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blakes7-d Digest Volume 98 : Issue 185
Today's Topics:
[B7L] Blake (was Flag waving)
[B7L] Catching up.....
[B7L] Flag Waving
[B7L] second-hand zines
Re: [B7L] Sports
[B7L] Re: Eeek! Sorry to USA-ers.
[B7L] New Fanzine Announcement
[B7L] Re: Flag waving
Re: [B7L] Re: Flag waving + Sports at the end
[B7L] Flag waving at half-mast
Re: [B7L] Flag waving at half-mast
Re: [B7L] Blake (was Flag waving)
Re: [B7L] Blake (was Flag waving)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 07:29:30 -0400
From: DJ Wight <Angnak@compuserve.com>
To: "INTERNET:blakes7@lysator.liu.se" <blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: [B7L] Blake (was Flag waving)
Message-ID: <199807060729_MC2-523E-5AE1@compuserve.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Edith wrote:
> The question is, what was Blake fighting for, exactly?
> Everyone was drugged and dulled, but fed and perhaps
> reasonably taken care of. Was he rebelling against
> absolutely control ( from strength comes unity) at the
> expense of security? Did he expect others, in mass
> movement, would join him? Especially if they had bread
> and circuses?
You ask such wonderfully thought-re-provoking questions,
Edith! <g> Thank you. Never having been especially well
tuned in to the Blake saga as a political story, I appreciated
these. Won't pretend for a moment to have any idea
what specific answers might be, but a supplementary question
occurs to me: to what extent can we assume that the
character is fighting for the same reasons on his 'way
back' from two rounds of Federation memory-erasure with
programming as a "reformed model citizen exhibit" to
follow, as before that all happened? I can't help wondering
how much his perspective might have been altered by
that experience.
--DJ
angnak@compuserve.com
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 04:57:08 PDT
From: "Don Trower" <gammablue@hotmail.com>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: [B7L] Catching up.....
Message-ID: <19980706115709.9074.qmail@hotmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain
Hello all,
Only about 350 emails behind here and SC, currently clearing a few a
day.
I've just had morning coffee with Carol on her tour of the UK. And found
the following site, in connection with my other current interest -
tracking down "White Horses" from the early '70s.....
I found this site... http://home1.gte.net/davidra/tv/double.htm
-----------cut here--------
Re: Double Deckers
Gillian Bailey, who played Billie, also played the role of Jinny Martin
in the 1977 UK television mini series, "Poldark." She also played the
role of Ravella in the series Blake's 7 (Episode: "The Way Back"). More
recently, she completed her university studies and received a degree in
English Literature and has been doing work as a script editor in
England.
---------cut here-----------
Don.
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 23:14:46 +1100
From: Sandy Douglas <scd@magna.com.au>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: [B7L] Flag Waving
Message-Id: <v03007800b1c668c7341d@[203.111.85.58]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
It seems like its that time of year ago. Nationalism raises its ugly head.
A couple of points I would like to raise re Educational standards. I feel I
am qualified as I do teach in a government primary school in Victoria and
have done so for over 10 years and have been also a student at Uni
upgrading my qualifications. First of all there is no dispute at all that
here in Victoria Australia the standards are dropping due to the fact that
for the majority of schools they are a place of education rather than a
money making concern therefore our schools are being sold off for housing
estates , class sizes are increasing, special schools are seen as not
needed (read that as too expensive) and so children who have real problems-
both learning, physical and emotional are put into the mainstream with
teachers who have not been trained to deal with these problems. One
inservice lasting a day does not make anyone fully trained. Morale is at an
all time low, staff are getting more and more expectations put upon them
and its getting to the point you are taking book on who's going to be the
next to resign.
The universities are a joke. I did one semester where I had no contact at
all with the lecturer for a semester. It was off campus but he was as I
found out later supposed to be in email contact every fortnight! Students
are treated as walking fees. Once you have paid your money forget about
help.
I am not a great fan of our Premier but he has been about the only leader
on both sides of the political fence who has said that Hanson and her One
Nation are a divisive blot on Australia and should be made to account for
themselves. It is truely frightening to see people who I would have
considered reasonably intelligent thinking that she has a point. The only
thing I can say is that this is one of the downsides of being a political
democracy is that everyone has a ability to express their views- no matter
how wrong they are!
