I've been watching a lot of Stargate recently and I've been drawing a few mental comparisons between the that and Blake's 7. (Incidentally, if you've seen the Stargate film and not the series, the two have a very different flavour - don't judge one by the other)

I always thought that Blake never followed up on Jenna's obvious interest in him because he either wasn't interested or else he was too obsessed with rebellion to have room for any other interest, but Stargate suggests a third (and very likely option).

Stargate is based around the US airforce and the rule is simple, you don't have a relationship with anyone below you in the chain of command. There are several reasons for this, and they make good sense. Firstly, you cannot guarantee to act impartially - if you have to send one of your people into a dangerous situation, then can you be certain that you will not discriminate in favour of someone you are in love with? (or maybe that's a new reason for Jenna always ending up on teleport duty...). Secondly, if you're in a tight corner, you may not be able to concentrate fully on your objective if you're worrying about other things - like your beloved getting shot. Thirdly, the ban is a protection against sexual harassment (if such relationships are forbidden, then it's much easier for a woman to say no when a person with power over her makes a pass at her).

In Stargate, this means that Colonel O'Neill and Captain Carter never get together in spite of a strong degree of attraction. In Blake's 7, it could well explain why Blake never makes a pass at Jenna.

Another interesting parallel between the two shows is the cynic/idealist conflict. Blake, the idealist, has to cope with Avon as his perennial cynic. In Stargate, the situation is reversed where Colonel O'Neill, the cynic, has to cope with Daniel Jackson, civilian and idealist. Daniel has many of Blake's qualities. He is a passionate believer in freedom and human rights (and those of aliens come to that). He will risk his life for what he believes in, but lacks Blake's degree of fanatasism. He finds it easier to forgive.

Avon's cynicism is far-ranging, he doesn't really trust anyone or anything - yet, there are times when he can make the leap of faith (whether he loves Blake or hates him, I do not doubt that he *trusts* him). O'Neill mistrusts the world on general principles and aliens in particular, but can also make the leap of faith. In his case, he trusted a man who was both an alien and an enemy (Teal'c) and it paid off.

Both shows have the theme of a fight against a powerful and oppressive enemy. In Blake's case, the Federation, in Stargate's case a particularly nasty alien race called the goa'uld. Both fights verge on the impossible. The Federation are too large and the goa'uld too advanced for there to be much chance of victory.

The biggest difference between the shows is in chain of command. Blake's a rebel. Providing he can convince his crew, he can do whatever he likes. O'Neill is in the opposite position. His people will do whatever he orders them to. (There are exceptions to this, but they are extrememly rare and usually Daniel who hasn't got military obedience ingrained quite so deeply in him) O'Neill, however, has to follow orders himself, no matter how much he may dislike them. He's a maverick by nature, but he will nevertheless (with extremely rare exceptions) do what he's ordered to do.

It's interesting to compare the way the two shows treat their female characters. CArter initially suffered some of the things that Jenna and Cally had to put up with. It tended to be a case of "we've got a female character, what shall we do with her?" Early episodes written around her tended to look at a woman rather than an officer. Jenna had to suffer 'The Keeper', Carter had 'Emancipation'. Then, it's as though the penny dropped. They started writing for the officer rather than the woman and she becomes a character you can believe in, competent in a firefight, skilled as a scientist and with a mind of her own.

Carter probably beats Cally's total count of being taken over by aliens (I have't counted, but there's certainly several cases), but *everyone* in Stargate seems to get taken over by an alien sooner or later - it goes with the job <grin>. (except Teal'c - he's immune for reasons that at least have some plausibility).

My own personal theory as to why Carter seems to come out of it better than Cally and Jenna is *uniform*. In Stargate, everyone dresses the same. If O'Neill's in camouflage gear, then Carter's in camouflage gear. If he's in uniform, then she's in uniform. Stargate seems to be the one show where the main female character isn't dressed in mini skirts/skin-tight leather/bondage gear/brightly coloured pastels. I suspect this may have had an influence on the way the writers approached the character. It certainly affects the way I react to her. An intelligent female character, an astrophysicist, who gets to do all the interesting things with everyone else. Where was she when I was growing up?

Unlike Jenna and Cally, she also gets called by her second name as a rule. It's Daniel, the civilian, who always gets called by his first name. But being a civilian, he's the one who gets to call Carter 'Sam' (short for Samantha).

I guess it's a bit like (what I see as) the class distinction in Blake's 7. Upper grades like Blake and Avon are called by their second name, whereas lower grades like Vila are called by their second name. In Stargate, the distinction is military/non-military, but with loads of fine shadings as to who is allowed to address whom as what within the military.

<grin> and the other thing that reminds me of B7 is that Stargate kills off the entire cast on several occasions...

For anyone who's got this far and hasn't seen Stargate, the series is just starting from the first epsiode on Sky 1 on New Year's Day. Each episode is on twice a day - 6am and 6pm. It's an episode each weekday. It's a good opportinity to watch it from the beginning.

Some of the worst episodes are near the start. The first two are pretty good, then there's a couple of really poor ones, then it picks up pace as the actors got settled into their roles and the writing improved. Basically, stick with it through the duff ones and you'll be rewarded with some much better stuff (there's several early ones that feel like Classic Trek: visit a planet, catch a silly disease, earn undying thanks of locals by curing it, move onto next planet.) Once they worked out where the series was going and started having episodes that related to the gao'uld threat, then it gets much better. The last four episodes of the first season close/second season start, are wonderful.

Judith