Blakes7

blakes7@lists.lysator.liu.se

5511 discussions

piece of pure silliness
by Sally Manton 13 Jun '01

13 Jun '01

Iain gave us a wonderful 'Reveal your Hobbit name' site at http://www.chriswetherell.com/hobbit/default.asp and I had to try out My Darling ... Somehow, he just doesn't have the same aura of mystery and menace as 'Goldilocks Knotwise of Michel Delving', does he? _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

3 2

avon and sense
by Alison Page 13 Jun '01

13 Jun '01

Sorry I've had to change the subject heading because I've accidentally deleted yesterday's emails that I wanted to reply to. Someone was posting about sense being Avon's least favoured mode of interaction with the world, and I think that's probably right. I was thinking of 'player of games' by Iain M Banks. A robot drone is looking after the eponymous player, who is a very intellectualised sort of chap. The drone performs a routine medical scan and realises the guy is bursting to go to the loo, but is so absorbed in his intellectual game-playing that he hasn't noticed the signal from his own nervous system. I do know lots of very sensible people who take exactly the opposite view though (Dana I think you take a different view on this?) and feel that Avon is quite a sensual person, engaged very much with physical comforts and sensory experience. Of course anyone, no matter how intellectual and introverted, can develop sensory expertise, if only from dogged practice. So, Avon could perhaps have worked very hard on his shooting skills, helped no doubt by the speed and skill with which he can mentally process the sense input once he has learned the knack. So what do you think - is Avon sensual and physically adept, or not? 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 **********************************************************************

3 2

Re: 20 moments that make us cringe
by Helen Krummenacker 13 Jun '01

13 Jun '01

1. For me, personally. When I finally got to see the tapes-- no more having the picture half blurred with static-- and saw how truely cheesy the space backdrops looked. 2. All scenes with placid, drugged characters. 3. The big lever in Dawn of the Gods... Thaarn obviously never read the Evil Overlord guide. Don't put your self-destruct device where everyone can play with it. 4. Dayna getting brainwashed in Animals in about, oh, half-an-hour? 5. the mummy in Voice From the Past. That was so cheesy I could never get past it mentally to give the scenes a chance in any other way. 6. Big, thuggy, barbarians. 7. Jarvik's "Me, Tarzan" attitude. 8. The Altas-- the costumes, the acting. 9. Tarrant and Servalan in Sand *ewwww* 10. Avon's problem-solving methods in Sand. 11. Spacerats 12. Piri's inability to act. 13. When the highly suspicious rebels walk open eyed into traps that would have an 8-year old putting the door on a chain before opening it. 14. Dialogue for Slave 15. Servalan's panic attack in ORAC (this woman leads the military?) 16. Cally getting taken over by ANOTHER telepathic influence. 17. Self-immolation in Volcano. 18. Vila in Sarcophogas, fleeing from the Attack of the Floating Lyre 19. The self-important aliens in Duel 20. Blake and Avon laughing about the intelligent flea (with snide glances referring over to Vila). It was forced, unfunny, and out of place.

2 1

T-shirt images
by Steve Rogerson 13 Jun '01

13 Jun '01

I have B7 T-shirts in my collection with individual images of Avon, Jenna and Vila on the front, plus a jokey combined one with Avon, Servalan and Vila. The question is, why has no-one ever produced a T-shirt with Blake on the front? -- cheers Steve Rogerson http://homepages.poptel.org.uk/steve.rogerson Redemption 03, 21-23 February 2003, Ashford, Kent Celebrating 25 years of Blake's 7 and 10 years of Babylon 5 http://www.smof.com/redemption

1 0

Re: [B7L] Take it To the Limit
by Sally Manton 13 Jun '01

13 Jun '01

Dana wrote: <However, even though canon doesn't give us a very clear back-story, I think that the Freedom Party did take some violent actions that had a certain degree of success--Blake wasn't just, for instance, running a printing press for subversive documents.> Oh I agree, but it was the subversion rather than the violence that was what was getting the authorities in such a lather over him. And his popular appeal, that made them so concerned to avoid killing or being seen to victimise him (something that didn't worry them a whole lot over *other* dissidents). <But perhaps a limiter can also affect an intellectual decision to take violent action.> There does seem to *be* the necessity for intent as well as emotion with Gan, but the reverse as well. _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

2 1

Re: [B7L] avon and sense
by Alison Page 12 Jun '01

12 Jun '01

Dana said - >In the original discussion, >"sense" meant something like "emotion," Oh, I misunderstood the post before I accidentally deleted it then. I thought that whoever-it-was was using MBTI and talking about feeling and sense as separate things. However I might have been projecting my own stuff onto the discussion in that case. Anyway, I'm talking about sense as in physical sensory acuity. Not really 'sex' which seems to cover all aspects of self: thought, emotion, sense and imagination. I mean you can derive pleasure on any of those vectors, so nobody is left out :-) >It is also entirely possible for someone to >be highly sensual (in a sexual context or otherwise) without >simultaneously being kind, warm-hearted, nice, etc. Absolutely. At least as likely as the alternative I'd say. >The situation does offer some limited options for having >a good time, and IMO Avon takes full advantage of them. Also 'life is sweet' as they say, when it is most endangered. But what constitutes 'enjoyment' as far as Avon is concerned? How much evidence is there on screen of Avon enjoying sensual stuff? Ice cream on freedom city. But I may be ignoring obvious examples just because they don't fit my mental picture. I think it can be a fault of intellectual types, to concentrate on the pleasure of triumphing, and not the enjoyment of the prize. 'Getting and spending we lay waste our powers' - some on getting, some on spending. >My main fannish activity is writing fanfic Yes, sorry, I didn't mean to put anyone on the spot about fanfiction. Alison

