From: blakes7-d-request@lysator.liu.se Subject: blakes7-d Digest V99 #128 X-Loop: blakes7-d@lysator.liu.se X-Mailing-List: archive/volume99/128 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 99 : Issue 128 Today's Topics: [B7L] The Syndeton Experiment Re: [B7L] how big are the Liberator and scorpio? [B7L] Syndeton Experiment Re: re [B7L] Dark drama re [B7L] Dark drama [B7L] Songs and characters Re: [B7L] Wow! OT: Re: [B7L] Dark drama [B7L] Re:dark drama Re: [B7L] Wow! Re: [B7L] Wow! Re: re [B7L] Dark drama Re: [B7L] Wow! Re: [B7L] Songs and characters Re: [B7L] Songs and characters Re: [B7L] Syndeton Experiment [B7L] Re: blakes7-d Digest V99 #127 URGENT!!!!!!!! Re: [B7L] Songs and characters Re: OT: BACs (was Re: [B7L] Worst Openings) Re: [B7L] Worst Openings [B7L] Syndeton Experiment ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 11:16:28 -0400 From: Harriet Monkhouse <101637.2064@compuserve.com> To: "Blake's 7 (Lysator)" , Space City Subject: [B7L] The Syndeton Experiment Message-ID: <199904101116_MC2-7148-AF54@compuserve.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Well, not as bad as the Sevenfold Crown, but is someone seriously expecting me to believe that Avon spent his youth in clubs with names like the Purple Nightingale? And was that planet Capica or Brontidor? Harriet ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Apr 99 16:33:28 From: pdbean@argonet.co.uk (Patrick Bean) To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] how big are the Liberator and scorpio? Message-Id: Content-Type: text/plain On Sat 10 Apr 99 (16:40:23 +0200), blakes7-d-request@lysator.liu.se wrote: > A friend recently lent me 'SFX' No. 49 (March 1999), which has, on > page 29, entitled 'My rocket's bigger than yours!' a comparison of the > sizes of famous sci-fi spaceships, using diagrams. The Liberator, I > saw, > was about 450 metres (1350 feet) long, roughly two thirds the length of > an > Imperial Star Destroyer. Scorpio was about 42 metres (126 feet) long. There is a problem with the size of the Liberator, in "Space Fall" the long range cargo ship, London was tiny compaired to the Libarator. but by "Dule" the star-burst persute ships were about 1/3 the size of the liberator. This just seams wrong, to me. -- __ __ __ __ __ ___ _____________________________________________ |__||__)/ __/ \|\ ||_ | / pdbean@argonet.co.uk (Patrick David Bean) | || \\__/\__/| \||__ | /...Internet access for all Acorn RISC machines ___________________________/ Web http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/pdbean ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 16:43:15 +0100 (BST) From: Judith Proctor To: Lysator List Subject: [B7L] Syndeton Experiment Message-ID: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Having just listened the The Syndeton Experiment, I've concluded that it's better then The Sevenfold Crown. It still has flaws, but the really obvious errors have been fixed. Slave only calls Avon 'master' now. Both Dayna and Soolin were better written. There was one moment that I felt was slightly off, but the 'Dr Who helpless companion' syndrome has largely been avoided and they came across as stronger characters than in the previous play. Vila now drinks as he should instead of overeating. The bit that really had me worried was when Avon said to Dr Rossum that he liked inflicting pain and from the context in which he said it, there was the implication that it was true. That isn't Avon. Avon may be a cynical bastard, but he isn't a psycopath (he was having a joke at his own expense in 'Blake'). This simply doesn't fit any aspect of Avon that I've encountered before. He'll kill without remorse when necessary, but he doesn't hurt people for pleasure. Tarrant came off better than before. His voice sounded more on the mark and I'm sure his fans will be delighted at the way he was described by another female character. However, I was a little worried about his characterisation at a couple of points. I tend to see 4th season Tarrant as fairly gentlemanly. He actually comments here that his word isn't important to him (or something like that) and although it is arguable that he was under Servalan's influence at the time, I'm still uneasy. The plot was the almost inevitable 4th season, mega-device that will make the holder really powerful, with both Avon and Servalan struggling to get it first. It wasn't too bad, but I did find one point really unconvincing. Dr Rostrum manages to do something to an entire planet and you inevitably wonder why one