Blakes7

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5511 discussions

TV guide
by Alison Page 15 Aug '01

15 Aug '01

Someone on a Farscape list has shared the front cover of a magazine called 'TV Guide - Ultimate cable' for this week. It seems to have a special on 'SF's sexiest guys'. Tagline 'Meet the heavenly hunks who battle evil aliens and demons - and look great at the same time!' I think it must be American because they call autumn 'fall'. Anybody seen inside this mag? Do the B7 gang get a mention? 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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The view from the top
by Andrew Williams 15 Aug '01

15 Aug '01

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? Andrew. - - - - "In the Iran-Iraq war, Iran has issued a statement accusing Iraq over Irans' denial of Iraqs' allegation that Iran has lied about Iraqi planes attacking Irani positions on Iraqi territory occupied by Iran. Experts on both sides are studying the statement." - Max Headroom - - - -

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Crusades of Blake: some thoughts (not nearly as long)
by Sally Manton 15 Aug '01

15 Aug '01

I enjoyed this a lot, Natasa (of course, talking about Fearless Leader is so difficult for me as well :-)) A lot of it's so much better than frivolous moi could manage, but just a few words about: < In 'Fellow Feeling', Blake replies to Vila that the injustice done to him is in a way universal. He draws an analogy between altering historical records and erasing the memories of one's personal past. He recalls, for instance, a group of Federation officials present at Servalan's inauguration, who later became undesirables and were erased from the vistapes showing this event. 'They took the records and wiped out whole lives, Vila... like they wiped out whole lives in my mind, even my own. They changed you - they erased me... Are you so surprised I want to save others from that?' Mind manipulation, on a larger scale, parallels the Federation's manipulation of truth and history.> Thank you sooo much - this last sentence *does* express what I was trying to put into that little scene :-) I have to admit, that bit of the story (which, for everyone else, is basically a shameless hurt-comfort born of my enthusiasm for what VftP *isn't*) was inspired by a book I'd just bought about how repressive regimes 'edited' non-persons out of the public eye, with heaps of fascinating photos showing the care with these people were cut or airbrushed out of official existence - it got grimly farcical in some cases (30s-40s Russia, in particular) where more and more ex-comrades were deleted until there were more ex's than comrades and heroic attempts were made to fill the spaces (because the PWBs still wanted the photos of the *not*-yet-exs). I can so clearly see the Federation doing things like this - in fact, the attempt to turn Blake into a non-person *is* there, if very sketchily handled (mind you, having broadcast his unknowing recantation far and wide, they were in trouble from the start :-)) and there is also the indication that the same was tried with Servalan in S4 ... perhaps that links into the reason no one recognised her. Maybe people really did *make* themselves forget her to order, erase the ex-President from their consciousness as she was erased from public records (as people in Nazi Germany learned to believe - to *genuinely* believe - to order). But they had to tear Blake's brain apart to make him do it. And on someone else's story (we all love our own babies best, I know) :-) <Blake's not a survivor, Vila surmises in the same story. 'Avon and I are survivors. We just keep on going. Blake's exactly the sort to up and die and leave everyone else with too much to think about.'> I did *love* that last sentence from the moment I read it - the bit about leaving everyone with too much to think about *did* strike me as both perfect Blake and perfect Vila. But would people agree that Blake *isn't* a survivor? When you look at the bald facts of the matter, he keeps managing to come back after repeated mental and physical savaging that defy imagination. Maybe parts of his soul get tattered in the process (I do think there's a clear increase in the stress and exhaustion you can feel in him after VftP, and - given that and his injury at Travis's hand - am of the opinion that after Star One he may have have suffered a complete physical and spiritual collapse for a while). Then pulled himself back together *yet again* and kept going ... all the way to Gauda Prime. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

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Orac and pronouns
by jacquispeel＠netscape.net 15 Aug '01

15 Aug '01

This is going back a few days, but Ensor uses 'he' of Orac in the eponymous episode, as does Avon in the same episode. I suppose it could also be argued that it is a 'human tendency' to refer to 'that using a male/female' voice by the appropriate gender. (nb. if eponym is for 'named after/derived from' a person, toponym for a place, what is the word for 'things', ideas etc: eg the word 'bolshie' derives from 'Bolshevik') __________________________________________________________________ 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: 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 15 Aug '01

15 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 15 Aug '01

15 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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