Here's another little exercise, if anyone's interested, in two parts:
If you could change just three things about the series - with no restrictions on cast, budget, scripting etc - what would they be? (Obviously, *my* first would be "don't let Blake go.")
If you could change just three episodes, which are they and how would you do it?
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Sally Manton wrote:
Here's another little exercise, if anyone's interested, in two parts:
If you could change just three things about the series - with no restrictions on cast, budget, scripting etc - what would they be? (Obviously, *my* first would be "don't let Blake go.")
1) Keep the S1-S2 characterization of Servalan, instead of the S3-S4. 2) Undo PD's S4 hairstyle change. Sorry, I just hate it. 3) More, more, more Jarriere!!!
If you could change just three episodes, which are they and how would you do it?
Um. Harder.
1) Killer - Jenna should be the one that knows about 61 Cygni. 2) Aftermath - Too much Avon ;-) Can we please have more information on what happened to the rest of the crew? 3) Animals - Replace it with a Jarriere-centric episode.
Mistral
Mistral wrote:
- Keep the S1-S2 characterization of Servalan, instead of the S3-S4.
- Undo PD's S4 hairstyle change. Sorry, I just hate it.
- More, more, more Jarriere!!!
...
- Killer - Jenna should be the one that knows about 61 Cygni.
- Aftermath - Too much Avon ;-) Can we please have more information
onwhat happened to the rest of the crew? 3) Animals - Replace it with a Jarriere-centric episode.
Thanks, Mistral, for saving me the bother of having to think! I agree with virtually everything (except I don't mind much about Aftermath, or Sand, if that's included in (1.1)).
Maybe that's a bit lazy. If Mistral is going to get me five of my wishes anyway, maybe I should use up some more...
1) I'd like more Bercol and Rontane too, which is as much as to say more political intrigue, fewer daft aliens. Joban can come back too. 2) And, obviously, the women to get more interesting things to do, especially Cally, whose telepathy should be used as an asset far more than a liability. 3) If Blake can't stay, I want Tarrant to remain as originally conceived, the ambiguous stranger of Powerplay. [See the Blake's 7 Winter Special from Marvel Comics: "Discussions on Season C began in late November 1978 between Nation, Maloney and Boucher... To replace Blake, a new character referred to as 'the Captain' was devised... The Captain would be intent on betraying the Liberator to the Federation..."]
1) The Web - sorry to those who've heard me say this too many times, but it would be quite OK if the whole episode centred on Cally - who's the saboteur, it's her! how do we stop her, why did she do it, can we ever trust her again? As it's her first ever possession, it's not yet a cliche, and there should be much more of an issue of trust when she's a new arrival. Maybe (see (2) above) she should finally use her powers to save them all and defeat Saymon, who should, incidentally, be reduced to a Voice Off-screen and never actually seen. His assistants can be dropped altogether. I'll accept suggestions for keeping the Decimas. Maybe they're telepathic slaves and Cally liberates them. 2) No crew-shares-a-feeble-joke endings - this means Breakdown, Trial, Children of Auron, maybe something else I've managed to forget. 3) Maybe the last one has already exceeded the limit, so I'll just settle for putting Orbit before Gold. Vila acts in Gold as if Orbit is behind him - withdrawn, strangely grim, making Avon sweat with the teleport delay.
One of the above, the characterisation of Tarrant, seems to me to be pretty relevant to the conversation discussed in the Captain Vila thread. Volcano is effectively Tarrant's second episode, so could be expected to show more traces of the character as originally planned, and I think it's significant that doubts about him crop up in the remarks of Hower, as well as Vila, though they come at it from different angles:
Vila: Tarrant says he was a space captain, but then he says a lot of things, and you don't have to believe it all, do you?
Hower: You were once a Federation space captain, you said. Tarrant: Yes, I was, for a time, until I deserted. Hower: You still sound like one.
Was he a space captain, is he still a space captain - I presume that, until it was decided to make him squeaky clean, these hints were being inserted into the script to keep us uncertain about Tarrant's real motivation. Hower appears to be an intelligent and perceptive man, and Avon remarks in Gold that Vila is "frequently right" (when not distracted by female legs, evidently).
