Blakes7

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5511 discussions

Re: [B7L] Re: Language
by Anna Simpson 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

At 20:43 27/11/01 +1100, Kathryn wrote: >(kathryn scratches head) Why wouldn't Vila say "I guess"? Well, no doubt there is a long and fascinating philosophical debate there, but the basic point is that Vila *doesn't* say 'I guess'. And neither does anyone else in all 52 episodes, at least as far as the transcripts are concerned. So, whenever I read an 'I guess' in a fic, it catches my attention and break the flow of the story >Kathryn Andersen love Anna

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RE: [B7L] Re:Blake and Vila
by Nicola Mody-Nikoloff 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

Ellynne G. wrote: > Perhaps I'm just trying to excuse their bad behavior but I think it's > more a case of their being subject to weird bursts of gallows > humor under > high stress. The more terrible the situation, the more > likely they are > to make a biting joke at someone else's expense. Oh, I understand gallows humour, use it myself, but I don't understand the cruelty. What about the incredible stress they put their preferred target under? How does Vila get rid of his own stress when he's at the bottom of the pecking order? Drink and depression, poor sod. After all, Avon's two jokes in 'Powerplay' probably condemned Vila to two years of contempt from Tarrant and Dayna who'd see him as unwanted dead weight, a spare part, going by Avon's sneering. Even when Avon defends Vila to Tarrant in 'City', he still insults him and puts him down. (From memory: "He doesn't have a better nature", "I despise him, but...") > Same way, if they have barely managed to save anyone or > anything from an > entire planet and race, he immediately points out what a handful that > small victory is - and says, with perhaps forced certainty > (is he trying > to convince himself or her?) that they (or is it he?) won't lose Cally > over this. Still makes me cringe at the sheer tastelessness of us. Them eating at the same time makes it worse somehow. > I'm just going by my own experience with high stress > situations. A lot > of awful, I-can't-believe-I-said-that jokes get made. But you'd fall > apart completely if you didn't. Oh, agreed. Like joking about deth or nuclear war (which I do). But having been a target myself at school, I'd never try to feel better by making others feel worse. Nico *** This e-mail is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please delete the message and notify the sender. ***

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RE: [B7L] Re: Language
by Nicola Mody-Nikoloff 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

Dana Shilling wrote: > I love the idea of Vila beginning every e-mail > with "Hi, mum, I am not dead at the bottom of a > cliff." It's a continuing theme in their e-mails! And he does encounter a few cliffs. And he may even have said just that at least once! > > And yes, I know 'going commando' is probably an Americanism, but I > couldn't resist! > Never heard it before, but I can imagine. But it takes more > than talcum > powder to get tight leathers on and off without, umm, personal injury. Hah! The talcum powder gets a mention too! 'Going commando' is going without. I really couldn't imagine what Avon would wear, but thought, why not nothing? > Now imagining Blake in a Speedo--go ahead, ruin my day. I did already! It was a toss-up between Speedos and boring old trunks. I don't think I actually specified, though he does wear a pendant on a chain at one point. BTW my fiction is definitely gen in case anyone's wondering. Nico *** This e-mail is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please delete the message and notify the sender. ***

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RE: [B7L] Re: Language
by Nicola Mody-Nikoloff 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

Sally Manton wrote: > Actually, I don't think Vila is that much more colloquial > than an average > person (it's just the company he keeps, and I do mean Mr > Ultra-Precise). > He's a *bit* more relaxed in a vocab than, say, Blake, and > it's enhanced by > the way MK actually speaks, but the differences between > grades don't seem to be all that great to me. It always grates if I see Vila saying 'innit' or some such thing in fanfic, or speaking in a dialect. He does say 'meself' or 'me' instead of 'my' a couple of times; that's about it. > But one way Vila is different is the unusual > amount of colour and contrast in his words, the bright, > playful and varied > way he uses them (things like getting the dignified hell out > of here) that > contrasts with Avon's precision, Blake's layered, careless > perfection and Cally's stiffness. Vila has an excellent vocabulary - he's afraid of the dark "only when it's unilluminated" - hardly as ignorant as the others suppose. > Vila likes words as much as Avon does, it's part of what makes their > relationship work. I wouldn't be surprised if Vila enjoys > reading in his > spare time, he certainly has a far greater gift for and skill > with words > than most of the rest of them, including the possible-Alphas > Jenna, Dayna, and Tarrant ... Hey, thanks for the confirmation! I've made Vila an avid reader in my fiction, very disconcerting to Avon and Tarrant as it doesn't fit the category they've put him in. I see him as having no formal education (and that pretty basic) past 11 or 12, but self-educated in the things which interest him. As proof, at least twice in the series he says he "likes stories" so I bet he enjoys escapist fiction! Nico *** This e-mail is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please delete the message and notify the sender. ***

