From: blakes7-d-request@lysator.liu.se Subject: blakes7-d Digest V00 #104 X-Loop: blakes7-d@lysator.liu.se X-Mailing-List: archive/volume00/104 Precedence: list MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/digest; boundary="----------------------------" To: blakes7-d@lysator.liu.se Reply-To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se ------------------------------ Content-Type: text/plain blakes7-d Digest Volume 00 : Issue 104 Today's Topics: [B7L] Re: First Impressions: "Mission to Destiny" Re: [B7L] Re: UnAmerican Activities [B7L] Re: UnAmerican Activities [B7L] Re: UnAmerican Activities [B7L] Avon & helping. [B7L] Re: blakes7 dolls Re: [B7L] Drugging of population on Earth [B7L] Re:Avon's search? Re [B7L] UnAmerican activities [B7L] Zenith, goats, Rand, fraud, etc. [B7L] Re: Mission to Destiny [B7L] The Beeb say it so it must be true... Re: [B7L] Re: Mission to Destiny [B7L] First impressions: "Duel" Re: [B7L] First impressions: "Duel" ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2000 06:49:51 PDT From: "Sally Manton" To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: [B7L] Re: First Impressions: "Mission to Destiny" Message-ID: <20000408134951.20228.qmail@hotmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed After Judith wrote: Murray answered: Blake is every bit as ruthless as Avon when he chooses to be - his natural warmth is tempered by a rarely shown but even more cold-blooded streak. He's also more dispassionate about violence - he doesn't use it unless he thinks it necessary (Killer vs Star One and no-we-are-not going to start that again, I'm just pointing out the difference in *his* attitude towards what he considers gratuitous vs justifiable violence), but shows no qualms when he does. The cold detachment that was so disurbing in 'Blake' *was* always a part of him. Given his character, it *is* reasonable to assume that he had what he thought were grounds for the action (whether you agree with them is beside the point). I agree with Judith's suggestion that Blake probably did it to prevent a battle that he was unsure the Liberator was up to - he's not about to take that chance by indulging the bleeding heart Avon derides. Given everything he does know - that Rafford was murdered and the controls wrecked, that the Ortega has deliberately been made a sitting duck with a fixed flight pattern (so an obviously unfriendly someone could find them), that the neutrotope was swiped before he could take it - the chances of them being anyone except the predators were that remoted they were ridiculous. And - as Judith said - he now had the neutrotope on board. Given *his* character, why on earth *would* he risk his ship and crew and the innocent Ortega people on the off-chance that these people might think better of attacking to get back ther prize? This is *Blake*, not Deeta everyone's-entitled-to-one-stab-in-my-back Tarrant. Also, Dorian wrote: That doesn't follow *at all* - nothing in the episode even suggests that the plotters need it, just that they're willing to conspire at theft and mass murder to *get* it. Assuming there's another whole planet behind them is assuming rather a lot without a skerrick of proof to back it. As Avon says - quite truthfully - "try greed. It's usually reliable." ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2000 06:50:22 PDT From: "Sally Manton" To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Re: UnAmerican Activities Message-ID: <20000408135022.26857.qmail@hotmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Alison wrote: so far as they were 'organised' as all, which by my reckoning was not very far *at all*... ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2000 06:54:56 PDT From: "Sally Manton" To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: [B7L] Re: UnAmerican Activities Message-ID: <20000408135456.8037.qmail@hotmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Mistral wrote: Very little evidence either way, but Vila's words in Shadow: BLAKE: If you've got the money. VILA: But we have, we have. - and the fact that he then cheerfully dips into said money to go on a rather extensive spree suggests that whatever they had *was* considered theirs, not Blake's. While Blake is rather - errr - miffed (all right, ropeable :-)) later, there's no indication that it has anything to do with Vila helping himself to the treasure room. