From: blakes7-d-request@lysator.liu.se Subject: blakes7-d Digest V98 #322 X-Loop: blakes7-d@lysator.liu.se X-Mailing-List: archive/volume98/322 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 322 Today's Topics: Re: [B7L] Kairopan harvest Re: [B7L] Tarrant (that'll get Carol's attention ) Re: [B7L] Post-War Politics Re: [B7L] Kairopan harvest Re: [B7L] Post-War Politics Re: [B7L] Kairopan harvest Re: [B7L] Post-War Politics Re: [B7L] OT: ah been cut off from worl Re: [B7L] Post-War Politics [B7L] fireworks RE: [B7L] Post-War Politics Re: [B7L] fireworks Re: [B7L] Post-War Politics Re: [B7L] Kairopan harvest Re: [B7L] Post-War Politics ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 21:17:11 EST From: Mac4781@aol.com To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Kairopan harvest Message-ID: Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Paul wrote: > I watched Harvest Of Kairos last Sunday and in my opinion it is a good > episode. I agree. It's great fun. I especially like the background information provided about Tarrant. And the crew dynamics can be quite interesting when you start analyzing them. Avon is clearly trying to keep as distant from his shipmates as possible. He's still stuck in limbo land, not wanting to be part of the group while at the same time realizing that fate has decreed they are better off as unit than as individuals. > Has anyone figured out what Avon originally said when he calls Tarrant an > "astute space commander." His lip movements do not tally with the word > "astute". I don't know what he said, but "astute" is the word used in the copy of the rehearsal script I have. Both Tarrant's lines just before that and Avon's reply have been cut from what is in the rehearsal script. So Paul might not have had a lot of time to put the new exchange to memory. > Also, I thought it was very unlike Avon not to realise that > Kairos was the logical place for them to be transported to, being a planet > with a breatheable atomosphere (especially as the Liberator was orbiting it > at the time). Well, it's not as if Avon is perfect. He made his share of mistakes. With his mind focused on their immediate survival, it doesn't surprise me that he overlooked the fact that Kairos was the nearest planet. Carol Mc ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 21:17:10 EST From: Mac4781@aol.com To: Blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Tarrant (that'll get Carol's attention ) Message-ID: <79ffd2ca.368adea6@aol.com> Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Yep, ring *that* bell and I'm here. :) Jo Ann wrote: > Oi! Godmother! remember that you're still waving your wand and > sprinkling fairy dust so far as transforming me is concerned. It must be those prevailing winds. It's hard to catch the right currents to reach Australia. But I'll keep trying. > Liking > Avon is nature (for me); liking Tarrant is going to have to be nurture, Do I even want to know how Snout and Snarl can be nature while adorable, sweet Tarrant has to be nurture? Probably not. It could destroy my faith in the human race. > and I'm sure you'll be quite happy to do that. threatened by experts..."> Yes, for sure. Where shall I start? Have you noticed that it is Tarrant who comes to Avon's rescue when the Dark One is distracted? See "Rumours" and "Terminal." And Avon is the one who points out that Tarrant is promising material and also notes that he's young, brave, and handsome. So just follow your Nature Fellow's lead. Or consider that Servalan also had the good taste to find Tarrant tempting, not to mention decorative and resourceful. > docu-drama "Aftershocks" last night, and some of the archival footage > put me right back in 1989. Carol has provided the perfect distraction > from unhappy memories.) Sorry about the bad deja vu. You can call on me for distractions, perfect or otherwise, anytime. > Not