The conversation between Vila, Avon and Cally also helps to re-establish Vila's character (it's early in the season, and he missed most of Aftermath) - prattling and unreliable, but with the familiar motif that he's brighter than he seems (the Sarcophagus Alien doesn't have any reason to lie about this). And if you look at his precise words, "Alpha" never comes into it, nor does he actually say he could have been a space captain - just that he didn't want to be one. I've got no difficulty with interpreting his remarks as wildly exaggerated distortion, but neither have I any difficulty with the idea that there was once some sort of incident at a testing centre which inspired his line of thought (and maybe, over the years, he's kidded himself into believing it - I think he's at least as good at deluding himself as deceiving anyone else). So he's babbling, he's reminding us all of who he is, and he drops in an idea about Tarrant which could have become very significant - but as the series abandoned the storyline for "the Captain", it didn't.
From: Harriet Monkhouse hflysator@jarriere.demon.co.uk
- No crew-shares-a-feeble-joke endings - this means Breakdown, Trial,
Children of Auron, maybe something else I've managed to forget.
Deathwatch
Neil
Neil pointed out:
- No crew-shares-a-feeble-joke endings - this means Breakdown, Trial,
Children of Auron, maybe something else I've managed to forget.
Deathwatch.
For some reason Deathwatch didn't register under that category. Maybe not enough of the crew present, maybe not enough silly giggling.
"Neil Faulkner" N.Faulkner@tesco.net wrote:
From: Harriet Monkhouse hflysator@jarriere.demon.co.uk
- No crew-shares-a-feeble-joke endings - this means Breakdown, Trial,
Children of Auron, maybe something else I've managed to forget.
Deathwatch
Neil
...Beetle
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Sally wrote:
Here's another little exercise, if anyone's interested, in two parts:
Ooh, these are good ones.
If you could change just three things about the series - with no restrictions on cast, budget, scripting etc - what would they be? (Obviously, *my* first would be "don't let Blake go.")
1. Have the programme scheduled for a post 9pm slot so that it could be really hard-hitting and not pussy-foot around so much.
2. Have Chris Boucher and Bob Holmes write the entire thing so that it's entirely character and plot-driven, and give them the time to craft whole seasons of rock hard story arc. Perhaps, Mary-Sue style, pull in a handful of talented fan writers who, of course, know best of all what B7 should be like.
3. Shoot it all so it's really grey and grim and metal and bloody. That's what it's like in my head. B7, I mean, not just in my head in general.
If you could change just three episodes, which are they and how would you do it?
1. 'Rumours of Death': really make that interrogation scene *shit* evil. Have someone who can act playing Anna Grant.
2. 'Aftermath': this is pretty much my version of 'don't let Blake go', Sally. I would want this to be the start of an arc in which we see the story of the revolution on Earth as the Federation is collapsing.
3. Well, all the changes I really want to do are covered by my vision for the series as outlined above, but if I had to change a third episode, I'd take out the 'but you're so beautiful when you're angry line' from 'Sarcophagus'. Or I'd change 'The Web': I'd burn all copies of it and then jump up and down on the still smouldering ashes.
Una
From: Una McCormack una@qresearch.org.uk
If you could change just three things about the series - with no restrictions on cast, budget, scripting etc - what would they be? (Obviously, *my* first would be "don't let Blake go.")
- Have the programme scheduled for a post 9pm slot so that it could be
really
hard-hitting and not pussy-foot around so much.
Good ghod yes!
- Shoot it all so it's really grey and grim and metal and bloody. That's
what
it's like in my head. B7, I mean, not just in my head in general.
You can do this in the comfort of your own home. Just follow these three easy steps.
1) Turn down the colour control so the picture's in black and white.
2) Tape a sheet of aluminium foil over the screen.
3) Decapitate a chicken and drape it over the front of the set.
If that's not bloody enough you could try a sheep, but they seem to be in short supply these days.
Neil
Neil wrote:
From: Una McCormack una@qresearch.org.uk
- Shoot it all so it's really grey and grim and metal and bloody. That's
what
it's like in my head. B7, I mean, not just in my head in general.
You can do this in the comfort of your own home. Just follow these three easy steps.
