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Re: [B7L] FW: Orbit
by Ellynne G. 21 Oct '01

21 Oct '01

On Fri, 19 Oct 2001 21:51:40 -0400 "Dana Shilling" <dshilling(a)worldnet.att.net> writes: > > Never mind that, if you were trading in someone else's virtue you'd > expect > to get a higher price for Tarrant's than Vila's. > Avon may have had to think fast on his feet. 1) Avon assumes Egrorian was not the sort of mad scientist who values the monastic life. 2) His insistance he needs to bring someone down with him is actually a stalling technique while he tries to get the warted one to give something away about his assistant. 3) He gives what I assume Avon recognized as a masculine name. 4) Avon instantly realized that, if he brought Dayna or Soolin, he might find much unpleasant attention focused on himself, the new face in town. 5) Avon also realized that, if Tarrant realized why he'd been picked over the others, he would react about as well as Tarrant usually does to these little surprises. 6) He chose Vila. Ellynne ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.

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Orbit, Vila and Avon
by Nathan Hook 21 Oct '01

21 Oct '01

Given Vila's reaction to Avon hunting him down on the shuttle, he obviously believed Avon would kill him. You don't persuade people to jump off space craft for the benefit of others. Time was short and Avon had the gun...the threat was real. It was interesting how they kept it a secret between them. Vila refers to the whole incident as being one he wouldn't forget and Avon calmly retorts that you know you are safe with me, the others are unaware of exactly what went on. The interesting irony was that even if Avon had killed Vila and dumped the body through the airlock, the shuttle was doomed despite the 73 kilo weight loss. The speck of nuetron material was still aboard. A lesson for Avon and his unemotional calculating mind. He was ruthlessly prepared to sacrifice an associate, a friend perhaps, even after all they'd been through? Vila was Avon's obvious travelling companion to keep an eye on things. Vila wouldn't question Avon, one of the girls or Tarrant would tend to do so - especially Tarrant. Egrorian felt comfortable with Avon in the end, because he posed no threat. The negotiations may have gone differently if one of the others was there. A bit like Blake choosing Calley, Jenna or Vila as companions before he tended to choose Avon. You only have to keep an eye out for yourself and the people you're meeting. Far less complicated that way. Nathan. Nothings so difficult as a beginning/ In poesy, unless perhaps the end. Byron. ------------------------------------------------------------ Free, BeOS-friendly email accounts: http://BeMail.org/ BeOS News and Community: http://www.BeGroovy.com/

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Orbit and Hiding - Long.
by Leia Fee 21 Oct '01

21 Oct '01

This will be a very rambling sort of post about the 'Avon should have been able to find Vila - there's nowhere to hide in a stripped down shuttle' idea. I was thinking about this the other day while I was down the castle hitty-fighty training with the reenactors. (I'd been watching Orbit earlier in the day.) We were playing a training game - 'Combat Hide and Seek' (Much like normal hide and seek but you have to find then kill the people hiding. Then become seekers as well.) and I was the last one left hiding. Now it takes about 20 minutes to sweep the castle for hiding places (and that's if you're doing it very slowly and carefully) but it took them over an hour to find me. (Um, the reason I was still hiding for an hour after I was the last person left and had won the game was because I didn't belive the seeker when he was wandering round calling 'Leia you're the last one left, you can come out, you've won. Call me paranoid ;-)) So I was curled up quite comfy, thinking about hiding and searching and the way people approach it and I was coming to the conclusion that it's not whether *you* think it's a good hiding place but whether the seeker thinks so. People will look first in the places they'd hide themselves. And people have different strategies. The people I've played combat hide and seek all use one of three strategies... 1) 'The annoying git'. Doesn't bother to hide properly at all. Lurks just around corners and splats the seeker as they come round. Then legs it to another ambush point. This only works if you're confident that you are better than the seeker - if you can't beat them even with the element of suprise then there's no point using this strategy. 2) 'The tactical one'. Finds a good defensible spot (prefereably with a few mates) and waits. Doesn't matter if it's not a great hiding place the important thing is that you can hold off the enemy for a long time. For preference you find somewhere you can retreat from as well. 3) 'The coward'. Find a really good hiding palce where you won't be found for ages. Doesn't matter if it's defensible or not beacuse you're trying to avoid the fight rather than win it. My favourite tactic when I've feeling lazy and the one that had me waiting for an hour to be found. There's a half filled in alcove that used to be an arrow loop before the ground level changed. You can still get in by laying down on you cabk and wriggling in head first, standing up as you go. Once you're in you have to sit on the ledge and tuck your feet up so you can't be seen from the outside. Once they figure out where you are, you're stuffed but people rarely bother to look there. I am coming to a point... Avon would almost certainly go for strategy 1. He''s not the sort to wait around ro be attacked. And if you look at the tactics he uses when he's searching for Vila, the way he carefully approaches corners in case Vila's the other side of them, it would work very well against someone who was also using the same strategy. Fortunately for Vila he's gone for option 3 and found himself a hidey-hole. If Avon found him he'd have no chance but then the whole point is that he doesn't want to be found. I should think he realises he stands even less chance if he confronted Avon openly. It would never occur to Avon to hide in such a place, where there's no way to defend yourself and no way to retreat if the defence should fail. His mind works very differently from Vila's and I don't think he understands Vila as well as he thinks he does. If he sat calmly and thought about it maybe he'd realise that Vila's tactic would be very different from his own. But he's not exactly thinking very clearly. Heres ends my long ramble on the Psychology of Hiding. Leia

