In a message dated 2/21/01 3:58:06 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
N.Faulkner(a)tesco.net writes:
<< 
 Plenty of reserve, dignity, and respect there, I'm sure you'll agree. >>
Well, I wasn't going to say anything... but what he said. I take exception to 
the statement that the British have more "reserve, dignity and respect" than 
Americans. Talk about a broad generalization! I love visiting England and I 
think it's a wonderful country... and there are many things about it that are 
much better (in my eyes) than America... but the reverse is also true. There 
are many things *here* in American that are better than in other countries, 
including England. And "reserve, dignity and respect" exists in both 
countries (not to mention many other countries, as well). Of course, there 
are those models of British reserve, dignity and respect on Red Dwarf we can 
always point to... ;-)
*Are* the Blakes 7 characters "British"? Well, personally, I don't think so. 
At least not all of them. If we follow that train of thought than the vast 
majority of spacegoers in the Star Trek Federation universe are *American*. 
The vast number of humanoids *and* aliens on Babylon 5 are mostly *American*. 
Even Xena and Hercules were *American* because, although the actors aren't 
American and the show isn't filmed in America, the actors mostly speak with 
American accents for an American audience. In fact, many "American" shows are 
now filmed in Canada. So, Scully and Mulder and the whole FBI must have been 
Canadian! (They are now "American" because the show moved operations to LA, I 
believe.) Hmmm, Farscape is filmed in New Zealand, isn't it? So, are all of 
the characters on Farscape originally from New Zealand?
Even if we want to extrapolate that many of the B7 characters were meant to 
be "British" in the far future, who's to say that the *behavior* of people 
that far in the future will be the same when it comes to emotions or 
*anything*? Hundreds of years ago in England, did people think and talk the 
same way that they do today?
And taking it even further, just how much of the characters' lives did we get 
to see? Not much, really. This is why so many fans find fan fiction appealing 
in the first place: the ability to take the characters and the situations in 
different directions and to explore all different kinds of things, including 
emotions. 
It seems to really bother some British fans when American fans want to 
participate in the fandom in this manner and I can only say sorry. A fan is a 
fan and if they feel motivated to write in their danged old American way, too 
bad. Don't read American fan fiction if it really bugs you that much.
Annie