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2000 11:48:21 -0400 From: "Dana Shilling" To: "b7" Subject: [B7L] Re: UnAmerican Activities Message-ID: <004e01bfa175$ea468940$fd614e0c@dshilling> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I think Avon would be the first one to tell you that he's not a capitalist, he's a crook. The relevant test is neither Kantian nor Turing but fungal. The economic system is one of the very long list of things that can turn into a mushroom for all he cares. Whatever the economic system, he assumes that sooner or later someone will leave a heap of money somewhere he can get his hands on it. The optimum economic system for a just society is a Blakean question, especially since he thinks he might end up running one. Sometimes I like to think that, early in Season One, someone offered Blake a small fixer-up planet, and now he's trying to talk his spouse/Vice President Cally out of demanding that he take paternity leave--he's got seven democratically elected political parties, four hostile ethnic groups, and a large defense budget to worry about. Meanwhile, Gan has settled down on the Ponderosa, Vila owns a movie studio, Jenna owns an aerospace company, and Avon has established investment banking (I think that's what he'd really like to do, because it's such a hack). At times I even wonder if Anna caught up with him on a day when he was in a good mood, and he decided to forgive her, although he will try to catch up on what he views as her 4000-point lead. And if they have some children of vulpine appearance and fiend-like demeanor...and if at least some of Servalan's offspring/clones survived (surviving the other 14 would not be the least of their problems)...now, THAT would be star-crossed lovers for you. -(Y) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2000 10:38:33 -0700 From: Helen Krummenacker To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: [B7L] Avon & helping. Message-ID: <38EF6E99.2C53@jps.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > > I have wondered how much of Avon's willingness to help when it's his idea > (or he's been asked nicely) as Mistral writes comes from his MBTI typing, or > perhaps I'm just over-identifying with the snarly one. Any comments from > other INTs (no prejudice between J and P) welcome. > Very likely. When I was a child, my mother hit on the perfect way to get me to do my share of the chores-- make up a list of what needed to be done and choose a certain number of items. I had control over the chores I spent my time on, so I had a feeling of control and was peretty happy (mind, I'd rather have been curled up with a good book, but there was no denying that it would be unfair to have her do all the work herself). Where I work, duties are assigned on a daily basis, and tend to come out very unevenly. I hate having a lot of tasks assigned, even though I should be able to ask for help if I need it. But if they don't assign me an equal share, I start asking the others to let me take some off their hands. I don't like friends begging with me for favors or attention (guilt-tripping! responsibility dumping!), but if they are in a tight spot or having a rough time, I will offer help. My choice= my freedom. > Another avenue of thought is to examine his relationship with authority. > Obviously the Federation as a model of authority is enough to give him fits. > Telling or ordering Avon to do anything is nearly the surest method of > ensuring he doesn't do it. Or telling him not to, makes him want to? Makes me think of the Patrician ordering Sam Vimes not to investigate teh theft from the Assassin's Guild. ("And up until then I didn't know there had been a theft.") ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2000 10:43:35 -0700 From: Helen Krummenacker To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: [B7L] Re: blakes7 dolls Message-ID: <38EF6FC6.32A6@jps.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > Helen wrote: > >Say, is anyone collecting the info on the 'dolls', the legal and > >marketing memos, etc? > Not me. Trish? You started this marvelous game by introducing the line. > Helen, as this site is your idea, have at it! > Sorry, Pat, I don't do websites. At least, not yet. I also haven't been saving the thread (though I realize I could ransack the archives). I was just hoping in a few weeks I could send an email to friends who don't get the list but love B7, and say, "Go to (insert name and links here) really great Blake's 7 website and go to the page for the action figures. And while you're there, check out all the other cool stuff." ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2000 09:03:10 +0100 From: "Andrew Ellis" To: Subject: Re: [B7L] Drugging of population on Earth Message-ID: <009c01bfa130$e38af4a0$31b701d5@leanet.futures.bt.co.