Given that [a] Orac's first priority - by about a trillion miles - is its precious self, but that [b] of all its humans, it appears to like Avon best, what would the result have been had *Vila* been closer to the gun in Orbit and had asked the fatal question? My immediate reaction is that - in self-interest - it would have been 'Avon weighs more than 70 kilos', but would Orac have been so certain of Vila's ability to win any fight for the gun and/or shoot Avon if he *had* to? (my further opinion is that yes, Vila would have killed Avon to save himself, but would the rat in a box agree?)
If Orac *had* nudged Vila into trying it, and they'd survived as they did in the real Orbit, would Avon have shown any anger towards Orac? (BTW, would he have done so towards Vila? I really aren't sure that he would - he is honest enough to realise that Vila's self-interest exceeds his own)
While Orbit isn't on my Top Ten episodes (no Blake :-)) I do like the fact that it has our three most blatant examples of self-interest smashing head-on, and only one comes out of it the same ...
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--- Sally wrote:
If Orac *had* nudged Vila into trying it, and they'd survived as they did in the real Orbit, would Avon have shown any anger towards Orac? (BTW, would he have done so towards Vila? I really aren't sure that he would - he is honest enough to realise that Vila's self-interest exceeds his own)
I think that Avon would have maintained that *it* was only answering a question. On the other hand he'd have been absolutely livid with Vila. What amuses me about the little mutual deprecation society Avon and Vila have established by season 4 is that Avon knows that Vila isn't as cowardly and incompetent as he pretends to be and Vila knows that Avon isn't as unemotional and logical as he pretends to be. I suspect that part of the relationship between them is the way they both know that the other has assumed as mask.
And then in Orbit Avon goes and acts as self-interestedly and as ruthlessly as his persona to Vila's absolute horror. If Vila had had the gun Avon would have been just as horrified. I seem to remember a couple of episodes where he takes betrayal particularly badly.
Actually, I think that Orbit might have been a better episode if Vila had grabbed the gun and gone after Avon. If all the terror and nervous prattle had drained away and the will to survive and dispose of all those surplus kilos had taken over from everything else. Why should Vila be the victim all the time ?
Stephen.
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Sally Manton -
Stephen Date