Fiona, I have just have to say that this was utterly brilliant. I'm in awe!!!
Louise
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jenny Kaye" jennycat55@hotmail.com
Harriet wrote:
It's possible that Mellanby had some contact with the Sarrans when he arrived, and that relations broke down later. This could be any reason from "Mellanby is horrified to find that they kill unwanted baby girls, so rescues one and then withdraws into his ship" to "Mellanby kidnaps a baby girl to provide a companion for his daughter, and is forced to withdraw before the Sarrans can take revenge". Or something completely unrelated to baby girls.
But IIRC the Sarrans had a prophecy about how people coming from the sky would destroy them-- even if Mellanby wanted contact, I doubt they were really wanting to meet the new neighbours :-).
Jenny
Coming back in on this thread... Dayna says about the Sarrans: "Father says they were a problem when we first arrived, now they leave us alone."
In the same scene, actually, Dayna says that Lauren has "lived with us since she was a child"-- so she might not have been a baby, in which case the female infanticide hypothesis is void.
Anyway, if she was a baby who was exposed, how is it that Chel knows who she is? I think if female infanticide is a common practice he's unlikely to make the connection between a baby being abandoned and a baby turning up with the Mellanbys if they did find her soon after they landed-- she could just have likely have come with them on the ship in that case, and he'd've expected the abandoned baby to have died. It's not that likely he'd be keeping head-count stats on the ship's population :), and Lauren's skin colour is no proof that she's not an alien-- Avon, Servalan and the two soldiers are all white, after all. If she came to live with the Mellanbys a bit later, then Chel would know the whole story.
Following on the reverse-colonialism theme, too, there's a lovely bit right before the Lauren line, where Avon asks Dayna if she is one of the Sarran and she says "do I look like them?!" :).
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Not killing anyone, much, at http://nyder.r67.net
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--- Fiona Moore nydersdyner@yahoo.co.uk wrote: >
Coming back in on this thread... Dayna says about the Sarrans: "Father says they were a problem when we first arrived, now they leave us alone."
In the same scene, actually, Dayna says that Lauren has "lived with us since she was a child"-- so she might not have been a baby, in which case the female infanticide hypothesis is void.
Anyway, if she was a baby who was exposed, how is it that Chel knows who she is? I think if female infanticide is a common practice he's unlikely to make the connection between a baby being abandoned and a baby turning up with the Mellanbys if they did find her soon after they landed-- she could just have likely have come with them on the ship in that case, and he'd've expected the abandoned baby to have died. It's not that likely he'd be keeping head-count stats on the ship's population :), and Lauren's skin colour is no proof that she's not an alien-- Avon, Servalan and the two soldiers are all white, after all. If she came to live with the Mellanbys a bit later, then Chel would know the whole story.
I've always assumed that the Sarrans were going to do something nasty to Lauren and Mellanby intervened on Dayna's urging - which fits rather well with your theory that Mellanby saved Dayna rather than his wife because Dayna wouldn't judge him. One person left had a good opinion of him and he couldn't let her down. If Lauren was due to be ritually sacrificed and was rescued it would make sense for Chel to be somewhat aggrieved when he met her again.
Incidentally I'm surprised that Servalan didn't go back to Sarran and grab a shed load of the self-aiming guns. Might have done wonders for the Federation Troopers marksmanship !
Following on the reverse-colonialism theme, too, there's a lovely bit right before the Lauren line, where Avon asks Dayna if she is one of the Sarran and she says "do I look like them?!" :).
If you want to detect colonialism in B7 Aftermath is a much stronger contender than Deliverance :-)
Stephen.
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