Turn down the colour control so the picture's in black and white.
Tape a sheet of aluminium foil over the screen.
Decapitate a chicken and drape it over the front of the set.
My god, it works!
Una
From: Una McCormack una@qresearch.org.uk
My god, it works!
Of course it works. Do you really think I'd recommend it otherwise?
Another really neat trick: when Bayban calls Sherm a miserable son of a slimecrawler, try throwing a slug at the screen. Improves the ambience no end.
You can also get a cat, stick its tail into a mains socket, then switch the power on at exactly the moment Tynus falls into the TP crystal console. Do that when showing the episode to newbies and they'll never forget it.
And for the bit when Avon shoots Blake, you can almost feel you're there with a large frog and a bicycle pump.
Does anyone else have any indispensible viewing tips?
Neil
Neil wrote:
From: Una McCormack una@qresearch.org.uk
My god, it works!
Of course it works. Do you really think I'd recommend it otherwise?
Another really neat trick: when Bayban calls Sherm a miserable son of a slimecrawler, try throwing a slug at the screen. Improves the ambience no end.
Can't be pleasant for the slug.
Does anyone else have any indispensible viewing tips?
When the opening credits of 'The Web' start up, switch over.
Una
Neil asked:
Does anyone else have any indispensible viewing tips?
Throwing rice, opening umbrellas, and taping the steps for The Time Warp to the television screen? It's a personal choice *which* character's every appearance is greeted with "Asshole," though.
-(Y)
Dana Shilling wrote:
Throwing rice, opening umbrellas, and taping the steps for The Time Warp to the television screen? It's a personal choice *which* character's every appearance is greeted with "Asshole," though.
As I recentlty remarked to someone off-list, I have this bizarre Rocky Horror-esque urge to shout "duplicitious bitch!" everytime Anna Grant's name comes up. Anywhere. I have no idea where I acquired this impulse, but I think I'd very much like to give it back.
In 'The Web', I have the urge, after the dead Decima is seen by its friends, who then start crying and throwing rocks, to say, 'Oh my God! They killed Kenny! You bastards!'
Murray
--- Sally Manton smanton@hotmail.com wrote:
Here's another little exercise, if anyone's interested, in two parts:
If you could change just three things about the series - with no restrictions on cast, budget, scripting etc - what would they be? (Obviously, *my* first would be "don't let Blake go.")
1. Don't let Blake go 2. Don't let Jenna go (and have the women stay as they were in S1 when they were assertive and could fight and didn't just do Teleport duty). 3. More Federation politics/ fewer races to find exciting new technology which, in the end, neither they or Servalan actually get.
If you could change just three episodes, which are they and how would you do it?
1. Hostage - Plug the plot holes, have believable fight scenes, more Councillor Joban, cut the stuff about Jenna being jealous of Blake and Inga, have Jenna decide to fly into the dust particles and not Avon. 2. Animals - More pace, less sitting around in Justin's lab talking, replace the Vila repairing Scorpio scenes for something a bit more interesting. 3. Aftermath - Have a proper Space Battle rather than a rerun of Season 2 Special effects. 4. Countdown...er sorry that's more than 3.
Stephen.
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Sally Manton wrote:
Here's another little exercise, if anyone's interested, in two parts:
If you could change just three things about the series - with no restrictions on cast, budget, scripting etc - what would they be?
My goodness, this is *hard*. I was going to mention a few things about individual episodes, but I see there's a separate question for that, so... Hmm. Thing is, I'd be afraid of changing things *too* radically for fear of messing a good thing up! But let's see...
1) To echo a couple of other people: more for the women to do! I wanna see Jenna and Cally kicking ass! (If I can also include under this heading a little more character depth for Dayna, or Soolin developing into the interesting character she became more quickly, then I will!)
2) Make the third season more interesting... somehow. Lose the embarrassng alien-of-the-week episodes, at any rate (except for "Sarchophagus"), and replace them with... I dunno, interesting character-based episodes (like "City") and eps. that actually have some relevance to the post-war state of the galaxy.
