Pat wrote:

For example, as an American (I hate that term yank, btw) B7 is inescapably marked as British because everyone in the universe speaks British English.

This doesn't just put off Americans: nearly everyone speaks 'BBC English' too, which is one of the factors cited by my regionally accented Other Half for detesting B7.

The real world of 20th century Britain further shapes the show in the surprising lack of cultural diversity in the actors as well -- It seems the only people of color I remember seeing in the show other than Dayna and Hal "My name is Superfly" Mellanby, are some Black guys in the fourth season ep "Warlord" ... So there aren't a lot of people of color in the universe during the New Calendar. This seems to be somewhat more reflective of modern British society's numbers of nonwhites overall which I think (please someone correct me here) is lower than in the States.

I don't know the relative numbers, unfortunately, however my personal experience would suggest that several regions of England had virtually no persons of any colour other than whitish pink during the late 70s and early 80s when B7 was first shown. Growing up in a relatively rural area in the south of England, I encountered precisely zero non-white people until going to university (in 1986). Other people I know had similar experiences during the same time period in different (predominantly rural) regions of England.

But one should argue, Dayna has it all over Uhura in terms of characterization because she was a major character in B7 who got to do lots of vital things plot wise

As I recall, including a major character (Dayna) who was black was unusual in television aimed at children at the time.

Really, I've always felt that they took the easy way out by marking Blake so strongly as a fanatic by the time Pressure Point and Star One rolls around, Then, B7 as a popular show on the BBC, couldn't possibly be considered "political" in the sense of condoning so-called "terrorist" actions against the British State.

I'm not convinced that the makers of B7 had much of a choice here: the extent of terrorist action against the UK government probably made any other course of action impossible. It's easy perhaps to underestimate the effect that terrorist action has had on ordinary UK citizens over the past decades (eg Kathryn's 'where are the waste bins' question), eg commuting to London (early 90s) I recall approximately 1--2 bombs/bomb scares per week closing either chunks of the Underground or the major London stations, and I believe the rate was similar throughout the 80s, though I'm really too young to remember the 70s....

In a society where large numbers of people have been affected directly or indirectly by terrorist action, valorising terrorist actions on public-subsidised television would simply be impossible.

Tavia