Foundation

[altariel]

I've spent the past couple of days in the library reading through back issues of Foundation, looking for articles on and reviews of Bujold. (One article, a couple of reviews, some nice leads.) But I wanted to post about the single article I found about Blake's 7, which made me very happy. Titled "Spock, Avon, and the Decline of Optimism" [Foundation 25: 43-45], it had clearly been written as the fourth season was being transmitted, and it regretted the shift of SF TV and general - and B7 in particular - away from the optimistic humanism of Trek and into pessimistic nihilism:

"Consciously or not, the creators of Blake are not only reflecting, but reinforcing the sense of lost hope. Ultimately, all they give us to identify with is a senseof alienation that we can easily find in the objective world. After the dream, the nightmare - carefully designed to win viewers and successful too. Why exactly do so many viewers like it?"

I think I'd probably take issue with the idea that anything about Blake was "carefully designed" (AND YET STILL I LOVE MY MAD OLD SHOW), but what I chiefly thought on reading this was, "Blimey, you're really not going to like the final episode..."

And, to my thoroughgoing delight, in the very next issue [26: 79-80], there was a letter from the author of the article in which she was heartbroken about the ending: that was not what delighted me, but rather the fact that the letter was written in the mode of squee that I found tremendously touching in the middle of a quite serious journal, and which caused me to raise my hand and greet her as "Friend". ("[I]sn't Paul Darrow gorgeous?" she wrote. Yes, sister. Yes.)

I'm just about to give a set of my B7 videos to someone who has never seen it, knows nothing about it, and - particularly - doesn't know how it ends. Can't wait to see what happens.

On Foundation: there was so much material on Le Guin that I had to file these under 'another time' (BUT IF NOT NOW THEN WHEN?); however, I think my favourite was the review of Four Ways to Forgiveness which fretted that it read like a valediction and that Le Guin might be planning to retire. Don't worry, she has The Aeneid to rewrite first.

Comments

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I agree with her, though Blake was intended to be a cliff-hanger. As it stands though, the message is that there's no hope; why bother to fight injustice and evil?

I love B7 despite the ending. Actually I wonder if it's a cultural thing; it seems to me that it's mainly the British or perhaps English fans who really love and celebrate the tragedy and misery of it.

Off to bed now, sorry.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I think I have decided that what I love about Our Mad Old Show is that despite all the setbacks, despite the losses and the deaths, despite not liking each other very much, and despite not really believing it's going to work (in which belief they are proven right) - they still get up every morning and go out and do rebelling.

Sleep well!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

What I love are the characters, their interaction, and their dialogue. I wasn't going to watch the reruns here in several years ago, vaguely remembering that the end was very depressing, till someone sent me a link to a site of quotes.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Oh it is terribly British, there's nothing they (well, we - I'm still pretty Anglo in some ways) like better than a Lost Cause :)

I'd be fascinated to hear how the new friend takes to it...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I think it's a post-WW1 thing.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Not entirely - think Hereward the Wake, Robin Hood, Mary Queen of Scots, Bonnie Prince Charlie, Charge of the Light Brigade...

It's definitely influenced by WW1 then later by the Cold War and all, but one cannot deny Blake's ancestry :)

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I'd say that, au contraire, Blake was fighting the people who *launched* the Charge of the Light Brigade, and Mary Queen of Scots was only a little premature in believing that the same person could be monarch of both England and Scotland, but in any case I don't think Blake thought much of monarchy as a principle!

BTW in the story I'm working on now, Gauda Prime Base has become a fairly large city, and Blake has adopted the fannish principle of, whenever anybody says "But we should be doing thus-and-so" putting the person in charge of thus-and-so. And he now faces not only a significant risk of victory but daily hassles from, e.g., diplomats, warlords, war widows, and a Solezhenitskinesque novelist who's in charge of propaganda.

I think if he got to vote he'd ask why I didn't just kill him.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

See, that doesn't grab me at all. It's just occurred to me that the British may be more attracted to that sort of thing given the downbeat nature of many of their TV series compared to the US (who are beginning to turn that way too). I've certainly noticed a difference in reaction to Blake by nationality.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

it regretted the shift of SF TV and general - and B7 in particular - away from the optimistic humanism of Trek and into pessimistic nihilism

At least Tom Baker was still playing the Doctor, though. Not much sign of pessimistic nihiliam there. We didn't get that till the Colin Baker era. In other words, though she was right about B7, was the author making an unjustified generalisation?

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Good point. I think Star Cops manages to be fairly cheerful too.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Star Cops! Now there's one I haven't watched in *way* too long. That was good stuff.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I think it stands up to rewatching.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

I think I'd probably take issue with the idea that anything about Blake was "carefully designed"

Well, I think Boucher *tried* through all the rather heinous limitations of TV at the time.

