Fiona wrote:
he could have contacted Blake and said "Talk, or I'll blow up [fill in name of planet here]." As it was, he didn't. Which suggests that he wanted to appeal to some element of Blake beyond just abstract altruism.
Or may just indicate that Travis is wrong about knowing Blake better than himself. A lot of things might have lured Blake; Travis picks one which, perhaps, might have lured him.
Harriere
Harriere, re Hostage:
Or may just indicate that Travis is wrong about knowing Blake better than himself. A lot of things might have lured Blake; Travis picks one which, perhaps, might have lured him.
I would really hate to use those visits to Exbar as evidence of Blake's heterosexuality--Inga appears to be at least a decade younger. If Blake made three annual visits, when he was fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen, then....euuwww. Squick. (Unless that's where the Federation got the idea for the accusations.)
Let's also say that Travis discovered that Blake's grandmother was alive, and took her as a hostage. Blake would have reacted in exactly the same way (although Grandma Inga probably wouldn't have been quite as nippy on her pins as Cousin Inga)--i.e., concern for her welfare when captured by a vicious enemy, joy at rediscovering part of his lost past. In fact, lots of people kiss their grandmothers without incestuous sexual involvement, and I think we have to rate the Blake-Inga kiss with the Snogs of Innocence rather than Snogs of Experience.
Of course, the scriptwriters probably figured that the audience would be more involved if the hostage were a pretty young woman than Blake's old granny.
-(Y)
--- Dana Shilling dshilling@worldnet.att.net wrote:
Harriere, re Hostage:
Or may just indicate that Travis is wrong about
knowing Blake better than
himself. A lot of things might have lured Blake;
Travis picks one which,
perhaps, might have lured him.
I would really hate to use those visits to Exbar as evidence of Blake's heterosexuality--Inga appears to be at least a decade younger. If Blake made three annual visits, when he was fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen, then....euuwww. Squick. (Unless that's where the Federation got the idea for the accusations.)
I don't like to blame Allan Prior - after all he didn't do the casting, but the whole "she's way too young for you" motif does reappear in Animals with Dayna and Justin.
As for why Travis chose Inga - well she was more or less outside the Federation and could be captured with impunity without any conflict with local law enforcement. I suppose, having three Crimmos among his crew one of them might have done time on Exbar.
"Blake ? Roj Blake ? Well bleedin' eck I used to know his cousin once. Her old man broke me arm over a slight misunderstanding".
However Travis found out Inga was, to quote the alien in Sarcophagus, "wonderfully vulnerable" from his point of view.
Stephen.
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Dana Shilling wrote:
I would really hate to use those visits to Exbar as evidence of Blake's heterosexuality--Inga appears to be at least a decade younger. If Blake made three annual visits, when he was fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen, then....euuwww. Squick.
Oh, thank you, Dana. Take an argument I took two or three massive paragraphs to make and convey it perfectly in two sentences and a "squick"! Why does everybody always manage to be more succinct than me? ;)
Of course, the scriptwriters probably figured that the audience would be more involved if the hostage were a pretty young woman than Blake's old granny.
Probably. Though I think I personally would have preferred Blake's Granny. :)
From: Dana Shilling dshilling@worldnet.att.net
I would really hate to use those visits to Exbar as evidence of Blake's heterosexuality--Inga appears to be at least a decade younger. If Blake made three annual visits, when he was fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen, then....euuwww. Squick. (Unless that's where the Federation got the idea for the accusations.)
Actually, there's an easy way out of it. Ushton may have been sent to Exbar 'years' before, but that doesn't mean Inga went with him at the time. She could have remained on Earth, where big cousin Roj was there to look after her. If she was in her late teens, he in his mid-to-late twenties, it's not nearly as squicky.
In fact, it doesn't follow that Inga is a convict at all. Blake went to Exbar several times, since prisoners there were allowed visitors. Maybe, once Blake was convicted (first or second time around) Inga elected to join her father on Exbar as an indefinite-stay visitor. We only now for a fact that she's definitely been there since the previous winter, when she pulled Ushton out of crevasse. Though she might have gone away since then and come back again. For all we are told by the script, Travis might have picked her up somewhere else entirely and taken her to Exbar himself, though her outfit suggests she's been there a while and gone native.
And what was Uncle Ushton sent to Exbar for in the first place?
Neil
----- Original Message ----- From: Harriet Monkhouse 101637.2064@compuserve.com
Fiona wrote:
he could have contacted Blake and said "Talk, or I'll blow up [fill in name of planet here]." As it was, he didn't. Which suggests that he wanted to appeal to some element of Blake beyond just abstract altruism.
<Or may just indicate that Travis is wrong about knowing Blake better than himself. A lot of things might have lured Blake; Travis picks one which, perhaps, might have lured him.>
Under the circumstances, I'd think he'd be trying to pick the one thing that would be *most* likely to get Blake's attention.
As for Travis being wrong: well, we'll never know his mind (aside from through character profiles :),) but he was more or less right about Blake's motivations, how to get his goat etc. before that, and would be so again...
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net
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