Neil wrote:
From: Sestina94@aol.com Aha, a Real Subject...
Really, I've always felt that they took the easy way out by marking Blake so strongly as a fanatic by the time Pressure Point and Star One rolls around, Then, B7 as a popular show on the BBC, couldn't possibly be considered "political" in the sense of condoning so-called "terrorist" actions against the British State. In raising the gray area of Blake's commitment and fanaticism, I think Nation and Boucher were trying very hard to make viewers NOT read the Terran Federation as a metaphor of 20th Century British Society
I disagree with this. Whilst there is a recognisably British mindset to the Federation, the Federation as a government is not a reflection of the British government (under Callaghan for the first three seasons, Thatcher for the 4th).
Just to be picky: first two transmitted under Callaghan (PM till mid 1979), second two transmitted under Thatcher.
Nor can I see anything substantially Thatcheresque in Servalan (though I can't recall when Thatcher came to lead the Conservative party - was it before or after B7 began its run?).
Before - 1975.
The Ulster situation is hardly paralleled either, since we do not have the Federation (as the British government) collaborating with another galactic power bloc (the Irish government) to suppress a dissident voice (Blake) outlawed by both.
Thinking through this one last night, and then reading your post, I agree with you here. Blake challenges the legitimacy of a government on the basis of its rule through terror (if I understood Pat and Morrigan's arguments at Redemption correctly! <g>). The IRA challenges the legitimacy of the government of a particular piece of territory. I'm not sure if I agree entirely with your characterization of the Irish government there (the territorial claim to Northern Ireland was in the constitution until recently, I believe, tho' someone might want to correct me), but that's me being picky.
If there are parallels between Blake and any RL faction, it would be an ideologically motivated one such as the RAF or Red Brigade, not a parochially motivated one such as the IRA or PLO. Nor need Blake be considered as an analogy of a left wing revolutionary movement - he could be the OAS against the Federation's De Gaulle.
I always think of the sixteenth-century revolutionary justifications which emerge from the Calvinist rejection of Catholic rule about which I have bullshitted on this list on various occasions, but the point about ideological motivation vs. parochial (territorial?) claims is a interesting one. I guess the American Revolution fits into both.
Una