My hope for the future is in the school I teach at. It is a small school -
only 240 in what you would call lower - middle middle class but I see
Hanako, a gorgeous little Japanese girl playing with Deborah a girl from
Ethiopa. I see Jarrod from the Ivory Coast playing footy with Sam from
Seattle. We have over 16 different nationalities at the school and I have
never had a child come up to me on yard duty and say that someone was being
mean because of race and that is what gives me hope that One Nation will
not succeed.
Regarding compulsory voting I have never been in favour of it and has lead
to something that can sometimes swing the balance and that is the "donkey"
vote. This is where you just go down the list of candidates and put in
order 1,2,3 etc without any thought. Therefore candidate Avon would beat
candidate Blake<g>
When there is an election you go to a voting booth get your name marked off
so a) you can only vote once and b) check that you have voted at all. If
you haven't you get a $50 fine. This is for all elections- national, state
and local. Then there is the Senate system:(:(:(
Now that little rant is over we have purchased a large screen TV-
supposedly for the family to share but they are all in bed and I am going
to watch my B7 videos and think this is the closest I am going to get to a
B7 movie.
Enjoy,
Sandy
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 10:12:24 +0100 (BST)
From: Judith Proctor <Judith@blakes-7.demon.co.uk>
To: Lysator List <Blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: [B7L] second-hand zines
Message-ID: <Marcel-1.42-0706091224-c72Rr9i@blakes-7.demon.co.uk>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
I got this message today - might be worth checking out if you're looking for
second-hand zines.
Judith
>
>
> Wanted to let you know that a fanzine collector has asked us at Archer
> Books and Games to help them find good homes for their old fanzines,
> many of which are about Blakes 7.
>
> If you would like to mention or link to our site, you will find the
> information at:
>
> http://www.archerbooks.com/ArchColl.htm
>
> Cordially,
>
> Debora Kerr
> Archer Books and Games
--
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: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 22:42:49 +0100 (BST)
From: wshield@netcomuk.co.uk
To: Blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Re: [B7L] Sports
Message-Id: <199877224150341@>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Hi people,
What a great thread! Just a few observations of my own...
Blake : I think Blake must be a cricketer. Ideally a batsman - just one man left to make a stand
against legions - truly the noblest of sports!
Vila : A football fan I think. I can just see him having a few pints with his mates before the
match, and then standing for ninety minutes in abject misery, probably in the pouring rain,
before he heads back to the pub with his mates to curse their rotten luck. Yes, I think Vila's a
Swansea City fan like me!
Gan : got to be a rugby player. Oh, you wouldn't want him steaming towards you, ball tucked
under his arm, smiling as he anticipates the moment of impact. And he's probably the kind of guy
who'd buy you a pint afterwards as well!
Avon : must be a biker! All that leather gear for one thing! And the studded gauntlets he wears
in 'Terminal' resemble some sports bike gloves I've seen which have studded palms for extra
protection. I'd say he probably rides a Ducati - stylish, a bit off-the-wall, and, most
importantly, only an intellect like Avon's could adjust Desmodromic valves properly!
Phil Jones (a happy Ducati owner...)
On 07/02/98 11:26:43 jacqueline.thijsen@cmg.nl, wrote:
>
>Hi all,
>
>After all those postings connecting our favourite characters to music,
>cars, football teams and drinks, I started wondering about sports. I
>don't recall anyone on the liberator ever doing anything but running for
>their lives when it came to this, but most of them seemed to be in
>pretty good shape. So here's what I think they would have liked to do in
>their time off:
>
>Jenna: racing
>Avon: battlechess (because you get to destroy your opponents pieces, so
>they don't come back)
>Blake: rowing, with him holding that bullhorn-like thing
>Vila: I don't know, hang around in pubs, probably
>Cally: any team sports
>Gan: weightlifting
>
>I'd like to hear what you guys think.
>
>
>Jacqueline
>
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Play the game EXISTENCE to the end... |
| with |
| White Shield Computer Services Ltd |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 18:19:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: brent@ntr.net
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: [B7L] Re: Eeek! Sorry to USA-ers.
Message-Id: <199807062219.SAA04300@rome.ntr.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Edith Spencer wrote:
> To my fellow American citizens on the list:
> Oh dear, I have seemed to have stirred up quite a nest here,
>and it was done without any forethought at all. I again apologize if you
>read any insults in my original post-
By the way, I wasn't insulted. I doubt anyone was. My response was a cry
for help. All of my responses are cries for help really.