1 0

Re: [B7L] Travis not wheelchair accessible
by Murray 12 Jun '01

12 Jun '01

Steven, >They're also disposable. One of the interesting things >about Travis is that he has some fugitive stirrings of >conscience on occasion. I agree with you concerning his stirrings of conscience. Also, at least until _Trial_, he is a dedicated Federation officer, prepared to sacrifice his life if it meant the destruction of the Federation's enemies, inlcuding Blake. In 'Seek-Locate-Destroy' he orders the troopers to open fire, and not to wory about hitting him; in 'Pressure Point', he was prepared to let Servalan be killed as long as he could kill Blake. Servalan, in contrast, only cared about saving her own skin. >> He's turned his missing hand into a weapon. Is he >> trying to *become* the >> weapon he's trained to be? (They might have done >> something with his eye >> then, made it useful for something, a laser tracking >> device maybe. I can >> see a handy red-eyed "Terminator" style >> modification.) > >I think that Travis is a kind of humanoid dalek. He >has allowed himself to be dehumanised and turned into >a killing machine. It's a fairly old (and incredibly >unfair) dramatic convention to show evil people as >somehow physically flawed, in order to counterpoint >their mental and moral flaws. Changing attitudes towards physically disabled people, with efforts being made to bring them into ordinary society as much as possible, ensuring that they have better access to education and employment, has certainly made this dramatic convention unfair. I now look at such portrayals of evil people with physical flaws in a new light, one of annoyance and amusement, wondering if they could complain about being discriminated against on the grounds of disability.<bg> Murray

3 2

Travis Acts
by Steve Rogerson 12 Jun '01

12 Jun '01

A fan has written to me asking if I know where one can get a copy of the Travis Acts, a play with Brian Croucher playing Travis. I've never heard of this. Can anyone help? -- cheers Steve Rogerson http://homepages.poptel.org.uk/steve.rogerson Redemption 03, 21-23 February 2003, Ashford, Kent Celebrating 25 years of Blake's 7 and 10 years of Babylon 5 http://www.smof.com/redemption

4 3

ignore me
by Steve Rogerson 12 Jun '01

12 Jun '01

Ignore this message, just testing new email software -- cheers Steve Rogerson http://homepages.poptel.org.uk/steve.rogerson Redemption 03, 21-23 February 2003, Ashford, Kent Celebrating 25 years of Blake's 7 and 10 years of Babylon 5 http://www.smof.com/redemption

1 0

Take it To the Limit
by Sally Manton 12 Jun '01

12 Jun '01

Dana wrote: <If the Federation had only one limiter, or only a few, why not implant it in Blake, whose violent impulses were likely to cause a lot more damage than Gan's?> Three possibles ... 1. Blake's real crime - and in particular, his threat in the eyes of the Federation - wasn't as a violent criminal, it was as a political dissenter with a dangerous level of popular appeal. The limiter as it stands would have no real effect on that threat (perhaps - had it been a success at the rather crude level it's currently operating on - the Powers-That-Be could have authorised a development program to try and make it work against other undesirable impulses). 2. The limiter appears to work on a mixture of emotion ('The limiter is supposed to cut in when stress drives him to the point where he might kill.' - Blake, Breakdown) and intent (Gan can still fight perfectly well). The former is the problem - Blake doesn't kill in an emotional state, from the beginning he is able to *separate* himself from his emotions where violence is concerned (his quite scarey detachment in 'Blake' is just this ability pushed further along). It's quite possible that the effect of the limiter would therefore be muffled. Though it's an interesting point - as a leader in a battle, would someone with a limiter be able to order Vila to destroy another ship with people on? Or fire the neutron blasters himself? 2. Blake is a high-profile prisoner in both instances, proven by the lengths the PWB will go to to try and ensure he is not seen as a victim. The first time, the purpose is to make it look like a voluntary 'return to the fold', something that would be a little hard to make plausible if everyone can see a metal control sticking out of his head :-) The second time (TWB) they're out to trash his reputation then consign him - still alive, to avoid the martyrdom angle - to a planetary he can't possible ever come back from. Blake always needed special treatment, because of his status (I doubt many people were important enough for the full mindwipe treatment he received). Gan is essentially nobody. Judith wrote: <There's also the theory that Gan's limiter was experimental, though I'm not sure if I buy that as Kane certainly recognised it.> As I've said, I do consider the limiter to have been an experimental thing, and Gan one of the nameless lab rats selected simply because his criminal record showed he killed in a fit of fury and was therefore the proper material to work with. This being Kane's field, and Kane being an admirer of the way the Federation did things, he could well have kept up with what developments the Federation were carrying out in that area (it certainly *wasn't* secret work, though Vila's seeming ignorance indicates it also wasn't highly publicised). <And, by the way, why did the Federation have to go to the trouble of actually conditioning kids to believe that they were molested by Blake?> 'To give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative' ... (possibly misquoted :-) but you get the idea. They're trying to destroy someone already showing worrying signs of indestructibility; they're probably aware that there are going to be doubters, so they're making absolutely sure that the reality of evidence (the children themselves) can't be questioned. It's just one more administrative step, after all ... And it was all for nothing, since no one in the galaxy appeared to have *bought* the story once he became the Public Face of the Rebellion ... _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

3 2

Jump to page:

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

Blakes7