3) This is a toughy. I was idly thinking something like "Have Ensor live for one more episode, just to give him a chance to interact with the rest of the crew," but that seemed a little too minor given my imaginary power to change any aspect of the series at all. But that makes me think of something I *would* have liked to have seen, which is a better exploration of Orac. A better sense of exactly what his limitations are, a better sense of how his predictive powers work (and why we never saw them again after "Redemption"), but, most of all, a little more exploration of him as a character in his own right. That machine always did seem to have his own agenda... One of the few things I actually liked about DotG was that we got to see Orac acting autonomously, putting the crew in danger, and then getting snarky when they complained about it. I would have *loved* to have seen more of that sort of thing, and of Avon trying to deal with it without reprogramming Orac into uselessness. Come to think of it, *that* may have been an interesting thing to do in a third season episode or two...
If you could change just three episodes, which are they and how would you do it?
OK, I think this is a little easier.
1) Gotta agree with Una on "Rumours of Death." Recast Anna with someone who has a little more chemistry with PD (or with anybody, for that matter). Lose the silver lame sheets. I wouldn't object to a little more info on exactly what the political situation on Earth *is*, either, or to making the torture scene slightly more intense. (I think it's a good episode, really. But it could have been a much *better* episode, and it's one that deserves to be as good as possible.)
2) Shove "Harvest of Kairos" out the airlock and replace it with something *good* in which neither Jarvik nor a lunar lander appears. The Sopron can stay, as long as it behaves itself.
3) Re-write "Animals" so that it plays as if it *were* actually written with Dayna in mind. Make Justin less icky, Og less laughable, and the brainwashing scenes painful in a *good* way instead of a bad one. (OK, so I don't *always* agree with Una! :))
Sally Manton wrote:
Here's another little exercise, if anyone's interested, in two parts:
If you could change just three things about the series - with no restrictions on cast, budget, scripting etc - what would they be? (Obviously, *my* first would be "don't let Blake go.")
Agreed here. My second and third would be: Let Servalan win a bit more often; better writing for the regular female characters (ties with - fire Ben Steed once he sends in his first draft, or better yet, never hire him in the first place).
If you could change just three episodes, which are they and how would you do it?
1) Voices of the Past: this should have been the episode to deal with Blake's guilt about having betrayed the Freedom Party through his public renounciation etc. Get rid of Travis-as-Mummy. Get rid of the stupid device. Get rid of the actress playing Le Grand. Let this be instead to manipulate Blake/luring him into trap by making him rescue an ex-Freedom Party member who makes him feel guilty as hell for having been broken by the Federation.
2) All Ben Steed episodes are begging for rewrite (see above), but to limit myself to just one: No Jarvik. No Tarzan of any kind. Let the episode be written by Tanith Lee instead.
3) Rescue: no Dayna behaving as damsel in distress. On-screen death for Cally, perhaps, though the single "Blake" was effective as well.
Tanja
On Sat, 28 Apr 2001, Sally Manton wrote:
Here's another little exercise, if anyone's interested, in two parts:
If you could change just three things about the series - with no restrictions on cast, budget, scripting etc - what would they be? (Obviously, *my* first would be "don't let Blake go.")
1) Hire lighting techs who know what the fuck they're doing.
2) Edit the action sequences properly.
3) Recast Jenna, Gan and Dayna. (I'm conflicted about recasting Avon.)
If you could change just three episodes, which are they and how would you do it?
1) Pressure Point. Kill off Jenna rather than Gan (this will also entail replacing 'The Keeper': other episodes will require minimal rewriting). Oh, and don't give this one to Spenton-Foster.
2) Aftermath. Have some proper space battle scenes.
3) Rumours of Death. Hire an actor to play Anna.
Iain
--- Iain wrote: >
- Pressure Point. Kill off Jenna rather than Gan
(this will also entail replacing 'The Keeper': other episodes will require minimal rewriting). Oh, and don't give this one to Spenton-Foster.
Aftermath. Have some proper space battle scenes.
Rumours of Death. Hire an actor to play Anna.
Surely, if you're going to have an actor play Anna then there can be no objection to having Gan take over Jenna's lines in the Keeper :-)
Stephen.
