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The Way Back (101)
I thought I might as well repost my comments from the Lyst B7 mailing list here since we've moved on to discussing 'Space Fall' there.
And also: Happy Birthday to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
jhall1!
Thoughts on 'The Way Back'
Establishment (in more ways than one)
I thought the opening shot was a brilliant touch: a surveillance camera, immediately establishing the sort of society the Federation is--and, I believe, years before CCTV. Then we hear a PA announcement about closed walkways and cardholders having to report to Central. None of this seems to bother any of the people moving quietly and calmly through the corridors, and almost immediately Ravella tells Blake about the suppressants in the food and water. The world Blake lives in seems clean and sterile and ordered--and he's quite happy in it.
One question I had was: why was Blake unaware until then of his own past when others obviously knew it? After all, he'd been on TV, publicly recanting. I think people were too afraid to mention it in case they were taken in for questioning--or worse: "Don't mention the rebellion!". This is a very strong indication of what a fear-driven and controlled society this is.
Blake
He's a law-abiding and seemingly quite content citizen with little curiosity, and a strange passivity until he begins to get his memory back. He's also not yet the brave and dashing rebel, hiding cautiously out of sight when the troopers turn up. I would assume that all citizens learn from an early age to stand back and look away. He only begins to be the Blake we know as the London leaves Earth.
Crime and punishment
The vistapes sent home from Blake's executed brother and sister are an obvious parallel with the postcards sent from the Nazi death camps. Why would the Federation spend money to send people to other planets, just to kill them on arrival? I'd say so that people have no idea what's doing on. It's so much easier to hush up when it's far away.
Why wasn't Blake killed? My theory is that he is a living, walking deterrent to others. He was forced to recant, then mindwiped, and I'm sure many would consider this to be worse than a quick and heroic rebel's death. However when Blake broke his conditioning, he was in danger of becoming a figurehead again, so they had to discredit him for good. And how they did that is incredibly cynical and immoral: they deliberately ruined three boys' lives. I still cannot believe that this series was promoted as a family one and shown fairly early in the evening.
Obviously not everyone in the legal system is corrupt because we have Tel Varon who is first willing to defend a man he believes to be guilty, then when he realises that there's something very wrong going on, does his best to find out what it is, willingly helped by Maja.
Technology
People sneer at B7 special (or not) effects, but I thought the Dome was very well done. I was also impressed by Cell 3 morphing when Varon went to interview Blake.
iPod!
Women
I have no objection to the way women are shown here; quite the reverse. Alta Morag is powerful and clever, Maja is not just willing not only to accompany Tel but asks important questions of iPod Man too, and Jenna is tough and capable.
Jenna
As I said, she's tough and capable, and given her billing directly below Blake in the credits, I'm pretty sure Terry Nation intended her to be Blake's second in command. Pity that didn't happen, just as with the female Number One from the pilot of Star Trek whose role was considered too strong for a woman [rolls eyes]
Vila
Vila's sly and almost sinister here. I have to fit this in with the rest of the series, so I explain this by him playing the crazy card to make people give him a nice wide berth on the London. I also have to explain his petty and not very skilful thefts from Blake in the light of his obvious skill later. I think he did it in plain sight of Jenna to look incompetent so that any much more clever thefts later wouldn't be blamed on him. He also says he's compulsive, but though many fic writers have picked up and run with that, there's no evidence for this outside this ep. I think he has a drive to prove his cleverness as a cracksman because it's the one thing he's better than anyone else at, but the actual stealing seems to be almost incidental.
One objection
"They literally took your mind to pieces and rebuilt it." No, they didn't. I mourn the loss of this once useful word that is coming to mean 'metaphorically'.
Overall
This is a very clever SF story that could stand alone. It describes a society depressingly well, and all the characters are well-drawn and distinctive. I remember watching it for the first time in 2001 (that I remember; I must have seen it as a kid) and being quite appalled by the last scene. I thought they'd settle for Varon being too late with his evidence, but right there they're showing us how much chance anyone has of fighting the Federation and winning.
Definitely not a 'family' series despite the slot it was originally shown in.
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But I love it anyway. All right, 75% of it.
The other half's on Blake!
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Oh yes, I agree.
Having spent a fair while (about 30 years) thinking about Vila's first thefts, I've always thought they were his attempt to meet people. It works
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Someone on the Lyst made a good case for why Vila changed after he was on the Liberator. On the London, he was on edge, fighting suppressants, unwilling to take risks surrounded by dangerous cons, but on the Lib, he was with people he liked or at least trusted, and he was part of a very powerful and fast ship's crew, so he allows his real self to come through. I rather like that.
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He blossomed! Well, for a while anyway
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Define "mind", and then one can tell if it's literal or metaphorical. :)
No, actually, I'm very serious. If they were, in actual fact, removing and replacing his memories, reactions, behavior patterns, and thoughts, I think there's a very good case for that being literal.
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I find this even creepier than the prospect of real death. You have someone who looks the same, talks the same but the mind that was once there has gone.
Blake the revolutionary was beaten, tortured, drugged and psychologically manipulated until he became Blake the model citizen. The memories and spirit that once drove him had been locked away out of his reach until the sheer horror and shock of the massacre provided the key back to his old self.
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I do love Vila and Jenna in The Way Back; a very good choice to represent the 'criminal elements' ^^.
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"But what did he do with those children?"
"Gave them sweeties and offered them a ride in his spaceship which annoyed their parents. Shut up and watch."
Vila and Jenna are great. It's a pity they softened Vila and reduced Jenna's role. Jenna ought to have been my favourite (I wanted to be a pilot) but instead I chose Vila and Cally.
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In the next episode, I bet some of the more devious kiddies put on innocent faces and asked their parents what Captain Leylan meant about Raiker being "discreet."
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So that the ordinary citizen sees him as a disgusting pervert instead of a noble martyr sentenced for his beliefs. That bit makes sense, but not that no one seems bothered by the charges thereafter. I'd have thought the convicts would have beaten him up regularly, and that his name was mud throughout the galaxy but Hal Mellanby tells us otherwise. OK, I know it wasn't something they'd want to address in a 'family program' but in that case they should have thought up another charge like terrorism: so much better, believable, and it allows for differing opinions depending on belief.
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MAL: Ain't about you, Jayne. It's about what they need.
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!!!
I suppose that would be one good answer anyway
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As for Blake being guilty the reason they couldn't was already explained in episode 1. It would have been too politically dangerous to do so even after 3 years he still had quite a following.
As for the rest, I suppose it depends on how public the trial was. Blake declared he was innocent and had been framed and then as soon as he and his merry band escape he begins his campaign against the Federation. I think even the best spin doctors would have found it difficult to keep up the pretence of "Blake the child molester".
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I wish they'd kept Vila the way he was in the first episode; he seems smart, capable, maybe a little sinister... I know we all love him anyway, but I would have liked to see more done with the person he was at first.
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I would have liked to see more done with the person he was at first.
Yes, me too, though he's even more smart and capable later: getting through every lock, shooting down pursuit ships on the neutron blasters, able to manoeuvre the Lib out of Ultraworld, rescuing the others more than once, the only one Avon ever gave sole charge of Scorpio to...
He just covers it up more with overt cowardice (though like Rodney in SGA he acts anyway when his friends are in danger). I think it's the whining and the vulnerability that make him different. The whining I could do without but if he hadn't been vulnerable, I would never have got into fanfic and LJ and all the rest. :-)
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