or two of the two million population didn't object... (I got the impression that his mind control device had to be implanted in the brain first.) I also wonder at Avon's certainty that a robot can't be truely self-aware - I would define Orac as alive. The hyperspace stuff contradicts the series, but at least it's self-consistent and the series was never terribly clear about how such things operated. Overall, I guess this can rate alongside the poorer 4th season episodes, whereas The Sevenfold Crown was pretty much beyond the pale. I really would like to hear a first or second season episode, not just because of Blake, but also because I'd like to hear Avon in the days before every sentence sounded like a snarl. He tended to rely more on wit and cutting sarcasm to make his point, rather than on dominating everyone. Judith -- http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7 Fanzines for Blake's 7 and many other fandoms, B7 Filk songs, pictures, news, Conventions past and present, Blake's 7 fan clubs, Gareth Thomas, etc. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 10:10:47 -0700 From: "Ann Basart" To: "Neil Faulkner" Cc: "Blake's7" Subject: Re: re [B7L] Dark drama Message-Id: <199904101713.KAA03204@mercury.dnai.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Default Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > From: Neil Faulkner > To: lysator > Subject: re [B7L] Dark drama > Date: Friday, April 09, 1999 11:52 PM > > I've just a read a piece on the BBC online news that British TV drama has > been slated for being 'too dark, too slow, too gritty or too > socio-political' to sell to a worldwide audience. The report by the > Department of Culture points to sunny upbeat Australian shows like Home and > Away as the kind of thing British TV companies ought to be making. > > Rather kills off any last hopes of a fifth season of B7, dunnit? > > Neil It rather kills off any hopes for good TV altogether. I enjoy "dark, slow, gritty, and/or socio-political" very much (does that make me "unAmerican?), and I _really_ object to someone out there in TV-land assuming to know what I like. (Another complaint: American remakes of things that were better in the original, such as "Cracker." Bab 5 was pretty good sometimes; perhaps that's why it was more or less ignored. My other favorites -- "The Sandbaggers," "Sapphire & Steel," of course B7 -- all stemmed from the UK. Now I read that someone in the U.S. is planning to do a takeoff on "Fawlty Towers." Help!!) And "Masterpiece Theatre" has diminished from wonderful program(me)s like Henry James's "Golden Bowl" years ago to trifling stories that are hardly masterpieces. Pardon unfocussed complaint, but I needed to get this off my chest. This "looking at the bottom line" mentality has gotten even worse in the past few years. Among other things, it underestimates or demeans the audience. If British TV drama goes down the drain, there won't be anything much left that I or many of my friends want to watch. Ann abasart@dnai.com PS - But I have to put in a good word for the sit-com "As Time Goes By" -- mainly because Judy Dench is in it. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 19:37:43 +0100 (BST) From: "U.M. Mccormack" To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: re [B7L] Dark drama Message-ID: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Neil said: >I've just a read a piece on the BBC online news that British TV drama has >been slated for being 'too dark, too slow, too gritty or too >socio-political' to sell to a worldwide audience. The report by the >Department of Culture points to sunny upbeat Australian shows like Home >and Away as the kind of thing British TV companies ought to be making. NO-O-O-O-O-O!!!!! >Rather kills off any last hopes of a fifth season of B7, dunnit? I dunno... 'G'day, Bliyke!' 'G'day, Ivon!' 'Beaut day furra barbie!' Hmmm... doesn't have that edge quite... Still, it's about the same level as 'The Syndeton Experiment'... (*Sincere* apologies to all antipodeans who can now shriek deserved abuse.) Una ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 14:53:21 EDT From: TVFan87656@aol.com To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: [B7L] Songs and characters Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit When listening to a song on the radio\CD player\cassette tape, do you ever think to yourself, "this would be perfect for a B7 character?" ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 16:34:10 -0600 From: Penny Dreadful To: b7 Subject: Re: [B7L] Wow! Message-Id: <3.0.6.32.19990410163410.007a0870@mail.geocities.