From: blakes7-d-request@lysator.liu.se Subject: blakes7-d Digest V99 #242 X-Loop: blakes7-d@lysator.liu.se X-Mailing-List: <blakes7-d@lysator.liu.se> archive/volume99/242 Precedence: list MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/digest; boundary="----------------------------" To: blakes7-d@lysator.liu.se Reply-To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se ------------------------------ Content-Type: text/plain blakes7-d Digest Volume 99 : Issue 242 Today's Topics: Re: [B7L] Rewriting the Canon (wasPossible Federation Ender....) Re: [B7L] Question Re: [B7L] Question Re: [B7L] Question Re: [B7L] Question Re: [B7L] Question [B7L] Josette Simon sighting [B7L] Re: Killer still (after 700 years) RE: [B7L] Re: Killer still (after 700 years) RE: [B7L] Question Re: [B7L] Rewriting the Canon (wasPossible Federation Ender....) [B7L] Power video ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 12:35:18 EDT From: Pherber@aol.com To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Rewriting the Canon (wasPossible Federation Ender....) Message-ID: <e3cdfdd4.24df0bc6@aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 8/7/99 2:43:09 AM Mountain Daylight Time, N.Faulkner@tesco.net writes: > And even when it is a device, there's always just the one of it, with half a > dozen other parties trying to get their mitts on it at the same time. Why > can't they, just for once, need to lay their hands on something that's > churned out by the million and flogged on a 'Buy Two, Get One Free' basis? Good point. "Blake, we have a critical shortage of chisel-point staples! We've got to get to the nearest Space-Mart(tm) before closing time!" Surely there's a Federation equivalent of Wal-Mart or your local auto parts store? Nina ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1999 22:26:09 +0100 From: "Neil Faulkner" <N.Faulkner@tesco.net> To: "lysator" <blakes7@lysator.liu.se> Subject: Re: [B7L] Question Message-ID: <000801bee1bd$7ca7e8c0$d0418cd4@default> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Meredith wrote: >I've never heard "mozzies", and it surprises me to hear of it, >since (over here at least) "mosquito" is accented on the "squi", >hence "skeeters". Is there a pronunciation difference which >would account for the different nickname? Don't think so. More likely it's the British tendency to form diminutives by lopping the end off a word and adding '-ie'. Americans might be more likely to chop the front off a word when forming diminutives, but I can't think of any examples offhand. I doubt if there's any firm rules on the matter, either side of the Atlantic. Thanks to Hellen for alerting me to the wider usage of 'komar', but then I only had a Russian dictionary to hand, not a Bulgarian one. At least I didn't have to look up any of the funny letters. (I love the Cyrillic alphabet but I can never remember what half the characters are.) Come to think of it, Komar sounds pretty much the kind of name Terry Nation might have used in one of his deathless classics. Oh, and Louise - they don't ALL bite. Most of the non-culicine midges are completely harmless. Neil ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1999 22:29:08 +0100 From: "Neil Faulkner" <N.Faulkner@tesco.net> To: "lysator" <blakes7@lysator.liu.se> Subject: Re: [B7L] Question Message-ID: <000901bee1bd$81467720$d0418cd4@default> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Calle wrote: >Did they have rats and spiders and such on the Liberator, do you think? Don't know about spiders, but they definitely had at least one rat. He went over from the London with Blake and Jenna. Sorry, couldn't resist that. Neil ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 19:41:28 -0600 From: "Ellynne G." <rilliara@juno.com> To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Question Message-ID: <19990730.194749.9086.0.Rilliara@juno.com> Skeeters is kind of a hick expression. Some people prefer calling them "swarms of blood-sucking, plague spreading, ugly, man-eating bugs," but Alaskans just call them "the state bird" on account of the size they get there. I'll try and track down the Swahili. Ellynne ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 18:22:30 +0100 From: "Angua" <angua@viper244.demon.co.uk> To: "Blake's 7 Lysator List" <blakes7@lysator.liu.se> Subject: Re: [B7L] Question Message-ID: <020301bee1c2$9e0b5380$d76b989e@demon.co.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Neil wrote : > Oh, and Louise - they don't ALL bite. Most of the non-culicine midges are > completely harmless. Thanks for the info. - I claim abject ignorance, my degree was in Botany (and *that* wasn't yesterday). Louise http://starriders.net - Babylon 5, Blake's 7, SF cult tv and movies, free graphics, and more ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 19:06:58 +0100 From: "Deborah Day" <d.day@ukgateway.net> To: "blakes7" <blakes7@lysator.liu.se> Subject: Re: [B7L] Question Message-ID: <00ba01bee1c8$cf3ad240$0486bc3e@oemcomputer> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit - >Julie wrote : > >> Funny that 'cos in England I have always heard them referred >> to as "midgies". Is that just a Northern name or what? > >It could well be, we've always called them midgies/midges, or even gnats. >Not even sure if these things are the same species as mosquitos, but they >all bite ! > >Louise > I think midges are smaller things that live in the north, and the further north you go