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Seek-Locate-Destroy (106)
This is an excellent episode with an intelligent and clever script. There's so much to comment on, but I'll keep it short because I'm going out soon--to the seaside for lunch on a surprisingly nice day. :-)
Vila
He's so funny and expressive and cute in this ep and gets some great lines. He looks so resigned when he's about to be teleported, I love the look on his face when he melts the end of his probe (oops), his spiel to the guards, how he props them up after he and Blake knock them out, his "Don't leave me!" and his nervous jump and clutch at his heart when Blake calls to him. I think this is the ep in which I decided I loved him.
How did he intercept the computer refusal and change it to acceptance though? Surely that would require a hack rather than just blocking it.
Avon
My favourite line of his is this ep isn't the funniest, but so true. "At least I'll know what the Federation is planning." That even gets an appreciative grin from Gan.
OCs
The wonderful Bercol and Rontane and their twisty politics of course, but Prell is also a great character who feels real with an off-screen life one can believe in.
Servalan
So beautiful and poised. I believe her lines were written for a male and weren't altered, so I amused myself trying to hear them with a different delivery from a different Supreme Commander: Rai really being an old friend instead of what Servalan's body language makes him here. :-)
Travis
Appears to be considerably brighter than Servalan, and almost as good at the power gaming. He's the one that realises how to use the knowledge that the rebels can now read their signals to trap Blake when Servalan merely wants to change the codes. His delivery of "Depend on it" and his last line are wonderfully flat and all the more convincing when they could have been laughably melodramatic.
Blake
Despite his willingness to lead his crew blindly into battle, he's still far too high-minded for his (and their) own good., "Killing you'll change nothing. You don't matter enough to kill, Travis." Wrong both times. OK, I know they didn't want their hero to shoot someone down in cold blood, but in a couple of seasons... [ahem, spoiler, 'Star One'].
The crew's inability to count to five
OK, playing the game, there could be an explanation. In Cygnus Alpha, Vargas arrives before Blake and the others although they were teleported at the same time, and in another teleport bay (because he steps out of it and towards the one Blake et al have just materialised in). I can see that it would be safer / easier to handle if people in different locations were sent to different bays, so Jenna and the others could have assumed Cally was in the other one. Bit lax not to turn around and check though.
Borked backups
Actually it was Greg who recognised all the multiple-disc packs in the room Cally has the Federation prisoners under guard. What was that room, their backup and paper storage (in all the plastic crates) facility? I bet none of the discs were readable after that explosion.
Long-suffering tech support: "Didn't you take a backup?"Writing
Programmer (who didn't but has a ready excuse now): "Course we did, but it was Blaked."
A well-crafted ep (apart from poor missing Cally) which not only introduces two new regulars very succinctly but also has three interesting and memorable guest characters. The story of Travis and Blake's previous encounter was cleverly done, cutting between Travis telling Servalan and Blake telling the crew.
My favourite episode of season 1.
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Let the record reflect that it's bloody pointless to steal a cipher machine, as soon as they send the cipher clerk to report that there's been a rebel attack, they just change the cipher.
What was that room, their backup and paper storage (in all the plastic crates) facility?
It's the pilot for The Office (Fed)!
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Hmm. Mustache guy could be the inefficient bloated blowhard and Prell the long-suffering one that does the work.
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As for Servalan, that scene with Rai makes me wonder the sexual exploitation of subordinates (it looks like harassment/exploitation to me, rather than any kind of old friendship) is par for the course with the Federation. Wouldn't surprise me.
Your comment about Travis being brighter than Servalan is very interesting. I wonder if it's more that Servalan is so used to focusing on the backstabbing power politics of the Federation that she's unable to see beyond them? I get the sense that her climb to Supreme Commander happened through brilliant Machiavellian scheming rather than brilliant military planning.
Possibly my favorite thing about the episode was the introductory shot of Travis coming into Servalan's office, where we see only his mechanical arm and his leather-clad arse. I dunno if it was deliberately kinky, but that was certainly the effect.
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I take it you haven't seen S4 yet, in which Vila and Avon are reduced to 2D caricatures containing only their worst traits. I suspect that part of the reason for Vila's treatment in S3 is them not giving him anything to do, so all he does is sit around like a spare part and panic. Dayna is on weapons instead of him, and he only gets one lock to open--and that in his Special Episode (a good one nonetheless). Vila performs well when he has something to do.
I get the sense that her climb to Supreme Commander happened through brilliant Machiavellian scheming rather than brilliant military planning.