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 04:18 AM 4/10/99 -0700, mistral@ptinet.net wrote: >Is that a good wow, or a bad wow? It's a "Finally, I can check *that* off my to-do list" wow. Mind you I can't say the ending came as a big surprise. But I actually saw it! With my own eyes! Hahahahaha!!! --Penny "Wow" Dreadful ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 08:37:31 +1000 From: Kathryn Andersen To: "Blake's 7 list" Subject: OT: Re: [B7L] Dark drama Message-ID: <19990411083731.C1195@welkin.apana.org.au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii On Sat, Apr 10, 1999 at 07:37:43PM +0100, U.M. Mccormack wrote: > Neil said: > > >I've just a read a piece on the BBC online news that British TV drama has > >been slated for being 'too dark, too slow, too gritty or too > >socio-political' to sell to a worldwide audience. The report by the > >Department of Culture points to sunny upbeat Australian shows like Home > >and Away as the kind of thing British TV companies ought to be making. > > NO-O-O-O-O-O!!!!! > > >Rather kills off any last hopes of a fifth season of B7, dunnit? > > I dunno... > > 'G'day, Bliyke!' > 'G'day, Ivon!' > 'Beaut day furra barbie!' Isn't that, "Chuck anotha shrimp on th' barbie"? (-8 > Hmmm... doesn't have that edge quite... Still, it's about the same level > as 'The Syndeton Experiment'... > > (*Sincere* apologies to all antipodeans who can now shriek deserved > abuse.) Not at all. I never watch soap trash. Even apparently superior soap trash like Neighbours. I have a suspicion that Neighbours and the like are *more* popular in the UK than they are here. Probably because it is a change from the usual fare of dark, slow, gritty and socio-political. Now, if you were denigrating *good* Aussie shows like... like... like Police Rescue, then it would be another matter. My video collection is mostly US and UK stuff. For the TV series, the exceptions are: Aussie children's SF (Finder's Keepers, Girl From Tomorrow, Ocean Girl, Spellbinder) Aussie action drama (Halifax f.p., Police Rescue, Murder Call, Spyforce) (of which only Halifax and Police Rescue are really good, IMHO) New Zealand children's SF series (Night of the Red Hunter) Japanese anime (Bubblegum Crisis, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Robotech) Canadian+ SF (Forever Knight, Highlander, LEXX, Matrix) I count myself fortunate in at least this: that even if we don't produce any non-Children's SF, we get to see the best from both the US and the UK. Most of the time. They never showed Sapphire & Steel over here (boo hiss) I had to find out about that from fannish word of mouth. Highlander had a truncated run, only to turn up later on cable, and VR.5 was shown at midnight. The best Aussie drama gets produced by the ABC (the Aussie equivalent of the BBC) - naturally. Down with pandering to the lowest common denominator! Down with pandering to the US market! Up with quality drama! Up with dark and gritty! (+) Canadian sometimes plus other country like France or Germany. Mind you, Spellbinder was an Australian plus some-european-country-I've-forgotten production. Means you get nifty accents for half your cast. -- _--_|\ | Kathryn Andersen / \ | http://home.connexus.net.au/~kat \_.--.*/ | #include "standard/disclaimer.h" v | ------------| Melbourne -> Victoria -> Australia -> Southern Hemisphere Maranatha! | -> Earth -> Sol -> Milky Way Galaxy -> Universe ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 08:52:11 +1000 From: Sarah Berry To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: [B7L] Re:dark drama Message-ID: <370FD61A.BA6E7ADD@connexus.apana.org.au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > From: "Neil Faulkner" > I've just a read a piece on the BBC online news that British TV drama has > been slated for being 'too dark, too slow, too gritty or too > socio-political' to sell to a worldwide audience. The report by the > Department of Culture points to sunny upbeat Australian shows like Home and > Away as the kind of thing British TV companies ought to be making. No no no, no aaaaahhh! Just another example of cocacola-ism. Why does TV have to be the same the world over? Why does it have to be about money so very often? I don't know anything about programs from anywhere except the US, UK and OZ (maybe a bit of Candian and NZ and a few European/Chinese/Indian films), but it's the darkness and grittiness that's so different and wonderful and should be preserved! From where else in one weekend would you get two major female characters killed off (Ballykissangel and Heartbeat)? And I loved Ultraviolet and Between the Lines/Sheets and Cracker.... Sarah Berry. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 18:44:20 PDT From: "Sally Manton" To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Wow! Message-ID: <19990411014424.10807.qmail@hotmail.com> Content-type: text/plain Penny, re finally seeing *that* episode: You're lucky.I saw it in its original run - with absolutely no warning from the local media that it was the last one of the *season* let alone the last one all told, let alone how they were going to *make sure* it was the last one...it took me twenty years to forgive anyone and everyone concerned. PS - yes, I know it wasn't meant to be the absolute end, but actually, I'm rather glad it was, since (a) we wouldn't be at liberty to resurrect anyone we liked if the BBC had made the decisions for us and (b) it WAS a hell of a way to go...5th season would have to be an anti-climax no matter what they did. > >--Penny "Wow" Dreadful > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 21:42:16 -0500 (CDT) From: Tegan Brandi To: B7 list Subject: Re: [B7L] Wow! Message-ID: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII > You're lucky.I saw it in its original run - with absolutely no warning > from the local media that it was the last one of the *season* let > alone the last one all told, let alone how they were going to *make > sure* it was the last one...it took me twenty years to forgive anyone > and everyone concerned. so you're going to forgive them in about 2 years? :) tegan (*) tegan@offcenter.org http://offcenter.org/~tegan Call yourself a Time Lord? A broken clock keeps better time than you do. At least it's accurate twice a day, which is more than you ever are. - Tegan, The Visitation ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 13:20:40 +1000 From: Joanne To: "lysator" Subject: Re: re [B7L] Dark drama Message-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >I've just a read a piece on the BBC online news that British TV drama has >been slated for being 'too dark, too slow, too gritty or too >socio-political' to sell to a worldwide audience. The report by the >Department of Culture points to sunny upbeat Australian shows like Home and >Away as the kind of thing British TV companies ought to be making. > >Rather kills off any last hopes of a fifth season of B7, dunnit? > >Neil I hope to God that the BBC don't ever turn to making shows like 'Home and Away'!! Here in Australia I very rarely find anything worthwhile on television apart BBC drama and occasional shows produced by the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) and SBS (a multi-cultural station). Joanne and Sue ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yet, Freedom! yet thy banner, torn, but flying, Streams like the thunder-storm against the wind. Lord Byron ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 21:00:55 PDT From: "Sally Manton" To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Wow! Message-ID: <19990411040055.84550.qmail@hotmail.com> Content-type: text/plain Maybe. If I'm feeling very very very generous. (Stop being so damned literal, woman!!!) ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 03:26:02 EDT From: AdamWho@aol.com To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Songs and characters Message-ID: <828f3471.2441a88a@aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 99-04-10 14:54:47 EDT, TVFan87656@aol.com writes: << When listening to a song on the radio\CD player\cassette tape, do you ever think to yourself, "this would be perfect for a B7 character?" >> For no explainable reason, if I listen to "Dreaming" (by Blondie), it reminds me of Jenna. "When I met you in a resturant.....you knew I was no debutante", is easily changed to "When I met you in a jail cell....knew you were no normal Alpha male". ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 02:00:25 -0700 From: mistral@ptinet.net To: B7 List Subject: Re: [B7L] Songs and characters Message-ID: <371064A9.F8AB0E81@ptinet.