In a message dated 2/28/01 4:27:24 PM Eastern Standard Time, julia.jones@jajones.demon.co.uk writes:
(LEAH) << Until a few years ago, it was almost unheard of for an
American series or feature to end on a tragic note, without the inevitable happily-ever-after. This was an almost exclusively British or Japanese cultural phenomenon in entertainment media. This is one reason why the
ending
at Gauda Prime was actually more devastating for American viewers than it
was
for Brits.
(JULIA) > And you were asking me what was obviously British about B7? :-)<
The original question was whether or not the BLAKES 7 universe was a British universe and society, inhabited by descendants of the citizens of Britain. The format used for filming, and the style of storytelling might have some traits that are 'British', but they do not touch on or answer the original question in any way. They are *external*, part of the production values and techniques of the production crew who were British.
(JULIA)>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.<
(LEAH) This is what I meant in a recent post about the British scriptwriters having their own set of cliches (and I don't mean that in a negative way), which are simply very different from the set of cliches that Americans have grown up with...which is one of the reasons why everything British that we get to see often seems fresh and original.
In message 9e.10b93d1e.27cf2cda@aol.com, Bizarro7@aol.com writes
(JULIA) > And you were asking me what was obviously British about B7? :-)<
The original question was whether or not the BLAKES 7 universe was a British universe and society, inhabited by descendants of the citizens of Britain. The format used for filming, and the style of storytelling might have some traits that are 'British', but they do not touch on or answer the original question in any way. They are *external*, part of the production values and techniques of the production crew who were British.
Mmm. I think we may be arguing in circles here. To me, that style of story-telling is not just external, it forms part of the very fabric of the B7 universe.
I'm going to switch to a completely off-topic example here, to try and show what I'm talking about. A couple of years ago, Judith and I were going to be the sole survivors of our group at Eclecticon on Monday morning, the Americans all intending to push off very early when our flights back to the UK were on Monday evening. We were given the remains of the food. "No, no," we said, "there's far too much there for us to eat by ourselves, we'll just take what we need and you lot take the rest of it with you." We were told to throw any unwanted food in the bin. Said unwanted food likely to be enough to make lunch for a dozen people...
After a quick argument, we realised the futility of trying to bridge this particular cultural gap. There was no way we were going to make the Americans understand why we were horrified by this, and we'd probably only hurt their feelings if we tried. (This is not an anti-American dig, by the way.)
Neither Judith nor I are old enough to remember the war, and I emigrated from the UK when I was four. But we both had parents who remember the war, and rationing, all too clearly. Wasting food is *immoral*. Throwing away perfectly good food is wicked. Whatever we might think when we consider this rationally in the light of the current abundance of food, our gut reaction is shaped by the culture we grew up in. This meme is starting to fade now, but it still shapes the reactions and outlook of many people born long after the war, and even after rationing, ended.
There are lots of things like this scattered through the cultures concerned (and a fair few of the obvious ones date from the different experiences of the World Wars). To me, the culture depicted in B7 is descended from the one on the east side of the pond...
-
Bizarro7＠aol.com -
Julia Jones