I have wached a few (too many to mention).
Not for a week or do, tho. What's happening?

I love abebooks myself. That's where I actually found ALL of the Dortmunder books (despite the fact that 7 or 8 of them are out of print).



--------------
"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

Hee. Sorry for the confusion. Made me laugh, though...maybe we should write a crossover fic.

Sue: (Spoilers!!) Carolina and David have just died in a car crash, and Russ has been crushing diet pills into Sandra's food without her knowledge. Excitement!

(i had to pop into threaded view to check that was about doctors :o))



:--

Do something pretty while you can...

More crossover. ....

tried to get hold of Rebecca's world a while back but couldn't. Abebooks only has "De wereld van Rebecca" and my German isn't so good.
For some reason, Terry Nation also wrote a lot of Doctor Who stuff ... children's fiction and cult sci-fi .... hmmm

Terry Nation was also the creator of "Blake's 7".

All right. I'll shut up now. But if people will go round mentioning him...



..........................................................................................

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Aaahhh ... then he's more of a *sci-fi* guy than a *children's books* person...
My world shatters and reassembles in a more coherent fashion at least twice a day. Never got round to seeing all of Blake's 7 - was it any good? Classic tho'.

I own the video version of The Phantom Toll Booth... v. good, even if it does look totally drug induced! LOL

Oh, and Welcome Milo!

LOVE The Phantom Toll Booth. Read it in school and then bought it a few years ago when it was re-printed. Nothing like reliving your childhood

Milo, I did see every episode of Blake's 7 the first time round, but I think describing it as 'good' is stretching a point a little. It seemed fantastic at the time, but if you (or rather I) watch it now it comes across rather like Crossroads Motel In Space . . .

Did anyone ever notice that the bloke who played Vila is a dead ringer for Trevor Harrison who plays Eddie Grundy on the Archers (note for non-Brits -- that's a radio soap about farmers that's been running for about 50 years)? At one point I thought it must really be him, but I checked and ut turns out it's not . . . the characters are kind of similar too. So maybe B7 was more Archers in Space.



Jesus saves; Buddha does incremental backup.

Wasn't Terry Nation responsible for creating the Daleks in Dr. Who as well?

Yes, Belochka, he was indeed.

Guy - I've got to disagree with you! OK, to quote Paul Darrow himself, the special effects weren't very special. Moreover, the props were in some cases so rickety that they were regularly broken by Paul (Avon's feline grace was just incredibly good acting - Paul is as ham-fisted as they get in real life). However, the acting was terrific, at least from the main characters, and the story lines were a great deal more subtle and interesting than a lot of people seem to think. My friend Alan is the person to talk to about this. He's studied the series in considerable detail and identified a number of fascinating subtexts, particularly in the episodes written by Terry Nation and/or Chris Boucher. Since he knows Chris Boucher well, he has been able to confirm that these subtexts actually were put there deliberately and aren't simply a product of his (ie Alan's) creative imagination.

It should also be remembered that B7 was originally made on the same budget as its predecessor, "Softly, Softly", which was a police drama and therefore didn't require all those special effects. Those in charge at the BBC weren't sufficiently familiar with the requirements of science fiction to understand that it needed a larger budget. So, really, they did astonishingly well with what they had... it still makes me smile when I think that Avon's original trousers and shoes from the beginning of the first series came straight from Marks & Spencer!



..........................................................................................

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

B7's predecessor was Softly Softly??

I now have this image of Charlie Barlow and John Watt piloting Ford Zephyrs across the universe to bring Servalan to justice ......



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

The name 'Softly Softly' sounds rather Runyonesque to me: Can't you imagine the scene...

"So here I am standing on the corner outside Joe's Place, just watching the dames walking by, on account of there's still a couple of hours to go before Nathan's crap game starts, when along comes Softly-softly Barlow with a couple of harness bulls behind him and starts asking all sorts of awkward questions like 'Do I know who heisted that load of diamonds last night'. And I am not wishing to have to answer this, because Softly-softly Barlow is known for not liking it when a guy gives him a bum steer but if I explain how it was Two-faced Tony who pulled that job then Two-faced and his pals are likely to rearrange my own face rather seriously when they hear of this."

************************************************************

"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."



Post Edited (06-06-03 08:48)

Oh, yes. Would fit right in with Nicely-Nicely...



:--

Do something pretty while you can...

I should like to point out that I am hearing where Nathan Detroit's famous permanent floating crap game does not start, on account of how it never finishes, but this may be strictly the old phonus-balonus.

OK, I'll sit down. Don't want to rock the boat.



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

*snork*

Keep this up, guys. I'm reading and appreciating every word!

(Edit: somewhere in my collection I actually have a piece of B7 fan fiction written in the style of Damon Runyan. The writer changed the characters' names a little in order to make them suit the context better. Sadly I can't just lay my hands on it, which is a pity, as it was an absolute hoot!)



Post Edited (06-05-03 14:41)

..........................................................................................

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

I have a wee confession to make, not only did I watch the series, but I acquired a almost entire collection of he videos.
Not all of my friends know this, so keep t quiet.
Its ace if you watch it half cut...

I've been a B7 fan for decades (frighteningly true !), and plan to buy the first series on DVD when it's released soon. The show's strength was in the writing and acting. It didn't conform to the niceness of most dramas, as the characters make mistakes, got themselves and each other killed and bickered, often wittily. Blake starts as a straight-foward do-gooder, fighting the corrupt Federation, but the series turns darker until Blake's actions start to become something closer to terrorism.

There was always a bunch of good lines though:

"I'm not stupid, I'm not expendable and I'm not going"

Terry Nation also worked with Tony Hancock, and wrote scripts for many of Lew Grade's action series in the 60's, like 'The Avengers', 'The Pursuaders' etc. He not only created the daleks, he also kept the copyright in them. The BBC had to consult him about any script featuring the Daleks and he got money from the merchandise. Smart move !

Skiffle - I might be way off beam here, but did you ever think that some of the B7 'gun fights' were western influenced? I'm thinking particularly of the last ever episode. I watched it with a friend who said (quoting from memory) "do you think the writers were watching Peckinpah at all?" I think he also said something complicated about nihilism, but I don't remember that too well.

B7 influenced by westerns ... whatever next, westerns influenced by B7? :-)



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty