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blakes7-d Digest				Volume 99 : Issue 342

Today's Topics:
	 Re: [B7L] Realities of combat
	 [B7L] Silurians
	 [B7L] Horizon news
	 [B7L] Heartbeat
	 Re: [B7L] Realities of combat 

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 22:48:47 +0200 (EET)
From: Kai V Karmanheimo <karmanhe@cc.helsinki.fi>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Re: [B7L] Realities of combat
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.4.20.9912092246220.16779-100000@kruuna.Helsinki.FI>
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Hello

I am running a bit late here (as usual), but still have to butt into this
conversation, even if you've already gone through this. Really interesting
points about depicting combat and violence. Here's something along the
same lines : 

I would think that the horrible death toll of the World Wars in this
century have contributed to the way we consider appropriate to present
violence in mass media. Certainly the image of real warfare is
intentionally sanitised and detached, i.e. distant shots of PGMs hitting
anonymous buildings with seemingly pin-point accuracy give us the sense
that war can be waged "cleanly"  with no suffering and no one but the few
really bad guys surgically removed ("eliminated" rather than "killed",
"taken out" rather than "destroyed"). In peacetime civilisation tends to
frown upon violence as a means of settling differences in society, yet
mass-consumes entertainment based on depictions of conflicts where "the
good" engage "the bad" in violent conflicts. What I find interesting are
not just the conventions of how much and what kind of violence is allowed
in these depictions, but of how the good guys and the bad guys can use it.

When the good guys resort to violence, they are always more restricted in
using it than the bad guys. The fact that the bad guys transgress the
(assumed) moral standards of the audience is what makes them bad guys so
they can indulge themselves; the good guys' use of violence must be
justified. The good guys are usually shown to have been forced to take up
violence against their will (Blake attempting passive resistance before
the Federation forces his hand) and their violent actions must be
proportionally smaller than those of their adversaries. Good guys mustn't
kill indiscriminately (only the bad guys, no non-combatants), mustn't
cause undue suffering (quick, clean kills, no torture, no wounded) and
should take no pleasure in what they are doing. These conventions are one
reason why we can't see the Liberator crew for example gunning down a
group of troopers, then shooting them in the head to make sure they are
dead or worse yet, leaving them there writhing and screaming in agony. Or
Avon in "Star One" actually shooting a leg or two off Travis to make him -
excuse the pun - spill his guts. The good guys must always have the moral
high ground, i.e. whatever they do, the bad guys must always do worse. Or
the audience starts questioning where the line between heroes and villains
actually goes (not that they shouldn't). Image is important.

When good guys get more seriously into killing business (e.g. blowing up
groups of enemy), the moral anxiety is usually alleviated by dehumanising
the bad guys. In Blake's 7 the uniforms and helmets of the Federation
troopers are there not merely for archetypical (armies usually have
uniforms) or fiscal (less extras needed when the same guy can play many
troopers in the same episode if necessary) reasons : they effectively turn
the troopers into faceless, sexless, uniform mass with little human
characteristics. Deny face, deny voice, deny individuality, deny emotion =
deny humanity.That way they are easier to kill without regrets, especially
if they die cleanly with one shot, without elaborate suffering. Like
shooting down empty overalls. What is good about Blake's 7 is that the
show occasionally denies us this simplistic comfort by showing the
troopers' faces, allowing them to talk and letting them show some
emotion. Sometimes it's just a small thing, like that one trooper going
down with an agonised groan in "Project Avalon" that disrupts things
nicely.

A comment about the impact of violence : it really isn't always about what
you show but rather how you stage it. Many a splatter film will drench the
sound stage with litres of blood and tons of rubber guts, and will get
nothing more than revulsion, or better yet, incontrollable laughter out of
the audience. Violence happening off-screen or even the mere threat of
violence is often more disturbing, because the viewer's mind fills the
blanks and usually does better job than any make-up designer could do with
latex, rubber and fake blood. I find having people scream their heads off
dramatically increases the impact of the scene, whether violence is
actually seen or not. 

Okay, that was my *play*. Now it's back to *work*. Talk about dull...

Kai

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Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 12:15:44 +0000 (GMT)
From: Judith Proctor <Judith@blakes-7.demon.co.uk>
To: Lysator List <Blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
cc: Freedom City <freedom-city@blakes-7.org>
Subject: [B7L] Silurians
Message-ID: <Marcel-1.46-1210121544-bbaRr9i@blakes-7.demon.co.uk>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII

People watching the current repeats of Dr Who on BBC2 on Tuesdays should keep
an eye open for a young Paul Darrow as Captain Hawkins.