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On Mon, 30 Apr 2001, [iso-8859-1] Stephen Date wrote:
--- Iain wrote: >
- Rumours of Death. Hire an actor to play Anna.
Surely, if you're going to have an actor play Anna then there can be no objection to having Gan take over Jenna's lines in the Keeper :-)
That certainly has possibilities. However, in modern parlance 'actor' is a unisex term. Many female actors object to the term 'actress', as it has somehat diminutive and insubstantial connotations -- and I'm inclined to agree with them.
Iain
Iain's suggestions:
- Recast Jenna, Gan and Dayna. (I'm conflicted about recasting Avon.)
Don't blame the messenger! Just look at some of the rubbish they had to spout--Dame Judi Dench on her best day couldn't have done much with Jenna's scripts, much less Dayna's.
-(Y)
On Mon, 30 Apr 2001, Dana Shilling wrote:
Iain's suggestions:
- Recast Jenna, Gan and Dayna. (I'm conflicted about recasting Avon.)
Don't blame the messenger! Just look at some of the rubbish they had to spout--Dame Judi Dench on her best day couldn't have done much with Jenna's scripts, much less Dayna's.
I'm afraid I do blame the messenger. Other cast members had just as much shite to spout: they just did it better. Look at this bit from 'Star One':
BLAKE Maximum scan, Cally. Look for anything unusual or out of place, sudden temperature variation, anything. They're bound to have left some clue as to where they put that installation. A door would be nice if you could manage it. CALLY I'll do my best. BLAKE Preferably one marked 'Entrance'. CALLY Ready on the scan, Jenna.
Cally's lines are utterly banal, yet Chappell manages to get terrific amounts of characterisation and subtext into them.
Iain
From: Sally Manton smanton@hotmail.com
Here's another little exercise, if anyone's interested, in two parts:
If you could change just three things about the series - with no restrictions on cast, budget, scripting etc - what would they be? (Obviously, *my* first would be "don't let Blake go.")
Tricky. So many possibilities...
1) Have Travis played by just one actor in each of the first two seasons - but I can't make up my mind which one:(
2) Scrap Dawn of the Gods and have another Chris Boucher episode instead.
3) No restrictions on budget.
If you could change just three episodes, which are they and how would you
do
it?
1) In Horizon, when Cally and Jenna get sent to the mines, they have to take their tops off too.
2) Spacefall: when Blake etc first board the Liberator, they are greeted by one of the former crew who says they can have the ship so long as they meet the delivery deadline for the Outer Worlds Fashion Expo.
3) Dawn of the Gods: exactly as broadcast, only 50 minutes shorter.
Neil
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Neil Faulkner wrote:
- Have Travis played by just one actor in each of the first two seasons -
but I can't make up my mind which one:(
Shame on you, Neil. Travis was played by just one actor in each of the first two seasons.
;-P
Mistral
Neil said (good to hear from you again, BTW)
- No restrictions on budget.
Actually, I think that most of the interesting things in the show weren't affected by budget--I'd rather have more exploration of interesting moral issues than more stuff blown up
- Spacefall: when Blake etc first board the Liberator, they are greeted
by
one of the former crew who says they can have the ship so long as they
meet
the delivery deadline for the Outer Worlds Fashion Expo.
So Redemption is their pursuit by outraged multiple-shop buyers demanding their consignment of Amagon robes and lobster suits? Cool.
-(Y)
From: Dana Shilling dshilling@worldnet.att.net
Neil said (good to hear from you again, BTW)
- No restrictions on budget.
Actually, I think that most of the interesting things in the show weren't affected by budget--I'd rather have more exploration of interesting moral issues than more stuff blown up
Who said anything about spending it all on bigger explosions. An unlimited budget can mean:
- shooting it all on film rather than videotape. - taking more time over filming, lighting, editing etc for a more polished final production. - better costumes, better sets (where the walls don't wobble) - spaceships that look like they're skimming through space, not dangling from piano wires - even the security robot might look halfway decent - proper starfields, rather than backlit pinpricks in black paper - location filming in locales more fitting to the episodes (which could be a whole discussion topic in itself) - bigger and better explosions, and more of them, lotsa them even, and .... oh bugger what a giveaway...
Neil
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