<snip>
>And your (often quoted) Piss
>Christ example is an aberration; I had a childhood acquaintance who was
>and still is a talented dancer and had a knack for history. We were both
>students at dance academies that were funded at the local level. He got
>into shows, I got into chemistry. The point ? Arts funding helps
>artists in a community share their talent and vision with others, and
>that is a good thing. And it is not not all abuse by the agency that
>you speak of; the agency has granted funding to alot of works that are
>truly touching and moving; works that make the spirit soar. Does that
>mean we should depend on the government to tell us what is in good
>taste? No. Like I said, the government is of the people, and if the
>people think it is crap, they will not speak of it nor go to see it.
My point about the NEA is that the federal government shouldn't be asked to
hand out grants to artists. Art funding is a VERY good thing, but like you
said, your friend's dance academy was funded at the local level, which is
perfectly acceptable. Private donations are even more acceptable, after
all, if the public likes something and wants to see more of it, then it
should be the public who foots the bill, that way abuses are less likely to
happen--it also leaves the government free to spend that money on something
that can improve our standard of living.
> The point(s) behind my original post then, were to explore
>issues of dependence. If people depend on being drugged, being nulled
>and beinmg told what to think, will they shke off that dependence-
>especially if technology is concerned? And was this what Blake was
>fighting for? Were these issues addressed in the series?
These issues were not addressed in the series--at least not in the way it
was promised from watching The Way Back. That first episode is one of the
best of the series, yet it seems to have little to do with what would come
later. In a way, that's too bad, but B7 was so damned good, I don't lament
the direction that it took after The Way Back.
Blake was one of those people who comes along every now and then and sees a
system that is in place, but does something few others do and questions it.
By looking at the hows and whys of a particular system, you can see the
reason it's really in place and who is benefiting from it. With the
particular system the Federation had in place, it wasn't hard to see
something was seriously wrong. Unfortunately for Blake, the masters of such
an extreme system don't like scrutiny, which is why everyone was probably
kept drugged in the first place.
The fact that the Federation wasn't overthrown after the destruction of Star
One and the decimation of most of the Federation fleet says something about
whether the people wanted to shake off their dependence, doesn't it?
>( Boy, is it hot in here...)
That's just because it's July. :)
Brent
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 18:51:18 EDT
From: Bizarro7@aol.com
To: space-city@world.std.com, Blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: [B7L] New Fanzine Announcement
Message-ID: <c418b0a3.35a154e7@aol.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
Announcing a special reprint of the novellas "Down and Out" and "Hawkwind,"
both originally printed in B7 Complex. In this special edition, the novellas
have been re-edited and rewritten to add approximately 10,000 words. Full
color cover by Leah Rosenthal. Final word count approximately 71,000.
The time is immediately following Gauda Prime. Commissioner Sleer has taken
her prize prisoners, Kerr Avon and Roj Blake on a fast ship back to the
Federation, where she hopes to use her capture of them to regain lost
political ground. A crash landing on a remote planet changes has the the
poential to change not only Sleer's plans, but the entire course of Federation
history!
In the meantime, Jenna Stannis and the crew of the Hawkwind, have returned to
Gauda Prime to find the rebel base in ruins and most of their friends and
compatriots killed or fled. Only Vila Restal remains to tell the tale of what
happened to Blake and the others...and he's determined that, one way or
another, he's going to make certain that Kerr Avon is dead!
To see artwork and text excerpts, go to:
http://members.aol.com/ashton7/ashton.htm and follow the link to Down and Out.
For ordering information, contact Linda Knights at lknight@nas.com.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 11:33:10 +1000
From: Taina Nieminen <taina@netspace.net.au>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: [B7L] Re: Flag waving
Message-ID: <35A17AD6.9507EE88@netspace.net.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Apologies for keeping up the off-topic thread - but here it is. Some
people asked for things to be clarified.
> As an American, I feel very uncomfortable with the idea of compulsory
> voting. Being told "You must vote" sounds much too close to "You must vote
> for So-and-so."
They're two different things. Here in Australia, we are required by law
to collect our ballot papers. Everyone who is registered to vote is on
the electoral rolls, and when you collect your papers, they cross your
name off. At one election, about ten years ago, when I was particularly
fed up with political parties and politicians, I collected my papers and
shoved them straight into the ballot box without going to the voting
booth, which caused some consternation among the people handing out the
papers, but I'd done my civic duty.
