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Subject: blakes7-d Digest V98 #130
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blakes7-d Digest Volume 98 : Issue 130
Today's Topics:
[B7L] Re: DSV1
[B7L] Re: B5-B7 links
: [B7L] B5-B7 links
[B7L] Terra Incognita
[B7L] B7-B5 links
Re: [B7L] B7-B5 links
[B7L] The vacationer returns (long)
Re: [B7L] The vacationer returns (long)
Re: [B7L] B5-B7 links
Re: [B7L] The vacationer returns (long)
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 02 May 1998 22:35:42 EDT
From: penny_kjelgaard@juno.com
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: [B7L] Re: DSV1
Message-ID: <19980502.192729.2943.0.Penny_Kjelgaard@juno.com>
I imediately assumed that
1) DSV1 was a pirate ship itself, which had been stolen from the System
by disgruntled subjects and was used to cavort about the galaxy. The
clothing collection and strong room full of jewels and currency would
allow them to infiltrate any human society.
2) They were agents of the System sent forth to scout planets that
could be conquered by the System and were
a) challanged by a society who found them out or
b) were attacked by space pirates or
c) rebeled against the System and were fighting another DSV. (In
which case why did the winning ship leave DSV1 adrift? IMHO, after
capturing the crew's life pods they quickly left so that the London
wouldn't see them. After all, there were fairly isolated in their little
nook in the galaxy. They planned to return for DSV1 after the London
passed. They didn't have to worry about it since it was booby trapped to
defend itself against investigators. They didn't bet that Blake's
totally screwed up memory/perception of reality would overide its auto
defense system.)
In either case, I feel Zen functioned independently of the system. The
system did manage to override it, naturally since it programmed Zen to
begin with and would know how to re-program it. It initiated a return to
base mode. But, even after the crew was captured and returned to the
Liberator there was no need to "bond" with the computer again...Zen
accepted and executed their orders without question. Obviously another
pious mistake on the System's part...they hadn't erased the crew's bond
with the ship before they managed to escape. (Cheers for vila and his
nimble fingers.)
Penny
***
Mommy: I threw your cactus out.
Missy: But why?
Mommy: It had bugs on it. I don’t know
how to get bugs off a cactus.
Missy: You just say, “boo!” really loud.
_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 3 May 98 04:29:00 GMT
From: s.thompson8@genie.geis.com
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: [B7L] Re: B5-B7 links
Message-Id: <199805030446.EAA24535@rock103.genie.net>
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Steve, there's a web site somewhere that gives a whole bunch of them, but I
don't have the url on hand. Will look around for it. I know I got it from
someone here in the first place-- Kathryn Andersen, perhaps?
Sarah T.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 03 May 1998 14:02:24 +1000
From: Tim Richards & Narrelle Harris <parallax@wire.net.au>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: : [B7L] B5-B7 links
Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19980503140224.007cf9d0@wire.net.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Psicop Alfred Bester (which is in itself an in-joke, as it's the name of a
golden-age SF author) says one episode: "I'm not stupid, I'm not
expendable and I'm not going." Someone else will have to tell you the
episode, however. :-/
There are also plenty of Prisoner references and a lot of tributes to other
tv shows and books. It's half the fun of watching the show!
Narrelle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tim Richards and Narrelle Harris
parallax@wire.net.au http://www.wire.net.au/~parallax
"Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit;
by and by it will strike." - Shakespeare
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 2 May 1998 22:35:49 +0100 (BST)
From: Judith Proctor <Judith@blakes-7.demon.co.uk>
To: Lysator List <Blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: [B7L] Terra Incognita
Message-ID: <Marcel-1.42-0502213549-9eeRr9i@blakes-7.demon.co.uk>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Gareth Thomas is a confirmed guest for Terra Incognita which will be held in the
Grosvenor House Hotel, Sheffield 14-16 August '98. The other confirmed guest
is Walter Koenig.
Further details are available by sending an SAE to Terra Incognita, PO Box 5042,
Derby, DE55 4ZS, England.