The thing about B7 for me was that it was the first TV show I watched where the characters you sympathised with could die. This was a revelation for me, when Gan died. It shocked my out of my complacency that TV was 'safe', and as such gave it an emotional intensity that was missing from Star Trek and its equivalents. And thta's why it stayed so special to me over so many years.

I like that 'give a set of my B7 videos' - you know you're a true fan when you bought more than one :-)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It shocked my out of my complacency that TV was 'safe'

Yes, I had this with 'Blake'. Nothing could be the same again.


I like that 'give a set of my B7 videos' - you know you're a true fan when you bought more than one :-)

Two sets of videos and the DVDs!

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Of course, David Jackson was heard to say: "They said someone had to die, and we all made a rush for the door, but I was bigger and I won..."

[muninnhuginn]

M's jsut borrowed a copy of season 1 for me to watch: so Looby Loo is now hooked, too. (Like mother, like grandmother, tho' she doesn't know that.)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

New Souls for the Faith!

[temeres.livejournal.com]

I would echo sallymn in reckoning that B7's pessimism had more to do with being British than being 1970s), though the two are not mutually exclusive. But I think the Second World War was probably more influential than the first, since it ushered in the irreversible demise of the Empire, the age of weapons of mass destruction, the Holocaust, etc. After WW1, all conceivable nightmares were possible. After WW2, no nightmare was unthinkable. Have you been hearing "No Blade of Grass" on Radio 4 this week? It's fucking terrifying.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I've magnificently missed all of the radio SF season so far, alas, on account of not being able to read and listen to the radio at the same time. Hoping to catch up with some on iPlayer next week.

"No Blade of Grass"

As in John Christopher? I haven't read that one (copies are hard to come by) but I bloody love his books.

[temeres.livejournal.com]

Christopher, yup. Though on reflection it might be "The Death of Grass", No Blade being the film version.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

As an 'original' member of B7 fandom, I gave up watching Season 4 - it and season 3 contradicted so much of what had happened in Seasons 1 and 2. I am not the only one, either.

The writing in Season 3 was bad, and 4 awful. Paul Darrow needs a very strong director or someone to sit on him. I am told - by people in a position to know - that Gareth Thomas fulfilled this function in Seasons 1 and 2, mainly by stopping a scene and slowly applauding Mr Darrow's overacting. I loved B7 - but, as we used to say in Starsky and Hutch fandom, "There is no fourth season."

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Season 3 is an odd one: I think it plumbs some real lows ('Volcano', 'Harvest of Kairos') whilst offering one of the most tightly-scripted episodes ('Death-Watch') and some of the most memorable ('Rumours of Death', 'Sarcophagus'). I think the higher number of writers on Season 4 didn't do it a service but, still, I wouldn't not have 'Gold', or 'Orbit', or 'Blake'.

Contradictions in my TV shows never particularly bother me because they provide such fertile ground for my own imagination. I guess B7 was good training :-)

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I guess B7 was good training :-)

You bet. I had even better training, starting with the Warner Brothers westerns, but it never took. In fact, I get pickier as I get older.

There isn't a single episode in series 4 that I'd own and, while I rather like City at the Edge of the World and Sarcophagus (though inamac hates the latter) there are other episodes, notably Children of Auron, that I won't have in the house. (A broadcast telepath who whispers to another, for no other reason that the writer needs a guard to overhear - please!) Indeed, we haven't bothered with the DVD sets for 3 and 4.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten 'City at the Edge of the World', which I adore. 'Sarcophagus' was very important to my eight-year-old imagination. 'Children of Auron' is a real teeth-gritter, particularly the godawful ending.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I had a big bust-up with Chris Boucher (by snail mail) over this episode - and over the lack of any scientific expertise or internal logic. This ended with me sending him a bar of soap to wash his mouth out with after Sand. (He had promised me that no-one would sentimentalise Servalan - who I think was one of the main problems with the later series, and who should have been used much more sparingly - on his watch.)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It's a shame you were so disappointed with the final two seasons. CB once rather sweetly apologized to me for 'Blake': I'd been out to interview him, told him that the ending of the show had seared itself into my 10-year old imagination; about an hour later, while driving me back to the station, he offered a full and frank apology! :-)

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I had a lot of problems with these two seasons - I loathed Tarrant and Soolin (neither of whom had a decent characteristic between them), and was alarmed by the amount of over-the-top and out-of-character acting from both Paul Darrow and Jacquie Pearce. (A woman who once stated in an interview that Servalan "Only wanted to do what was best for her people.") We were expected to swallow Servalan's sudden obession with a man she had addressed precisely one line to in the first two seasons, and had hardly looked at. Cally's background was messed up completely, contradicting much of what had been said in The Web and Bounty and she turned into a wimp. Josette Simon, an actress who I now adore, was just out of drama school and so blew her dialogue in the first few episodes that the writers stopped writing good lines for her. Servalan appeared to be able to teleport across the galaxy (a trend that started at the end of Season 2) because they had to have her in the story. Without Blake, they lost focus. I could go on...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

As I say, it's a real shame you were disappointed in the last two seasons. For myself, I really like Steven Pacey's performance throughout, and I think Glynis Barber puts in a very understated and dry performance, particularly as that season goes on. Josette Simon is a little too theatrical for my taste.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

"Blimey, you're really not going to like the final episode..."

