After I wrote: <Well, I'm glad someone enjoyed it ...>
Tanja wrote: <They weren't the only ones.>
Actually, that makes me even gladder :-)
<I can certainly understand why Jacqueline Pearce names this as her favourite episode - it gave her a chance to give a more three dimensional portrait of Servalan, without making her weak.>
*But* ...
I *do* think it makes her weaker (yes, the scene with Reeves is good, however) *without* adding any worthwhile dimension at all - and the whole thing is so utterly conventional. I guess it comes down to our perception of the character: Servalan is fairly cliched from the start (all of this is IMO only) but there is a reasonable integrity of character in the charming, smiling, hollow, unable-to-feel monster which Children and Auron and Sand totally violate. And the Authorial Intrusion is particularly jarring - I can feel the author jumping up and down and screaming "look, look, I'm giving her feelings!!"
I like Servalan best in her most inhuman moments, such as Deliverance, Trial and Terminal. Or - if one wants vulnerability - when it's her own safety that affects her usual invulnerability, such as Rumours.
The Servie in Sand belongs more in Batman than B7 :-)
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