Judith
--
http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7
Redemption 99 - The Blakes 7/Babylon 5 convention
26-28 February 1999, Ashford International Hotel, Kent
http://www.smof.com/redemption/
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 09:44:35 -0400
From: Harriet Monkhouse <101637.2064@compuserve.com>
To: "INTERNET:blakes7@lysator.liu.se" <blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: [B7L] B7-B5 links
Message-ID: <199805030944_MC2-3BC7-5B95@compuserve.com>
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Sheridan has an ex-wife called ANNA whom he believes to be dead, BUT she
suddenly reappears and turns out to be not quite what she seemed...
Can't help on dialogue (though jumping shows, didn't Ares quote that line
from Rescue about no good deed going unpunished in Xena the other week?)
Harriet
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 03 May 1998 08:31:48 -0700
From: Helen Krummenacker <avona@jps.net>
To: Harriet Monkhouse <101637.2064@compuserve.com>
CC: "INTERNET:blakes7@lysator.liu.se" <blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: Re: [B7L] B7-B5 links
Message-ID: <354C8DE5.66A4@jps.net>
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Harriet Monkhouse wrote:
>
> Sheridan has an ex-wife called ANNA whom he believes to be dead, BUT she
> suddenly reappears and turns out to be not quite what she seemed...
>
> Can't help on dialogue (though jumping shows, didn't Ares quote that line
> from Rescue about no good deed going unpunished in Xena the other week?)
>
Now a thought is stirring... I'm not sure, but was there ever "I'm
tired, and I hurt." used in B5? I certainly would've been appropriate in
enough places.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 08:50:45 +1000
From: Ross Mallett <hawkeye@bluedog.apana.org.au>
To: blake7@lysator.liu.se, ;;;;space-city@bluedog.apana.org.au;;;
Cc: gail@instra.com.au
Subject: [B7L] The vacationer returns (long)
Message-Id: <v03110704b172a3c65a59@[202.12.90.67]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Back home at last! One of the last travellers to depart and one of the last
to return. I presume that everyone else has told their story so if you're
bored senseless with travel stories and Deliverance con reports, just hit
the DELETE key okay?
WARNING: Blatant name dropping! Hope I've spelt everybody's name correctly!
The whole thing is written from memory weeks after the event, so there is a
chance that some people have been misnamed, misspelled or miscredited.
Sorry 'bout that.
GETTING THERE
I didn't actually have any money for the trip, so down paid for it with a
combination of loading up credit cards, IOUs and rubber cheques, some of
which spectacularly bounced roof high but only after I was safely out of
the country.* Originally I was going to travel about England with someone
else who also had no money and who therefore, reluctantly, dropped out.
This caused the British phase to be reduced and a rather less expensive
American holiday to be substituted. On an earlier voyage, I had
circumnavigated the globe travelling east. This time, I would
circumnavigate travelling west.
* Whenever I need moral advice on matters like this, I ask myself: "What
would Avon do in this situation?"
Melbourne to London is a long flight. First there was a six hour flight to
Singapore, mostly over Australia. An hour stop over there was consumed
watching the X-Files on the big screen. When we reboarded the aircraft to
take off again, there was a delay. In loading containers on the plane, the
last one did not fit. There was a lot of third world types milling about
trying to understand the problem. Airplane containers are shaped to fit
neatly in the hold and clearly the last remaining container was a forward
container and they were trying to load it into the rear hold. The only
thing for it was to unload and reload. This took about 30 minutes. However,
it would exert a butterfly effect over the first phase of my Autumn
holiday. The immediate effect was a 30 minute delay waiting for a new
takeoff slot.
Singapore to London is 16 air hours, making it a 22 hour flight in all.
Arrived at about half past seven local time. The delay meant that I had
missed my connecting flight to Manchester. Heathrow Airport is a very
confusing place and the area outside the terminal in particular is
absolutely chaotic due to construction work. The next flight to Manchester
was overbooked, so they put me on the one after in two hours time.
I bought some batteries for the mobile phone. It must've been accidentally
switched on at some point because the main battery was flat. This proved to
be a very useful accessory in England, although of course it was merely
dead weight in the United States. I hadn't brought the recharger for this
reason. I always travel with some cash for the destination at hand,
including some coins for vending machines. Changing money at airports is
always a bad idea but you often need to buy things there, especially if one
is laid over. Nowadays, the best source of cash is the ATM. You can draw
money straight from your account in Australia! In Seattle, I could even get
a balance on the account back home (in US dollars).
