From: "Dana Shilling" dshilling@worldnet.att.net
Fiona said:
Actually, *Marian* said (it seems to have been one of those posting days :) ),
Still, one would expect someone with Avon's survival instinct to want
to
keep his only means for returning to Liberator with him at all times, especially when his enemy is around. All the more since Servalan has
told
him that she's after Orac. (This is what I meant by sloppy writing
:-) )
Roger Ebert calls this sort of thing the "idiot plot"--the film, etc. gets to be feature length only by everyone acting like an idiot.
True, plots do tend to get advanced in adventure stories by random acts of carelessness :). But as I did say, this act wouldn't have been so but for Servalan deciding to take a desperate chance. And she was in a desperate situation-- seducing Avon hadn't worked, the Mellanbys weren't likely to sympathise with her and the only apparent way of getting off the planet was by blackmailing Avon.
(now I did say this, though)
Hm, but let's look at it another way. Avon, as it stands, has a choice
of
leaving Orac in the workroom or keeping it with him wherever he's
sleeping.
Now, if he suspects that Servalan is after Orac, to keep Orac with him
would
mean that he would spend a sleepless night,
Not much of an obstacles for a confirmed insomniac
Where's the evidence for Avon's confirmed insomnia?
Furthermore, Avon probably doesn't expect her to try anything.
If he doesn't he has a brilliant future in US electoral politics
:)! But Avon thinks in logical, rational terms-- he is trying to outcalculate Servalan, and he's nearly right. He couldn't have foreseen either the gun being left out or Mellanby being around to be shot (had Mellanby not been there she would likely have hid Orac and used it to bargain with); he's a computer technician, not a psychostrategist.
However, the fact that one of the Mellanbys leaves a gun lying around changes the balance of power,
Leaves a gun lying around? Chez Mellanby that's like finding a bit of paper in the London Times printing plant
Actually, I *do* find it surprising, because the Mellanbys seem to be fairly careful with their firearms-- all the guns have at this point been cleared away except for one which is lying on the workbench, and which as a result could be assumed to be nonfunctional or in the process of manufacture (and Mellanby is in any case sitting armed in the room with it). And while I personally don't know a heck of a lot about firearms, I do know that one of the main things people who keep them (or keep them responsibly, anyway) do is ensure that they're locked up where the kids/dogs/jealous spouses can't get at them easily. So I'd say it's a bit more like finding gold at Fort Knox-- of course it's there, but it's a bit odd to find it just lying around.
But really, it works against that, since she's likely to want sympathy
not
sarcasm-- but then as you say, compassion was never Avon's forte.
Actually he can be quite compassionate behind someone's back (the way he looks at Vena, not the way he talks to her) or when s/he is
unconscious--
the tenderness in the way he touches Cally in Project Avalon after the android has slugged her, or Blake in Voice From the Past.
That's all open to interpretation-- e.g. when he touches Cally it is fairly gentle and tentative, but she has just been slugged on the head and he doesn't know how badly, or whether there's been any damage to the brain. But let's not go down the interpretation route again <GRIN>...
PS--do you think Mellanby's optical recognition gadget was an influence on Geordi LaForge's visual visor?
No, but as I was semi-watching Voyager last night I was surprised to find that the villain was apparently called Seska (and talking of which, wasn't Monday's episode of Angel [the S1 one with the demoness from another dimension] just basically a rehash of Power with an upbeat ending?).
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Acting just like a Hommik at http://nyder.r67.net
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