From: blakes7-d-request@lysator.liu.se Subject: blakes7-d Digest V98 #138 X-Loop: blakes7-d@lysator.liu.se X-Mailing-List: archive/volume98/138 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 98 : Issue 138 Today's Topics: Re: [B7L] Invasion Earth? Re: [B7L]: Drink Colours (was Liberator design fault) Re: [B7L] Fw: alternatives to typing [B7L] BBC Documentary/Lost in Space Re: [B7L] Fw: alternatives to typing [B7L] Redemption RE: [B7L] Fw: alternatives to typing Re: [B7L] Well, now... Re: [B7L] Invasion Earth? Re: [B7L] Fw: alternatives to typing Voice Recognition (was Re: [B7L] Fw: alternatives to typing) Re: [B7L]: Drink Colours (was Liberator design fault) [B7L] B7-B5 links [B7L] Gunfighter Spice [B7L] Merlin Re: [B7L] Well, now... Re: [B7L]: Drink Colours (was Liberator design fault) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 11:44:51 +0000 (GMT) From: Una McCormack To: Lysator Subject: Re: [B7L] Invasion Earth? Message-ID: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII What do we think of it? Well, one of our friends fell asleep 10 minutes in, and I fell asleep ten minutes from the end. Impressive, eh? Not even Matthew's curses and hoots of derision could keep us awake. But then I have been known to fall asleep in the most unlikely circumstances: 1. During 'Tomorrow Never Dies' (well, the cinema was warm and dark and the chairs were comfortable...) 2. During a Pink Floyd concert at Wembley Arena (well, there was copious amounts of dope haze in the air PLUS Pink Floyd are possibly the most boring band in the universe...) So maybe I'm not the most qualified person to judge. Invasion Earth: Sub Dr Who plot, nice effects, just plain dull. Not a patch on the first episode of 'The Uninvited', which was *terrific* (even if the rest of it went downhill rapidly). I enjoyed my repeat watching of 'The Web' earlier in the week more, and I don't like 'The Web' all that much. The comments in the Radio Times about how it wasn't some rubbish old plot and character-driven series should have warned me off... I'll still watch the rest of it, probably. Tho' there is dissension in the ranks - it clashes with Alexei Sayle. Una -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Judge Institute of Management Studies Tel: +44 (0)1223 766064 Trumpington Street Fax: +44 (0)1223 339701 Cambridge CB2 1AG http://www.sticklebrock.demon.co.uk/una United Kingdom http://www.jims.cam.ac.uk/research/ion/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 13:48:47 +0100 From: "fifitrix" To: Subject: Re: [B7L]: Drink Colours (was Liberator design fault) Message-ID: <011001bd7da5$5606bd40$6c4e95c1@scarlett> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Nicola - you said that there was a picture of you with a bright blue drink - it probably contained Blue Curacao. (and can we see the picture - if you dont remember what you were drinking - it must have been a good night!!). Anyway - if combined with the right lemonade this drink actually glows under UV light - cool huh ? AN SF drink if ever I heard of one!! Oh and its very popular in cocktails due to its weird colour and sweet taste. BOLS make a popular version - in fact they make the only version that I'm aware of. They also make a green version but I prefer the Blue one. fifitrix ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 16:34:31 +0000 From: Katharine Woods To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Fw: alternatives to typing Message-ID: <35587A17.27544562@whitecrow.demon.co.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Alison Page wrote [quoting from another list]: > > Yes. I use software from Dragon Systems [www.dragonsys.com], which is > > available for Mac and Windows environments. I believe someone in the UK > > has a patch which lets the programs run under UNIX, too. I have a > > 10,000 word base vocabulary, which I can add thousands more words to as > > I go along [and since I write rather odd fiction, this is a _very_ > > important feature!] > > This software sounds like it could be useful. FWIW: I saw this software demonstrated at Networks 97 at Brum NEC. It seemed quite impressive and the software seemed "quick to learn" someone's accent. The last voice recognition software I'd seen was back in 1990 which was very slow, and couldn't cope with even a mild Glaswegian accent, so I gather that things have improved drastically since then. B7 ref: Well, there are two wonderful voice recognition programs in it at least (and one embarrrassing one - no disrespect to Mr Tuddenham). Any explanation for why Zen needed to "learn" people's voices whereas Orac didn't? All I can think of is that Orac didn't have any security features which seems a bit of an oversight on Ensor's part, given he knew something of what the Feds were like. A bargain on the lines of "I'll tell you Orac's security codes once I've checked the new cells are working properly." Wouldn't it be a leap forward for a computer in an SF program - have it fail to recognise someone's accent. Or has that already happened? Katharine (Woods) kjw@whitecrow.demon.