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit TVFan87656@aol.com wrote: > When listening to a song on the radio\CD player\cassette tape, do you ever > think to yourself, "this would be perfect for a B7 character?" Actually, from almost the first time I heard it, Depeche Mode's 'The Love Thieves' has reminded me of Avon; or perhaps it's really more that it brings to mind Paul Darrow playing Avon for a bunch of adoring fen? It's a combination of the song's moodiness and the lyrics, I think, particularly the line 'You're holding court with your lips and your smile'. An old song, 'Allies', by Heart, would make a perfect Blake-Avon video, IMHO. Also, there's a very obscure 70's song about a political prisoner called 'Oregon (I Can't Go Home)' by a band called Monkey Zoo which would be quite easy to turn into a song for Cally with *extremely* minor changes: 'I'm from the Auronar, Auron is my home; I love the trees, the hills, the places I have roamed. I long to be there; I long to be there with my own kind.' It's really perfect for her; a pity my record is warped too badly to be listenable -- and it may be the last remaining copy, I'm not sure the album was even available outside of Oregon. Now I'm sad. This would be such a beautiful Cally song. Ah, well. Every silver lining has a cloud. -- "Next to a battle lost, there's nothing half so melancholy as a battle won" -- Jarvik "Unless it's a record album warped" -- Mistral ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 02:28:55 -0700 From: mistral@ptinet.net To: B7 List Subject: Re: [B7L] Syndeton Experiment Message-ID: <37106B56.F355B834@ptinet.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Judith Proctor wrote: > I also wonder at Avon's certainty that a robot can't be truely self-aware - I > would define Orac as alive. Of course, I didn't get to hear the play, but I really wouldn't worry about this, Judith, Avon was always insisting to everybody else that Orac was just a computer, and then treating Orac like a person when no one else was looking. Without wishing to start the 'Is Orac alive' thread again, I believe that under *some* definitions Orac could certainly be said to be alive. Our bodies are essentially organic computers, and Orac is certainly self-aware, has a personality, and has desires, even if his personality and desires are programmed (I suspect our personality and desires are mostly hard-wired into our genetics); and Orac could certainly program a manufacturing machine to reproduce himself. When Cally was talking about the dimension that the alien was from in 'Shadow', she said 'Orac has no consciousness in that dimension', implying that he has consciousness in our dimension. So if Avon was asserting that a robot can't be self-aware, I suspect it was just hyperbole on his part (he does do that from time to time). > I really would like to hear a first or second season episode, not just because > of Blake, but also because I'd like to hear Avon in the days before every > sentence sounded like a snarl. He tended to rely more on wit and cutting > sarcasm to make his point, rather than on dominating everyone. I'll second that. Although he wasn't *always* snarly in the third season, either. Still, be thankful to hear anything at all. I shall have to wait until there's money for the CD-- and I've practically spent my year's media budget on zines already. Grins, Mistral -- "Let's forget your ego for a moment." -- Avon, to Orac, 'Gold' ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 12:38:36 +0100 From: "John" To: Subject: [B7L] Re: blakes7-d Digest V99 #127 URGENT!!!!!!!! Message-ID: <009401be840f$d77fb7c0$2c5b883e@rimmer> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; boundary="----------------------------"; charset="iso-8859-1" please re-direct this subscription to johnmkirk@yahoo.com BECAUSE OF PROBLEMS WITH MY PEVIOUS E-MAIL ADDRESS, WOULD YOU PLEASE RE-DIRECT THIS MAIL THANKYOU -----Original Message----- From: blakes7-d-request@lysator.liu.se To: blakes7-d@lysator.liu.se Date: 10 April 1999 15:43 Subject: blakes7-d Digest V99 #127 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 09:56:39 EDT From: Bizarro7@aol.com To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Songs and characters Message-ID: <97d4f2d5.24420417@aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit There are literally dozens and dozens of fan-produced B7 music videos of every sort that have been inspired almost entirely by the lyrics of one popular song or another. We've got many in our collection. I regard the best one ever made to arguably be the Avon video done to the tune of OPPORTUNITIES (Pet Shop Boys) by a professional film editor out in the Southwest. It was shown on the big screen at STARCON in Denver about 10 years back (Darrow was among the audience) and it drew an extended standing ovation. Leah ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 