At 16:55 24/05/01 +0100, you wrote:
I think her position was under threat before Terminal - hence her desperation to secure the Liberator, or a new fleet c/o Moloch, though these frequent away trips probably helped to weaken her power base. But I don't think she had actually been deposed, because none of the Liberator crew mentions it.
And she seems quite firmly in postion in 'Deathwatch' at least. As usual, it's difficult to tell how much time passes between 'Deathwatch' and the next episode.
Also, in Terminal, she *sounds* as though she is still firmly in control:
AVON: And you have the best ship in space. SERVALAN: The pattern for a fleet. AVON: You really think you can duplicate the Liberator? SERVALAN: I've assembled a team of scientists who are sure they can. In fact, they've staked their lives on it. And with a fleet like that, I can unite and rule as nobody has ever ruled before.
That certainly implies she has a lot of facilities under her control - duplicating Liberator is a *big* task. (And also that, like everyone else, she's forgotten about the cloning tech from 'Moloch'.)
(Mind you, that doesn't mean she isn't lying. She has no particular need to, but that doesn't mean much with Servalan.)
Her supposed death at Geddon was evidently public knowledge in Traitor; Avon and co would have had to be more than usually incompetent not to have noticed that their best-known enemy had just been overthrown.
However, they apparently did because the crew are clearly surprised to find her alive in 'Traitor' *because* they thought she died on the Liberator:
TARRANT: You can't afford not to believe me, Avon. AVON: How the hell did she get off the Liberator? TARRANT: I don't know. DAYNA: Look, we both saw her. It was Servalan.
Leading to the suggestion that they had no prior reports of her being alive *after* the Liberator.
OTOH, we have Servalan in Sand talking to Tarrant, explaining her escape:
SERVALAN: The teleport. A malfunction. A power surge. Suddenly I was back on a Federation world. TARRANT: What a lucky little commissioner you are. SERVALAN: Aren't I, though? TARRANT: What happened to the presidency? SERVALAN: It was stolen in my absence. I shall take it back eventually.
The absence in question could be one of several - the implication is that it's the absence during which she was at Terminal or (rather more tenuously) that there was some kind of time gap between her disappearing from Liberator and appearing on a Federation world.
In 'Traitor', the explanation as to her loss of the presidency is:
LEITZ: Servalan? Is Your Excellency certain? PRACTOR: Of course, I knew her well. Killed in the rear-guard action at Gedden. LEITZ: I knew she was reported dead, sir. I never heard any details. PRACTOR: There was a great deal of confusion when the High Council were restored to power. Most of the Old Guard were killed in the fighting. They remained loyal to Servalan right till the end.
One point is that Practor is claiming a personal friendship with Servalan (not something to boast about at this point, so let's assume he means it). It's possible that he has information that isn't officially acknowledged or recorded by the Federation and hence is out of Orac's purview. Later, in 'Animals', Servalan is described as 'a non person', implying that a certain amount of eradication of her name and memory has been carried out (and at whose instigation, I wonder?)
Or it's possible that he's claiming knowledge he doesn't have just to make an impression. It's not out of character for him. However, Leitz says that he'd heard her as reported dead which implies that she was previously reported as alive during the overthrow.
Harriet
love Anna
Anna replied to me:
Her supposed death at Geddon was evidently public knowledge in Traitor; Avon and co would have had to be more
than
usually incompetent not to have noticed that their best-known enemy had just been overthrown.
However, they apparently did because the crew are clearly surprised to find her alive in 'Traitor' *because* they thought she died on the Liberator
I think I may have expressed myself badly there. I meant that they do not appear to think she has been overthrown at the time of Terminal. If Geddon had taken place before Terminal, then I think they would be aware that she was not in power, or at least that she was facing a major challenge. cf my earlier point about Cally's remarks when she met Servalan in Powerplay. I would expect Avon to jibe at her on the lines of "So, back to that old wall, are you?" and to remind her during "negotiations" over the Liberator that it represents a last chance to regain power.
[Anna then reminded us of some very interesting quotes in Traitor]
Traitor is interesting, because it includes two apparently separate versions of Servalan's disappearance - the crew's depending on the fact that they last saw her teleporting on to their doomed ship:
AVON: How the hell did she get off the Liberator?
and what appears to be the Federation account:
PRACTOR: Killed in the rear-guard action at Gedden. LEITZ: I knew she was reported dead, sir. I never heard any details. PRACTOR: There was a great deal of confusion when the High Council were restored to power. Most of the Old Guard were killed in the fighting. They remained loyal to Servalan right till the end.
Unless there's been a complete botch-up by the writer, both beliefs must be possible, whether true or not. We can be fairly certain Servalan was on the Liberator because we saw her; her explanation of how she escaped in Sand is unsatisfactory, but in some ways irrelevant: the point is that she did escape. We also know that Servalan had been overthrown by the time of Traitor; the conversation between Practor and Leitz suggests that the full story was not common knowledge, but the basic fact that she was no longer President, or indeed Empress, was known, and she was believed to be dead.
As Anna says, it's possible Practor might be lying in order to impress Leitz with his superior knowledge, but he has to come up with a story that fits known (or reported) facts, and he talks about the "rearguard action at Geddon" (I've assumed -on not -en because of Armageddon!) as if that's something one might be expected to know. The overthrow of Servalan does not sound like a swift and straightforward coup; there would appear to have been quite a lot of fighting. My dictionary isn't backing me up here, only offering literal definitions concerning the rear of an army, but I had always interpreted the "rearguard action" to imply something like a last stand at the end of the struggle.
It would also be useful for the High Council to declare Servalan officially dead even if they were about to expunge her from the records, in order to discourage her supporters from hoping for her return (cf Servalan telling Avon that Blake is dead?).
Anyway, why do the crew appear to be in blissful ignorance about this? My first thought is that they were distracted by their rescue from Terminal and their difficulties on Xenon. We can't be sure how long all of that took. In Animals, as Anna observes, Servalan is described as a non-person who shouldn't be mentioned in Federation circles, so presumably once the High Council has rewritten history it's difficult to obtain information about her. If there is an intervening period of any length when the crew have time to monitor the Civil War, I fall back on my earlier suggestion; that, if Servalan was on Geddon with her old guard, her enemies claimed she was an impostor, and the crew, having strong evidence that she was already dead, accepted this version (or even thought of it themselves). It's even possible that the "old guard" were acting on their own initiative, either in loyal preparation for Servalan's return, or, just as likely, in order to maintain their own grip on power and keep out the High Council. Like Anna Grant's rebels in Rumours, they would perceive possession (even pretended possession) of the President as an important card. If they won, they could announce that, tragically, she had died while leading her forces against the traitors, but had named her loyal friend X as her successor (and if she really did turn up, they too would have to kill the "impostor").
So, on my account: Servalan's short presidency is always under threat, hence her desperation to obtain a new fleet to bolster her position. The High Council have been waiting for their chance to strike back, and do so when she disappears at Terminal ("stealing" the presidency in her absence). Servalan reappears (or doesn't), and her faction engages in a brief civil war with the High Council faction. The High Council faction triumphs, Servalan is assumed to be dead and becomes a non-person; because she cannot be discussed, there is general confusion about the precise circumstances of her demise; any Federation officials who need to know are told that she died at Geddon. If the crew hear this, they assume it to be false, but they have no reason to contact the Federation and explain that she actually died while trying to steal their ship, so they write it off as propaganda.
-
Anna Simpson -
Harriet Monkhouse