I've never been through the domestic terminal at Heathrow before and with
careful planning, I hope to avoid ever having to go through it again. The
place is old fashioned, dirty and why anyone wastes a fag lighting up is
beyond me when you can simply breathe and thereby inhale a whole packet
full for nothing.
On arrival in Manchester, my bags are missing. So is 20 other people's. As
a body, we go over to the counter and fill in our missing luggage forms. Is
it reassuring that British Airways have a lost luggage hotline number?
Missing is my sleeping bag and bag containing (mainly) changes of clothes.
With me is my airline regulation sized carry bag containing my camera,
films, tickets, passport, toiletries and clothes for the weekend.
Theoretically, I can live out of the carry bag for the weekend.
There's nothing for it though, but to press on. I collect my transport, a
shiny, red Fiat Pinto*. It's a manual, automatic transmission not having
been invented in England yet. Annoyingly, there is no street directory
either. However the staff at the rental car company provide a sketch map
with pencilled in directions. These prove to be fairly useless but I do
find the M6 motorway. It goes in two directions: "Preston" and
"Birmingham". The directions say to take "Birmingham" so I do. Every time I
have to stop, I scan my motorway map of England until I found Preston
north-west of Manchester. To navigate the motorways, you need to have at
least some idea where all the towns are.
* Holden Barina
The motorway is very busy. I'm used to having a quarter mile to myself on
the Hume back home. There is a lot of traffic. It takes me a while to
realise that the road signs are in miles and miles per hour. The trucks all
seem to have "long vehicle" signs on them whether they are long or not.
Most are small but there are also full sized singles and doubles plying the
motorway. I soon find Stoke and go into the town centre.
I've no idea where the Moat House is, so I stop at Tourist Information. A
local asks me for directions, which I provide. Just once I'd like to go to
Europe and not be asked for directions by the locals. Australian tourists
seem to have carved out a reputation for knowing where everything is. I get
directions to the Moat House, but I still have a hard time finding it,
because it takes me a few minutes to realise that Festival Park is a
shopping mall rather than a park with trees!
I should explain here that so as to arrive at Deliverance ready to party, I
asked my travel agent to book me a room in Stoke on the Thursday night. He
normally only does conventions but did the bookings for me as a friend. So
it did not come as a complete surprise that I should be booked into the
Moat House for Thursday night as well, at a rate somewhat higher than the
convention rate but much lower than the posted room rates. Naturally, the
fact that you've just spent 26 hours travelling and are dead tired doesn't
alter the fact that the Moat House has a 3pm check in.* I have to wait an
hour. So I went shopping in Festival Park. Every time a shop assistant
spoke I was forced to ask them to repeat themselves.
* Considered generous in England, where even 4pm check ins are not uncommon.
The Moat House room was excellent. Clean, neatly furnished, reasonably
large, with great facilities. Just the same as a top notch room back home
except that there was no minibar but I've never been in an English hotel
that had one. I had a brief nap, shave and shower and set out to explore
the hotel. There was no sign of other convention goers but the organisers
were setting up in the office equipment area. I had to phone British
Airways from the lobby because the Moat House charges 30p per minute for
local calls from the room!* They had no news on the fate of my bags, but
were confident that they would find them. I found the gym and pool. Open
from 6am to 10pm! Unfortunately, I then realised that my gym gear was in
the bag. However, I bought a pair of bathers at the desk and swam 50 laps.
In the spa afterwards, I chatted with some of the other clientele, all
locals rather than guests.
* You can call England from Australia for less**
** The mobile phone(!) was also cheaper so I used that a couple of times
DELIVERANCE
"Fandom is friendship" --- Sheelagh Wells
Bounced out of bed early and had a morning swim, then went to breakfast.
There was this good looking blonde American there. Mustering all my
courage, I went over and introduced myself. She turned out to be Victoria
McManus. Joined by Yolande Rufiange and Cathie from Montreal, we had a
thoroughly enjoyable breakfast. By sheer good fortune I had run straight
into three of the friendliest people in the whole world. I'd never been to
a media con before and this greatly increased my confidence in approaching
my fellow fans and eased a few worries about whether I would enjoy the
experience.
