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Blake and Religion
by jacquispeel＠netscape.net 10 Sep '01

10 Sep '01

There are two cases where 'hell' is used as a destination in B7 - Blake and Provine, and Avon and Servalan in 'Rumours' - which implies that 'some' sort of religious belief survived. 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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Crew of the Liberator
by Andrew Williams 10 Sep '01

10 Sep '01

>(But as there is a possibility that it was an exploratory ship & it could take one (or more) >smaller ships - as in Aftermath - there might well have been room for more) I've often wondered what happened to Kleggs ship, presumably it stayed attached to the Liberator right up until Terminal.

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Re: Blake, Federation and religion (was: I, Claudius)
by Natasa Tucev 09 Sep '01

09 Sep '01

Kathryn wrote: > >I don't really think Blake has studied religion at all seriously... he's >a man of his time in that respect, absorbing Federation attitudes >unconciously. I agree that Blake is not religious, but he may have studied religious principles of the past and translated them into corresponding rational terms (e.g., if people in the past thought God would punish them for taking vengeance, it may have been their primitive way of expressing the feeling that vengeance is morally wrong). In this way, he could have embraced some of these principles without actually becoming religious. >Though it's a bit hard to know what the Federation's educational stance >is on religion -- yes, religion is illegal in the Federation, but >religion, being at its heart an idea, is impossible to stamp out, so >they've got to be fighting it somehow. Now, would they be fighting it >with censorship (e.g. Gan not knowing what a church was) or with >anti-religious propaganda? (e.g. "faith is the capacity to believe what >you know isn't true") Or both? I don't know the exact answer to your question, but I agree the need for religion would be very difficult to erradicate. Mircea Elliade calls man 'homo religiosus', referring to our deeply ingrained need to impose some organising principle and some sort of meaning upon the Universe. Vico defined myth as the primitive man's attempt to project the structures of his mind upon his chaotic experience of the natural forces. Peter Shaffer's Equus (one of Gareth Thomas's theatrical roles) is an excellent and profound study of the human need for passionate worship. I suppose the totalitarian regimes misuse this psychological need for their purpose, for instance, to inspire the worship of the dictator's 'father-figure', such as Stalin-worship or Big Brother worship in 1984. (On a less serious note, Huxley in Brave New World proposed Ford as the deity of the modern age. 'Orgy-porgy, Ford and fun'). Servalan, however, is not such a figure, or at least we don't have any evidence of Servalan-worship in the series. (Although someone in Rumours says that 'for many people, Servalan is the Federation'.) 'We are the Priests of Power', O'Brian says in 1984. He derives his feeling of power from his identification with the immortal entity of the Party. People can be destroyed, but the Party will exist for ever. Perhaps we could assume that some such feeling is inspired by the authorities in B7, for instance, the belief in the immortality of the Federation and the invincibility of its military? N.

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Re: I, Claudius
by Natasa Tucev 09 Sep '01

09 Sep '01

Some time ago, Dana suggested a parallel between Hamlet-Claudius and Blake-Travis dynamics. When asked why Hamlet refrains from killing his uncle, I usually resort to the explanation Nietzsche gave in 'The Birth of Tragedy'. Nietzsche compares Hamlet to 'Dionysian' heroes who do not act because they have realized the complexity of the world, seen beyond the idealistic half which the culture normally perceives. Initially Hamlet is a 'happy prince' within a perfectly functioning patriarchal structure. His father, likened to Jove, Apollo, Hercules, is the epitome of all the virtues valued by this structure; his mother likewise performs dutifully all functions assigned to her within the structure. Then Claudius, likened to Satire, bursts upon the scene. Hamlet has to deal with much more than just a single villainy committed by a single villain - he has to deal with his own realization that there are human actions prompted by dark, instinctive urges beyond rational control. Women are especially 'dangerous' and unreliable in this respect: Hamlet is shocked by the fact that his mother can have fun indiscriminately with Apollos and Satires alike. To conclude, Hamlet delays his revenge because his world has been irrevocably changed and he knows that killing one man won't restore his lost innocence or bring back his 'paradise lost'. Finally he decides to act because he accepts it is his human duty, a part of his destiny. 'Readiness is all.' With Blake, the situation is somewhat different. I don't think he's ever had any illusions regarding the Federation (except while he was brainwashed) or the Universe he lives in, but he may have had some regarding his own soul. Blake has lost the 'innocence' of his soul after his capture and the death of his family and friends - when his initial, altruistic and rather abstract motives for fighting against the Federation were joined by other, private and not so impeccable ones. Blake is not a completely 'healthy' hero fighting an evil opponent: all the while he has to grapple with his own dark urges, most of all with his desire to indulge in personal revenge. Like Hamlet, Blake knows that killing one villain won't change or annihilate this deeply disturbing experience of the self, help him get rid of the 'Travis' part of his own psyche. Hamlet is shocked by his revelation that the world is an unweeded garden; Blake is, I think, more disturbed by discovering this garden within his own soul. Realizing they cannot go back to the original state of innocence, they both proceed to do what they consider their human duty. Some more traditional interpretations of Hamlet also emphasize the religious aspect of his dilemma, the fact that the vengeance in Shakespeare's time was considered a deadly sin (since God said, 'Vengeance is mine'), and the avenger was condemned to Hell. Given that all sorts of religion were banned within the Federation, I wonder if Blake's refusal to kill Travis could also be related with some remnant of those forgotten teachings. We know that Blake was interested in history and it's possible that he also studied various ethical systems of the past, trying to establish the principles upon which post-Federation world might be organised. His own feeling of morality is often at odds with his age, and although I like to think it is innate, it may have been acquired by studying as well. I agree with what Ellynne said about Avon's part in this matter. Avon can 'solve Blake's problem for him', as he says in the Keeper, unlike Blake, he can kill Travis in a cold and impersonal manner ('I'm the one with brains and no heart', as he says to Travis in Star One). It's not until S3 and Shrinker that we get to see Avon dealing with the issue of personal revenge. His animosity towards Servalan, I suppose, also becomes more personal after he gets the Terminal disease. N.

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expensive GT video collections at Critics Choice
by JEB31538＠cs.com 09 Sep '01

09 Sep '01

Critics Choice at http://www.criticschoicevideo.com offers various NTSC collections which Gareth Thomas is in. Paul Darrow is in one. The phone number to call is 1-800-367-7765. US postage is $5.95 no matter what your order is. Gareth's "Murdersville" is in The Avengers' 67: Collection 2. It is available in NTSC VHS video and DVD. This collection has 13 episodes. NTSC is $59.95 HSCCV100707 DVD is $69.95 HSDVD001015 *** Gareth's "Maigret on Home Ground" is part of a 6 episode set. The five hours is only available on NTSC VHS video. NTSC $80.96 HSTWM082010 *** Gareth's "Visitor from the Grave" and Paul Darrow's "Guardian of the Abyss" are both available in the 13 episode collection of the Hammer House of Horror series. It's 11 hours and available on NTSC VHS video and DVD. NTSC $59.95 HSANEO18159 DVD $59.95 HSANEO70250 *** If you would like the specific names of all the episodes involved in any of the three series, you may contact me privately. This last snail mail catalog doesn't list other shows that GT is in which they carry, but I assume that they still do. Other shows are Strangers and Brothers, Edward the King, and Peter and Paul. I bought Edward the King and Peter and Paul and enjoyed them immensely. I didn't buy Strangers and Brothers because I had decided to start trimming my tape collection by the time this was offered. Anthony Hopkins is in both Strangers and Brothers and Peter and Paul. Timothy West stars in Edward the King. All videos from CC are NTSC VHS and all DVDs I assume would be for American DVD players. Joyce

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Re: B7 encounters
by Helen Krummenacker 09 Sep '01

09 Sep '01

Jacqui wrote: >Dev Tarrant and Anna Grant were both involved in 'Security' - would they have met? I think the applicatble quote is "Small world." "Big project."

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Hermit Library passes 300 stories
by Judith Proctor 09 Sep '01

09 Sep '01

We just linked in story number 300 to the Hermit Library. For anyone who didn't read the short stories relating to 'Logic of Empire' in Horizon, they are now up on the web courtesy of Alan Stevens. We have also added two more stories by Helen Parkinson (helpfully typed in by Sally Manton), several stories by Calle, some from Philippa Watts and more besides. If you have stories on the web that you'd like to be included in the index (or stories looking for a site to host them) then visit the Library and use the submission form there. Most new stories get over a hundred downloads in the first month. 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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Re: [B7L] Rescue script notes
by Steve Kilbane 08 Sep '01

08 Sep '01

Harriet: > While touring the Caribbean, my editor said he'd finally worked out what > time zone my body was living in. I thought they only had two times in the Caribbean: asleep and drowsy.

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Crew of the Liberator
by jacquispeel＠netscape.net 08 Sep '01

08 Sep '01

There were thirty-odd teleport bracelets, and from the arrangement of escape pods in 'Aftermath' probably 6 x 6 'sets' of pods - so one can assume that this was the 'standard' crew. (But as there is a possibility that it was an exploratory ship & it could take one (or more) smaller ships - as in Aftermath - there might well have been room for more) Any comments? 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] Encounters
by jacquispeel＠netscape.net 08 Sep '01

08 Sep '01

"Marian de Haan" <maya(a)multiweb.nl> wrote: >Jacqui wrote: >>Dev Tarrant and Anna Grant were both involved in 'Security' - would they >have met? > >They could have been lovers, for all we know :-) > >Marian > > Interesting story - if anyone wants to do it (g). 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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