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blakes7-d Digest				Volume 98 : Issue 94

Today's Topics:
	 [B7L] Re: Standard Speeds
	 Re: [B7L]: Time Line an answer!
	 Re: [B7L] All Gone?
	 [B7L] Standard Speeds (an answer.. kind of)
	 Re: [B7L] No Deliverance  and disliking Avon
	 Re: [B7L]: Time Line
	 [B7L] Deliverance

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 29 Mar 1998 20:18:42 +1000
From: Tim Richards & Narrelle Harris <parallax@wire.net.au>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: [B7L] Re: Standard Speeds
Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19980329201842.007c2850@wire.net.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Jeroen said:
>Standard speed was used because no one knew the right word for the speed
>of the Liberator. "Standard" is interpreted by Zen as "normal" speed for
>his ship! right?  (standard, standard by 6)

The thing that struck has struck me as odd ever since this debate started
was how on earth Zen calculated what 'standard' was.  I mean... a car
doesn't have a standard speed, does it?  Except that dictated by the road
rules, and I don't recall seeing the speed signs up in the inner or outer
galaxies anywhere.  I suppose it might be 'optimum cruising speed', where
you get best speed for least output.

Well, there you go, I've just answered my own question. I'll go quietly
now, officer...

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: Sun, 29 Mar 1998 08:08:30 -0800
From: Helen Krummenacker <avona@jps.net>
To: "Jeroen J. Kwast" <jeroenkw@gns.getronics.nl>
CC: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Re: [B7L]: Time Line an answer!
Message-ID: <351E71FE.253C@jps.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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Jeroen J. Kwast wrote:
> 
> >
> > At 16:13 27/03/98 +1200, Gregory Graham wrote:
> >
>  > >
> > >Surely STD*12=TD4*12=TD48, and TD15=STD*3.25.  That would would make
> > the
> > >Liberator normal speed (STD*6 I think) TD24
> > >
> >
> > Doesn't it seem a little perverse that the Liberator's normal speed is
> > "standard by 6" and not just "standard"?
>  Maybe Blake was just a leadfoot.
> >
> 
> Standard speed was used because no one knew the right word for the speed
> of the Liberator. "Standard" is interpreted by Zen as "normal" speed for
> his ship! right?  (standard, standard by 6)
> 
> How about that?!?! :)
> 
> Jeroen
You're right, come to think of it. Blake made up the term standard,
because he had no idea what the Liberator could do at the time.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 09:44:00 +1200
From: Nicola Collie <nicola.collie@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Re: [B7L] All Gone?
Message-Id: <l03102803b14469a87972@[139.80.16.149]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Lisa:
>The
>question is what can we deprived folk left behind do to make the con goers
>jealous? We all know that Paul Darrow isn't going to the con, I wonder how
>they'd feel if he just happened to drop in and visit the con-less few. We
>leave it up to them to work out whether he did actually visit or not.

O' course, he wouldn't dare admit that the real reason he wasn't going to
the con was because he was touring G!G! through Australia and New Zealand
;-)
And mentioning the invite to the opening-night party that I've acquired
through shady theatre-type contacts would just be rubbing it in.
I'll leave it there, I think.
ttfn, Nicola

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 29 Mar 1998 22:23:08 +0100
From: Ian Lay <ian@pacific-cc.demon.co.uk>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se,
        Tim Richards & Narrelle Harris <parallax@wire.net.au>
Subject: [B7L] Standard Speeds (an answer.. kind of)
Message-ID: <01bd5b58$de874aa0$f2dadec2@pacific-cc.demon.co.uk>
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	charset="iso-8859-1"
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Narrelle wrote:


>Jeroen said:
>>Standard speed was used because no one knew the right word for the speed
>>of the Liberator. "Standard" is interpreted by Zen as "normal" speed for
>>his ship! right?  (standard, standard by 6)
>
>The thing that struck has struck me as odd ever since this debate started
>was how on earth Zen calculated what 'standard' was.  I mean... a car
>doesn't have a standard speed, does it?  Except that dictated by the road
>rules, and I don't recall seeing the speed signs up in the inner or outer
>galaxies anywhere.  I suppose it might be 'optimum cruising speed', where
>you get best speed for least output.
>
>Well, there you go, I've just answered my own question. I'll go quietly
>now, officer...
>


I can see this might go on for ever.... :-)

Okey for those who don't have it, I will quote the reference from the
Programme Guide about speed.  I know it is necessarily definite that this is
correct.  Let's be honest there has never been any official correlation as
far as I'm aware.  But I think it's the best source we have.