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 17:01:03 +0000 From: Katharine Woods To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: [B7L] BBC Documentary/Lost in Space Message-ID: <3558804F.5742A274@whitecrow.demon.co.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit A Space Citizen sent this message to SC and I thought it might be useful to forward it here too. > I received this message this morning--they are looking for British fans of > B7 to interview, as they don't have the budget to interview people who are > outside the UK. Mr. Abbott did take me up on my offer to post his message > to Space City, so here it is: > > Message follows: > I saw your web page on Blake's 7, and wondered if you might be > inetersted in taking part in a new BBC documentary series called Lost in > Space. You may have seen the first edition on Friday on BBC 2 - we are > looking at classic TV sci-fi and asking fans what makes it so special. > Blake's 7 is one of the shows we are covering, and I'm looking for fans > who would like to talk about it. > > Please e-mail me : andrew.abbott@bbc.co.uk, or call 0181 225 8363 if > you'd like to find out more about it. > > I look forward to hearing from you. > > All the best, > > Andrew Abbott > Assistant Producer, Lost in Space I saw the first one, which was about Doctor Who, and hoped they'd be doing a B7 one since the Liberator appears in the opening credits. The Doctor Who Appreciation Society was thanked in the closing credits so I assumed they might have contacted Horizon already. Katharine (Woods) kjw@whitecrow.demon.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 12:13:51 +0100 (BST) From: Judith Proctor To: Lysator List Subject: Re: [B7L] Fw: alternatives to typing Message-ID: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII On Tue 12 May, Alison Page wrote: > Judith, and anyone else who has typing problems, might like to read this > exchange, from another list I am on > > > >Excuse my computer illiteracy, but do you mean you can actually > > >speak into a microphone and send email messages without > > >having to type? > > > > Yes. I use software from Dragon Systems [www.dragonsys.com], which is > > available for Mac and Windows environments. I believe someone in the UK > > has a patch which lets the programs run under UNIX, too. I have a > > 10,000 word base vocabulary, which I can add thousands more words to as > > I go along [and since I write rather odd fiction, this is a _very_ > > important feature!] > > This software sounds like it could be useful. Except that I have frequent voice problems . I daren't risk using a voicewriter any more than I dare sing more than 3 filk songs in one evening. The risks are just too great for me. I'll survive. I should be able to use my right arm again in a couple of weeks. Judith -- http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7 Redemption 99 - The Blakes 7/Babylon 5 convention 26-28 February 1999, Ashford International Hotel, Kent http://www.smof.com/redemption/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 21:40:22 +0100 GMT From: STEVE.ROGERSON@MCR1.poptel.org.uk To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se, space-city@world.std.com Subject: [B7L] Redemption Message-Id: <598155607MCR1@MCR1.poptel.org.uk> On Sunday the 21st of June the Redemption committee is going to be having an open meeting in London to discuss programme ideas. If anybody is interested in coming along and joining in what we hope will be a brainstorming session, then please email me and I'll send you the details. It's the day after the next B7 get together at Pages Bar in London, so you could make a weekend of it. cheers Steve Rogerson Redemption 99 - The Blakes 7/Babylon 5 convention 26-28 February 1999, Ashford International Hotel, Kent http://www.smof.com/redemption/ "The workers united will never be ignited" Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 11:50:31 +1200 From: "Graham, Gregory" To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: RE: [B7L] Fw: alternatives to typing Message-ID: <710458B7BCD3D011897D0000F8003AB791D9FC@invex.agresearch.cri.nz> Content-Type: text/plain A related topic is Apple's PlainTalk which much the same as the Dragon software and is free (Mac only). It also talks back at you by reading text, including alerts and the time if you're using ClockTalk. Apple supply some OK voices and some, deliberately I presume, downright silly ones. You can make your own but I have yet to found the software (sorry v. busy, going to Old Blighty saturday). What I'd like to know is does anyone have a voice for Zen, Orac, or Slave or could you point me at appropriate software and some samples. It would be truly Kewl to have Zen informing me of all those important messages. TIA Greg > -----Original Message----- > From: Katharine Woods [SMTP:kjw@whitecrow.demon.co.uk] > Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 1998 4:35 AM > To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se > Subject: Re: [B7L] Fw: alternatives to typing > > Alison Page wrote [quoting from another list]: > > > > Yes. I use software from Dragon Systems [www.dragonsys.com], > which is > > > available for Mac and Windows environments. I believe someone in > the UK > > > has a patch which lets the programs run under UNIX, too. I have a > > > 10,000 word base vocabulary, which I can add thousands more words > to as > > > I go along [and since I write rather odd fiction, this is a _very_ > > > important feature!] > > > > This software sounds like it could be useful. > > FWIW: > > I saw this software demonstrated at Networks 97 at Brum NEC. It seemed > quite impressive and the software seemed "quick to learn" someone's > accent. The last voice recognition software I'd seen was back in 1990 > which was very slow, and couldn't cope with even a mild Glaswegian > accent, so I gather that things have improved drastically since then. > > B7 ref: > > Well, there are two wonderful voice recognition programs in it at > least > (and one embarrrassing one - no disrespect to Mr Tuddenham). Any > explanation for why Zen needed to "learn" people's voices whereas Orac > didn't? All I can think of is that Orac didn't have any security > features which seems a bit of an oversight on Ensor's part, given he > knew something of what the Feds were like. A bargain on the lines of > "I'll tell you Orac's security codes once I've checked the new cells > are > working properly." > > Wouldn't it be a leap forward for a computer in an SF program - have > it > fail to recognise someone's accent. Or has that already happened? > > Katharine (Woods) > kjw@whitecrow.demon.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 00:21:53 +0100 From: "Tom Forsyth" To: "B7 Lysator" Subject: Re: [B7L] Well, now... Message-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Iain C chellenges my grepper thus: > How many times in the series does Avon use his catchprase > "Well, now..."? Here you go: Deliverance: AVON: Well, now, you are hardly the stuff that gods are made of. VILA: And you are, I suppose? Redemption: BLAKE: Leave it! If I've missed something, I want to know what it is now, Avon. AVON: Well now, all you had to do was ask. Zen! Replay, half speed. Weapon: AVON: She's not bluffing, is she, Travis? TRAVIS: Do something reckless and find out. AVON: Well now, I might just blow your head off. Trial: AVON: What do you think we should do then? JENNA: Suggest something. AVON: Well now. I find the idea of being wealthy rather appealing. The Keeper (this probably doesn't count): AVON: We had to stop Travis getting to Star One first. Well now he is stopped. Star One: AVON: Hold it, touch that and I'll drop you where you stand. Well, now. Travis. Fancy meeting you here. TRAVIS: Put the gun down, Avon, it's too late to stop it now. Harvet of Kairos (probably doesn't count, but might): TARRANT: [Entering] I've been looking all over for you. AVON: Well, now you found me. Sarcophagous has two. The first probably doesn't count: TARRANT: I don't take any orders from you. AVON: Well, now that's a great pity, considering that your own ideas are so limited. .....and barely four lines later, one that does: TARRANT: Be thankful I'm restricting myself to talk. AVON: Well now, that's fascinating. You mean you can do something else? Moloch: AVON: Well, now there is technology and there is technology. Terminal: BLAKE: It must have been so dull having no one to argue with. AVON: Well, now, there were times when your simple-minded certainties might have been refreshing. Rescue: DAYNA: And someone else spent a lot of time developing these guns. They're the best I've ever seen. AVON: Well now, it begins to look as though Dorian has got a lot of very bright associates. Headhunter: VENA: Greater than Muller? AVON: Well now, that remains to be seen. Games: GERREN: Told you, there was no time. Besides, from what I've heard, she might be more than a match for you. AVON: Well now. Just who are they sending? Sand: AVON: Vila, try and bring Tarrant back up. VILA: [He tries.] Nonoperational. AVON: Well now, none of us is going to faint with amazement at that. Are we? Gold: SERVALAN: My guards have orders to shoot you first. The price of my life would be yours. AVON: Well, now. The sacrifice might be worthwhile. Warlord: AVON: Well now, gentlemen, before we drink our toast, [hands a goblet to Lod] are there any grievances that could in the future threaten our accord? And, someone nicks Avon's line! Discraceful. Guess which one this is from: BLAKE: Deva can tell you more about that than I can. [They enter Deva's office.] DEVA: Well, now, bounty hunter, that was a short trip even by your standards. BLAKE: Short, but profitable. ....and 6 times it is spoken by other characters, but not in the same way. So, that'll be a total of 14 definates and two maybes. > I don't intend anybody to go counting them all for me, I just thought > this must be the kind of thing that somebody, somewhere has been > sad^H^H^H dedicated enough to have figured out at some point, and they > might still have the answer at their fingertips. Well you could have said so earlier! :-) Tom Forsyth. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 01:33:30 +0100 From: "Tom Forsyth" To: "B7 Lysator" Subject: Re: [B7L] Invasion Earth? Message-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Alison P asked: > Well, what do we think of Invasion Earth? Very promising. Note the repeated (three?) use of the phrase "We can't let him get away." Do I sense a theme devloping? The military detail is very good so far, except that it would take a hell of a lot for a pilot to refuse a direct, clear, considered order to disengage, and it took a long time before the above phrase made it clear exactly _why_ he disobeyed the command. I thought they had slipped up and made him some sort of gung-ho egomaniac or something. Compare and contrast with the Irish-voiced squaddie's repeated query "Do I open fire sir?" Russ Massey said: >I enjoyed it overall, but I did think some of the dialogue was pretty poor >-especially that used by the two astronomers. Talk about the blatant >info-dump! And they seemed to piece togther what was going on remarkably >quicky on very little actual evidence, I thought. Agreed - the pseudoscience was shockingly bad. Not as bad as Voyager, obviously, but they managed to stare at raw squiggles and deduce something deep and profound with amazing accuracy. Sure, I can tell if my modem's having trouble by the general noises it makes, and there's no more distinctive sound than a Speccy dounloading a screen, but at least pass it through a few filters and glance at the odd map before pronouncing that it's being sent by an ET source flying at 8k feet due SSW above a small loch in Scotland, please. And no, a colour-cycle does not count as a filter. Even an edge-detect filter (available with any paint program) would have been better than that. >She's >improbably gorgeous, improbably intuitive and improbably irresponsible. Oh yes. But she has a small kid, so that's alright them. Bleuch. >He's creepy, slimy and a complete liability in a plane. Ah, Russ has managed to miss the use of cunning phrase entirely, or miss its significance, and he might well be right - I prefer the more charitable explanation (loyalty to the RAF rather than the BBC). Now, if he'd said slightly more at the time of firing (and those combat sections were so drawn out, he had plenty of time to), it would have been a lot clearer. Or maybe we were meant to think he was a nutter, and he later reveals that it was a calm, cool decision, but that is not clear either. Either way, it's bad writing. Back to Alison: > Has it been on SKY or anything before it was on BBC1? Nope. Shock horror, it was actually comissioned by the BBC, I believe! > Alison, who is of course incapabable of independent thought until > ratified by her peer group All in favour say aye. Motion carried then. Tom Forsyth. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 02:25:02 +0100 From: "Tom Forsyth" To: "B7 Lysator" Subject: Re: [B7L] Fw: alternatives to typing Message-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Alison P quoted: > > Yes. I use software from Dragon Systems [www.dragonsys.com], which is > > available for Mac and Windows environments. I believe someone in the > > UK has a patch which lets the programs run under UNIX, too. I have a > > 10,000 word base vocabulary, which I can add thousands more words to as > > I go along [and since I write rather odd fiction, this is a _very_ > > important feature!] There are quite a few speech-recognition systems, not least those from Intel and Microsoft (well, they bought out a speech-recognition company - can't remember if they then actually released the software. Grrr). Quality varies greatly, and it's a real "caveat emptor" game out there - you can't tell how good they are until you've trained them for ages, by which time you've already shelled out your readies. So personal testament like this can be very useful, along with magazine reviews. Except this sort of thing gets reveiwed very infrequently. You also need a sound card with mic in, and a microphone, and at least a Pentium or 68040. Shouldn't be a problem with most reasonably new stuff, but some of you are using some pretty clockwork-driven rustbuckets out there. :-) Tom Forsyth. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 07:26:46 +1000 From: Kathryn Andersen To: "Blake's 7 list" Subject: Voice Recognition (was Re: [B7L] Fw: alternatives to typing) Message-ID: <19980513072646.23606@welkin.apana.org.au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii On Tue, May 12, 1998 at 04:34:31PM +0000, Katharine Woods wrote: > Well, there are two wonderful voice recognition programs in it at least > (and one embarrrassing one - no disrespect to Mr Tuddenham). Any > explanation for why Zen needed to "learn" people's voices whereas Orac > didn't? All I can think of is that Orac didn't have any security > features which seems a bit of an oversight on Ensor's part, given he > knew something of what the Feds were like. A bargain on the lines of > "I'll tell