Not much to do except call British Airways. They had found my bags and were
sending them to the Moat House! I let the desk know. Spent most of that
morning chatting to two new faces, Paul Vought and Elaine Nichols. Elaine
is from Armadale, Scotland and has this wonderful, musical accent. A
length, we went and registered. The id cards were really good, with names
on them writ large so you could read them from a respectable distance. Shoe
laces were used to hang the id cards around your neck.* The velcro on mine
immediately failed so I had to tie it. Elaine showed me how to restring the
card so it hung straight. The kit contained a programming guide, a brochure
and a fanzine.
* David Maloney had the organisers issue him with two ids so that he had a
pair of shoe laces.
In the registration area I met Deborah Rose, Julia Jones, Steve Rogerson
and Val Westall for the first time. Then I went and had a look through the
dealers' tables, meeting Louise Rutter and her SO, Tom Forsyth, who
recognised my name from the net! We spoke for a time there. Most of the
stuff on sale was outrageously priced but I bought some Dr Who tapes for 6
pounds each and copies of the radio plays "The Mark of Kane", "The Logic of
Empire" and "Sevenfold Crown".
I went to the first session of the day, David Maloney's "An Actor's Day on
Location". It was held in the "Alternate Program", a small room holding
about 60 in this heritage house attached to the hotel. I'd never really
thought much about the actor's craft. I'd much rather write or direct, it
better suits my temperment.*
* ENTJ
A crowd started to for up outside, so I minded Mary O'Connor's seat while
she fetched her autograph book and then she minded mine while I went back
to my room to get my video covers. I'd come up with the idea of getting
them signed while talking to Kathryn Anderson last Christmas. On leaving
the room I discovered that Gareth had somehow gotten stuck in the lift! I
couldn't quite grasp why he was using it when we were only two floors up
but no doubt incidents like this were adding a few grey hairs to the
organisers' locks. When Gareth finally made his appearance, beer in one
hand, he protested "It wasn't me! I didn't touch a thing!" Gareth was very
witty, leaving most of the talking to David Maloney and then jumping in
with the one liners.
Afterwards, there was an autograph session. I collected autographs from
Jacqueline Pearce, David Jackson, Peter Tuddenham, Chris Boucher, David
Maloney and Gareth Thomas. The guests were arranged along the side and the
front of the small room. You filed past each guest, collecting autographs.
Unfortunately, Gareth just loved to chat to every fan he met. He was a
really wonderful guy, and great to talk to, but this tended to slow things
down a bit. Gareth, seconded by the other guests, volunteered to stay for
as long as it took to get through the whole crowd but the organisers wanted
the room for something else and would not hear of it.
Afterwards, I went back, collected my long lost bags from the porter and
moved them into my room. I found I was sharing with two other guys rather
than one, which surprised them as much as me! Callum lost the toss and got
to sleep in the fold up bed.
In the main hall, Stuart Fell, dressed as the most colourful jester you
ever saw, had a great time juggling and performing various tricks,
including some from Blake's 7 "The Keeper" that he had taught to Michael
Keating. It was a sheer delight! Nobody can play the fool like Stuart Fell!*
*During a later session he did a back flip just to prove he still had it as
a stunt man!
Had supper with Mary O'Connor, still dressed as Jenna. Mary makes her own
costumes and wore a different one each day of the conference: the black and
white Jenna one, the white Servalan number from "Deliverance" and the green
and white Cally. Mary is an incredible talent. In addition to the costume
making, Mary can write, draw and paint! (She also looks even better in the
Jenna costume than Sally Knyvette did.)
Afterwards, we ambled down to the bar area behind the office where the Quiz
was being held. Most of the online contingent was assembled down there in a
fairly crowded area. For the first time I saw a familiar face, the
ever-cheerful one of Kathryn Anderson, and also several new ones, include
Harriet Monkhouse, Jenni (dressed in Avon's silver top), Sarah Thompson and
Alison Page. I'd been a bit nervous about running into Alison and Sarah,
but they were great. For some reason Alison was dressed in full colour
while the rest of Space City was in black and white.
And, standing in the centre of it all was an authoritative figure with
short sandy hair dressed in Avon's black and white cossie from the 4th
Season. Even though we'd never met, I somehow knew that I was face to face
with Judith Proctor. She seemed genuinely pleased to see me and gave me my
Space City button.