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Prmolloy@aol.com < >Gnog wrote: > .....we have NO evidence > for it being an entire population or an entire social class type operation. > The evidence that a few people are drugged can't really be extrapolated to > the whole population. Trish quite rightly points out that ..... >Blake was told to abstain from food or water for 36 hours. There are two possible explanations for this. Firstly, it could indicate, as Trish states. >The presence of >drugs in the water Or, it could be a standard detox type of thing. Hence Blake's bad temper, his racing mind, hallucinations creeping round from his past - all classic withdrawal symptoms (?) > >It's also a lot more difficult to drug only the foods of specific >individuals. How would that be accomplished? Enter the home every few days >and spike his or her oatmeal? > I imagine that he uses Safeway Internet Shopping for his groceries, with free daily delivery. So spiking his oatmeal is EASY. Gnog ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2000 23:42:52 +0300 (EET DST) From: Kai V Karmanheimo To: Blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: [B7L] Re:Avon's search? Message-ID: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hello The most obvious reason (though of course not the most interesting one) why the crew searched for Blake but not Jenna is that Blake had his name in the show's title, Jenna didn't. Neither Blake's nor Jenna's departure was the writers' or the producer's idea, but as the third season began, they were faced with the problem of continuing the series without either of them. Blake was initially the central character of the show and they were uncertain how well it could go on without him. It was necessary to create the impression that Blake was in fact still around and might return to the series, hence the initial (and quickly discarded) talk about searching for and the continuos references to him ("That's BLAKE's ship"; "You're BLAKE's people"; "I was with BLAKE"). After "Terminal", which was originally supposed to conclude the series, Blake was for all intents and purposes dead and the series could go on without keeping up the illusion of his presence. Jenna on the other hand was never as central a character. In fact I understand the main reason for Sally Knyvette's departure was the fact that Jenna's main tasks on Liberator seemed to be operating the teleport and looking sullen, and unlike Gareth Thomas she wasn't interested in doing guest appearances. So when you have character you don't consider vital to the show, who has no further role in the narrative and who has already been effectively replaced, you don't spend a lot of time discussing that character (with all the Babylon 5 discussion lately, I suggest you think how little actual mention Sinclair got outside his season 2 & 3 guest appearances despite the prominence of his role). You want to concentrate on the characters in hand, not draw attention away from them by reminding the viewer of something that was (and beyond "Sand" there isn't much reference to deceased regulars that doesn't serve the story in hand). Hence no mention of Jenna in "Volcano", the only time before "Terminal" when they talk about searching for their missing crew members, and after that no mention at all, relying on the audience soon forgetting about that loose end all together with all the other things going on. Not a very elegant solution but perhaps they were leaving the door open for someone to come up with a script that would close that book permanently. In any case, at least Chris Boucher had the decency to finally tie that string up in the final episode. I think you could just say that Jenna was expendable and Blake wasn't completely so. Kai ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2000 00:23:14 +0100 From: "Neil Faulkner" To: "b7" Subject: Re [B7L] UnAmerican activities Message-ID: <002d01bfa1b2$8dfecd40$e535fea9@neilfaulkner> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The Capitalism vs Socialism debate seems to have more or less petered out before I can finally find the time to enter the fray, so I'll just briefly say that Alison's definition of capitalism is what I've always understood by the term, and the parasitism various socialist detractors have referred to is, IMO, not so much the product of welfare systems as of the recessions of the late 70s/early 80s, which made long-term unemployment come to seem almost normal. I spent large chunks of the 80s on benefit, and most of the people I mixed with were doing the same. It was something you became resigned to. Twenty years on, it is something that is effectively expected in certain segments of the population. Ob B7: There are a few references in the series (eg to a mining company in VftP, the Federation banking cartel in Ultraworld) that suggest the Federation may have ruled over a free market economy, and nothing that I can recall to explicitly deny this suggestion. I believe free enterprise was more or less allowed to continue under the fascist regimes of the 30s, so there is a historical precedent. Neil "I am not a man, I am a free number." ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2000 23:42:51 -0700 From: "Sarah Thompson" To: Subject: [B7L] Zenith, goats, Rand, fraud, etc. Message-ID: <002901bfa1ee$ed763a60$f0aecdcf@y1i7s9> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Andy Hopkinson, I'm looking forward to =Zenith=. Please do let us know how and where we can get it. I hope you will make some provision for us overseas fans, too. You and Alan did a fantastic job on HNL #39, and I'm sorry you didn't get to publish #40. Andy Spencer, I for one would love to have B7 miniatures, especially if the company did a good job on the DW ones. Re: rams and goats, in Chinese the same word is used for both animals, although the zoological difference was certainly recognized; and come to think of it, there is a wonderful 13th-C. painting by Zhao Mengfu in the Freer Gallery in Washington, DC, that presents a sheep (a noble, good-luck animal in China) and a goat as contrasting personality types-- very much a Blake-Avon kind of comparison! Twenty-some years ago I used to have a poster of that painting on my wall, flanked by photos of my favorite Hong Kong movie stars, Ti Lung and David Chiang, another interestingly contrasting pair. Re: capitalism, I don't believe that anyone has yet brought up the point that even if the worker is worthy of his hire, etc., what about the next generation? Are people really entitled to enjoy enormous wealth that they did not work for, but their parents did? Grandparents? Great-grandparents? This whole thread reminds me of the one a little while ago, as to what Avon would have thought of the books of Ayn Rand, radical capitalist. My feeling is that he would have found them terribly appealing when he was in the throes of adolescence, and would later have been deeply embarrassed by that fact. Then again, perhaps it depends on the nature of the Federation educational system. Iain, IMO the appeal of this stuff to Americans, especially young ones, has much to do with the fact that intellect is a downright disadvantage in many sectors of the secondary school system-- hence the allure of books that tell you that people like yourself ought to be running everything. Later, when the emotional rush wears off, you realize that despite the books' claims to extreme rationality, they are really not very rational at all. One thing I always liked about Ayn Rand myself was that, politics aside, she had yummy-looking heroes, and she told you in detail what they looked like, and sometimes without their clothes, too. There was definitely a strong element of het female-oriented lust in those books, and thirty years ago that was a scarce and precious commodity. Also, she did great torture scenes; I bet a lot of get-Avon fans were Rand fans once upon a time. There's one in =Atlas Shrugged= that I still remember, in which Our Hero, John Galt, is being tortured by the baddies with some sort of electric-shock machine. Not only does Galt show not the slightest sign of breaking, but when the machine breaks down, and the villains (being technically incompetent, as he is not) have no idea what to do, =he tells them how to fix it=. A real fanfic Avon moment, it is. And then there was that line, in the same passage, about "the body of a builder of airplanes." It seems pretty silly to me now, but I thought it was hot stuff back when. I think Rand's supermen played to the same emotional archetypes, whatever they may actually be, that make Avon such hot stuff for so many of us (thought the Rand heroes are more like the Super Avon of fan fiction than the tragic Avon of the aired canon). On Avon and Anna, I think that when Avon was involved with her, he believed that she was already separated from Chesku and would eventually be divorced-- or perhaps that she was separated from Chesku and would like to be divorced, but Chesku was delaying it out of possessiveness, or even because he still loved her even though she no longer cared for him. A scenario like that would make it reasonable for Anna to go back to Chesku if she was in desperate circumstances, even if it was only Avon that she really loved. And it would be plausible for Chesku, whether he was acting from possessiveness or genuine if unrequited love, to use his Central Security connections to shield her by letting people, including her brother, think that she was dead. At some point while he was figuring it all out, Avon may even have thought that the fraud was discovered by accident because Chesku had used his connections to have Anna investigated. Sarah T. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 09 Apr 2000 08:39:17 -0700 From: Steve Rogerson To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: [B7L] Re: Mission to Destiny Message-ID: <38F0A425.1A6EDBF2@mcr1.poptel.org.