From: "Marian de Haan" maya@multiweb.nl
It's him leaving Orac for Servalan to grab in the first place that I
find
hard to credit.<<
To be fair, she wouldn't have had a go at all if Mellanby (or Dayna?)
hadn't left the gun lying around in the first place.<
Still, one would expect someone with Avon's survival instinct to want to keep his only means for returning to Liberator with him at all times, especially when his enemy is around. All the more since Servalan has told him that she's after Orac. (This is what I meant by sloppy writing :-) )
Hm, but let's look at it another way. Avon, as it stands, has a choice of leaving Orac in the workroom or keeping it with him wherever he's sleeping. Now, if he suspects that Servalan is after Orac, to keep Orac with him would mean that he would spend a sleepless night, as he could not be unaware that if he were guarding Orac, Servalan would likely kill him while he slept to take it. If he leaves it in the workroom, he runs the risk of her stealing it, but at least he will be alive to chase her afterwards. Remember, also, that Orac is useless to Servalan as things stand except as a bargaining chip-- Avon has Orac's key, so Orac can't do anything; even if she had the key, Avon has his bracelet, so she can't use it to get off Sarran. The only thing she can use it for, as she says, is to bargain with.
Furthermore, Avon probably doesn't expect her to try anything. The area around Chez Mellanby is full of homicidal Sarrans, and she is as unfamiliar with the planet as he is. Without a gun, she is unlikely to run the risk of stealing Orac-- it makes more sense just to play along and hope. However, the fact that one of the Mellanbys leaves a gun lying around changes the balance of power, and she seizes the opportunity. It's a risky plan; by killing Mellanby (which she has no choice but to do-- it's unlikely that she expects to find him there, since he was only waiting up since Lauren wasn't back) she puts herself in the position of having to leave the base, and even with the gun the locals do catch her and string her up. Avon is likely to be aware that any plan she could think up would be dependent on luck and therefore easy to foil. So there's little reason for Avon to take Orac to bed with him :), and in fact a few good reasons not to.
See-- not sloppy at all :).
his words might be a comfort to Dayna (although a consolation attempt is rather out of character for Avon--<
Not if he sees it as the quickest way to get Dayna to help him find Servalan.
But really, it works against that, since she's likely to want sympathy not sarcasm-- but then as you say, compassion was never Avon's forte.
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Bitter and twisted at http://nyder.r67.net
_________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
Fiona said:
Still, one would expect someone with Avon's survival instinct to want to keep his only means for returning to Liberator with him at all times, especially when his enemy is around. All the more since Servalan has
told
him that she's after Orac. (This is what I meant by sloppy writing :-) )
Roger Ebert calls this sort of thing the "idiot plot"--the film, etc. gets to be feature length only by everyone acting like an idiot.
Hm, but let's look at it another way. Avon, as it stands, has a choice of leaving Orac in the workroom or keeping it with him wherever he's
sleeping.
Now, if he suspects that Servalan is after Orac, to keep Orac with him
would
mean that he would spend a sleepless night,
Not much of an obstacles for a confirmed insomniac
Furthermore, Avon probably doesn't expect her to try anything.
If he doesn't he has a brilliant future in US electoral politics
However, the fact that one of the Mellanbys leaves a gun lying around changes the balance of power,
Leaves a gun lying around? Chez Mellanby that's like finding a bit of paper in the London Times printing plant
But really, it works against that, since she's likely to want sympathy not sarcasm-- but then as you say, compassion was never Avon's forte.
Actually he can be quite compassionate behind someone's back (the way he looks at Vena, not the way he talks to her) or when s/he is unconscious-- the tenderness in the way he touches Cally in Project Avalon after the android has slugged her, or Blake in Voice From the Past.
-(Y)
PS--do you think Mellanby's optical recognition gadget was an influence on Geordi LaForge's visual visor?
Avon and Mellanby Perhaps Avon is contrasting Mellanby with Blake. When attempting to take over the London Blake tells Avon he is acting because the Federation destroyed his family and gave him tranquillised dreams, while Hal Mellanby, under not dissimilar circumstances, goes into hiding. Even taking the fact that Mellanby has a child, and Avon is a professed disbeliever in Blake's cause, he would probably sympathise more with Blake's attitude than Hal Mellanby's (and Kasabi's daughter was a teenager, and involved in rebel activities). As for Avon's reaction to Muller's widow: he might well feel he is unable to handle the situation appropriately - there might well be unresolved issues over Anna Grant's death.
__________________________________________________________________ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Webmail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/
-
Dana Shilling -
Fiona Moore -
jacquispeel＠netscape.net