And, to my thoroughgoing delight, in the very next issue...

How lovely to find yourself back in that time, seeing their reactions fresh from first viewing, with so many layers of subsequent reflection and discussion of your own, as well.

I hope that the recipient of the videos loves them. You should arrange to watch the final episode together! :-)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was a lot of fun, and enough to make me watch some again last night :-)

You should arrange to watch the final episode together! :-)

Hah, yes, good idea!

[dkpalaska.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, she has The Aeneid to rewrite first.

Hmmm, yes - regarding your last Le Guin post. I thought I'd let you know that, thanks to the raving, I chucked all responsibility and the list of books I should have been reading to spend first one all-nighter on The Birthday of the World and then another on Lavinia.

I agree with your assessments on the stories in the anthology, although I admit "Solitude" struck the deepest chord in this introvert. I loved the idea that developing into a "person" was more critical than blending into a society. Not that it mirrors any of my own views or anything... *whistles*

I could gush tons about Lavinia. Le Guin explores some wonderful themes about writers and fate. I would categorize it as a most excellent fanfic novel - and you know how high my standards are when it comes to fanfic! :)

Somewhere, too, are my notes from reading "Sea Change" a couple of months ago. I remember liking your protagonist very much, and enjoying the story a lot. I still have details like her messed-up friend's suicide attempt and her parents' personalities and how they smiled at each other fixed in my mind. I hope I find my notes so I can report back better! I do recall thinking, "Wow, this is so not Faramir" and being astonished at your versatility. I don't read sci-fi so much anymore, so that may have been part of the wonder-factor, too.

Anyway, thanks for it all - recs and story!
Best,
Denise

P.S. I don't suppose any of those B2MEM prompts are nibbling at you, are they? *hopeful look*

[altariel.livejournal.com]

(As ever, I'm lagging behind on correspondence...) I'm glad to have been an occasion of sin with The Birthday of the World! I know exactly what you mean about "Solitude", I've been thinking about that one a lot the past few weeks (a lot of time away from home and my own spaces and habits).

I still haven't read Lavinia, chiefly because I haven't yet read The Aeneid (apart from some bits when doing A-level Latin, many many moons since). And I want to to do it justice - well, do her justice really. I just know she won't have cut any corners.

Thank you for reading "Sea Change" and for taking the time to let me know you liked it. (It's weird this print publishing thing - people comment with fanfic, no wonder it's so addictive!) That near-future setting is one I'm probably going to come back to at some point: it's easy world-building, really, just a slight sidestep away from where we are now, which lets characters get going very quickly.


I don't suppose any of those B2MEM prompts are nibbling at you, are they? *hopeful look*

Eek, I wish I could! I am desperately overdue on a short story which is consuming all my thought and emotional energy (I've made a series of decisions about characters and setting which has exponentially increased the "texture" that I'm having to invent before putting down words, typical of me), and I know that if I start thinking about fanfic I'll never get the thing done. (The story I really want to finish is that Denethor-lives! AU.)

[dkpalaska.livejournal.com]

You're lagging behind on correspondence? I swear, "lagging" is my middle name these days, so here I am to make you feel better. :)

I checked out The Aeneid at the same time I got Lavinia, being a bit obsessive about completeness. I stared at it for several days before reluctantly admitting that at this time of my life I would never be able to push myself to read it and enjoy it. Fortunately le Guin is adept at pulling out the references required to advance her story, and the translation of the The Aeneid had a very nice summary in the introduction. I never thought I'd be reduced to "Cliff's Notes", but perhaps that's part of motherhood...

I admit, every time I see a locked post from you, I think, "Maybe it's a new Denethor-lives! chapter!!" :)

I hope all went well with the spit-and-polish on your overdue short story!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Yes, I wonder if I'll ever really get round to it. I'm waiting for a specific translation to turn up on BookMooch, which is working as part-procrastination, part-spur.

I admit, every time I see a locked post from you, I think, "Maybe it's a new Denethor-lives! chapter!!" :)

LOL! Well, I've been rereading LotR the past couple of weeks, and I just rewatched the films for the first time in ages, so perhaps something will come soon... I have a feeling that at some point I'll need to take a few days' holiday just to finish it. But I've been saying that for a couple of years now.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Welcome! I'm glad you made it here (and sorry to have taken a while to respond, it's been a busy few weeks).

You've arrived just after a B7 rewatch community has come to the end of the series, but you might enjoy looking back over the posts: see here (or b7rewatch).