that it worked. I haven't watched "Blake" for a while, but I seem to > recall that he'd drunk Xenon base dry by that time. Sadly true, the food cure failed. > I don't > think one needs to be in that much of a hurry to defend inconsistencies > in "The Sevenfold Crown". A person has to do something to keep busy in between drool production. Now be good and catch some of that dust. Carol Mc ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 17:54:47 -0000 From: "Neil Faulkner" To: "lysator" Subject: Re: [B7L] Post-War Politics Message-ID: <000201be346d$c11f82e0$aa1fac3e@default> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From TigerM >This raises a question. In the fourth season, was it the Federation that was >after the Scorpio crew or was it primarily Servalan/Sleer? She seemed to be >behind the attempts to capture or kill them, and in episodes such as >"Assassin," I got the impression that it was a personal vendetta, perhaps >because they could identify her as Servalan. She either wanted them dead or >under her control where they could don her no harm. > I think it was primarily Sleer who had it in for the crew. The way I see it, the 4th Season is confined to a seedy galactic backwater where Sleer *was* the Federation. It's all on far less grand a scale than the previous three seasons. Sleer ran across the crew in eight of the thirteen episodes. In four of those her appearance was effectively coincidental: Traitor, Animals, Games, Sand - she was doing her job as a good little Commissioner and this just happened to bring her into contact with the crew. In Gold and Orbit she was acting off her own back, and again ran into Avon and co through chance rather than design. Only in Assassin and Warlord was she actively seeking out the crew with an eye to their elimination. As for them revealing her secret identity - they could have done that no problem any time after Traitor, but apparently didn't since Servalan's alter ego remained very much intact. Alternatively, they may have tried and failed to convince. Their efforts may have been dismissed as crankmail ("Oi,guess what? We got some loony saying he's Kerr Avon and he knows where Servalan is. I dunno, there ain't half some stupid bastards..."). More likely, in my view, is that someone high up in the New Federation hierarchy knew exactly who Sleer was, and was more than happy to leave her there. She was doing a grand job of reacquiring lost territory, and she could carry the can if any storm arose over her use of pylene-50. Since Servalan's no dummy, she would be only too aware of it if she were being used like this, but at the same time she could make contingency plans of her own. Besides, as Commissioner Sleer she had greater freedom of action, perhaps even more power in real terms, than she had ever had as President. Neil ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 22:19:42 -0600 From: "Lorna B." To: Subject: Re: [B7L] Kairopan harvest Message-Id: <199812310413.WAA05029@pemberton.magnolia.net> Carol Mc said: >Well, it's not as if Avon is perfect. He made his share of mistakes. With his >mind focused on their immediate survival, it doesn't surprise me that he >overlooked the fact that Kairos was the nearest planet. And one must admit that the look on his face when this blunder is pointed out to him is absolutely *priceless*! Kind of the equivalent to finding you've put your eyeglasses in the fridge. Lorna B. "Cookies and porn? You're the best mom ever!" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 00:22:37 EST From: AChevron@aol.com To: Blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Post-War Politics Message-ID: Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit In a message dated 12/30/98 10:35:07 PM Eastern Standard Time, N.Faulkner@tesco.net writes: << As for them revealing her secret identity - they could have done that no problem any time after Traitor, but apparently didn't since Servalan's alter ego remained very much intact. >> My own guess is that the crew elected to keep Servelan's secret so that they wouldn't lose track of her. If her Sleer identity was blown, Servie would have gone to ground, and no doubt pop back up and the most inconvienant times. At least as long as she was Sleer, they could in some degree track her movements. As to higher placed officials knowing her identity, it seems probable. No doubt at least a few of her supporters survived the purges, and even some of her enemies might see some benefit in letting her run loose for a while. The Sleer disguise doesn't seem to be designed to hide her for long; she makes no effort to disguise herself when she does appear. Presumably once she's scored some victories as Sleer, she planned to step out back into the limelight as Servalan. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 16:57:50 +1100 From: Kathryn Andersen To: "Blake's 7 list" Subject: Re: [B7L] Kairopan harvest Message-ID: <19981231165750.39157@welkin.apana.org.au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii On Tue, Dec 29, 1998 at 07:31:17PM -0800, Joanne MacQueen wrote: [re: Harvest of Kairos] > Thank you, Neil. Would it be better if I avoided that > episode if it ever came my way? Or does it have to be seen to be > believed? > > Mind you, the same writer was responsible for "Power", wasn't he, and I > haven't seen that either. Which episode is worse? (You are at liberty to > point to other episodes as being truly bad, if you wish.) "Power" was definitely worse. There he set up a whole society of macho mysoginists, while in "Harvest of Kairos" there was only one of them, and he was merely sexist and not a mysoginist. Jarvik can easily be dismissed as an aberration. And the point about Federation society relying too much on computers was a good one, IMHO. I liked the line about computer predictions and reading tea leaves not being that different. (-8 Also, IMHO, the idea of the sopron wasn't that bad, either. But, yes, anything with Ben Steed as the author is going to be below par. -- _--_|\ | 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: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 00:31:43 PST From: "Penny Dreadful" To: Blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Post-War Politics Message-ID: <19981231083144.9750.qmail@hotmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain >Sleer disguise doesn't seem to be designed to hide her for long; she makes no >effort to disguise herself when she does appear. Whaddya mean? Then, she always wore white. Now, she always wears black. What more could you ask for in terms of disguise? And yes, I *am* being serious. Well, I admit, it started out as a sarcastic response, but on reflection it seems not entirely unfeasible. We are, after all, talking about a future whose technological sophistication is extremely erratic: in which, for instance, sophisticated mind-manipulation is de rigeur, yet visual information transfer is frequently limited to grainy monochrome. And if I recall correctly someone in Freedom City drew a blank on the name Servalan. And they, although not part of the Federation, probably got a lot more news of the galaxy, with all the traffic coming and going and a modicum of, well, *freedom*, than most Federation planets. So maybe the vast majority of those who *had* heard of Servalan at the peak of her infamy would never have seen her, or even pictures of her (why so dramatically fry that telltale portrait if it's widely available on the interplanetary internet?). They would visualize her *only* as A Tough Broad Who Always Wears Highly Impractical White. And as I said some time ago with regards to Blake's failure to note Travis' abrupt and drastic change in appearance, maybe it's wise in this time to pay more attention to the