the worse they are, especially in August, and they come in great clouds of their friends, whereas mosquitoes are large things with long legs that live near stagnant water eg. toilet or garden pond and come singly. I think the term mozzie is an Australian thing originally - goes with the cozzie (swimming costume). Personally I've always thought of anything like that as being *creepy crawlies*. Who cares whether they bite, as long as you can squash them first! Debbie ------------------------------ Date: 08 Aug 1999 23:19:34 +0200 From: Calle Dybedahl <calle@lysator.liu.se> To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: [B7L] Josette Simon sighting Message-ID: <us672qkm1l.fsf@sara.lysator.liu.se> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII I just saw Josette Simon in a fairly crappy movie called "Bridge of Time", apparently made in 1997. This noted just for completeness or something, I assume that everyone except me already knew about it :-) -- Calle Dybedahl, Vasav. 82, S-177 52 Jaerfaella,SWEDEN | calle@lysator.liu.se Hello? Brain? What do we want for breakfast? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 09 Aug 1999 02:54:06 +0100 From: nrice <nrice@nrice.enterprise-plc.com> To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: [B7L] Re: Killer still (after 700 years) Message-ID: <37AE34BE.C30D8771@nrice.enterprise-plc.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit > I don't mean to defend the scriptwriters of Blake's 7, because I agree with Neil and > Hellen (by the way is that a female name in Bulgaria?) most of the time. However > much of the criticism is probably unnecessary and there must be many other > controversial subjects to discuss rather than Killer (eg Orbit - why wasn't Servalan > worried that the parallel telly physics planet destroyer thingy was still on board > the shuttle and therefore a massive threat to the Federation?). Quoting from Hellen: > > I insisted, that the main thing, which makes Sci-Fi so > attractive, is the *possibility* all this to happen, to became true. (That’s > why, I, personaly, prefer the “hard” Sci-Fi to the Fantasy, for sample.) > This is the whole point of the discussion, therefore – to make the story > probable/ credible, simply, to make it belivable. Star Trek did make the teleport very popular, and also God-knows how many warp speeds (plus di-lithium crystals - maybe B7 is taking the piss with its obsession with crystals? Then again, crystals have many properties which may be useful in the future, especially for weaponry! There is a lot of research done into crystalline minerals and their various applications. The fact that they can be semiconductors ((like silicon)), can manipulate radiation like light and radio waves, and form perfect geometrical patterns yet grow organically ((like diamond)), makes them scientifically and commercially important. Semantics may be the only real problem with the ubiquitous nature of crystals in B7 - the word itself has gained many negative and less-than-serious connotations with the New Age movement, and the writers themselves abuse it when a different term would have been more suitable). However from today's perspective both teleportation and ftl travel look very unlikely, yet they are accepted as canon. Does not this apply to all Sci-Fi, including the fudge over the Fosforon plague? Its hypocritical to believe that teleportation would be possible because it is a positive and inspiring technology, yet something negative and unhelpful such as this plague is dismissed immediately. > ><snip> …structural alterations could not affect the DNA, which is what a > >virus attacks. > > Impossible not to. As the active part of the virus is it’s D(R)NA, it > allways affects the atacked cell. It is even considered, that some virus > particles are responsible for cancer diseases (malignant tumors, as it is > known, are (most probably) a result of the impact of the virus particles > over host’s DNA). Yes you're right! I remember that now, about the cancers. However the structural alterations I was referring to were those supposedly caused by the Terran Ague, not by the virus; I was just repeating your argument. > Every virus does so. No need to be an extra-terestrial one. I am even > thinking on the approach, which excludes the ‘alien’ influence here. > Couldn’t it be possible for the craft to contain the spontaneus (saused by > cosmic rays, for sample) mutation, lethal for the most of the people? Such a > mutations have had already happened here, on the Earth. More over, what > could be this space region, NEAR TO THE EARTH, and still not explored, I > wonder. Granted, if it was on the other side of the Galaxy, but it was > obviously reached by the one of the first interstellar crafts, launched by > the human. Yes, every virus does so, but I got the bursting part mixed up with Holmes' explanation, which emphasizes the fact that it is a very fast 'burn-out' virus which explodes through the body. This paragraph made me wonder if the virus itself got the Terran Ague! Maybe after the 3-day sweats it was only deadly to deep-space travellers. As regards being near to Earth, I don't exactly know where 61 Cygni is (I'm trying to remember the maps in Elite/Frontier!) but since Fosforon is a booster planet handling interstellar a-line Federation transmissions light-years from Earth, it would seem to suggest that 61 Cygni is actually not exactly round the corner, but more