10:37:01 EDT From: VulcanXYZ@aol.com To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: OT: BACs (was Re: [B7L] Worst Openings) Message-ID: <6f355e2d.24420d8d@aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 4/8/99 4:17:04 PM Central Daylight Time, kat@welkin.apana.org.au writes: << As an INTJ who *is* a Christian, I do feel that the facts speak for themselves, and that Christianity is self-evident, and that anyone who doesn't believe it doesn't have all the facts. >> I really liked your post. You have explained the idea that Christians can have a solid understanding of the "facts" as explained by science and still believe in a more complete universe that contains the spiritual element as well! In other words, we are not all complete crazies just because we believe that there is more to the world than we can see. And yes, in America it is fair game, or PC, to say what you like about Christians, as it is in Australia. By the way, what kind of Christian would Blake be? I suspect he would be one of those obnoxious "I-won't-take-no-for-an-answer" missionaries that so many are complaining about. After all, that's what he does with the fight against the Federation. Gail ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 10:58:38 EDT From: VulcanXYZ@aol.com To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Worst Openings Message-ID: <2d8e5f54.2442129e@aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 4/7/99 4:37:00 PM Central Daylight Time, bengreen@primex.co.uk writes: << It is the opening credits of the Prisoner, cult brit thing, the actual catchphrase was I am not a number I am a free man, any other fans of the prisoner on here ? My fave episode has gotta be Schizoid Man. >> Yes, I love the Prisoner, too. I think Patrick McGoohan (sp?) is a wonderful actor. How about VR5, a very short-lived, wonderful computer sci-fi American show. Any fans out there? Gail ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 08:49:32 +0100 (BST) From: Judith Proctor To: Lysator List Subject: [B7L] Syndeton Experiment Message-ID: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII It just struck me that Barry Letts has obviously never watched Ultraworld. Avon's reaction at the end of The Syndeton Experiment should have been *very* different. He *knows* that people can be reduced to an empty husk because it's happened to him personally. He also knows that the process is reversible as long as the memory tube or whatever is preserved. I've had to mark the play down as a result. Minor violation of canon is one thing, but I count this a major violation as it affects the character portrayal. Imagine Avon's reaction in The Syndeton Experiment if he was playing it with the memory of Ultraworld suddenly fresh in his mind. His reaction to Vila's fate would surely have been very different. There's also an interesting continuity point brought up by the play. Is there any way in which a single molecule of syndeton can be removed from Tarrant's brain? If not, the implications for future episodes are rather extreme. I suspect, however, that it will simply be forgotten. For an example of the subtlety of good continuity, look at one of Terry Nation's episodes - 'Duel' which I watched last night. JENNA: That's one way to become a hunted man: trust the powerful. BLAKE: True. What's your excuse? JENNA: Oh, I wasn't clever enough, we none of us were. The Federation has beaten us all at least once. BLAKE: At least. Watch the expression on Blake's face when he says 'at least'. He's referring to himself and having watched the first epsiode, we know what he's talking about. If you haven't seen the first episode, then you aren't left confused as the reference can be taken as a general one, but if you have seen it, then the moment gains enormous emotional impact from the knowledge of Blake's two trials. Actually, I don't think Barry Letts has watched the first episode either. The background he is creating for Avon (nightclubs and casual affairs) does not feel like dome society. I'm sure clubs existed, but their nature would have been different. I don't see Avon as a man who was into casual sex either. His relationship with Anna was far more than that. Judith -- http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7 Fanzines for Blake's 7 and many other fandoms, B7 Filk songs, pictures, news, Conventions past and present, Blake's 7 fan clubs, Gareth Thomas, etc. -------------------------------- End of blakes7-d Digest V99 Issue #128 **************************************