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5511 discussions

Re: [B7L] Hello? where is everyone?
by Sally Manton 27 Apr '01

27 Apr '01

After I wrote: <Don't make me dig out my 'how Avon's fashion choices reflects his mental and emotional state throughout the series' argument, just for something to post...> Joanne murmered drowsily: <I thought it was movements of his little finger...> <regretful sigh> No. Even *I* wouldn't inflict that on Neil, Joanne ... _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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The next generation
by Minnie 27 Apr '01

27 Apr '01

Howdy I just thought I would write to you all and let you know (whether you are interested or not because I like to share <G>) That my goldfish Blake and Servalan have had babies. (is that a scary combination or what!!!!!) Ironically they had 6 babies and I will be interested to see how many of them survive <G> Just thought I would do the grandma thing and pass this info on. It also gave me an idea for my webpage, which is currently in the works and not on my site yet, of doing a series of next Gen images of what the offspring of various B7 couples might look like, starting with Blake and Servalan. <VBEG> Let me know what you think of the idea. Cheers. Min.xxx

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Ebay Chris Boucher "Weapon" script
by JEB31538＠cs.com 27 Apr '01

27 Apr '01

Ebay Chris Boucher "Weapon" script Chris Boucher is selling a 1978 original photostat script of "Weapon." He says he will autogragh it if the buyer wishes it autographed. I suspect this means you can get it personalized if you want. The item number is 1138942956 and there is an unknown reserve price on it so I suspect that Boucher wants, at least, fifty pounds or more for it. I frankly now can't remember what the other scripts of his went for on Ebay. I'm almost tempted to bid on this myself, but won't. "Weapon" is one of my favorite shows. Three Blakes for the price of one. Here's a chance to get something nice if you're a Chris Boucher fan, if you're a collector of scripts, or if you like to have original B7 items. I believe there's more than a week of bidding on this item. *** Also on Ebay and almost gone is an original B7 costume. A female guard jacket from "Terminal." That's nothing that would appeal to me. But if you like costumes, you might check this out. But hurry. There's little time left. Now having a nice white or brown Blake shirt is something that I would personally want. Or that gorgeous Blake watermelon sleeve jacket and big wide belt to go with it. Those would be costume items I would bid on if they ever reached Ebay or other auctions or sales. Check out Blake's 7 and Blakes 7. Go to both http://www.ebay.com/ and http://www.ebay.co.uk/ Joyce

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Re: [B7L] SF:UK
by J MacQueen 27 Apr '01

27 Apr '01

>From: Harriet Bazley <harriet(a)bazley.freeuk.com> >that was the day the cloaks changed I know, I know, but I've got this image of the washing line for the "intelligent menials" in Sarcophagus now... Regards Joanne (very sorry, but more awake) _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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SF:UK
by Harriet Bazley 27 Apr '01

27 Apr '01

At the end of last week's edition of SF:UK, it was announced that this Saturday/Sunday's programme would feature Dan Dare, Flash Gordon et al. -- and Blake's 7. Doubtless it will be broadcast somewhere between 1:00 and 2:00 am as usual... the time-slot is criminal, bearing in mind the way the 'Guardian', for one, has been picking out the programme week after week as one of its three Saturday recommendations. I'm not sure whether the prospect is to be looked forward to or not. The presenter is obviously a genuine SF enthusiast, even if he does occasionally resort to the usual gambit of making his subjects look silly, and the format so far has basically been a fairly conservative combination of talking heads and clips from the material under discussion, despite a tendency to occasional weird camera-work, presumably thought to be in keeping with the futuristic theme. To date the programmes have ranged (in my opinion) from insightful -- H.G.Wells, Frankenstein (what I saw of it -- that was the day the cloaks changed), Clockwork Orange, The Prisoner -- to unbelievably laboured attempts to present an argument using material that blatantly failed to back up the hypothesis -- Thunderbirds as sex symbol, Dr Who as acid dream. The Judge Dredd/2000 AD edition sounded plausible, but I don't know enough about the subject to judge whether the punk analogy was fair or not. However, going by the Boys' Own company in which it is to find itself, I would guess that the forthcoming programme means to concentrate on the 'Robin Hood' aspect of Blake's 7 -- rescues, tangled loyalties, and heroics between the stars. Which sounds promising, to me at least; character junkies may have other views! (It could be worse: watching the presenter try to draw parallels between Thunderbirds and the 'auto-erotic' Crash was so dire you just had to laugh. By the time they got to 'Sean Connery in a red nappy' we were literally doubled over gasping in hysterics.) -- Harriet Bazley == Loyaulte me lie ==

