Sally wrote:
I have to doubt that Avon's Byronic aura would be nearly as noticable were it not for mid-to-late S3 - the start of Children of Auron, and all of Rumours of Death and Sarcophagus are the most Tortured-Hero episodes (am still trying to decide about Terminal).
Still, I'd say he displays some Byronic traits even earlier. He has a weekness for beautiful women (Cally in Web), he's "capable of deep and strong affection" (to quote Macaulay) although obviously not capable of communicating it (the famous "you don't have to become irrational to prove that you care" speech in Duel), women find him beautiful and are attracted to him (Meegat in Deliverance and Dayna at the very beginning of S3). Also, Avon's strong individualism, a kind of "non serviam" attitude which we associate with Byron's characters, is present from the very start (Blake in Space Fall, "it will work IF ONLY I CAN GET HIM TO DO IT"). Besides, the development re Anna Grant (hero feeling responsible for the death of his darling summons her ghost from the dead - a motif from "Manfred", IIRC) starts as early as Countdown.
It's interesting, however, that neither the writers (Nation or Boucher) nor PD seem to have had any intention of investing him with *any* Byronic or Wromantic overtones
It goes without saying, I think, that we can rightfully claim to have found in a work of art more than the artist(s) consciously intended to put there. I'm refering to a sort of cultural "collective unconscious" working on various levels. For instance, Terry Nation acknowledged the influence of Dirty Dozen, but I'm sure the legends of Robin Hood also played a part in creating B7, and it's not difficult to prove. Avon may have been intended as a mixture of Mr. Spock and Dirty Harry, but I believe Byron also crept in from somewhere in the back of the authors' mind...
Hey, Sally, thank you for turning this into a serious thread!
N.