Leia writes:
"Lets see who else have we got. Kasabi?"
<veg>
Piri.
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And another one.
How much of the galaxy do you think is covered by the Federation at its
height? Is there anything in the series to negate my impression, built on
the fact that -
space is big, as I think we were informed in another series), but the
feeling of the series is that this part of it is also relatively small and
enclosed;
there are millions of stars but *not* all that many colonised worlds, few
enough so that it appears every one has a name not repeated anywhere else
(…
[View More]contrast our own little world - hell, my own underpopulated country which
has more than a few duplicated town names!!) and that Avalon starting
rebellions on 30 worlds in one sector is a big thing;
- that the Federation only occupies a part, and possibly not a major one, of
the spiral arm nearest to Andromeda?
Or is this too patently obvious to everyone but me, and I have forgotten the
episode where it's all laid as clear as day?
How much space is there in our space opera?
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Leia wrote:
<It is a pity the potential of the female characters in B7 was never fully
realised. They were all set up with an interesting background and should
have been strong, independant, interesting characters.>
(I take it you're *not* including Her Supremeness in this - even if I find
her only adequate, the general consensus seems to disagree with me)
All four of them had a lot of promise built in at the start ...
Jenna was *never* IMO as good again as she was in those first …
[View More]scenes in The
Way Back, but she was at her uneven best in S1 (I'd like to credit Terry
Nation for this, since he wrote it all, but then he wrote Redemption, where
she trails around playing Doctor's assistant to *both* Blake and Avon :-)).
What I'd've liked to see was more of the light barbs she throws around in
Cygnus Alpha, more of the skepticism, and way more of the underlying dislike
between her and Avon (actually, given the way he tempted her in CA, 'twould
have been fun to see her, disillusioned in trial, trying to tempt *him* away
when it's too late). I have to say, though, much as I like Jenna, part of it
is the acting, she just *clunks* sometimes.
Cally - don't care for the character, but think Jan Chappell is the best
actress on it (better even than Jacqueline Pearce - in their respective
moments of 'psychic' pain in Children of Auron, Cally's is by far the
subtler and better done). Given what she could do with just one simple line
(in Hostage - "anything that moves") they should have kept Cally's fanatic,
overwrought edges and push her further along the road to obsession than
Blake, almost having her leading him in, but instead went for alien
high-mindedness.
In S3, it probably *should* have been Cally going planetside rather than
Vila, in Pressure Point, Killer, Hostage, Countdown ... (of course, the
problem there was that by then, Vila was writer and audience favourite, and
always was much more fun to watch :-) Few people would have liked to see his
or Avon's part cut for the women. That's show biz ...)
(OTOH, I'm working on this theory that part of the reason Cally lost her way
was that - like the rest - she'd been leaning on Blake's strength, almost
'feeding' off his drive and commitment and warmth. But after Voice -
certainly as they headed towards the end at Star One - Blake is becoming
drained and exhausted, nearing complete collapse from the accumulating
stress and trauma, and doesn't have it to give anymore.)
Dayna had the most detailed background of them all, but in a way, from the
very start, the least room to develop, being given one point of reference -
her vendetta against Servalan. I think it's relevant, in a way, that
Dayna's *second* episode has her already playing Doctor's assistant.
Soolin - it goes the other way. Soolin wasn't wimped out, but started as a
blank page and gradually got better, but not better enough when compared
with the older, richer characters, Avon and Vila. It was a fair way into
the last series before she was more than a shadow. She's good with flip
lines, but there's very little substance until half-way through. As I said
in my Warlord post a little while ago, the colder, calculating aspects of
her character were showing a lot of promise at the end, but that shooting
party got in the way before she could really get going ...
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> Tell the truth, I've nearly given up watching new SF stuff, although I do
> occasionally dip into Farscape. Mainly because it's so hard keeping up
when
> you work alternating shifts.
Doesn't a VCR help? This isn't a patronising question - having never worked
shifts, I don't have a concept of the impact it might have.
Surprisingly, VCRs aren't much help, at least for any long-running series.
The only ones I've managed to keep up with that way are Babylon 5 and Space:
Above and …
[View More]Beyond, and that took a lot of effort. The problem is, you have to
find the time to watch what you've taped, and if you put a couple of
episodes on the back burner because, say, you're not in the mood at the
time, it accumulates, and can very soon get to the point where it's nearly
impossible to catch up. I have to really like something to make the effort
nowadays.
> So many good shows only get as far as
> Sky, which I can't really afford.
Hmm. I dunno. As Louise and I often comment, there are some jewels to be
found in the dead hours of UK terrestrial TV. 'Course, anything good gets
cancelled after the first season, but that's another matter.
A workmate of mine taped a lot of Millennium for me off Sky, after I'd seen
some of it on ITV. That at least I do mange to watch whenever I get it. I
was rather hoping the new Star Trek series might make it to the Beeb, but no
luck. And as for hoping we might get some new home grown SF . . . in our
dreams, I'd say.