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Re: [B7L] Hello? where is everyone?
by J MacQueen 27 Apr '01

27 Apr '01

>From: "Sally Manton" <smanton(a)hotmail.com> >Don't make me dig out my 'how Avon's fashion choices reflects his mental >and >emotional state throughout the series' argument, just for something to >post... [A dormouse stirs briefly, as memory runs equally briefly through it's mind.] <sleepily> I thought it was movements of his little finger... Regards Joanne (ZZZZzzzzz) _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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Re: [B7L] Captain Vila
by Sally Manton 26 Apr '01

26 Apr '01

----Original Message Follows---- From: "Jenny Kaye" <jennycat55(a)hotmail.com> To: kminne(a)camtech.net.au, blakes7(a)lists.lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Captain Vila Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 20:04:24 -0000 Walter (or Ken?) Minne says: > >Since we don't actually know how the grading testing was done, it is > >possible that the testing science had advanced so much that either Walter wrote: <It sometimes seems to me that many people on this list think that the Federation is the be all and end all of evil, corrupt governments, down to the lowliest trooper and civil worker as greedy and blood thirsty,> First part, yes I do see the Federation much that way, and corruption as pretty widespread; however (to address the second part), while I may believe corruption to be pretty widespread, obviously there are people who are not, and others who are not *knowingly* part of the corruption. However, in this case you don't need that. Just one or a few people to be venal enough, and Vila to have the contacts (like Avon and his visa seller). Some level of corruption - even if small and rigorously squashed - is a part of every society, after all. And Jenny K: <There is no need for all this elaborate theorising, when the answer is simple: Vila was a thief, and therefore, like most thieves, Vila was a liar as well.> Ah, but that's just theory as well, isn't it? <g> albeit simpler (but of course some of us prefer the complicated stuff). _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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Re: [B7L] Captain Vila
by Jenny Kaye 26 Apr '01

26 Apr '01

Jacqui wrote: >Harriet Monkhouse <hflysator(a)jarriere.demon.co.uk> wrote: > > > > Jacqui wrote: > > >When Vila says he bought his 'grade four ignorant' status (and >elsewhere > > >Avon calls him a 'grade five ignorant') to avoid being made a captain - >but > > >why assume he means a military/space service captain - perhaps he was > > >trying to avoid being made a captain of a prison ship such as the >London > > > > Or a cricket captain. > > > > -- > > Harriet > > ><Given Vila's 'social class' > Isn't social rank in the Federation (Alpha, Beta etc.) exam-determined? So why would his accent be a barrier to being a space captain? And the crew of the London sounded dead posh. <he is more likely to end up being captain of the London (and who would want to have a load of bolshy revolting (probably in both senses) prisoners to look after - it would be a perfectly sensible decision to avoid going down that path.> Vila says that all the space captains got killed in the war. So what would a civilian ship like the London be doing attacking Alien battle fleets? In that scene Vila was obviously comparing himself to Tarrant. And IMO he was lying anyway, why would he have to buy a grade when all he'd have to do is fail the exams? Much more cost effective. Jenny _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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Re: [B7L] Captain Vila
by Jenny Kaye 26 Apr '01