> And how on earth is it enforced? What happens if someone
> refuses to vote? Do they go to jail for it?
They compare all the electoral rolls from the different polling centres,
and if your name isn't crossed off, they fine you a small amount. My
parents forgot to vote once, some years ago, and were fined $20 each.
There are also people who simply don't register to vote, and not being
on the rolls, aren't fined for not voting. I'm not sure exactly what the
law is, but they are probably breaking it by not registering once
they're over 18, but that law isn't enforced.
> Suppose you don't like any of
> the candidates?
You can put in an invalid vote, or you can decide which you dislike less
than the others. Better a bad government than a very bad one.
> If you are abroad or even just out of your voting district, must
> you make arrangements to vote absentee?
You can pre-arrange a postal vote, or you can turn up at any polling
booth outside your district and make an absentee vote. That doesn't
require any pre-arrangement.
> I would also think that this system would give incumbents even more of an
> advantage than they already have, since the people who don't really care
> about the issues and wouldn't vote if they weren't forced to will take the
> path of least resistance and vote for whoever is already in. Does it work
> out that way, or not?
No, it doesn't work that way. Australians are used to voting being
compulsory, so I imagine our (being bad and generalising here) attitude
towards it is quite different from what American attitudes would be.
People expect to have to vote (or at least turn up at the polling
booth), and most do make a decision as to who to vote for.
>
> And, er, 23% of Queensland's vote-- with everyone voting-- for an overtly
> racist political party is not disproportionate?? That's pretty scary.
Yeah, but their racist policies weren't the only reason people voted for
them. A lot of people are just fed up with the main political parties,
and the fact is that the party in question had not issued many policies
at the time of the election. We live in a complex world and they offered
simple answers, and a return to nostalgia. Very appealling to many
people.
>From Brent
> A veritable utopia now, but add 230,000,000 people and see how well all
> those needs are taken care of. A couple hundred million *individuals* can
> really screw up a government "for the people by the people."
Well, I never said it was a utopia. I said compared to a lot of other
places in the world, we are very well off. Some European countries with
large populations still manage to provide health care for people who
can't afford it. And never mind how many health problems people cause
for themselves, my understanding of the American system is that if a
person is injured in an accident, or something, and they don't have
health insurance, hospitals won't treat them. If I'm wrong, please tell
me so. I would very much like to be wrong about that.
And our much smaller population also means that we have a much smaller
tax base with which to fund health, education, etc. services.
>Kids taking guns to school? The people see this as a problem the
> government needs to address, so a commission is formed, thus wasting more
> tax-payer money on a problem that would be better addressed on a
> community-level. But communities are made up of a lot of individuals that
> don't want to waste their time with such trivialities.
Kids don't take guns to school in Australia because we have gun control.
I get the impression whenever gun control is even hinted at by the US
government, many, many individuals in the community start shouting about
their constitutional right to carry arms.
And from D. Rose
> While I may disagree with some of your statements, it is impossible for
> either of us to grow in wisdom unless we are able to look at issues from other
> angles. I have sometimes found my convictions re-affirmed by this process, at
> other times I have changed my viewpoint. This is part of the process of
> living.
I'm with you totally on this one. My most productive thoughts come when
other people disagree with me.
Taina
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 21:23:52 -0500 (CDT)
From: Tegan <tegan@goddess.coe.missouri.edu>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Re: [B7L] Re: Flag waving + Sports at the end
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980706210213.10399A-100000@goddess.coe.missouri.edu>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
[snip lots of stuff that i find interesting but don't want to comment on]
> And never mind how many health problems people cause
> for themselves, my understanding of the American system is that if a
> person is injured in an accident, or something, and they don't have
> health insurance, hospitals won't treat them. If I'm wrong, please tell
> me so. I would very much like to be wrong about that.
Hospitals cannot refuse to treat people for emergency situations. It's
federal law here in the states that hospitals must at least try to
treat people who are in the midst of an emergency. They generally only get
the bare minimum, but it's illegal (not to mention unethical) for
hospitals to let them bleed to death on the floor if they can be helped.
I don't know if the hospitals are held resposible for the ensuing heart
attack after recieving the bill, however... </sarcasm>
It's a sick, sad cycle. Medicine advanced, and some procedures started
becoming available at a high price. Doctors had to perform these
operations, to those who needed them, but not everyone could afford it. So
those who are insured get charged more for everything. They have to keep
the prices the same for everyone, however (don't want favoritism or
anything like that), so even the basic things become way to expensive. And
everyone wants a piece of the profit, ergo prices stay high.