The quiz itself was incredibly hard! I can't remember the questions* except
the one to name the whole crew of the spaceship in "Mission to Destiny" in
the order that they died. This had a lot of people exchanging "I thought
*you* were the expert" looks. People had a lot of difficulty hearing the
compere so Servalan impersonator Dave Walsh (in his white outfit) took
over. Can you believe he thought I dyed my roots?
* I hope someone else has posted them.
After the quiz, the Space City contingent kicked on to Jenni's room. At the
entrance I found Una McCormack with the costumes I had ordered from her. I
gave Una, who is sweet and petite, a 50 pound note and she whistled and
proclaimed that she'd never seen one before.* Incredibly, Jarvik's cossie
from "Harvest of Kairos" fits me perfectly! It's a blue-grey overall, with
big, blue shoulder pads, short sleeves, breast and side pockets and a front
zip that comes only halfway up so you can see my chest hair. I wore it
several times over the next two days** but kept taking it off for fear I'd
spill something on it.
* Every time I hand anyone in England a 20 or 50 pound note they hold it up
to the light.
** And again later in Seattle
Boy, does Jenni know how to run a room party! There was a whole bathtub
full of beer and ice and a whole spread of cocktails. About two dozen of us
packed into Jenni's room, with the guys tending to be up the back, near the
beer. Well, somebody had to guard it! I had some swell conversations with
Tom Forsyth, Iain Coleman and Val Westall. Val had a portfolio of some of
her racier pieces. Looking at the output of artists like Mary and Val, I
felt (apart from sheer admiration for their talent) that I have neglected
drawing in favour of writing and made a quiet resolution to provide some
artwork to go with "Salvage" although of course it can't be posted to Space
City, there being (I think) a prohibition on the distribution of binaries.
The party ended somewhat early at about 2am and we left Jenni to clean up,
her SO Colin having long since passed out.
Despite the late night, I bounced out of bed the next morning, not in the
least tired or hung over. Went to the gym, showered and had a hearty free
breakfast. Went to the opening ceremony in the Main Hall where I met Una
McCormack again. Such a fascinating person! A pity that she could only
attend for the one day.
At the opening ceremony,* it was announced that Brian Croucher had an
automobile accident and, although unhurt, was so shaken that he would not
be attending. This necessitated a series of changes to the schedule. The
afternoon session on "The Federation" was brought forward, so we got
Jacqueline Pierce and Stephen Greif** in "The Federation". Jacqueline was
enjoying playing Servalan, calling everyone "darling" and generally
carrying on outrageously. She told a hilarious story about how she had been
piked up by UK Customs for possession of cannabis resin. Asked for their
favourite episodes, Jackie nominated "Sand" because Servalan got to fool
around with Tarrant, while Stephen Greif (who did only 5 episodes although
it seems like more!) nominated "Duel".
* Would you believe that Gareth had a beer in his hand at 10am?
** Rhymes with knife.
There was this Aussie in the hall near to me who remembered Stephen Greif
from armchair thriller! Remember the episode where the guy picks up his
daughter from the airport, but it turns out that he's not her father, he's
killed her father and hid the body? Yeah, that one! Well, that was Stephen
Greif. Yes, really! Hell, I thought I was going well to remember the
episode at all, let alone who was in it. Greif had a grin from ear to ear.
Afterwards, I went to see the exhibition. I bought a copy of the catalogue,
a very good buy indeed. It had a kewl painting of the Liberator on the
cover. It was very cramped for space and could have done with a much larger
hall. There was some sensational stuff there. The Liberator was there,
almost unrecognisable after being blown up in "Terminal" but in four bits.
Almost all the space ships from the show were there, including The London
("Way Back", "Space Fall", "Cygnus Alpha", "Moloch"), the Nova Queen and
Ore Carrier ("Star One"), Servalan's ship ("Animals","Assassin","Warlord")
and Keller's ("Sand").* Both the big and tiny ("Gambit") versions of Orac
were there, the big version the worse for wear as the batteries had been
built into it and had long since deteriorated. There were various guns and
teleport bracelets, including the gun that Avon used to kill Blake!
* The souvenir brochure contains a fine shot of an Alien spacecraft that
looks suspiciously like two hair driers glued together.