personality than to the physique that harbours it, if you really want to identify someone. So Servalan's rather eccentric fashion aesthetic might well have been a deliberate affectation. Sleer's too, for that matter. Heck, the majority of the men she encountered probably never even looked at her face. Such an OTT look had two advantages: first, it could be shucked like Gene Simmons' makeup at a moment's botice; and second, it would *drown out* any subtler, more *innate* personal quirks. -- Penny "That's Why I Always Wear The Batman Mask" Dreadful ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: 31 Dec 1998 11:08:47 +0100 From: Calle Dybedahl To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se (Blake's 7 list) Subject: Re: [B7L] OT: ah been cut off from worl Message-ID: kat@welkin.apana.org.au (Kathryn Andersen) writes: > what is a Tarriel Cell really? Whatever it is, I guess it has something to do with faster-than-light communication. Orac is based on the principles of Tarriel Cells in some way, and communicating instantaneously with other machines is just about all he does. Not to mention that having microscopic-scale FTL devices could make a computer *much* faster than the ones we have now (if you really pay attention to General Relativity, you could get machines where you got the result before you asked the question!). -- Calle Dybedahl, Vasav. 82, S-177 52 Jaerfaella,SWEDEN | calle@lysator.liu.se Hello? Brain? What do we want for breakfast? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 14:35:23 EST From: AChevron@aol.com To: Blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Post-War Politics Message-ID: <85f778aa.368bd1fb@aol.com> Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit In a message dated 12/31/98 3:33:10 AM Eastern Standard Time, pdreadful@hotmail.com writes: << Whaddya mean? Then, she always wore white. Now, she always wears black. What more could you ask for in terms of disguise? >> It's an interesting theory, and just plausable enough to have me scratching my head. The key would be as to how low a profile Servalan kept once she became president. As Supreme Commander, she met with the more powerful members of the civilian government, but that number could be low enough to be safely purged once she gained power. As President, though, I suspect she was much more widely exposed to public view than before. The intimation of Supreme Empress also seems to indicate more public exposure. In those cases, a simple change of clothing wouldn't be enough to keep her secret. But. If Servalan maintained an air of mystery, and didn't allow her image to be widely disseminated, then I could see that the Sleer disguise would work. As Sleer, she seems to have been a civilian employee of the Federation, and moved in different circles than before. And her taste in clothing wouldn't seem so strange to the people she worked for. One wonders what her plans were, though, if the Sleer disguise were penetrated before she was ready to discard it. Any ideas? D. Rose ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 00:43:30 +-100 From: Jacqueline Thijsen To: "'Blakes7@lysator.liu.se'" Subject: [B7L] fireworks Message-ID: <01BE351F.C46D2C60@cmg71700449> Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="---- =_NextPart_000_01BE351F.C474CD80" ------ =_NextPart_000_01BE351F.C474CD80 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hi all, It is now half an hour into the new year here, and I have just been = watching the fireworks. Can it be called obsessive if even that makes me = think of our favourite characters? In this case, I was wondering how = they would react to fireworks. Avon: would probably think it a complete waste of money, time and = effort. Blake: would see it as a form of self-expression. Jenna: would think it was pretty. Vila: would have been too drunk to notice(what with all that champagne = just standing there). Gan: would be happy because everyone was having a good time. Cally: would be looking for a deeper meaning to it all. Orac: would complain about that completely frivolous way of using its = time and demand to be deactivated. Servalan: would be very annoyed at being disturbed. She would = immediately try to find a way to stop it. Permanently. Travis: would try to execute whatever plan Servalan came up with to stop = the fireworks, only to be foiled once again by the Liberator crew. ------ =_NextPart_000_01BE351F.C474CD80 Content-Type: application/ms-tnef Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 eJ8+IiQXAQaQCAAEAAAAAAABAAEAAQeQBgAIAAAA5AQAAAAAAADoAAEIgAcAGAAAAElQTS5NaWNy b3NvZnQgTWFpbC5Ob3RlADEIAQ2ABAACAAAAAgACAAEEkAYAwAEAAAEAAAAQAAAAAwAAMAIAAAAL AA8OAAAAAAIB/w8BAAAAdwAAAAAAAAC1O8LALHcQGqG8CAArKlbCFQAAADwmh0Hg49ARgogAYJeF jbHkgAAAAAAAAIErH6S+oxAZnW4A3QEPVAIAAAAAQmxha2VzN0BseXNhdG9yLmxpdS5zZQBTTVRQ AEJsYWtlczdAbHlzYXRvci5saXUuc2UAAB4AAjABAAAABQAAAFNNVFAAAAAAHgADMAEAAAAXAAAA Qmxha2VzN0BseXNhdG9yLmxpdS5zZQAAAwAVDAEAAAADAP4PBgAAAB4AATABAAAAGQAAACdCbGFr ZXM3QGx5c2F0b3IubGl1LnNlJwAAAAACAQswAQAAABwAAABTTVRQOkJMQUtFUzdATFlTQVRPUi5M SVUuU0UAAwAAOQAAAAALAEA6AQAAAB4A9l8BAAAAFwAAAEJsYWtlczdAbHlzYXRvci5saXUuc2UA AAIB918BAAAALAAAAL8AAAC1O8LALHcQGqG8CAArKlbCFQAAADwmh0Hg49ARgogAYJeFjbHkgAAA AwD9XwEAAAADAP9fAAAAAAIB9g8BAAAABAAAAAAAAALIZAEEgAEACgAAAGZpcmV3b3JrcwDcAwEF gAMADgAAAM8HAQABAAAAKwAeAAUAJgEBIIADAA4AAADPBwEAAQAAACAABgAFAAMBAQmAAQAhAAAA MkQwQTA3MjUxMUExRDIxMUJERDIwMDYwOTdGMDM2RDYA7AYBA5AGAEwGAAAgAAAACwACAAEAAAAL ACMAAAAAAAMAJgAAAAAACwApAAAAAAADADYAAAAAAEAAOQAgZR5fFzW+AR4AcAABAAAACgAAAGZp cmV3b3JrcwAAAAIBcQABAAAAFgAAAAG+NRdfBSUHCjChERHSvdIAYJfwNtYAAB4AHgwBAAAABQAA AFNNVFAAAAAAHgAfDAEAAAAaAAAAamFjcXVlbGluZS50aGlqc2VuQGNtZy5ubAAAAAMABhDGCLgy AwAHEBcDAAAeAAgQAQAAAGUAAABISUFMTCxJVElTTk9XSEFMRkFOSE9VUklOVE9USEVORVdZRUFS SEVSRSxBTkRJSEFWRUpVU1RCRUVOV0FUQ0hJTkdUSEVGSVJFV09SS1NDQU5JVEJFQ0FMTEVET0JT RVNTSVZFAAAAAAIBCRABAAAARAMAAEADAAB/BAAATFpGdfZjbzQDAAoAcmNwZzEyNRYyAPgLYG4O EDA0M50B9yACpAPjAgBjaArAYHNldDAgBxMCgH05CoF1YwBQCwMLtSBI5GkgB0BsLAqiCoQKgMZJ BUAEACBubwfgEQDsbGYTYAOgaAhhFJACMGBvIHRoZRTAB9F5LmUKwRZACXAsFVFkIIpJFQF2FlBq dXMFQMJiCeEgd2F0EPALgFJnFiNmaQlwdwWwa1BzLiBDA5FpGEIgxmMTcQmAIG9iETAEEOZpF+EG kCBlF+ADoBYw9RjAIADAaweRB4AWIQuAbmsbMBVAFaJmF9AIYnTfGrERAQDQHoARID8XkBxC/xSh GtARMBdAF6AYsAQgGcC/F3AGcRkRFZAH4BYxeSCh/HVsF4AJcB7xFiAWEBmIpRO6QR4wbjoh1XAD YLpiAaBsIcAdRBpxYRrA/wNwC1ARQBZQIHEegR2hBGD1FnB5F0B0B3EXUwERCRH9I2VCC2Ac0CR2 ETAbwSXxdwQgJhAocW0dkhEwFTAtvGV4JPAbcgIgI2VKCfB8bmEkdiWHIHIroQJAef0jZVYDECzX F8MYYxYAFhB4ZHJ1HXEWARTQJ8Bj+GUodxxyA/AWMBNiHFTzEPEmUGFnFnAYBBgwF2HrGQUJcCkj ZUcAcCR2GqH5EQBwcCHAGGAa0BggFlD5HBFyeSdhIGMXwRkCJhB+ZzBwLUEHcSNlGjATgHnzNVkJ AG9rGQIocSYBAQD8ZXAEkB0BAHAZAxYQJeL7E4AjZU8e4SR2JjMLcRNg/QbgdSKBMpMmRSVRA1Ab oP8I8RggGKEhwB2hGCAZAhpw/wQgJ8cBAAOBLUEWEBqhAQD/HvEboBjACYAjZQZhQzAPAf81WTby FVEU0BawF4AcgRhg/xkCNAAYMAhwGGBDcAYAFkH/IeQHcAeANABDQSVSRUEio58XcSYQQGIWARgw b3AaYd0aEFAEkAOBCfB0JVAjZfZUHuA30HMs50ikK4AFkP8+kCahHHE24iTgDwEGUkQj+xrBHRF1 ShAx80m2GUsXQL8CICVSQoMCEAMQGxJuMXA1E2BnPiJiJWIWUExp/xhgHuAWAAXABQAH0CNlEfEC AFTgAwAQEAAAAAADABEQAQAAAAMAgBD/////QAAHMCAJI8cVNb4BQAAIMCAJI8cVNb4BCwAAgAgg BgAAAAAAwAAAAAAAAEYAAAAAA4UAAAAAAAADAAKACCAGAAAAAADAAAAAAAAARgAAAAAQhQAAAAAA AAMABYAIIAYAAAAAAMAAAAAAAABGAAAAAFKFAADpDgAAHgAlgAggBgAAAAAAwAAAAAAAAEYAAAAA VIUAAAEAAAAEAAAAOC4wAAMAJoAIIAYAAAAAAMAAAAAAAABGAAAAAAGFAAAAAAAACwAvgAggBgAA AAAAwAAAAAAAAEYAAAAADoUAAAAAAAADADCACCAGAAAAAADAAAAAAAAARgAAAAARhQAAAAAAAAMA MoAIIAYAAAAAAMAAAAAAAABGAAAAABiFAAAAAAAAHgBBgAggBgAAAAAAwAAAAAAAAEYAAAAANoUA AAEAAAABAAAAAAAAAB4AQoAIIAYAAAAAAMAAAAAAAABGAAAAADeFAAABAAAAAQAAAAAAAAAeAEOA CCAGAAAAAADAAAAAAAAARgAAAAA4hQAAAQAAAAEAAAAAAAAAHgA9AAEAAAABAAAAAAAAAAMADTT9 NwAAKWY= ------ =_NextPart_000_01BE351F.C474CD80-- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 00:46:26 +-100 From: Jacqueline Thijsen To: "'AChevron@aol.com'" , "Blakes7@lysator.liu.se" Subject: RE: [B7L] Post-War Politics Message-ID: <01BE3520.2A6F10A0@cmg71700449> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit D. Rose wrote: >One wonders what her plans were, though, if the Sleer disguise were >penetrated before she was ready to discard it. Any ideas? This is Servalan we're talking about. Any of her contingency plans would naturally include a liberal use of murder, mayhem, generally manhandling the populations of several planets and other things with an M. Jacqueline ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 19:21:07 EST From: Mac4781@aol.com To: Blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] fireworks Message-ID: <72816b72.368c14f3@aol.com> Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Jacqueline wrote: > Avon: would probably think it a complete waste of money, time and effort. But he'd also wonder about fireworks as potential weapons. > Blake: would see it as a form of self-expression. And wonder how he could use it against the Federation. > Jenna: would think it was pretty. And would hope it would give Blake romantic notions. > Vila: would have been too drunk to notice(what with all that champagne just > standing there). Or think he was having a mega hangover. > Gan: would be happy because everyone was having a good time. Until two little kids set off a firecracker that landed on his leg. > Cally: would be looking for a deeper meaning to it all. And produce no less than six Auron sayings on the subject. > Orac: would complain about that completely frivolous way of using its time > and demand to be deactivated. Then pout when someone actually deactived him and he missed the grand finale. > Servalan: would be very annoyed at being disturbed. She would immediately > try to find a way to stop it. Permanently. Thus setting off all the remaining fireworks at once and destroying the entire planet. > Travis: would try to execute whatever plan Servalan came up with to stop the > fireworks, only to be foiled once again by the Liberator crew. Not realizing that Servalan was just using him as a diversion. She'd executed the plan herself. Meanwhile, Tarrant and Dayna ended up with minor burns because they just had to try lighting fireworks for themselves. And Soolin used the distraction to hunt down two more of the group who murdered her family. Carol Mc ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 00:20:41 -0000 From: "Neil Faulkner" To: "lysator" Subject: Re: [B7L] Post-War Politics Message-ID: <002f01be351e$acad92a0$c519ac3e@default> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > But. If Servalan maintained an air of mystery, and didn't allow her image to >be widely disseminated, then I could see that the Sleer disguise would work. >As Sleer, she seems to have been a civilian employee of the Federation, and >moved in different circles than before. And her taste in clothing wouldn't >seem so strange to the people she worked for. We all know what Stalin looked like, but how many people would recognise Krushchev, let alone Malenkov? Servalan was a short-lived president with a limited sphere of influence in a time of considerable volatility. If she wanted to stay unpublicised, she could probably have done so. > One wonders what her plans were, though, if the Sleer disguise were >penetrated before she was ready to discard it. Any ideas? D. Rose Perhaps she knew that her cover would be blown sooner or later, and so didn't go as far as she might to conceal it. (Cosmetic surgery might have been ruled out through a triumph of sheer pride over common sense.) Officially she was dead anyway. Anyone with enough resources who thought she might be still alive would eventually find her. So I think she was using the Sleer identity to consolidate her position as fast as possible before the whistle was finally blown. Sooner or later (and probably sooner) she would have