The BBC seems to have lost the plot as far as SF is concerned. Even in these
more sophisticated days, you don't need huge numbers of fancy special
effects to hold an audience, just an interesting plot and characters. They
seem content to churn out soaps and medical dramas week in week out,
ignoring the fact that programmes like Buffy, DS9 and Farscape have a
respectable following.
Mel
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> Tell the truth, I've nearly given up watching new SF stuff, although I do
> occasionally dip into Farscape. Mainly because it's so hard keeping up when
> you work alternating shifts.
Doesn't a VCR help? This isn't a patronising question - having never worked
shifts, I don't have a concept of the impact it might have.
> So many good shows only get as far as
> Sky, which I can't really afford.
Hmm. I dunno. As Louise and I often comment, there are some jewels to be
found in …
[View More]the dead hours of UK terrestrial TV. 'Course, anything good gets
cancelled after the first season, but that's another matter.
steve
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Before I begin, let me say that Anna's writing I have seen is very very
good, and if it took no effort I am lime, olive and emerald green with envy
:-) The following comments are only about the way I find the whole process,
which is somewhere in between all the views I've read so far.
I wrote primarily for me, true. My B7 focus is character intereaction, and
fairly narrowly based - Blake and Avon first (there aren't, of course,
*nearly* enough A-B stories in the world) with Vila next …
[View More]and the rest
scattered somewhere behind. Simply letting one's imagination run is
wonderful fun (not least of all because one can skip the need for rotten
plotty bits and simply play with the good stiuff :-)) as is scribbling it
down on my hard drive where no one but me will see it - pure and unabashed
self-indulgence and nothing wrong with that.
As I've said before, the buzz when someone else enjoys what I've written is
wonderful in itself, as a separate thing from the pleasure of imagining the
whole thing. But if they're going to enjoy it, they need those things I'm
not so good at, they need a plot, they need clarity in the allusions I seem
to throw in, they need something other than 5 pages of My Darlings playing
complicated word games for my amusement :-) And *I* need it to be at least
competent and coherent enough that it won't cover me with mortification <g>
something that is not necessary when it's hidden in my head.
The work can be enormous fun in itself, of course - like that 'ah hah!' when
you think of a way to justify keeping in a piece of prose that *ought* to be
pruned for the story's sake but which you love is nice - but then you still
have to get it down in words that - if you do want to share it - someone
else is going to appreciate as well.
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Tell the truth, I've nearly given up watching new SF stuff, although I do
occasionally dip into Farscape. Mainly because it's so hard keeping up when
you work alternating shifts. I'm glad I first saw B7 as a teenager when it
first came out. If it was showing today, I'd probably have missed it. And at
least it was shown on mainstream TV. So many good shows only get as far as
Sky, which I can't really afford.
Mel
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Leia
> It is a pity the potential of the female characters in B7 was never
> fully realised. They were all set up with an interesting background
> and should have been strong, independent, interesting characters.
> They have their moments but for the most part are sadly underused.
David
The fan-fiction related to them, however, can only rise.
Would you like to pick one or two of the B7 women? Pick anything or
anyone from high mythical females to lowly recalcitrant teenagers and I
…
[View More]may write a back-story or other kind of story revolving around her. I
have recently come to a pause in my writing about the female characters
and could do with a new topic. In choosing, please avoid the following
names: Jenna, Cally, Soolin, Dayna, Rashel, Veron, Sinofar, Arlen.
As for who I write for, I write B7 fic for the characters (I sometimes
view the cosmos as a character), who deserve to be read and written
about. The plot and its devices, adjectives and adverbs, the reader and
the writer - these are secondary to the characters.
DC
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"Leia Fee" <leiafee(a)totalise.co.uk> wrote:
>It is a pity the potential of the female characters in B7 was never fully
>realised. They were all set up with an interesting background and should
>have been strong, independant, interesting characters. They have their
>moments but for the most part are sadly underused.
>
>Leia
But they are more 'interesting'/developed than characters in some of the contemporary series (eg Dallas)
Jacqui
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I love Lexx, but admit the quality is sometimes variable. The four
one-and-a-half-hour episodes that made up season one were excellent.
Season two is a mix of good and bad episodes, including one absolutely
brilliant episode. I found season three dragged a bit, stretching the
one story line over too many episodes, but I liked it better when I
watched it again and knew I was on a marathon rather than an episodic
adventure. Season four so far has been very good.
--
cheers
Steve Rogerson
http://…
[View More]homepages.poptel.org.uk/steve.rogerson
Redemption 03, 21-23 February 2003, Ashford, Kent
Celebrating 25 years of Blake's 7 and 10 years of Babylon 5
http://www.smof.com/redemption
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