Overshadowing this was the costume display! Oh, for a proper layout where
we could oggle them all close up. There were many beautiful originals
there, some just on a rack for lack of space. Jenna's blue dress (Jenni
looked great in a fine of copy of this one) and red leathers
("Trial","Keeper", "Star One", etc), Avon's silver ("Shadow","Horizon",
etc), red leather ("Weapon","Pressure Point",etc), grey leather
("Trial","Hostage",etc) and black (", Cally's grey suede ("Dawn of the
Gods"), Soolin's grey jump suit ("Games","Gold",etc) and Servalan's red
("Gambit") and some black and white outfits. A sheer delight!
Went and saw the Blooper reel, quite by accident. Allegedly Sheelagh Wells
has the only copy. It was an absolute scream. There was lots of shots of
the Liberator falling out of space, of the crew hilariously trying to pile
into the vehicle (in "Stardrive"?) but the damn thing refusing to move! (Or
moving too early and leaving Avon and Soolin to chase after it), of the
Federation troopers unable to get out of a blockhouse (in "Volcano"?) and
many other rip snorters.
Turning up for Chris Boucher's session, I was shocked to see a huge queue.
At first I thought that Chris' session must be incredibly popular but it
was in fact the autograph queue. The stewards gave priority to day visitors
over those with three day passes. You could see the pros and cons to this.
On the one hand the day visitors had only one day to get their autographs.
On the other hand, they were invariably pommies who therefore could collect
autographs at any time anyway. The poor stewards took a lot of flak over
this but it wasn't their fault, they didn't make up the rules. While
waiting I chatted with Calle, our esteemed list administrator and Nikkii,
the perennial steward. I didn't volunteer for steward duty because this was
my first con. I may do some next time.
I never bothered to get tickets for the workshops because you had to queue
up for them and the stewards never once checked them.
I also got Sheelagh Wells' signature on my video cover by going up to her
and asking direct. This proved a more effective method than queuing for the
sessions.*
* Later I got one off Stephen Greif the same way.
Chris Boucher's session on being a script editor was great! Sadly, Chris is
unemployed at the moment and not doing at all well. Seems to have something
to do with a personal slight However, he was very entertaining indeed.
"Actors," he explained, "do not read the script. They don't even read their
own lines. What they do is count them. So I wind up getting a note from
David Jackson that simply says: '6'".
He explained why Avon got all the best lines.
"Because Paul Darrow always reads his lines, and never changes them. Am I
going to sweat blood writing lines for people who just throw them away? No,
I put the minimum effort into those parts, let them write them themselves
if they think they're so good at it. I gave Paul all my best lines because
I knew that he'd say them."
Victoria McManus asked about the creation of "the episodes we like so
much". "Er, which ones are those?" asks Boucher. "All of them!" cried
Victoria, swooning. I wanted to reach over and give her a big hug.
Chris went on to talk about "Star One", how he had crafted the episode so
Brian Croucher could say "I am Travis", and about his favourite, "Death
Watch", because it was like a Western. I couldn't work up the courage to
ask about my personal favourite, "Rumours of Death".
The Main Hall was reorganised with a series of tables for the cabaret.
Unfortunately, there wasn't enough table space for everybody. First we had
the fancy dress, with, amongst others, David Walsh (in black Servalan
costume), Mary O'Connor and Judith Proctor and Kathryn Anderson. Prior to
the event, Harriet Monkhouse told me that Kathryn (as Avon) would sing a
song to Judith (as Blake) and when she got to the word "die", we were to
spring up and die. I was sort of stunned. Kathryn Anderson can sing too?
Well can she ever! The word came up with little warning however and I had
but moments to spring up, go "gggglllddppp" and sink back into my seat. I
would say however, that Kathryn has more followers than Avon, on the face
of it. Another class act was David Walsh, who did a great drag show as
Servalan in "Priscilla" style.
As for the guests, well actors are not entertainers per say. Jackie told a
ripper of a joke involving Cinderella and a melon.* David Jackson did some
old time musical hall stuff. Peter Tuddenham had a clever Benny Hill style
piece of a politician who never finished his sentences, Stephen Greif read
out a children's short story by Oscar Wilde and a WWI poem from Siegfried
Sassoon. Sheelagh Wells showed us a video of Blake (Gareth) giving an award
to JMS at a con in America. Gareth can sure still play Blake!
* The next day several people could be seen with melons signed by Jackie.
