--- Ellynne G. wrote: >
Important female character named Blondie: EEEEEEEEEK! Jarvik, save me!
Blondie's other memorable lines:
"I don't understand, Jarvik. Can you explain it to me?"
"Huh?"
"Oh, Jarvik, you saved me!"
And, of course, "Oh, Jarvik, going out with you makes life worth living."
Er, wasn't that what Jo Grant used to do in Dr Who. (Apart from the going out thing which might have been a tad icky given the 700 year disparity in their ages). Given Steed's penchant for butchering the characters we know and love, Blondie would probably have been called Jenna. Or Soolin.
Other Characters.
Jarvik obviously. Tarrant would have been kept on as he is a man and therefore worthy of honour but Avon would be challenge to Jarvik's dominance. He would therefore be conflated with Vila to create a new character Vivon who would retain Vila's cowardice and skill with locks but have computer expertise added. The point of a number of story lines would be to contrast Jarvik's intuitive knowledge of life with Vivon's decadent reliance on reason and technology. Dayna would be part of the crew and her tendency to get into scrapes by challenging men to fights when she is biologically weaker would be another fruitful source of plots. With Blondie present as love interest/ circular saw fodder, the crew would retain Orac and Zen as the Beeb budget would not allow for hiring a seventh actor. (Although in retrospect the introduction of Spot the cat from Hong Kong Phooey to get the characters out of trouble would have been an asset, and superior to blatant contrivances like the Liberator Scanner being able to see the landing module but fooled by the Sopron into thinking it was really Liberator).
Jarvik's 7 would have attracted a small but loyal fandom which would continue to discuss the series years after the final episode in which Jarvik would overthrow the Federation, shoot Servalan "If you didn't want the answer you shouldn't have asked the question" and marry Blondie.
A recurring theme in the discussion groups would be the three episodes written by Chris Boucher. There would be a consensus that Boucher had introduced elements like realism, strong female characters who weren't villains and a deplorable absence of unbelievable monsters (pfft...Star One...not a decent spider or super intelligent teddy bear in sight...obviously Steed didn't have time to rewrite the episodes) which showed his blatant ignorance of the basics of good SF writing.
This post is getting way too dystopian. I'll stop now.
Stephen.
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