On Wed, 28 Feb 2001 13:00:51 +0000 Julia Jones julia.jones@jajones.demon.co.uk writes:

This is actually one of the things I had in mind. Much (not all) British sf has at the least a downbeat tone, the most obvious example other than B7 springing to my mind being 1984. The Doctor doesn't always win, either. It's something I can find off-putting about older American media sf, that there's always a neat resolution within 45 minutes, the good guys always win, you can tell who the good guys are...

Having noticed that a lot of my favorite shows and authors are British, I'd like to add something else. American SF&F is heavily oriented to 'big' stories. In Jordan's Wheel of TIme, everything is on a big scale (sample decisions various characters face: to conquor the world or not? to substantially change the nature of magic [and the world] or not? to revamp entire civilizations and shake them to their core or not? etc). Star Wars . . . see comments on Wheel of Time. Star Trek . . . see comments on Star Wars.

British SF&F takes the small scale seriously. Some of the most memorable B7 episodes dealt with the lives and/or deaths of a small handful. Look at even the 'big' episodes. Star One isn't about the whole equivilant of WW II, it's about the decision of some exceptionally difficult Spartans to hold the line at Thermopylae.

Even in children's books, in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, (spoiler alert) Harry doesn't clear his godfather's name, he doesn't save Lupin's job, change Snape, or change the landscape in any earthquake level way. Even what he does do - saving two lives - is precarious (Sirius and Buckbeak are still in danger of recapture and death) and entails a dangerous defeat (Wormtail's escape and Voldemort's eventual return). Compare that to a certain adventure series I could name where the main characters have had to save the Earth again - and again - and again - and ad nauseum. All without dealing the enemy a mortal blow that might end the series.

That may be part of what makes B7 enduring. You can only save the world so many times before 1) it gets stale and 2) you really start wondering about the odds on these heroes _never_ losing. Bad as it is, the characters in B7 can lose and the universe doesn't come to an end. Even the cause they fought for, albeit badly wounded, isn't lost without them. Their stories are the battles, not the war.

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