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Re: [B7L] Re: Language
by Mac4781＠aol.com 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

Harriet wrote: > For some reason, it comes out OK > (there - I've no problem with a B7 character saying OK, I think that was > already standard in 1970s UK English) I scanned the transcripts for "okay." The scan I did would have missed any instances where it was abbreviated to "OK." The Way Back: RICHIE: I'll check ahead. Watch for my signal. RAVELLA: Okay. Deliverance: ENSOR: Compensators... GAN: Okay. ENSOR: Not...holding... GAN: All right. Okay. Here we are now. Here we go. AVON: Out of the way. GAN: Okay. Gambit: CEVEDIC: Docholli's in there somewhere, but he's not a problem. First we get Travis. UN-NAMED HENCHMAN: Okay. Harvest of Kairos: TARRANT: Okay, Zen, we've read the same manuals. [To Dayna] It's an old Federation manoeuvre. Unimaginative, but so's a punch in the mouth. We don't need either. At least it tells us who sent them. Gold: KEILLER: So, Pretty One, we visit the mine and we tamper with the processor. That way the gold stays okay. Carol

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Re:Blake and Vila
by Ellynne G. 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

On Tue, 27 Nov 2001 10:00:34 +1300 Nicola Mody-Nikoloff <mody-nikoloffn(a)axis-intermodal.co.nz> writes: > > I think the worst B7 example of what I call the 'tinkly bits' (based > on the > tinkly music that Star Trek TOS used to indicate a bit of comic > relief) is > at the end of 'Children of Auron'. An entire race has been almost > destroyed > and Avon cracks that terrible joke and they all laugh. I just > cringed. Perhaps I'm just trying to excuse their bad behavior but I think it's more a case of their being subject to weird bursts of gallows humor under high stress. The more terrible the situation, the more likely they are to make a biting joke at someone else's expense. So, if Avon is terribly relieved that they managed to keep one crew member among the living (and that this person seems unlikely to act quite so suicidally the next time they aren't watching him like a hawk), he makes jokes discounting another crew member. If Blake's heart is still beating a little too fast at the idea of how suicidal that burst of depression and selfdoubt almost became - and how bad it would have been without the efforts of some others - he finds himself likely to laugh at the first dumb joke one of those others makes putting them down. If Avon has just had a remarkably bad day that _started_ with losing Blake and ended with him nearly getting himself killed while retaking his ship while trying to keep his new allies alive at the same time - and then finds out that, while he was wasting time doing this (no matter what he says, and I somehow think that would be his first gut reaction), the only two friends he's been able to locate so far were nearly murdered - he tries to deal with whatever he's feeling as that realization sinks in by looking at one of the almost murdered types and joking that this is really an optimum first meeting. Same way, if they have barely managed to save anyone or anything from an entire planet and race, he immediately points out what a handful that small victory is - and says, with perhaps forced certainty (is he trying to convince himself or her?) that they (or is it he?) won't lose Cally over this. I'm just going by my own experience with high stress situations. A lot of awful, I-can't-believe-I-said-that jokes get made. But you'd fall apart completely if you didn't. 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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Re: Language
by Sally Manton 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

Actually, I don't think Vila is that much more colloquial than an average person (it's just the company he keeps, and I do mean Mr Ultra-Precise). He's a *bit* more relaxed in a vocab than, say, Blake, and it's enhanced by the way MK actually speaks, but the differences between grades don't seem to be all that great to me. But one way Vila is different is the unusual amount of colour and contrast in his words, the bright, playful and varied way he uses them (things like getting the dignified hell out of here) that contrasts with Avon's precision, Blake's layered, careless perfection and Cally's stiffness. Vila likes words as much as Avon does, it's part of what makes their relationship work. I wouldn't be surprised if Vila enjoys reading in his spare time, he certainly has a far greater gift for and skill with words than most of the rest of them, including the possible-Alphas Jenna, Dayna, and Tarrant ... _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