There's not even a hint of Avon in the character, he's just one of the
Brigader's aides, but what the heck, it's fun to have an excuse to watch Dr Who
again. 

I can't recall which particular episodes he's in, so sit down, watch the rubber
dinosaurs and enjoy. 

Judith
-- 
http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7 -  Fanzines for Blake's 7, B7 Filk songs,
pictures, news, Conventions past and present, Blake's 7 fan clubs, Gareth
Thomas, etc.  (also non-Blake's 7 zines at http://www.nas.com/~lknight )
Redemption '01  23-25 Feb 2001 http://www.smof.com/redemption/

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 12:18:37 +0000 (GMT)
From: Judith Proctor <Judith@blakes-7.demon.co.uk>
To: Lysator List <Blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
cc: Freedom City <freedom-city@blakes-7.org>
Subject: [B7L] Horizon news
Message-ID: <Marcel-1.46-1210121837-965Rr9i@blakes-7.demon.co.uk>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII

The following from Horizon -


Sally Knyvette - an episode of 'Casualty' on BBC 1, Sat. 18th December, at
8.05pm.  Episode is called 'Just a Kiss' and Sally plays Joyce Porter.
She's also in a 2 part 'Touch of Frost' called 'Line of Fire', playing Mrs
Harper.  Part 1 is on Christmas Day on ITV (9pm) and Part 2 is in the New
Year.

Paul & Gareth - look out for Sky 1's 'The Strangerers' - the new comedy SF
show by Rob Grant in which Paul stars as Mr Seedy in either 7 or 8 out of
the 10 episodes.  Gareth has a guest appearance in ep. 1.  This will start
showing in January 2000 (don't have the exact date yet)

Paul and Jacqueline Pearce - look out for Paul damaging some equipment on
'Auntie's Golden Bloomers' on BBC 1 over the Christmas period.

Josette Simon - has been playing the Queen in the Royal Shakespeare
Company's 'Don Carlos' at Stratford upon Avon during the summer/autumn.
Between 16/20 May 2000 this production, with Josette, will be playing at the
Harvey Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York."  You can access full 
details at the following URL  www.bam.org/asp/bam_frameset.asp

-- 
http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7 -  Fanzines for Blake's 7, B7 Filk songs,
pictures, news, Conventions past and present, Blake's 7 fan clubs, Gareth
Thomas, etc.  (also non-Blake's 7 zines at http://www.nas.com/~lknight )
Redemption '01  23-25 Feb 2001 http://www.smof.com/redemption/

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 12:11:09 +0000 (GMT)
From: Judith Proctor <Judith@blakes-7.demon.co.uk>
To: Lysator List <Blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
cc: Freedom City <freedom-city@blakes-7.org>
Subject: [B7L] Heartbeat
Message-ID: <Marcel-1.46-1210121109-06cRr9i@blakes-7.demon.co.uk>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII

Sunday 12 December, ITV

Radio Times - 'No surrender' A feuding farmer's wartime past has explosive
consequences.

I rather suspect the feuding farmer is Gareth's character.  A conflict with his
neighbour was set up in his previous episode.

Judith
-- 
http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7 -  Fanzines for Blake's 7, B7 Filk songs,
pictures, news, Conventions past and present, Blake's 7 fan clubs, Gareth
Thomas, etc.  (also non-Blake's 7 zines at http://www.nas.com/~lknight )
Redemption '01  23-25 Feb 2001 http://www.smof.com/redemption/

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 10:27:17 +0000
From: Steve Kilbane <steve@whitecrow.demon.co.uk>
To: "b7" <blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: Re: [B7L] Realities of combat 
Message-Id: <199912111027.KAA16502@whitecrow.demon.co.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

> What role do the different funding
> mechanisms play in determining the parameters available to different media?
> Personally I suspect there is a public expectation at work that TV is not
> permitted to go as far as cinematic works in depicting certain content
[snip]

I think the key word here is "syndication". There are other points, such as
being different departments, having separate rating systems, and so on,
but in the end, TV studios are _desperate_ to produce a series that goes
into syndication. This means they tend to shy away content that'll upset
the advertisers, hence upsetting the networks, hence reducing the chance
of syndication.

steve

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End of blakes7-d Digest V99 Issue #342
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