Afterwards a few people roped me into the "Love and Lust on the Liberator"
session. Unfortunately, it was cancelled by the organisers at the last
minute without warning.
Once again I got up at sparrow fart* and this time went for a run through
the surrounding parklands. After breakfast I saw Pat Fenech, Sarah Berry
and Sandy Douglas. A long way to travel to meet fans from down under to be
sure! Pat was shocked that anyone might want to meet her, and thought I
might be on drugs or something.
After breakfast, grabbed my video covers and went along to queue with about
500 others for those elusive autographs. Actually, the ones I wanted were
Jan Chappell and Sally Knyvette. Michael wasn't available and I already had
all the others. However, the key point was that there wasn't anything to
due at this point but hang around and talk to the other fans and I was
already doing that! I made a careful count of the number of people in line
and the rate of processing and worked out that it would take until past one
for us to get our autographs from this far back -- a whole floor below the
action! So I would get in, but there was a little doubt that the people I
needed would still be there. After a three hour wait, things went right
down to the line but Jan and Sally signed my videos on their way out of the
room! My calculations were spot on.
* Assuming they have sparrows in England.**
** And they have morning flatulence
Met Reba Bandyopadhyay, who turns out to be a short, feisty American living
in exile in England. She had some fun attempting to defend the
indefensible.* Paul came along and obviously thought I was being too far
soft on Reba, so he gave her a blast with both barrels. Reba battled on
gallantly and in the end I think she won our very cheerful and civilised
debate.
* ie, Star Trek
We found Elaine inside being interviewed by an English journo. He was
incredulous that she had travelled **all the way from Scotland** for the
event. I burst out laughing. There was a photo session outside. I went
outside with Paul and Elaine and got some pictures of the guests.*
* Gareth is the one with the beer
Listened to the sessions in the Main Hall. "The Women of B7" had Jan, Sally
and Jackie. They were of the impression that the female roles in B7 would
be better if the show was made today. I wish I could be so sure. They were
very frank about it all. "Of course the men had it easier" Jan told us.
"Sure the guys look older and fatter and we don't," Sally answered another
question. "If we let ourselves go we'd be out of work." Jan and Sally also
matter-of-factly acknowledged Jenna's romantic relationship with Blake and
Cally's with Avon. "Of course there was sex on the Liberator", Sally
quipped. Jackie, however, denied that Servalan was responsible for the
Spice Girls. They joked about how David Maloney had problems with their
names, as Jan and Sally played Jenna and Cally.
The boys version was fun but less informative. Peter Tuddenham gave Zen,
Orac and Slave impersonations and confessed that he'd always wanted to play
Doctor Who. Gareth (beer in hand) kept up the one liners, particularly
aimed at the absent Paul Darrow while Michael Keating, without saying a
word, cleverly played off him with a series of low key facial expressions.
The closing ceremony gave everyone a chance to thank the organisers. Gareth
gave a great speech in which he thanked us for being fans and said that
they'd be nothing without us fans. It was from the heart and well received,
but he was upstaged by Sheelagh Wells, who came up with the perfect sound
bite: "Fandom is Friendship". The final entertainment was provided by David
Walsh again, this time in the red Servalan outfit.
I ducked out and found Jessica Kindzierski outside. I bought a round of
beers and she told me about her work as a comic book colourist. At some
point Michael Keating came over and joined us, bumming a cigarette.* He had
to make a quick exit when an autograph queue started to form! For the first
time, the Main Hall was thrown open to autographs and there were multiple
queues for different guests. I would have liked to have gotten duplicates
of Jan and Sally's autographs but the queues were too long. However, there
was a call for Chris Boucher and David Maloney fans and I went in and had a
chat with Chris and David, who, with Terry, were the true creators of the
show. At one point the topic of rewriting scripts came up and Chris
declined to comment on the rewriting of others' work. I told him that I
always attribute the one-liners to him regardless of whose name was on the
credits and he beamed and said "Could be!"
Out in the bar area was Nicole van den Berg, dressed as a PsiCorps agent.
She didn't recognise my name and asked me if I was online. I said yes and
she asked me on which list. Carefully I explained that I was on both lists,
plus b7spin. Hmmm, name didn't ring a bell. Then she finally remembered!
Slid straight back into my char opposite Jessica. Later Michael quietly
rejoined us. He was just wonderful to talk to.
