I think I brought this up before, but it's gone very quiet so I'll mention it again. By putting together The Way Back and Voice from the Past it's possible to piece together the sequence that first Blake was arrested for his revolutionary activities, mind-wiped, and spent a period of time as a law-abiding citizen until his second arrest, which resulted in another mind-wipe and his life sentence to Cygnus Alpha on the fabricated child abuse charges.
I have a problem with this sequence for several reasons. It's hard to believe that the Federation wouldn't simply dispose of Blake as a recidivist--nobody seems to have believed the charges in the least, and he would be nearly as inspiring an example of martyrdom in exile as dead. (In fact, there would always be the risk that some of his comrades would try to rescue him from Cygnus Alpha, or that he would foment rebellion there.)
But my real problem is in structural terms. The second time, Blake isn't trying to do anything subversive; he's just in the wrong place at the wrong time. A plot is more interesting with a human and flawed hero than with a uniformly noble and perfect hero--but it's also more interesting with an active hero (not all of whose actions are successful) than a patsy.
I think the show would have been stronger by starting out with something about the Freedom Party, its goals, and operations; then Blake's arrest and mindwipe; then send him to Cygnus Alpha and start from there.
That way, it would make the patterns of guilt more interesting: i.e., Blake would have been convicted of the revolutionary activities--he would be criminal but not immoral. A lot of people would put Gan's killing of the Guard in a similar category. Cally is aligned with Blake as a revolutionary, but has neither been charged with crimes nor (for most audience members) been guilty of immorality. At the other end of the scale, Vila, Avon, and Jenna really have committed crimes, although probably most people wouldn't consider smuggling seriously immoral.
The Federation itself is an immoral system, but canon gives us Travis' war crimes trial but not Servalan's.
-(Y)
At 16:40 16/02/2002 -0500, you wrote:
A plot is more interesting with a human and flawed hero than with a uniformly noble and perfect hero--but it's also more interesting with an active hero (not all of whose actions are successful) than a patsy.
I think the show would have been stronger by starting out with something about the Freedom Party, its goals, and operations; then Blake's arrest and mindwipe; then send him to Cygnus Alpha and start from there.
I rather like the set-up in The Way Back as it is, from the point of view of establishing the background, and partcularly of setting up the Federation, who are supposed to be the main bad guys and so who need a strong first episode at least as much as Blake does.
Blake was guilty of active dissent, years ago--he belonged to an outlawed organisation and carried out direct acions against the Federation, as described in VftP. Under those circumstances, mind-wiping him and exiling him aren't actually that outrageous, on the scale of Oppressive Evil Overlord behaviours.
However, The Way Back gives a very clear and economical picture of the depths of evil at the heart of the Federation. At the mere possibility that their (ostensibly banned) mind-wiping may wear off, Morag, Glyn et al are calmly willing to destroy the lives of three children in order to get Blake out of the way in a manner that will simultaneously blacken his name. Leaving aside the logical flaws in the plot as seen on TV, it's a great taster of what the Federation is capable of in its pusuit of the goal of obliterating dissenters. The Federation aren't punishing an active fighter--they're crushing someone whose life they've already destroyed because he *might* be a threat in the future.
-(Y)
love Anna (Oh, and they killed a lawyer. But even Shakespeare was in favour of that.)
*************************** Anna Simpson ***************************** I will not turn into a snake. It never helps. (Evil Overlord List #34) ******************* http://www.moglit.demon.co.uk ********************
Dana wrote:
Blake was arrested for his revolutionary activities, mind-wiped, and spent a period of time as a law-abiding citizen until his second arrest, which resulted in another mind-wipe and his life sentence to Cygnus Alpha on the fabricated child abuse charges.
Hang on, where's the second mindwipe? I thought they gave up on fixing his mind at that point on the grounds that the first one seemed to be breaking down.
From: "Harriet Monkhouse" hflysator@jarriere.demon.co.uk Subject: Re: [B7L] TWB , Guilt, and Story Arc (long)
Dana wrote:
Blake was arrested for his revolutionary activities, mind-wiped, and spent a period of time as a law-abiding citizen until his second arrest, which resulted in another mind-wipe and his life sentence to Cygnus Alpha on the fabricated child abuse charges.
Hang on, where's the second mindwipe? I thought they gave up on fixing his mind at that point on the grounds that the first one seemed to be breaking down.
There were two "mindwipes" but they happened much closer together.
I think I'll let Bran Foster explain - he's much better at it than I am.
FOSTER (to Blake) They could have killed you. But that would have given the Cause a martyr. So instead they put you into intensive therapy. They erased areas of your mind, they implanted new ideas. They literally took your mind to pieces and rebuilt it. And when they'd finished, they put you up and you confessed. You said you'd been "misguided." You appealed to everyone to support the Administration, hound up the traitors. Oh, they did a good job on you. You were very convincing. And then they took you back and erased even that.
Wildean
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Anna Simpson -
Dana Shilling -
Harriet Monkhouse -
Pat Sumner