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Ariana quotes: AVON: Rafford was dying. It's difficult to be neat under those circumstances. [he takes a marker pen and paper and draws] Let's start with the one and the two... [The letters A R A appear] And the first letter... [He puts an S in front, everyone looks at SARA] But wasn't it a tad stupid revealing this while she's in the room rather than trapping and disarming her first? -- cheers Steve Rogerson http://homepages.poptel.org.uk/steve.rogerson "In my world, there are people in chains and you can ride them like ponies" The alternative Willow, Buffy the Vampire Slayer ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2000 09:06:18 +0100 From: "Una McCormack" To: "lysator" Cc: "Freedom City" Subject: [B7L] The Beeb say it so it must be true... Message-ID: <006901bfa1fc$3678cc20$0d01a8c0@codex> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/newsid_705000/705922.stm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2000 18:03:13 +0930 From: "Minnie" To: , Subject: Re: [B7L] Re: Mission to Destiny Message-ID: <001901bfa1fe$3f972b60$624c18cb@marina> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi, im a newby here, but im a big fan of B7. You know, I wondered the same thing, why didnt they hold her or something!! Its the same when they turned their backs to various doorways thoughout, but then it just makes for a more thrilling story I guess. Cheers. Min. -----Original Message----- From: Steve Rogerson To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Date: Sunday, 9 April 2000 17:15 Subject: [B7L] Re: Mission to Destiny >Ariana quotes: > > >AVON: Rafford was dying. It's difficult to be neat under those > circumstances. [he takes a marker pen and paper and draws] >Let's > start with the one and the two... [The letters A R A appear] >And > the first letter... [He puts an S in front, everyone looks at >SARA] > >But wasn't it a tad stupid revealing this while she's in the room rather >than trapping and disarming her first? > >-- >cheers >Steve Rogerson >http://homepages.poptel.org.uk/steve.rogerson > >"In my world, there are people in chains and you can ride them like >ponies" >The alternative Willow, Buffy the Vampire Slayer > > ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2000 14:38:06 +0100 From: "Ariana" To: "b7" , "Judith Proctor" Subject: [B7L] First impressions: "Duel" Message-ID: <001c01bfa228$f20d1b40$b6e407c3@ariana> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit "Blake's 7" does "Arena"... ho-hum. I might forgive an episode for being silly, but I won't forgive it for being boring. By that reckoning, this is the worst episode so far by a long shot. I've seen the premise as Star Trek TOS's "Arena" and Space:1999's "The Rules of Luton", and it's always the same story: adversaries forced to fight it out with pointed sticks by super-powerful beings who want a good show. Our Hero gets the bad guy into a position of weakness, but then mercifully spares him. The super-powerful beings relent and release everyone. On the whole, "Duel" is about even with "The Rules of Luton". And considering the latter episode features super-beings who were actually still photographs of various conifers, that's a measure of how dreary "Duel" is. The episode is slow-moving, with -- paradoxically -- way too many special effects. FX fellow had evidently just got himself a new video editor and was trying out all the solarisation effects. Way too much of people clutching their heads in psychedelic colour and cringingly awful slow motion. I did like the idea of the Liberator being in such a bad situation, and the way Blake planned to resolve it by playing chicken. Add to that a couple of good scenes with the crew on the flight deck and you'll be pleased to know that I wasn't completely immune to the episode's qualities. But there weren't enough good points to make up for being bored stiff during a good half hour of the episode. Character stuff: ================ What character stuff? Well, no, to be fair, Avon and Vila got some good lines. In fact, Avon got some lines that had Ed and me clutching each other with laughter. Though admittedly we were laughing at the episode rather than the lines per se. See the dialogue section for further details. Still, the scene with Blake and Jenna in the tree was nice. Despite my opinion of the overall quality of the episode, it still highlighted the quality of Gareth Thomas's acting. Blake came across as beautifully calm and composed, the voice of sweet reason compared to Travis. Not that I have any complaints about Stephen Greif either. There were some moments where his expression and the tone of his voice made me wonder if Travis did have emotions after all. But on the whole, the character seems to be continuing his quest to be the perfect stereotypical baddie. I rather liked the blood-thirsty old lady Giroc, though Isla Blair's character didn't get to do much more than pose and get solarised. Aside from that, Gan actually gets some utterly forgettable lines, and um, was Cally in this episode? Just joking, nice to know she's on a par with Avon when it comes to Blake planning his football -- er, battle strategy. On the Subject-That-Not-Everyone-Wants-To-Hear-About, I have to say that this episode has at least one scene that must have fuelled a few stories. I'm sure those who look for that sort of thing will know what I'm talking about. Nitpicks and Preposterous