----- Original Message ----- From: Harriet Bazley harriet@bazley.freeuk.com
Making a massive effort to drag this list away from its recent obsession with genital activities:
And yet you're doing this by talking about a Ben Steed story :)?
When I first watched "Power",
Actually, that's "Harvest of Kairos" --but fair enough, let's discuss that one then. IMO that one's more watchable than Power anyway.
there was a moment about halfway through when everything suddenly seemed to make sense and I thought I realised what the author had planned: when Jarvik fights Tarrant, defeats him thoroughly (by judicious application of brain-power, if I remember correctly; at any rate it looked like a fair fight) and then Dayna challenges him in her turn and is obviously winning. After all, Dayna
<rest of a very good argument snipped>
One might ask the question though of what if it *had* been Tarrant on the ground when the Pantomime Ant showed up? Quite conceivably, Jarvik might have saved him too, in which case it would have had a "saving an honourable enemy" reading.
However, I think perhaps that, like the case my friend was making for Power, Jarvik's actions have to be taken in the context of the character. Jarvik is a sexist. He is also perfectly smug within that worldview, and nothing occurs to change it for him. But in the end, Jarvik is defeated-- meanwhile Avon, who has been thinking outside the box with regard to the Sopron rock all episode, comes up with the means of salvation for the crew, via the lunar lander.
It's also, perhaps, worth noting that Servalan has the upper hand throughout-- when he carries her off, if she had felt herself to be in danger, he would have been a steaming corpse and her personal guard would be drawing a bonus. Likewise, *she* is the one who initiates sex, and who offers him the job of Supreme Commander. The fact that he thinks *he* is the one with the upper hand only serves to highlight the rigidity of his thinking and make his ultimate defeat all the more appropriate.
Or, to go at it from the perspective of Greek tragedy: at the point at which Dayna fights Jarvik, he is in a state of Hubris. Everything is going his way: Servalan has not only taken his advice and offered him a job, she has shared his bed; he has gotten the Liberator. For him to be defeated at this point, particularly in a worldview-shattering way, would run counter to the position he is in at this point in the story.
Shortly thereafter, however, Jarvik moves into the Nemesis position. Avon and Tarrant pull the stunt with the lunar lander and the Sopron and gain the upper hand vis-a-vis the Liberator; Servalan ceases playing along with Jarvik and reasserts control over the situation. Servalan may have lost the Liberator, but she is still President; Jarvik has been reduced from near-total power to nothing. Appropriately enough, this reduction takes place at the hands of a powerful woman (it might have been more appropriate if it had been Dayna, from a justice-being-done point of view, but still Dayna is giving a better account of herself at the end of the story than Jarvik is).
It can also be argued that Jarvik has failed ultimately because, while he understands how Tarrant (a man) thinks, he has failed to understand how Servalan (a woman) thinks and strategises-- if he had, he would have been able to convince her that Tarrant was bluffing, instead of trying to gain the upper hand by blustering at her and demanding control, which seemingly only served to get her back up. Jarvik is therefore done in more as a result of his sexist viewpoint than anything else.
So yes, I think there's a case to be made for the rehabilitation of "Harvest of Kairos" vis-a-vis sexism, as well.
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net
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