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Re: [B7L] Top ten stories
by J MacQueen 21 Oct '01

21 Oct '01

>From: "Dana Shilling" <dshilling(a)worldnet.att.net> >TARRANT: "A red-haired dwarf with bluey-coloured eyes shouldn't >be difficult to locate" (AU Dawn of the Gods) Your next task is to come up with the appropriate Auron saying for the locating of any sort of dwarf... Regards Joanne (now trying to banish the idea of "All I Ever Needed To Know I Learned From The Auronar" from her head) _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

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Re: Orbit (and hiding)
by Leia Fee 21 Oct '01

21 Oct '01

>because he knew Vila would appeal to Egrorian, who seems to 'go for' >slight-built people with big eyes, of either sex. Though how Avon knew >that... hmmm... must have been in some security files accessed by Orac I >guess. Anyway, it worked didn't it? Now I hadn't thought of that. I can see Avon trying that actually. >Wow, a good structural symmetry that I never noticed before (everyone >else probably thinking - call yourself an obsessive, and you missed >that). ;-) Well I that thinking ot myself after I wrote it "You are thinking far too much about this" >This is an endlessly interesting discussion for me It's one of my favourite episodes. >I liked the input on the psychology of hiding. The first time I played >paintball I spent 10 minutes hiding safely in a burned out range rover, >then thought 'sod this' and went running towards the guns, hmmm, well >towards the little blobs of paint anyway, which isn't quite so >impressive. Depends what mood I'm in when I play in the castle. I tend to go for sneaky hiding palces more often than not though. Leia

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Derelicts (and longish minor ramble)
by Mel Saxby 21 Oct '01

21 Oct '01

I recently bought Derelicts. It certainly is a challenge, but well worth the effort. Bryn Lantry's singular style is wonderfully distinctive, and I'm looking forward to reading other examples of her work in the future. As far as Top 10s go, I'm still catching up, after many years in the wilderness away from B7. I watched the series on its first run as a teenager and loved it, but fell by the wayside some years later, though I bought the videos when they came out. I was delighted to discover B7 on the net, and this list, I just wish I'd stuck it out back in the 80s, so I wouldn't be so far behind. One thing which has struck me, the difference in attitudes towards the characters between then and now. Re-reading early Horizon and other fanclub newsletters was an interesting experience. The current perceptions of Avon certainly seem very different, but also that of characters like Anna Grant and Jarvik, neither of whom were so hammered back then as they seem to be now. Possibly we were just saddo 70s types back then. Of the zines and stories I've read, here are some I think are particularly good. Not a top ten or best story list, just things I've really liked. Last Best Hope/Long Way Back - strong on SF content, great B/A, lovely covers. Shane - best if you know the film of the same name, but good even if not, and a heartbreaker. Closing the File - this PGP is so bleak, yet so brilliant. Duty - one for the Avon/Tarrant contingent, intelligent and mature. Limbo - one of my favourite PGPs, from Sheila Paulson. Baccalaureate - non-explicit slash, poignant and beautiful. Cold Revolution - Avon/Soolin Head in Hands - S4 from MFae Glasgow, nuff said. Morgan - I saw Morgan's Boy many years ago, and found it very moving, great to read this slightly more hopeful crossover. And the mental picture of our fastidious Avon shearing sheep is worth the asking price by itself. A sadly slash-heavy list - my apologies. I love gen, too, honest. esterhazy

