Jenny wrote: <I'll tell you one thing that scene does show - that Gan's more intelligent than he lets on. Which makes one wonder why he's hiding it ...>
and that got me to thinking. Because it's based on an assumption that I don't agree with, that Gan acts (whether genuinely or not) stupidly.
He doesn't, and he isn't. Not if you look at him as an individual, rather than compare him with the glittering group he's got himself mixed up with.
Gan is actually far more Everyman than Vila, in my opinion - Vila being extremely sharp (if scatterbrained and lazy) and brilliant in his own speciality. Gan isn't *brilliant* at anything, and admits he's not the ideal pupil for a teacher like Orac (then again, who would be?) but when you actually read his lines in the scripts, he comes over as a plain-spoken man of average - possibly a little higher than average - intelligence. And he's got more common sense than all the rest put together (in fact, I'd argue that he and Soolin got nearly *all* of the common sense in this bunch).
Sure, he says something stupid occasionally - name me *any* of Our Heroes or Villains who don't.
Listen to him when he's arguin with Blake in Pressure Point or Shadow. He's not Blake's intellectual equal and knows it (and I think he respects both Blake's and Avon's intelligence, and defers to them when he thinks it right), but he puts his own points clearly and intelligently, unfazed by any notions of inferiority.
He's not stupid. He doesn't act stupid. It's just the company he keeps.
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In message F47lxw00dSdVudU5N3F00001f81@hotmail.com, Sally Manton smanton@hotmail.com writes
Gan is actually far more Everyman than Vila, in my opinion - Vila being extremely sharp (if scatterbrained and lazy) and brilliant in his own speciality. Gan isn't *brilliant* at anything, and admits he's not the ideal pupil for a teacher like Orac (then again, who would be?) but when you actually read his lines in the scripts, he comes over as a plain-spoken man of average - possibly a little higher than average - intelligence. And he's got more common sense than all the rest put together (in fact, I'd argue that he and Soolin got nearly *all* of the common sense in this bunch).
Agreed. Gan is by no means stupid. He's an average man in a group otherwise composed of highly intelligent to genius (before the TN start on the usual, take a look at the script for _Space Fall_, where Avon is described as a genius in his introductory scene).
As for common sense, the other men all occasionally manage to give the impression that they shouldn't be allowed out without a keeper. (Me being an A-B junkie, I find it highly amusing that the worst of them (IMO) in this respect should appoint himself as keeper to one of the others.) Yes, Gan can do the "needs his mittens pinned to him" routine, but he doesn't do it as often or as spectacularly. The women get off a bit more lightly on the putting brain in standby mode, but that's only because a lot of the script writers have designated them as the Doctor's Companion - "gee, Doctor, please explain to me so that the viewers at home know what's going on."
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Julia Jones -
Sally Manton