like on another continent! Maybe it only seems near now that most of the galaxy has been explored by human kind. > For Mr Sevencyclopaedia (Neil): You mock the alien civilisation for returning only one plague-ridden ship. This would obviously make very little impact as space is so ginormous (the shrinking of the dimensions of the galaxy was a common problem in B7). However Blake mentions that every ship that enters the alien system has vanished. Wouldn't it be the case that the aliens RETURNED EVERY SHIP with a deadly virus? Therefore there are hundreds heading for our solar system. As a warning. And only one needs to be found. Remember the tactic used by Drake or Raleigh or somebody in the English naval engagement with the Spanish Armada of sending 'fire ships' against the opposition? Don't mock the aliens! You may find yourself beamed up to 61 Cygni for mummifying! :-)) You also questioned why the plague affects only veterans of deep space travel. Well, either the aliens had suffered the ague themselves or they were just applying it to humans whom, as you mentioned, had already undergone the changes. The thing I am confused about is what happened to Wardin's two fellow crew members, and I wouldn't like to speculate. Maybe in a zoo vis-a-vis Planet of the Apes. Anyway, thinking of crystals - aren't the scriptwriters of B7 just attaching this future value to crystals to equate them with money and luxury rather than magic? Hi-tech replacements for gold bars. JDR - You cut his brain out / The fools finally did it (well thats all I can remember from PofApes). ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 08:40:19 +0200 From: Jacqueline Thijsen <jacqueline.thijsen@cmg.nl> To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: RE: [B7L] Re: Killer still (after 700 years) Message-ID: <39DCDDFD014ED21185C300104BB3F99F5F7621@NL-ARN-MAIL01> Content-Type: text/plain Nrice wrote: > Star Trek did make the teleport very popular, and also God-knows how many > warp speeds > (plus di-lithium crystals - maybe B7 is taking the piss with its obsession > with > crystals? > Hands up: who else flinched when Scotty replaced the old dilithium crystals of the Enterprise with those Captain Kirk got from the necklace of that barbarian princess without changing them in the least? I don't remember it ever being that bad in B7. Well, not often, anyway. BTW, Neil, I'm still planning to reply to your posting, but I haven't found the time to rewatch that episode yet. Jacqueline ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 08:42:43 +0200 From: Jacqueline Thijsen <jacqueline.thijsen@cmg.nl> To: lysator <blakes7@lysator.liu.se> Subject: RE: [B7L] Question Message-ID: <39DCDDFD014ED21185C300104BB3F99F5F7624@NL-ARN-MAIL01> Content-Type: text/plain > Calle wrote: > >Did they have rats and spiders and such on the Liberator, do you think? > And Neil answered: > Don't know about spiders, but they definitely had at least one rat. He > went > over from the London with Blake and Jenna. > I knew there was a reason I liked rats. I've got two of them as pets. > Sorry, couldn't resist that. > <g> I'll believe you couldn't resist it, but somehow I find it hard to believe that you're sorry about that. Jacqueline ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 09 Aug 1999 01:58:42 PDT From: "Sally Manton" <smanton@hotmail.com> To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Rewriting the Canon (wasPossible Federation Ender....) Message-ID: <19990809085843.61764.qmail@hotmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Neil wrote: <And even when it is a device, there's always just the one of it, with half a dozen other parties trying to get their mitts on it at the same time. Why can't they, just for once, need to lay their hands on something that's churned out by the million and flogged on a 'Buy Two, Get One Free' basis?> Oh they did, Neil, they *did*, in between episodes (even Ben Steed couldn't get 50 minutes out of Vila teleporting down to the nearest Cheap-N-Nasty outlet for the B7 equivalent of soldering wire, though I've seen some fanfic that tried to.) I'm with you and Hellen on the subject of crystals, BTW. And this from someone whose scientific knowledge could be written on the back of a postage stamp, and who can suspend disbelief all the way to Alpha Centauri if necessary... <One example for me is Ven Glynd's reference to two years (since he last saw Blake) in Voice - this is too short a period for me, I would rather have 4-5 years.> I like this (because I just don't feel comfortable with the shorter period) how long then do you think passed between Voice and Blake? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 13:46:13 -0400 From: Harriet Monkhouse <101637.2064@compuserve.com> To: "Blake's 7 (Lysator)" <BLAKES7@lysator.liu.se> Subject: [B7L] Power video Message-ID: <199908091346_MC2-8054-D99C@compuserve.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hurrah! I managed to pick up the Power/Traitor video today between pitch inspections at the Old Trafford Test. Whether I'll bring myself to watch the first-named episode again is another matter. The spine photo for fourth season is evidently Scorpio. Funnily enough, every shop I visit which still has the third season tapes has the complete set apart from the one with Paul Darrow's face on the spine. Harriet -------------------------------- End of blakes7-d Digest V99 Issue #242 **************************************