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Top ten stories
by Sally Manton 21 Oct '01

21 Oct '01

Thought of one that - though not in my Top Ten - certainly would come under my heading of a challenging read - Derelicts, by Bryn Lantry (also Puppeteer, if you read slash). _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

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Sinofar and Giroc
by Sally Manton 21 Oct '01

21 Oct '01

Jacqui wrote: <In 'Duel' Sinofar tells Travis not to return but nothing similar is said to Blake - does this mean that Blake is free to return?> Would appear so, although there's probably no reason why he should want to (actually, I have read at least one story where he did, after GP). After all, if there is (as she says) nothing for him to learn, is there any reason why she and Giroc would reappear for him? (Well, apart from the fact that she was obviously rather taken with Fearless Leader :-)) It's not made very clear *what* would act as an end to their ghostly task, actually. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

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Cult TV
by Steve Rogerson 21 Oct '01

21 Oct '01

Cult TV are now selling registrations seperate from hotel accomodation (previously you had to buy a package deal that included bed, breakfast and evening meal). The reason for this is that the hotel is now full. However, this deal may suit people who live in the north west who were a bit miffed at having to pay for unnecessary accommodation. The registration cost is 70 pound for the weekend (still no day memberships). The tickets will be available at the convention itself from 9.30 Friday morning. The event runs from Friday 26 October to Monday 29 October at the Adelphi Hotel Liverpool. Loads of guests including Sally Knyvette and Jan Chappell http://www.cult-tv.freeserve.co.uk/ -- cheers Steve Rogerson http://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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Rutherford and Son
by Judith Proctor 21 Oct '01

21 Oct '01

This is a very brief review as I'm knackered after a late night Saturday and all day Sunday clearning rhododendron on a nature reserve. We went to see Rutherford and Son purely because Gareth was in it. The blurb didn't honestly sound all that interesting and a friend who'd read the play said it sounded horribly bleak and depressing. In actuality, it was amazingly good - the kind of play that has you analysing the characters and their lives long after it has finished. The characters are complex and the strong cast really show you the depths of the characters. There is humour in unexpected places, deeply-rooted passions (one friend said he was expecting a murder at any moment), and the loneliness of isolated people. On the surface, it's a play about Rutherford and his son arguing over who has the right to exploit the son's invention. Actually, it's a play about the position of women in Edwardian society and the ways in which people can get trapped. It also looks at the relationships between the classes. Rutherford is a self-made man who has brought up his sons as 'gentlemen'. Rutherford's treatment of his family is in many ways appalling. He can be an absolute bastard. Yet, one also comes to understand him, to see what drives him and to occasionally feel a degree of sympathy for him. (And then see the bastard all over again as he manipulates and punishes people.) There some wonderful touches in the play. The turning point was something as simple as the laying of a tablecloth (a touch of genius on the part of the playwright to make something so simple carry so much meaning). This is a play in which the strong characters are not always whom they seem at first. Rutherford's respect is finally reserved for the least likely person - the one character who can fight with him as an equal. I'll try and write a fuller review later, but if you have the chance, get to see the play. It still has a week to run. Even my 14 year old son said it was worth it (and he's not easily impressed by old plays). It's on in Salisbury playhouse and there's lots to see and do in Salisbury. We went round the cathedral (and spent ages looking at a 14th century clock to see how it worked - a massive thing made of cast iron and you could see every part clearly), and a National Trust house just around the corner, but there's also museums and so forth in easy walking distance of the theatre and cathedral (and they're still open in October). We had a chat with Gareth before and after the play. He looked really tired after the matinee, but there was no trace of that in his evening performance. He puts an incredible amount of energy into Rutherford. The reviews of this play have been very good, and I can now understand why. Go and see it! 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.knightwriter.org ) Redemption '03 21-23 Feb 2003 http://www.smof.com/redemption/

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