Bleh.
[snip more stuff i don't feel like commenting on]
Oh, and I just wanted to say for the sports that the only thing I could
see Travis doing was diving, Servalan -- knife throwing (at a live target
facing the other direction), Gan -- caber tossing; for the rest, my ideas
were already said. :)
socialist idealist, life realist (and new to the list, hello!)
tegan (*)
tegan@goddess.coe.missouri.edu
http://goddess.coe.missouri.edu/~tegan
"Personally I don't care if their whole planet turns into a mushroom.
I shall stay because I don't like an unsolved mystery."
-- Avon, Mission to Destiny (A7)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 19:53:03 PDT
From: "Joanne MacQueen" <j_macqueen@hotmail.com>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: [B7L] Flag waving at half-mast
Message-ID: <19980707025304.10134.qmail@hotmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain
Hello all, wherever you may be.
Being my lunch half-hour, I had to go back and read Kathryn's comments,
in an attempt to see why Sarah felt so hot under the collar. It doesn't
seem to be that inflammatory, any more than any other piece of flag
waving by anyone of any nationality.
Julia forgot that a lot of informal voting goes on in Federal, State and
local council elections. The only compulsion here in Australia, when it
comes to the ballot box, is having your name marked off so that you do
not receive a nasty letter from the Electoral Commission fining you for
non-attendance at your local polling station.
As for the education system of whatever nation, state, local government
area, you name it, I feel that it has a lot to do with the individual.
The New South Wales education system has served me well. That it didn't
serve me better is as much my problem as that of the system itself. As
for South Australia, well Sarah, if you are refering to Lindley, say so.
But I'm sure the University of Adelaide is not truly responsible for her
any more than the University of Newcastle is entirely responsible for
me. <grins at the idea - unis are supposed to have some influence on
you, but I doubt the teaching staff of anywhere are publicly into half
the opinions broadcast on this list> The University of Adelaide, I
suspect, is like the University of Sydney - the oldest and most
prestigious of the universities in the relevant state. Due to the
difference in years between white settlement in the United States and
white settlement in Australia, we cannot claim to have our own versions
of Harvard and Yale (let alone Oxford and Cambridge). Give us a few
decades, Sarah! <smiles - I have no intention of insulting anyone today,
and I hope what I've said and what follows is not taken as such> Kathryn
is being parochial, in my view, but so is Sarah. Heavens, I'm guilty of
it, and I suspect that a lot of others are too.
As for Blake, what do you think he'd do in this day and age? There is
too much in the way of compromise for him to want to be a politician,
and I doubt that he'd just sit back and take it, as many of us do. I'd
suggest he become an activist, lobbying parliaments to try to change
things. He could still be an outright rebel, I think, but I'm thinking
of the present Western (Britain/United States/Australia/wherever else
you are) situation. I invite you to put forward your opinions.
Regards and respect
Joanne
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 21:57:00 -0700
From: Julia Jones <Julia.lysator@jajones.demon.co.uk>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Re: [B7L] Flag waving at half-mast
Message-ID: <TchzfDAcqao1EwOt@jajones.demon.co.uk>
In message <19980707025304.10134.qmail@hotmail.com>, Joanne MacQueen
<j_macqueen@hotmail.com> writes
>
>Julia forgot that a lot of informal voting goes on in Federal, State and
>local council elections. The only compulsion here in Australia, when it
>comes to the ballot box, is having your name marked off so that you do
>not receive a nasty letter from the Electoral Commission fining you for
>non-attendance at your local polling station.
>
I did say that you are merely required to submit a ballot paper - nobody
can check what you put it :-) What is the fine for non-voting these
days?
For the benefit of those who have not encountered the British electoral
system - you go to the polling station, they hand you a numbered ballot
slip and cross your name off. It is tedious but not impossible to check
which candidate a particular voter voted for. The official reason for
this is so that enquiries can be made in alleged voting irregularities
(it's not unknown for people who might be expected not to vote because
they're sick, elderly, etc to turn up at the polling station and find
they've already voted). Everyone I've heard discuss it assumes it's
because MI5 wanted to find out who was voting communist.
I remember one chap in Australia being threatened with jail because he
refused to vote as a point of principle. He was kicking up a row about
voting being compulsory, and made a stand on it rather than just doing
what everyone else did - spoil the ballot paper or pretend they forgot.
