--- Neil Faulkner N.Faulkner@tesco.net wrote: >

I notice that Avon in Project Avalon refers to the Subterrons as 'creatures' but Travis later asks for 'a human'? Is this a script anomaly or an allusion to racism on Avon's part?

Sorry, best I can do for the moment...

3 possibilities

1/ The Subterons were originally meant to be non-human but the latex costume budget had already been spent on the Decimas.

2/ Avon assumes that anyone who doesn't live in a nice shiny city has got to be a creature rather than a person.

3/ Avon's dirty little secret is that he likes to read Patristic Theology and is using the word in it's archaic sense.

Option 1/ has a high degree of plausibility but I've no way of knowing if it's true. Option 2/ fits in quite well with Avon's personality - if an internal explanation is required that is probably the 'correct' one. One would expect Avon's prejudices to run in the direction of Urban/ technological = people, Caves = creatures.

Rather regretfully I have to reject option 3/ on the grounds that there's absolutely no evidence for it - unless one assumes that the reason Avon thought that the Sopron was more intelligent than the crew of the liberator, was because it *really* understood the Sabelian heresy.

However if Zen's memory banks were a bit vague as to what the Subterons really were, then Avon could be using the term 'creatures' as having the requisite vagueness. It could also be the reason why Avon get's so snarky when he's asked if the planet supports intelligent life - He doesn't really know much about it.

Stephen.

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Stephen said (as to why Avon called Subterrons "creatures"):

3/ Avon's dirty little secret is that he likes to read Patristic Theology and is using the word in it's archaic sense.

I've written a bunch of Catholic Avon stories, so I'm inclined to accept this explanation

Rather regretfully I have to reject option 3/ on the grounds that there's absolutely no evidence for it - unless one assumes that the reason Avon thought that the Sopron was more intelligent than the crew of the liberator, was because it *really* understood the Sabelian heresy.

Occam's Razor suggests a simpler explanation of why someone would think a rock was more intelligent than the crew of the Liberator.

There's another option: "creature" may be the politically correct, non-homo-sapiens-centric description of sentient life forms.

-(Y)