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RE: [B7L] Re: Language
by Nicola Mody-Nikoloff 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

Jen McGee wrote: > I'm working on a lot of Vila dialogue and internal monologue > right now, and I'm > really struggling with this. I know he doesn't speak > "American," but any efforts > to make him use the right style of language come across > as...well...as an American > trying to write what she *thinks* British sounds like. He > sounds like a bad > imitation of a Monty Python skit, full of cliched phrases and > forced lines. > Especially the indelicate interjections someone like Vila > would surely make--I > just can't use "bloody," "arse," or "sod" without it sounding > desperately > stilted. Or like I'm throwing in the little Brit lingo I > know to "make it sound > real." Either way it jars the scene out of believability for > me. Frustrating. Part of your problem is that there was very little swearing in the series. Vila said 'hell' a few times ("Let's get the dignified hell out of here!"), and I can quite hear him saying 'sod' or 'bastard' (in fact in my current fiction he does), but not 'arse' (or at least not out loud) as it just isn't the type of language used in B7. I also found I'd made him say OK a lot, and had to go through changing that to 'all right', which in all cases was fine. And 'guess' to 'suppose'. Due to TV, I speak mid-Atlantic, a mixture of both US and British English with some NZ special terms - e.g. I've had to ensure that they use specific British terms - e.g. 'trunks' or 'costumes' to go swimming in rather than 'togs'. Another thing Vila does is to use different grammar - he often misses out pronouns and other words - "Don't like the look of that" - and/or inverts sentence structure - "Bit mean, I call that!" That could make your language a bit more Vila-like! Nico *** This e-mail is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please delete the message and notify the sender. ***

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Re: Desperately Seeking ObB7 Mostly OT Andromeda
by Betty Ragan 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

Sally wrote: > Harriet wrote re Andromeda (which I haven't seen, so can't comment): > <Though the 2nd-season opening credits/music are infinitely worse.> > > ;-) what do people think of our own credits/music then? Well, they're 3000% better than the current _Andromeda_ ones, that's for sure. The frightening thing is, it's almost too easy to imagine how shudderingly awful it would be if B7 had taken the same approach. Picture Blake striding forward on the _Liberator_ flight deck looking incredibly Serious and Heroic and the rest of the crew moving in behind him doing their level best to match his expression while a cheesy voiceover tells us how Rebel Leader Blake has assembled his Unlikely Crew on a Daring Mission to bring Hope to the Galaxy (capital letters mandatory). Blehh! (And it's an especial pity, as I *loved* the original _Andromeda_ theme and they've gone and ruined it utterly. :() IMO the B7 opening credits (in their various versions) are OK but far from spectacular. The 1st/2nd season opening with the images of the security cameras and Blake being tortured, etc. is great in concept, as it captures the tone of the show quite well, but as it's actually executed it does, I admit, look a little bit cheesy. The swooping ships of Season 3 are maybe a bit better, visually, but they're also a lot more generic. The (presumably) Scorpio's-eye views of space and rushing planetary surface in the 4th season credits are pretty nifty looking, but I don't like the 4th Season logo nearly as well. The theme music, on the other hand, kicks ass. I remember mentioning the show once to a non-fan who responded with "Oh, yeah, I remember that show. It had a great theme song." So that must not be *just* MHO, if casual viewers can remember it as one of the main highlights 20 years later! (Have we managed to get back to enough of an obB7 yet? :)) -- Betty Ragan ** bragan(a)nrao.edu ** http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~bragan Not speaking for my employers, officially or otherwise. "Seeing a rotten picture for the special effects is like eating a tough steak for the smothered onions..." -- Isaac Asimov

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Intro Music and Intro
by Sally Manton 27 Nov '01

27 Nov '01

Jen McGee wrote: <Since this is my first post, I guess I'd better introduce myself.> Welcome to our humble group :-) _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

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