Can't remember if he actually went to jail or not.
--
Julia Jones
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 20:15:50 +0100 (BST)
From: Judith Proctor <Judith@blakes-7.demon.co.uk>
To: Lysator List <Blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: Re: [B7L] Blake (was Flag waving)
Message-ID: <Marcel-1.42-0706191550-518Rr9i@blakes-7.demon.co.uk>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
On Mon 06 Jul, DJ Wight wrote:
> a supplementary question occurs to me: to what extent can we assume that the
> character is fighting for the same reasons on his 'way back' from two rounds
> of Federation memory-erasure with programming as a "reformed model citizen
> exhibit" to follow, as before that all happened? I can't help wondering how
> much his perspective might have been altered by that experience.
It could have made a lot of difference. Before the mind-wipe I assume that
Blake was motivated solely by abstract idealism. He saw a world in which people
were drugged, programmed into mutoids, indoctrinated, 're-educated' and given no
control over their own lives. I see him as one of the better off people, those
who probably had some freedom and autonomy over their lives. It seems to make
sense that jobs that needed the capability of original thought would be done by
people who were not subject to the drugs.
Blake (according to the series background) was an engineer. Avon was a computer
expert and would be equally likely to be left undrugged. Of course, there was
the danger that without the drugs some people would take stock of their
surrounding and rebel or commit crime. Both Blake and Avon turned against the
system in their own ways.
As one of the better-off, I see Blake's motives as altruistic. He had more to
lose, and in fact, he did lose it.
After the mindwipe, he had many motivations.
AVON: I thought you were probably insane.
BLAKE: That's possible! They butchered my family, my friends. They
murdered my past and gave me tranquilized dreams.
JENNA: At least you're still alive.
BLAKE: No! Not until free men can think and speak. Not until power is
back with the honest man.
He was still after freedom for the masses, but it was personal now. His family
had been killed for no other reason than that they were related to him. They'd
tampered with his mind (remember that there were still remnants of
that Federation conditioning at the end of the second season) and taken his
memory of who and what he was.
Yet even before he fully regained his memory, the urge to fight back was there.
It was fuelled by the sight of the massacre of the rebels in the underground
tunnels and by the fact that his trial was a sham. Hitting out at injustice was
almost hard-wired into Blake.
So, a mixture of motivations. I think he was driven harder afterwards because
of the personal element. It drove him to become more fanatic. Remember his
comment when he burst into Central Control. 'I've done it!' At that moment it
was a personal vendetta. yet there were many times when he was capable of
seeing he larger picture. At Star One he was able to set aside his peronal
hatred of the Federation because he recognised that the Andromedans presented a
threat to all humanity.
He was a complex man.
Many people initially see Avon as the more complex character because he's dark
and broody, but Blake's motivations and feelings are complex, not least because
of the mixture of personal and idealistic motivation.
Judith
PS. Blake's complexity is perhaps best demonstrated by the fact that many fan
writers take him to one extreme or the other. He is portrayed as a saint who
could not hurt a fly, or an extremeist who dices with the lives of his followers
with no care for them at all. Luckily, there are also writers who can tread
that tricky middle path and show the many facets of a tortured individual.
--
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, 7 Jul 1998 08:07:12 EDT
From: AChevron@aol.com
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Re: [B7L] Blake (was Flag waving)
Message-ID: <55581a2b.35a20f71@aol.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
In a message dated 98-07-07 02:15:37 EDT, you write:
<< BLAKE: That's possible! They butchered my family, my friends. They
murdered my past and gave me tranquilized dreams. >>
This has always intrigued me about the series. We know the Federation is
ruthless to resistors; we've seen or heard of several massacres in the series.
At the same time, the Federation likes living examples of its power. Look to
Blake himself, the families of deserters being sent off into slavery. And not
inconsequentially, the London itself.
Blake is informed by one person, at a time when his memories have not
returned, that his family was massacred on a distant planet. It doesn't seem
to fit the pattern, to me, for the Federation to have shipped them out only to
execute them on arrival. Simpler to just do it on Earth, and save transport
costs.
So, was the Resistance lying? Were they desperate enough to fabricate the
story in order to get back their figurehead? The alternative explanation is
that Blake's family met with an accidental death, or were later executed for
"crimes" committed after transport. Any comments? D. Rose
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End of blakes7-d Digest V98 Issue #185
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