Props: ================================ "How to defend yourself against a man armed with a banana?" "Sir, what if he has a pointed stick?" Judging by the pointiness of the stick Blake handed to Jenna, Travis might as well come at them with a banana (for those of you familiar with Monty Python). Our reaction when Blake materialised in the forest was "Oh, look, they teleported him to England". A few moments later, Travis was unravelling a rope from the bottom of a tree, and Ed said, "Oh look, there's the famous English rope-bush". Well, it made us laugh at the time. I'm afraid to say we were giving the whole episode the MST treatment. Mike, Servo and Crow would have had a field day (now *there's* an idea for a parody ;). I must admit that Blake's drawings on the viewscreen were worth a chuckle or two as well. I half-expected him to start drawing arrows and devise a strategy to score a goal. The studio set for the alien planet was suitably creepy, IMHO. It was also pretty cold, judging by Isla Blair's costume. I see Vila gets his lace-up sneakers straight from the late 1970s. :) Dialogue Gems: ============== BLAKE: [Laughs] I get the distinct feeling I offended Zen's professional pride then. AVON: It's just a machine, Blake. VILA: And he should know. GAN: Well Avon is the expert. VILA: That's not what I meant. AVON: No, he was calling me a machine, but since he undoubtedly defines himself as a human being, I shall choose to accept that as more of a compliment than anything else. ====== AVON: If any of our control systems are damaged by the impact, we will be helpless. BLAKE: We're not exactly in a commanding position now. JENNA: Activating! BLAKE: Have you got any better ideas? [Violent impact. As Blake and Avon reel back, Avon clutches Blake protectively] AVON: As a matter of fact, no I haven't. BLAKE: Does that mean you agree? AVON: Do I have a choice? BLAKE: Yes. AVON: Then I agree. [Lets go of Blake] ====== TRAVIS: You do realize that any hostile act against me will be regarded as a hostile act against the Federation. [Giroc laughs.] Have you any idea of the risk you're running? [Giroc laughs harder.] BLAKE: They don't seem very impressed, Travis. [Laughs] Why don't you try stamping your foot? ====== VILA: Have you thought of another plan? AVON: Yes. I'm going to get some sleep. VILA: How can you sleep with all this happening? AVON: With all what happening? Blake is sitting up in a tree, Travis is sitting up in another tree. Unless they're planning to throw nuts at one another, I don't see much of a fight developing before it gets light. [[This is the bit that had us roaring with laughter. We thought it was an apt summary of the plot so far.]] ====== [[Same scene]] GAN: You're never involved, are you Avon? You ever cared for anyone? VILA: Except yourself? AVON: I have never understood why it should be necessary to become irrational in order to prove that you care, or, indeed, why it should be necessary to prove it at all. [Exits] VILA: Was that an insult or did I miss something? CALLY: You missed something. Miscellaneous: ============== Glad to know the Beeb *will* be showing an episode next week; it would be a pity to end their broadcast after this episode. BTW, I've been asked if I'll be making a Web page for these critiques. The answer is "yes, eventually", but in the meantime, you can read back issues at Judith Proctor's site at http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7. Comments and discussion welcome as usual! Ariana ====== "With all what happening? Blake is sitting up in a tree, Travis is sitting up in another tree." -- Avon summing up the plot of "Duel" ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2000 10:31:47 EDT From: RCalla6725@aol.com To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se (b7) Subject: Re: [B7L] First impressions: "Duel" Message-ID: <9a.3346dd7.2621ee53@aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 09/04/00 14:41:17 GMT Daylight Time, ariana@ndirect.co.uk writes: << The studio set for the alien planet was suitably creepy, IMHO. It was also pretty cold, judging by Isla Blair's costume. >> I'm glad someone else pointed this out as I didn't want to be the one to do it... it was almost as distracting as the old lady spitting every time she said a line, but not quite. From the messages I've read on the list so far, I've seen that the members generate intelligent, insightful commentary. As I can't do this, I thought I'd just give two puerile observations on the episode at hand: 1. Vila - "I don't mind rough, it's fatal I'm not too keen on". I think it's the way Michael Keating tells 'em that makes me laugh so much. 2. Travis. Just a thought. Do you think the psychotic Travis was named after the psychotic Travis Bickle, this series being made just two years after Taxi Driver? -------------------------------- End of blakes7-d Digest V00 Issue #104 **************************************