26 Apr '01

Sally wrote: > >Jenny Kaye wrote: > ><If Vila *was* an Alpha Grade then he should have been bright enough to > >"fail" any test. It's not that difficult to fail an IQ test if you know > >what > >sort of answers the examiners are looking for.> > > > >If they've been running the tests for long enough (and it does appear the > >system is entrenched, from the sheer casualness with which it's mentioned > >on-screen) surely the organisers would have come up with something a bit > >more subtle than that? (OTOH, it *is* a totalitarian dictatorship, not > >normally known for their subtlety). Well the good old American government has been running IQ tests since the 1930's, and they still haven't worked out a way of avoiding racial and class bias in the grading. Why should the Federation be any better? > ><Who, or what, is a "Toothy"?> > > > >One Del Tarrant. Christened in honour of one of his most - errr - shining > >attributes, that blindingly perfect smile. Oh, I thought you ment Avon, because he had sort of buck teeth didn't he? Jenny _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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Re: [B7L] Captain Vila
by Jenny Kaye 26 Apr '01

26 Apr '01

Walter (or Ken?) Minne says: > >Since we don't actually know how the grading testing was done, it is > >possible that the testing science had advanced so much that either the > >testing process itself was so reliable as to be accurate despite the > >willingness or otherwise of the subject, or that trying to > >deliberately fail the test was also taken into account. But as you say, "we don't actually know how the grading testing was done," so all of this is just speculation. > > > >It sometimes seems to me that many people on this list think that the > >Federation is the be all and end all of evil, corrupt governments, > >down to the lowliest trooper and civil worker as greedy and blood > >thirsty, Not me. However, don't underestimate the power of greed! though we do see many sympathetic Federation characters, and > >even military officers. I have speculated on the Lyst in past that for > >the Federation to survive on its own (corrupt and evil though major > >elements of it are), without collapsing in complete anarchy, a major > >portion, and possibly the majority of the whole Federation system has > >to be run under some sort of "Rule of Law". That's not speculation, just common sense. (See Cygnus Alpha and Gauda Prime for instance) > >So large portions of the Federation would operate under a kind of > >default option system of genuine standards and responsibilities, even > >if most of the time, the sufficiently rich, and the sufficiently > >powerful, could ignore them if they wanted to, though even that had > >limits. Well, this is what basically Rumours of Death states, yes. > >Hence the young Vila, faced with the choice of testing into a group > >from which the military automatically took all the candidates for > >training as Space Captains, Again, supposition. or failing the exam deliberately ( and who > >knows what the punishment for that would have been, sold as a slave to > >an outer world maybe ), How would they know that he had failed the exam deliberately, especially if he really did have the IQ of an Alpha grade? did the only thing he could do, bribed the > >tester to change his result independent of the testing process so that > >he could remain safe on Earth. Then again perhaps Vila was... lying? (surely not!) > >The other point about Vila not wanting to be a Space Captain, is that > >the Federation training for Space Captains would likely as not have > >been fatal to anyone like Vila with an enhanced perception of the > >value of his own skin and no military useful redeeming features or > >friends in high places. Either the trainers would arrange a fatal > >"accident" as an incentive to the other recruits, or the other > >recruits would themselves tear him to pieces for stuffing up a unit > >exercise one too many times. But surely any test would have taken this into account. If you are looking for a fearless commander type, then why not make that a part of the IQ test? > >Young Vila would have wanted to avoid a near fatal career path any way > >he could, and bribery was probably the only option. Look, if you bother to watch the episode you'll see that Vila's reference to 'all the Space Captains being killed' is a reference to the Galactic War. Something he could not possibly have foreseen all those years ago when he allegedly flunked the test. There is no need for all this elaborate theorising, when the answer is simple: Vila was a thief, and therefore, like most thieves, Vila was a liar as well. In fact just a few seconds later he lies about his feelings for Dayna. Vila continually lies throughout the series. Even when we first see him, Vila lies to Blake about why he has his watch. Jenny _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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