an evil, older brother. This is kind of interesting when you compare it to the trend in a lot of American films to have the _father_ be the enemy. Perhaps, if I were looking at it as an outsider, I'd say 'every American film has this,' simply because it's a theme I hadn't seen before. In Japan, disrespect to a parent is still a big no-no, so I understand, but an older brother, while carrying a lot of natural prestige in the family, can be opposed. Besides, I'm afraid I love the idea of Avon being irristably drawn to a robot armor suit. 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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What if B7 were anime?
by Ellynne G. 13 Aug '01

13 Aug '01

An interesting thing about anime is, compared to a lot of other SF/F, the way it represents robots and machines. In most western SF that I know of, robots are either the enemy (representing the threat of technology to anything remotely warm and fuzzy) or Pinocchio, wanting to become human (or, as a subset, robots represent the disenfranchised who need to 1) recognize their own humanity and/or 2) get the humans to recognize it (or, as a crossover with the first possibility, rise up and destroy their human masters with the difference that it's justified and the humans were already dehumanized - see The Web for details). In anime, somebody can be a robot and that's just one of those things. So, what would happen if B7 were anime? Travis would turn out to be Avon's older brother who was trying to get him to betray Blake and join the Dark Side or else who just wanted to kill Avon. Avon would have found suit of robotic body armor to wear early on in the series. There would be far more romantic plot twists. There would be an evil female who would fall in love with Blake instead of Avon for a change (and she would then change sides, defying her evil father in the process). There'd be a lot more fight scenes that looked like they were copied from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Any other ideas? 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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Edinburgh Festival
by Judith Proctor 13 Aug '01

13 Aug '01

If anyone is interested in going to the Edinburgh Festival (and I'm really frustrated that I can't, so I'd love a report from someone who can), there's details of Gareth's play on the website - http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7 - and we've now got a scanned colour picture of Gareth on the flyer. 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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Blakes7 August 2001