you Orac's security codes once I've checked the new cells are > working properly." Well I think that that was a matter of telling or not telling said computer to accept commands from particular people. Certainly I've seen it used in fanfic, that Orac (at least PGP) has been set up only to recognise particular people's voices -- usually set up by Avon secretly as a precaution, and played as a trump when he gets captured by Servalan, as something he can use as a bargaining point. It certainly seems that by the third season, Zen has been set up to not accept commands by default -- all they had to do was order Zen to not accept commands from anyone except those authorized to give them. No special programming required; it was already clear that Zen's voice recognition was sophisticated enough to tell the difference between the voice of the real person, and a synthesized fake (ref Bounty). > Wouldn't it be a leap forward for a computer in an SF program - have it > fail to recognise someone's accent. Or has that already happened? Someone write some fanfic! -- _--_|\ | Kathryn Andersen / \ | http://connexus.apana.org.au/~kat \_.--.*/ | #include "std/disclaimer.h" v | ------------| Melbourne -> Victoria -> Australia -> Southern Hemisphere Maranatha! | -> Earth -> Sol -> Milky Way Galaxy -> Universe ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 16:40:50 +1200 From: Nicola Collie To: B7-list Subject: Re: [B7L]: Drink Colours (was Liberator design fault) Message-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" fifitrix: >Nicola - you said that there was a picture of you with a bright blue drink - >it probably contained Blue Curacao. (and can we see the picture - if you >dont remember what you were drinking - it must have been a good night!!). It's not that sort of picture ;-). Just me, a table and a drink. I was out with my parents, who, while they ain't squares, are more into sedate pursuits that one can remember the next day. Nay, 'tis purely the passage of time that quenches the bright-burning flame of memory to a sputtering ember of ISTR :-) >Anyway - if combined with the right lemonade this drink actually glows under >UV light - cool huh ? > >AN SF drink if ever I heard of one!! _Very_ cool. Are you sure it was lemonade? I am reliably informed that tonic water glows under UV due to the quinine it contains - that which gives it that distinctive taste, and made it a popular malaria-proofing substance when taken with gin. Hmm - I'll have to try this out. "No, prof, I wasn't drinking in the darkroom, I was just concocting refreshments for my next sf party." And if it was lemonade, can you remember the brand? Tonic water is something of an acquired taste... ObB7: What sort of cocktails do folks think the B7 characters would be into? Or any sort of drink? Dayna: Fluffy Duck Jenna: Peach schnapps Travis: Brain Haemorrhage Vila: anything... Servalan: Bloody Mary Avon: single malt scotch, straight. ttfn, Nicola --- Nicola Collie Dunedin, New Zealand nicola.collie@stonebow.otago.ac.nz The early bird catches the worm. If you'd prefer something else for breakfast, get up later. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 07:00:48 +0200 (MET DST) From: Gordon & Carol To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: [B7L] B7-B5 links Message-ID: <355800FD000001BD@backup.catchnet.com.au> (added by backup.catchnet.com.au) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi, I've been on sick call for the past couple of weeks and many of my digest were deleted so I don't know who asked this and what answers have been offered . But I do have a very, very small link to throw into the pile.. > What I want from you lot is any other links, particularly in > dialogue. I've heard it mentioned that there are bits of dialogue > in B5 that were clearly influenced by B7. Can anyone provide > me with examples? This was said in both shows: "You know what they say"? --- "No good deed goes unpunished". Blake's 7 by Avon - Rescue Babylon 5 by Mr Garibaldi - Messages From Earth Carol. Semper Fidelis LT. Colonel Carol "Hondo" Mason SPACE: 63rd Squadron: Blazing Knights. ABOVE AND BEYOND. Official Australian Branch - Ready Reserves " God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I can. And the wisdom to bury the bodies of the people who piss me off!. And also help me to becareful of the toes I stand on today, As they may be connected to the arse I might have to kiss tomorrow." ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 15:46:48 +0930 From: "Ophelia" To: "B7 list" Subject: [B7L] Gunfighter Spice Message-ID: <01bd7e36$b668d7e0$LocalHost@waltersmith> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Jenni wrote, on the spin list: >> (I can't put Sporty in a story. >> She's MINE!!!) > >Does this mean that as you are also Priestess commanding the worshippers at >the feet of The Golden Goddess herself, you have a thing about women who >wear pony tails on top of their heads? Well spotted, Jenni. Whether they know it or not, all wimmin who wear pony-tails on top of their heads honour the Goddess. Specially if they're faintly fictional-looking blondes. Besides, it's a seriously cute hairstyle, and both Soolin and Sporty look divine. (Appropriately enough, as they're goddesses.) >Or is it their superbly toned >bodies, Superbly toned? Hmm. Soolin is well built, but not nearly as fit as Sporty. However, Soolin has a bust and nice hips, while Sporty has gorgeous muscles but scraggy legs. My own ideal of beauty runs more towards the Betty Grable, Elle McFeast and Kate Ceberano side of things - both Soolin & Sporty are too thin. > or their forcefull self sufficient personalities which grab you? Yes! But they are opposite types. Sporty fascinates me cos she radiates vitality and love of life, while Soolin is basically a lounger. Not in the same class of loungers as Servalan, but she has the right combination of seemingly not giving a bugger while having her energy coiled up inside. Both grrrls do have an over-riding practicality which I find admirable. And both have reaaaallly bad dress sense, although Sporty's has been improving lately. Tracksuits, tracksuits. I *hate* tracksuits. Yet Soolin and Sporty both wear them, and I worship the grrls. And, probably most importantly, I feel each is rather neglected in fandom. I tend to graviate towards people I feel are not being given enough attention. Soolin is, actually, a Baby Spice: "Vivacious and sweet, I'm pretty in pink, But you better beware, 'cos I ain't what you think!" Of course, Soolin is pretty in grey, but the principle holds. They're both pink-and-white blondes with cute hairstyles and attractive hips, but who are far tougher than they seem. Sporty is more deeply feminine, and far less self-assured. Soolin is arrogantly confident of her ability, while Sporty, despite being by far the most talented, never seems to think she deserves to be a Spice Girl. Soolin would have no qualms, although she'd be bored by the adulation. And both Soolin and Baby believe in violent revenge for sexual harassment... Servalan, btw, is definitely a Ginger Spice. Two ultra-feminine vamps with their eyes on world domination... -- XXX Lindley. (Oh. And Sporty has really lovely hazel eyes.) Ophelia - ophelia@picknowl.com.au "The girl has beauty, virtue, wit, Grace, humour, wisdom, charity and pluck." LONDON CALLING - a list to discuss Britcoms and knockwurst. http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/2511/knockwurst.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 22:33:52 +0100 (BST) From: Judith Proctor To: Lysator List Subject: [B7L] Merlin Message-ID: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Merlin is definitely going ahead. However, there's been change in the people making it. Kaleidoscope were making it with Cromwell Productions, but it looks as if they've parted company and Kaleidoscope (aka Seagull) are now working with Wynn Entertainment, The other change (linked to the first change) is that filming has moved from Scotland to New Brunswick in Canada. How the change in location affets Gareth's participation is something that I don't yet know, Judith -- http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7 Redemption 99 - The Blakes 7/Babylon 5 convention 26-28 February 1999, Ashford International Hotel, Kent http://www.smof.com/redemption/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 10:10:39 +0100 (BST) From: Iain Coleman To: B7 Lysator Subject: Re: [B7L] Well, now... Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Well, now, that's fascinating. From the heroic efforts of those who've enumerated the instances of this phrase, it would appear to be used much more frequently as the series progresses. My guess is that the scriptwriters latched on to this catchphrase, leading to positive feedback. It's just such an Avonish expression: smug, superior and patronising. (I must make a note to use it more often in conversation.) I can imagine PD getting into character at the start of a working day: get the studs on, say "Well, now" in front of the mirror and Bob's your uncle. Iain ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 11:52:34 +0100 From: "fifitrix" To: "B7-list" Subject: Re: [B7L]: Drink Colours (was Liberator design fault) Message-ID: <003201bd7e5d$a44e5fe0$a64995c1@scarlett> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit >And if it was lemonade, can you remember the brand? Tonic water is >something of an acquired taste... No - we were in spain in a bar at the time - But it would be worth an experiment.....(mental note : where did I put that UV bulb?) >ObB7: What sort of cocktails do folks think the B7 characters would be >into? Or any sort of drink? >Dayna: Fluffy Duck >Jenna: Peach schnapps >Travis: Brain Haemorrhage >Vila: anything... >Servalan: Bloody Mary >Avon: single malt scotch, straight. >ttfn, Nicola I think Avon would be a Long Island Iced Tea - which contrary to its name has a lot of alcohol in it and it deceptively delicious!! fifitrix -------------------------------- End of blakes7-d Digest V98 Issue #138 **************************************