You're probably right!
we see only his mechanical arm and his leather-clad arse.
Oh, yes. A striking shot and an excellent intro to a character with great presence - at least as Travis 1 (he's played by another actor in S2). I love how he deliberately ignores Servalan's ploy of making him wait and puts her at the disadvantage.
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No, I'm still finishing S3. The mere thought of S4 depresses me.
Vila performs well when he has something to do.
As opposed to when he's being bullied and threatened by that bastard Tarrant? *does not like Tarrant*
Travis 1 (he's played by another actor in S2)
*nods* And about all that can be said for the new actor is that he gets a little less awful as the show continues.
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You are not alone. :-(
*does not like Tarrant*
Surprisingly there are those who do. Dayna is not much better to Vila either, but I can see why they despise him: Avon's introduction of Vila to them, the fact that he seems to have no useful function, and Tarrant being military and Dayna being brought up to see people as predator or prey. Doesn't make me like the way they treat him any more though.
he gets a little less awful as the show continues.
He's quite interesting in 'Gambit'. And I do know someone who prefers him to Travis 1!
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It says in Textual Poachers that Tarrant gained a fanbase from people who met Pacey at cons and liked him. I also think that, while she must have improved later, Josette Simon's performance is pretty cringeworthy, which I suppose is not Dayna's fault but has always influenced my feelings about the character.
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My Rod and My Staff Shall Comfort Me
Possibly they put Servalan in charge of the Sexual Harassment Initiative and it soon became her favorite part of the job.
Servalan has every intention of living to attain, as a later episode says, "Maximum Power" whereas Travis honestly doesn't care if he dies or not, which makes Blake's unwillingness to kill Travis particularly unreciprocated.
Re: My Rod and My Staff Shall Comfort Me
. . . and she took it rather literally.
Also, I love your use of the word "unreciprocated," given how every "enemies" relationship on the show crackles with sexual tension.
Re: My Rod and My Staff Shall Comfort Me
It was the one metric that increased every quarter!
I don't think B7 furnishes many instances of friendship, but there is an intensity of emotion that blurs the distinction between the way the characters feel about their allies and the way they feel about their enemies.
Re: My Rod and My Staff Shall Comfort Me
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Servalan herself is, well, iconic in this episode. She's so totally different from what you expect, after having been immersed in this dowdy, grey world, where everything is subordinated to practicality. And she looks so vulnerable in that white, with that extraordinarily youthful face, beset on both sides by R & B - and then you gradually realise who they're really dealing with. I used to really dislike Servalan when I was a kid, but she blows me away now. It's a fantastic performance. Like I said, iconic.
I also really liked the technician ringing Travis to tell him they've worked out what's been stolen, with pride and satisfaction written all over his face.
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Servalan is a great character in the first two and even three seasons, then she totally outstays her welcome and becomes very OTT and annoying in her ubiquity.
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Yes, and Tarrant seems to think there's honour among the military as well. It would make sense that they aren't ALL in the SS (until the tide turns against the Federation, when everybody gets drafted in).
I forgot to say how much I liked Vila's little "distraction" speech. It's so funny it's almost plausible that the guard is too gob-smacked to respond.
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And hee; I just used 'gobsmacked' as a mood icon in my museum post.
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Blake may suppose his refusal to kill Travis is high-minded (though see later) but I don't. Even early on, he is willing to sacrifice innocent life when the price is right, and as for Shadow.... He does have a problem killing any individual outside a combat situation, rather like Hornblower, but actually the one time I think he tells the truth about why he won't kill Travis is when he tells someone he'd enjoy it too much. I think he senses that capacity in himself and doesn't like it.
One of my all-time fave moments - when Vila forces Avon to say he's glad they're back. Says volumes about both of them; Avon's semi-autistic thought process audibly ticking over: oh, is that the appropriate reaction when someone returns from danger? and the sudden realisation for the audience that no, actually, Vila isn't scared of him at all.
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Oh yes, I think that's in 'Duel'.
Vila isn't scared of him at all.
That shows up even when Avon hits him after the mission; Vila hits back verbally with "You were supposed to disconnect that thing, not rely on Gan to tear it loose with his teeth."
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It can't be literally true, because the London is a civilian ship, but I rather like the thought of Mr. Artix studying hard to get promoted to a job where he could wear evening gowns to work.
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ha!
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Mind you, I'd think that the Federation would want to keep even quieter about using computer skills to accumulate a fortune than about political rebellion, since there'd be more people with a taste for the former.