to declare herself and make a bid for power. (Presumably she still had ambitions. Otherwise she could have taken up chicken farming and gone into hiding for ever.) Neil ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 00:33:24 -0000 From: "Neil Faulkner" To: "lysator" Subject: Re: [B7L] Kairopan harvest Message-ID: <003001be351e$ad76fd20$c519ac3e@default> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit >> Mind you, the same writer was responsible for "Power", wasn't he, and I >> haven't seen that either. Which episode is worse? (You are at liberty to >> point to other episodes as being truly bad, if you wish.) > >"Power" was definitely worse. There he set up a whole society of >macho mysoginists, while in "Harvest of Kairos" there was only one of >them, and he was merely sexist and not a mysoginist. At least Power (and Moloch) had a bit of humour written in (I especially liked Lector and Grose's 'Ron-and-Ron' double act, "Yeah, it was a bad time for accidents" etc). And Gunn Sar is hardly presented as a paragon of virtue. There is sexism and misogyny in all three Ben Steed episodes, but Harvest is the most flawed conceptually. If I had to name an all-time worst ever episode, it would have to be Dawn of the Gods. >And the point about Federation >society relying too much on computers was a good one, IMHO. I liked >the line about computer predictions and reading tea leaves not being >that different. I know which I'd sooner go by. Not that I'd place absolute trust in either. I sometimes think the main reason people like Steed embark on their luddite tirades is because they feel cheated by technology. It doesn't live up to the expectations they've been duped into giving it. More fool them. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 21:55:58 +0100 (BST) From: Judith Proctor To: Lysator List Subject: Re: [B7L] Post-War Politics Message-ID: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII On Thu 31 Dec, AChevron@aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 12/31/98 3:33:10 AM Eastern Standard Time, > pdreadful@hotmail.com writes: > > << Whaddya mean? Then, she always wore white. Now, she always wears black. > What more could you ask for in terms of disguise? >> > > It's an interesting theory, and just plausable enough to have me scratching > my head. The key would be as to how low a profile Servalan kept once she > became president. As Supreme Commander, she met with the more powerful members > of the civilian government, but that number could be low enough to be safely > purged once she gained power. As President, though, I suspect she was much > more widely exposed to public view than before. The intimation of Supreme > Empress also seems to indicate more public exposure. In those cases, a simple > change of clothing wouldn't be enough to keep her secret. > But. If Servalan maintained an air of mystery, and didn't allow her image to > be widely disseminated, then I could see that the Sleer disguise would work. > As Sleer, she seems to have been a civilian employee of the Federation, and > moved in different circles than before. And her taste in clothing wouldn't > seem so strange to the people she worked for. > One wonders what her plans were, though, if the Sleer disguise were > penetrated before she was ready to discard it. Any ideas? Actually, she changed her clothing in the late third season. I think you'll find she's wearing black in Moloch, Deathwatch and Terminal and her dress in Rumours of Death is half black, half white. Jackie Pearce once said Servalan wore black as a form of mourning the loss of her 'children' in 'Children of Auron'. Adding that as an actress she'd discovered that she looked better in black in any case. 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/ -------------------------------- End of blakes7-d Digest V98 Issue #322 **************************************