* He's given them up. Well, he's given up buying them anyway.
The next morning, I enjoyed the gym for the last time and had breakfast
with Harriet Monkhouse and Ellie Baskerville. Ellie had this really cute
little baby boy with her. Harriet wanted to know if I was signed up for
"Redemption". Not yet, but it's very tempting. I did order a t-shirt. I
asked her why it was called "Redemption" and she said that "Redemption"
comes after "Deliverance". But "Orac" comes after "Deliverance"! Well,
"Redemption" is the next episode with a snappy title. Anyway, I'd like to
go, but I'm kind of committed to travel to the US in September 1999.
However, I may be able to make it anyway.
Said goodbye to everyone I could and loaded my bags into the boot of my
little red Pinto, parked in the Moat House car park since Thursday. Gareth
Thomas wished me good luck from the car park. I slipped "The Logic of
Empire" into the car cassette player and headed off for the North.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 03 May 1998 17:00:14 -0700
From: Helen Krummenacker <avona@jps.net>
To: blake7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Re: [B7L] The vacationer returns (long)
Message-ID: <354D050D.5E92@jps.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
> GETTING THERE
>
> I didn't actually have any money for the trip, so down paid for it with a
> combination of loading up credit cards, IOUs and rubber cheques, some of
> which spectacularly bounced roof high but only after I was safely out of
> the country.* Originally I was going to travel about England with someone
> else who also had no money and who therefore, reluctantly, dropped out.
> This caused the British phase to be reduced and a rather less expensive
> American holiday to be substituted. On an earlier voyage, I had
> circumnavigated the globe travelling east. This time, I would
> circumnavigate travelling west.
> * Whenever I need moral advice on matters like this, I ask myself: "What
> would Avon do in this situation?"
Make sure he either gets the money in advance or has enough phony
documentation so that _nothing_ can be traced back to him. Hack into
airline computers, etc and give himself first class frequent flier
accomodations everywhere. Bill everything to expense accounts of large
corporations using fictious employee names. In short, live it up and get
away with it!
--
Helen (Avona) of A.S.K.S.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 00:51:58 +0100
From: "Jenni-Alison" <Jenni-Alison@dial.pipex.com>
To: <blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: Re: [B7L] B5-B7 links
Message-Id: <199805032353.BAA27833@samantha.lysator.liu.se>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Steve Rogerson wrote:
> Can anyone help me with a piece I'm writing for the next
> Redemption progress report. It will look at the links between
> Blake's 7 and Babylon 5, including the influences of one on the
> other. It will mention the Drazi Sunhawk that was based on the
> Liberator and appeared in Deathwalker
I've got to say that the pilot doesn't look much like Blake or Avon - maybe
Gan on a bad day? Anyone else think that Deathwalker has borrowed one of
Avon's fourth season outfits when she arrives at B5? Nice black leather and
studs!
Jenni
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 04 May 1998 03:27:16 -0700
From: Rhonda L Stroud <rstroud@halcyon.com>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Re: [B7L] The vacationer returns (long)
Message-Id: <2.2.32.19980504102716.006be264@mail.halcyon.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>There's nothing for it though, but to press on. I collect my transport, a
>shiny, red Fiat Pinto*....
>* Holden Barina
I thought the Pinto was made by Ford, in the seventies, and forced off the
market for being unsafe -- a little problem with the easy light gas tank
feature!! Some other company *chose* to use the name??
>Once again I got up at sparrow fart* and this time went for a run through
>the surrounding parklands. After breakfast I saw Pat Fenech, Sarah Berry
>and Sandy Douglas. A long way to travel to meet fans from down under to be
>sure! Pat was shocked that anyone might want to meet her, and thought I
>might be on drugs or something.
>
Nope, Ross isn't making this one up. And he wasn't on drugs (last I knew
of,anyway). There are many people on the I wish to meet, but sitting here
in sunny Seattle, it looks like I'll have to continue with our "Rabble"
meetings.
Thanks to all the people who went through the bother of adding websites,
writing con reports and especially to those who added pictures. It's so
nice to put a face to a name, even if I never get to meet any of you.
I'm still jealous of you getting to talk with Chris Boucher, though...
rs
--------------------------------
End of blakes7-d Digest V98 Issue #130
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