After I wrote <Blake wanted freedom and power in the hands on the *honest man*, remember? Unfortunately, precious few of them ever set foot on Zen's flight deck ...>
Ian W answered: <LOL! How true! Do you think this theme - of Blake surrounding himself with dishonest people - is carried all the way into the final episode?>
Well, he probably reasoned that it worked rather well before ...
<BUT not only does Blake not discuss what the "team" will do next, it is so far from what they were expecting that they appear surprised. This is the odd thing for me - I can see that some one needs to take charge but this doesn't mean that every decision has to be a surprise for the rest of them.>
They aren't - the amount that Blake actually keeps to himself is rather over-estimated IMO. Oh, he does it sometimes, Time Squad and Pressure Point probably being the worst examples, but there is evidence that it's actually uncommon for him *not* to discuss and explain (see Vila's plaintive words in Voice).
And when you think about it, they *shouldn't* have been that surprised at the start of Pressure Point - they *know* (from Weapon) that he was thinking about attacking Control on Earth, they also know he's not the galaxy's most patient man ... and yet, when he talked to them about swanning off to Earth to look at the defences, they didn't hear warning bells ..? (Maybe Avon did, but Avon didn't see fit to tell the rest either :-))
<As for waht democracy actually means, I think the crew do know based on their knowledge of non-federation worlds where politicians need to get elected (e.g., that bloke in Bounty - er... Sarkoff).>
Yes and no. Yes, they know about it in a theoretical way - as in it happens on planets they've never (up till now) been to. Possibly the same way I understand quantum theory - I know it exists, I've read how it works, but that's about it ...
All of them have been moulded by a society where might definitely is right, and to an extent the assumption that the strong rule *is* bone-deep in all of them, I think, both Blake's crew and later. Blake *consciously* wants the hoi polloi -the weaker, the oppressed etc - to have the rights of freedom and self-determination, but when under pressure (and when aren't they?) he slides back towards what is more natural for the time and place ...
I doubt that the Federation gave lip service even to the extent of Soviet-style one-candidate elections, myself.
<Lets see if the discussions of what actions to take and Blakes planning efforts improve in future episodes :-^. After all, this was their first real effort.>
<grin> one has to say, given the stated objective of the raid, that it was a failure (but given how new they are at it, and how crushingly out-numbered-and-equipped-and-everything-elsed, some failures are to be expected). OTOH, remembering what Servalan says: "the fact that he is still alive gives them hope". Hope being a gift even more priceless in this barren landscape, perhaps every time he does survive could be counted as a victory ...
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