Harriet Monkhouse wrote:
Jenny replied to me:
No, the avoidance of her name suggests to me "too private and
painful
to
mention".
Then why bring it up at all?
As you say later,
Backstory seeds may be sown, but the full back story will only
be
activated when it is significant to the plot. For example
Soolin's
history tells us about GP and what we can expect. As a consequence
Gan
telling us about his "woman" is significant to the episode Time
Squad
He has to say something to explain the limiter.
That's right.
(And, stepping back a
bit, Terry Nation wants to remind us that the Federation are Nasty People). But Gan's a quiet, understated man, who's not going to
pour
out his life story on the spot.
That's true.
issue with Jenna, they're acquaintances; maybe he might have
opened
up
more later,
But he doesn't.
We have no idea what Gan said to Jenna later.
We know what is in the script. See above about "seeding" and all that.
Gan is saying that he has to stay with the crew of the Liberator because he needs people he can "rely" on. That means he
trusts them.
I "rely" on my colleagues. Some of them, after a couple of years,
cross
the line and become trusted friends and confidants. This status
is
hardly automatic, however.
But in the scene Gan is telling her that he has to "rely" on them to stay alive. Which I doubt you do with your colleagues :-).
Moving back into the B7 universe, I think Avon "relies" on his
fellow
crew. He doesn't go round telling them sob stories about his love
life
until it's absolutely necessary, and then he keeps it as plain as
he
can.
See? We agree again!
Re Porgy and Bess, my impression was that the love between them
was the
redeeming feature of their lives (which is why he goes off to look
for
her at the end of the opera).
But they're fairly rotten lives, and remember, all the subsequent references to "my woman" in the musical stem from the initial song "a woman is a sometime thing," in which we learn that:
"Listen to your daddy warn you, Fore you start a travelling Woman may born you, love you and scorn you, but a woman is a sometime thing...
Don't you ever let a woman grieve you Just cause she's got your wedding ring She'll love you and deceive you and she'll take your clothes and leave you Yes a woman is a sometime thing..."
Jenny
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Jenny Kaye