"Federation ships measured speed in Time Distort units, the Liberator in
multiples of the Standard Speed, with Standard by 1 possibly being equal to
about TD4.  Given certain known factors, such as the distance across the
galaxy (which was a feasible journey in months rather than years) and the
distance from our galaxy to Andromeda (which was not possible, even for the
Liberator), the following assumptions can be made based on the universal
constant, speed of light (c):  TD1=1000c, TD2=2000c, TD3=3000c etc.
Liberator could very short spells, achieve the equivalent of TD16.  However
at Standard by 7 (TD 11), it would take just under 1 year to reach the
centre of the Galaxy from Earth, but over 200 years to reach Andromeda.  The
Stardrive II used on Scorpio could reach even higher speeds in the
laboratory, going to TD15 in real time, which meant staying in the same time
dimension as experienced on a planet rather than moving into a
time-distorted dimension.  It was also suggested that the Federation was
developing an Intergalactic drive which would cleared have involved much
higher time distort speeds."

There is one anomaly in this:

If Standard by 1 equals TD4 then STD 2 would equal TD5, yes?  So why does
STD 7 equal TD 11.  Shouldn't it be TD 10?  Or am I not thinking straight?

Also on another subject, someone thought that the time period between The
Way Back and Blake might be about 6 years and 6 months.  I'm sure I
heard/read somewhere that this period was more like 5 years.  It may have
been in the book Afterlife (can't find my copy at the moment, the bedroom is
a mess!!).  Again this wouldn't make it "official", but then everything
about Blake's 7 is so un-clearcut.  That's what makes it interesting to
debate.

Take care,

-------------------------------------------------------------
Ian "Temperatures of over 101 are NOT fun" Lay
///
:-)
\\\
Watford Internet Football Club
ian@pacific-cc.demon.co.uk or
wifc@wfc.net

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 00:28:33 GMT
From: kawm@dove.mtx.net.au (Ken Minne)
To: <blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: Re: [B7L] No Deliverance  and disliking Avon
Message-ID: <351f2b2e.4122299@mail.mtx.net.au>
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Good day all,

On Sun, 22 Mar 1998 15:01:07 -0000, Dangermouse wrote:

>
>
>----------
>> From: Rhonda L Stroud 
>> Another question....someone asked the question before, but I've been
>swamped
>> and haven't been following as closely as I should...is there an official
>> time line in the series?  
>
>The timescale of the series is very self-contradictory, especially after
>the Intergalactic War (which by implication lasted only a few hours or
>several months, depending on which episode you want to believe) but I'll
>give it a shot. 
>
>There are six months between The Way Back and Cygnus Alpha (the length of
>the journey from Earth)
>
Slight correction, this is generally considered to be four months,
half of Raikers suggested eight months trip. ( I'll join that debate
elsewhere. )


>There's a further 18 months until Voice From The Past, according to Ven
>Glynd in the latter episode. (Two years after The Way Back)

IIRC Countdown gives some references to events in the past, which may
or may not have involved Blake since The Way Back.

Also IIRC, in Project Avalon, Travis claims to have twice been able to
have destroyed the Liberator ( and kill Blake ) but having been
stopped by the Administrations insistance that the Liberator be
captured intact. This clearly implies battles occurred that we did not
see and time taken with associated events eg recon.

Vila claims in at least one place to have beaten a security system,
while with Blake, said security system not having been seen before.
>
>Star One has been malfunctioning for two months (sixty days), so can
>probably assume that that is the gap between Gambit and Star One (or
>possibly The Keeper and Star One) if the Andromedans' plans weren't put
>into operation until they had already made a deal with Travis.
>
>The Intergalactic War seemed to last only a few hours aboard the Liberator
>(everybody's still in the same clothes), but the spread of the fighting
>over such a large are of the Federation suggests otherwise. Perhaps a
>couple of weeks.
>
The Liberator went straight in to the thick of the fighting, and was
damaged so severely that the crew had to abandon ship. The crew may
litteraly had no time to consider thier fashion choices in an
extended, running battle that lasted for days, possibly weeks.
On the other hand, has anyone considered how fast the Federation
fleets start entering the fray, from bases at least as far away as
Space Command at or near Earth?

