Boucher, Backbone and Blake

[igenlode]

Sharing this again because it's just such a good piece of writing -- about acting, about editing, about Blake's 7: http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/articles/boucher-backbone-and-blake-the-legacy-of-blakes-7/

Comments

[erimia]

This article is excellent, though I'm not sure if this show can easily be interpreted as being about necessity of political resistance - if anything, Boucher is the author who sometimes gives me the impression that he thinks that any rebellion is futile or wrong, and the fans certainly love to see Blake as the one who's being wrong. I agree, though, that Blake is crucial for the show, that Thomas performance was very good (I used to think he was a bit too tepid for a rebel leader but it really grew on me) and that this sort of character is rare for TV in general and is inlikely to be seen in the shows of today. This also reminds me of Natasa Tucev's "Why False Charges?" which argues for some of the same points.

[igenlode]

I've been re-reading one of my old zines (Rebel Destinies 1 -- 338 pages of A4 text), and it's very noticeable how many of the stories describe Blake as 'naive', which he certainly is not. (With the arguable exception of the first episode, where he trusts in the justice system...)

On the other hand, a lot of the stories unthinkingly describe series 4 Avon as 'mad' without showing any behaviour that would seem to justify this -- presumably because it would dent their idol too much, so he gets the free pass of not being held responsible for his canon acts, without the embarrassing necessity of depicting any behaviour that would contradict their argument that Blake needs Avon to rescue him from his terminal incompetence :-P

[erimia]

Those who think that Blake is naive probably either adopt what they think is Avon's view of him (except I'm not sure that it's Avon's view of him) or think that all ideologically motivated people are naive. Or maybe they mistake the basic human decency and lack of Cool Gritty Edginess for naivety.

I know about "Anon was mad" fanon, but thankfully it seems to be going out of fashion now. At least I always hear it in the context of it being criticized.

[igenlode]

I didn't realise the "Avon was going insane" dictum had gone out of fashion -- I've never seen it as anything other than unquestioned fact in zines (whereas 'Blake is naive' is definitely a matter of biased opinion that varies in depiction from story to story). But I'm not in contact with fandom discussions these days, and I haven't ever spent enough time analyzing the final series to bother to question the matter.