>There are then three years until Stardrive (Plaxton worked for the
>Federation until it collapsed in the aftermath of the war, then spent three
>years on Caspar)
>
While on the Liberator, during the third series, Avon and Tarrant both
spend time setting things up outside episodes. They chase freighters,
negotiate with Bayban, get tortured for a week etc.


We don't know how long between Power and Traitor. After the crews
active last few weeks, a month or twos rest, getting to know thier new
base, and new crew member, doesn't seem out of order.
Similarly for some of the other gaps between the episodes.

>We can assume that, as is TV convention, season 4 lasted a year.
>
>Which all gives us a grand total of about six years, give or take a month
>or two.
>
I don't think that works, as either the convention is worth something,
and the whole program lasted four years, or a season can be  more than
one ships year, so your total is out be even more.

Both Blakes 7 and Star trek suffer from a bad case of completely
unco-ordinated travel times. Perhaps the best example of this inTrek
is the journey to the centre of the galaxy in Star Trek V. The
Enterprise-A tracks off to the centre of the galaxy, but the Ent-D of
the TNG can't seem to go that far that quickly, and it is supposed to
be a faster ship. In Blakes Seven, trip times are given to what appear
to be relatively local destinations, days long, but other huge
journeys, such a that in Redemption, take a few hours.

I hope my comments have jogged the memory for anyone trying to improve
one the timeline.

No doubt someone will correct me if I have got something wrong.

Catch you Later,

Walter Minne

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 00:28:40 GMT
From: kawm@dove.mtx.net.au (Ken Minne)
To: Lysator List <Blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: Re: [B7L]: Time Line
Message-ID: <352036d8.7108211@mail.mtx.net.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Good day all, 

On Thu, 26 Mar 1998 09:13:50 +0000 (GMT), Judith Proctor wrote:

>In short, the 4 month/8 month time references have to be ignored as one of them
>is totally wrong.  My only way of managing it is to assume that 8 months
>referred to te round trip to CA and back to Earth, although this does not sit
>well with the context in which it is used.

How about this -

Raiker was lying to the prisoners.
He is lying so that they think that they have longer time in which to
escape than what they really had. 
On the basis that if the prisoners could somehow take control of the
ship, then they would want to do so as far away from Earth ( the heart
of the Federation's power), so as to maximise their chances of escape
before a Federation Pursuit Ship comes after them.
Too late in the trip and the security aboard would naturally tighten
anyway, so somewhere between 66% and 75% of the trip is the logical
place to try and escape.
Thus by telling the prisoners that they have eight months means that
before the prisoners know what has happened, they are on Cygnus Alpha,
and the London is on her way home.

Too bad for Raiker, that they had a leader of Blakes quality aboard,
and that the DSV 1 just happened to be hanging around... >;-)
>
>Judith

Comments anyone ?

Walter Minne

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 07:05:43 -0500
From: Harriet Monkhouse <101637.2064@compuserve.com>
To: Space City <space-city@world.std.com>
Cc: "Blake's 7 (Lysator)" <BLAKES7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: [B7L] Deliverance
Message-ID: <199803300706_MC2-3858-2ED1@compuserve.com>
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Just back from Deliverance...

Thanks to everybody from the lists for helping to create a really good
weekend.

And especially Jenni, the bountiful hostess of the room party, maker of
fabulous costumes, and determined queuer who stood for hours to get Michael
Keating's autograph for the Baskervilles.

Other highlights:
Jackie Pearce's Cinderella story
Iain Coleman dancing with David (Servalan) Walsh
Getting a sneak preview of the end of Heroes Lost
Lots of other things which will eventually emerge from the blur of memory
when I get round to reading everyone else's proper con reports.

Oh yes, we had two Space City teams in the pub quiz and one of them (the
one with Neil "Mastermind" Faulkner, oddly enough) smashed all opposition.

Harriet

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End of blakes7-d Digest V98 Issue #94
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