Project Avalon (109)

[vilakins]

Apart from the inside of the Avalon android's head and the gratuitous exposure of the original one's body, this is a very good and enjoyable episode.

Crew
I love Vila turning his suit heating up all the way and gasping in pain, the way Avon and Cally watch in bemusement as he tries to delay leaving, and the wonderful smile Avon has after he teleports Vila. He's genuinely amused, and Cally's amused at his reaction. And Vila's "I have a weak chest" (awww) gets quoted a lot around this house when I have a cough (as I do right now).
Avon gets some good lines when he declines Blake's offer to accompany him:

AVON: Another idealist, poor but honest. I shall look forward to our meeting with eager anticipation.
BLAKE: Is your anticipation eager enough to come down there with me?
AVON: Not quite. I think I shall contain my enthusiasm here in the warm.

I assume Jenna goes with Blake because she's met Avalon before, though I note that the original script had Cally going. Jenna has obviously taught Cally well, and they seem to have patched up their initial differences and become friends.
I like that Blake tells Chevner that Vila knows his job--he's proud of his crew--and how he tells Vila he'll applaud him later.
Slightly OOC: Blake breaking the trooper's neck (a bit on the nose for an ostensible family program) and Vila's tough act when he and Blake acquire their tour guide.

Others
Avalon seems very young--and uncharismatic--for someone with her history of successful rebellion.
Poor Chevner, that dead red herring. I asked Greg who he thought was the plant, and he was sure it was Chevner.
What is Travis doing with his handheld? Playing games? It looks a bit like it when he waves the mutoid away from the screen which shows a lot of circular objects. Space invaders!
The mutoid seems as intelligent as Keera, and is probably also an officer. However the ones she calls into the caves react like robots she has to direct: proceed straight ahead; stop; turn right; proceed. And of course her understandable resemblance to Soolin has given rise to a lot of fanfic.
Is Chevner a Subterron, as is implied when he says he worked on the building of the base? My first impression was that they'd be aliens.
One of the prisoners was called Raiker, in cell N15. A relative, perhaps? A result of the Federation's policy of punishing offenders' families? I wonder what the others were in for. Pelar looked tougher and much more the rebel than Avalon.

Story
It's a clever story and we do get clues in hindsight: "The standard triple omega should provide a perfect basis." and "You've drawn your new weapon from the armoury, I see."
Greg thought 'Duel' was the best so far, but said afterwards that this one was as good as 'Duel'. I still think 'Seek-Locate-Destroy' is the best of the season, but 'Project Avalon' is pretty good.

Comments

[executrix.livejournal.com]

It probably doesn't take much charisma to get people to hate the Federation!

Project Avalon is ruined for me by the show's obvious lack of interest in Revolution Comma How to Run, because even if Blake wasn't familiar with Rebel Movements Throughout the Galaxy, or if he knew about Avalon but forgot what he knew in the mind-wipes, you'd really think they'd sketch out a plan for using the best available spaceship and the most brilliant computer mind productively for the greater glory of the Cause.

And, man, Servalan doesn't even pretend to be brave when threatened with a purple ping=pong ball, does she?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

They never use what they have. [rolls eyes] I'd have got Orac to insinuate stories into the media and hack people's files to mess up their lives and careers, Avon to indeed bring down the economy, Cally to terrify people with her brain, Gan to pose for a Soviet-style striding magnificently into the future poster, Vila to hook up with the Deltas and speak their language...

But to suggest any of that in a story is to run the risk of super characters or Mary-Sueism.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

IIRC the neck-breaking was Gareth's idea. He felt that Blake should be more ruthless if he was a really dedicated rebel.

[quarryquest.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he told me that too. We was a bit fed up about him being wishy washy in that department apparently.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Makes sense to me. How can you be a gentle revolutionist? Well, you can, but then you *DIE* very quickly. Blake had already seen what happened to peaceful protesters.

[quarryquest.livejournal.com]

That was what he said when we had our little chat at Gatton and he kindly talked with my poor inner teenager who was still mourning his leaving and explained what drove him away from the series.

He felt Blake wasn't getting anywhere, wanted him to take risks and gamble more, develop more of a controversial edge.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

*nods* Blake's aim was to overturn the existing order. He *had* to become more desperate as time went on and they didn't seem to be making any overall progress. Survival wasn't Blake's aim. Success at all costs, was. Of course, if he never left I wouldn't have got to see Avon take over and go mildly mad from stress, which I quite enjoyed. I liked the way things went topsy-turvy without Blake. It made sense.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

How can you be a gentle revolutionist? Well, you can, but then you *DIE* very quickly.

Gandhi managed fairly well, but he was admittedly dealing with a fairly civilised regime.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Gandhi was a truly remarkable man. Frankly, I don't think Blake would have been much good at fasting, or making his own clothes.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

Considering what we see in Horizon, I am truly grateful not to have entire episodes of loincloth-clad Blake.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Or him lying on a pallet on the floor with a naked crewmember each side to prove how celibate he is.

Or maybe not, depending on whom he chooses.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

But if he fasted, that would have changed the Horizon view.

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

*pats Blake's tummy*

I rather like that the actors aren't so pretty and hardbodied as most modern actors are.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I'm of two minds about it--it's true that it seems more real if everybody doesn't look like The Federation's Next Supermodel but eye candy *is* one feature of TV. Anyway, Firefly shows that you can have gritty events and morally ambiguous characters without sacrificing Actor Gorgeousness.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

People here and in the UK are used to having real-looking people on their screens--and finding something attractive about them. I think the B7 crew are all good-looking in their own ways, and they certainly have presence. Too much in Darrow's case; he's still declaiming for the stage. This was what I found most off-putting when I saw the reruns: the staginess. Either I got used to it or they toned it down.

[shimere277.livejournal.com]

Avalon's skimpy clothes didn't bother me since in her situation, humiliating her and making her feel vulnerable would be part of breaking her will.

You know, this story never floated my boat. It is a pretty decent story, but there's just nothing about it that grabs me. There were no really interesting sci fi premises (the android impostor was a plot device used well, but there was nothing particularly intriguing or original about it), nothing that affeced the long-term plotline, no great emotional dramas. That's how I feel about a lot of S1, actually. "Duel" strikes me as a ripoff of ST:TOS "Arena" but with see-through costumes.

S-L-D is awesome on the strength of Travis drooling over the Blake torture shots.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I liked the slave who was killed as a demo.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Duel is the obligatory SF Arena story, but at least it was more intelligent than most and there's some nice character stuff. I get bored with fight scenes very quickly unless they're really well done as in Kill Bill. I'm not sure why Greg liked it as much as he did.

S-L-D is the best of S1 and a great introduction to Servalan and Travis; pity they got so campy later.

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

humiliating her and making her feel vulnerable would be part of breaking her will

I agree with that. There may still have been an element of gratuitousness on the part of the people making the show, but it's still a choice that makes sense within the storyline.

[mraltariel.livejournal.com]

This was the first episode of B7 I ever saw, and I clearly enjoyed it enough to watch the rest (even before I met A!). And it also kicked off my own worship of the ever-magnificent role-model that is Vila.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

You are a man of impeccable taste.

Audacity, Audacity, Always Audacity

[seileach67.livejournal.com]

Vila's tough act when he and Blake acquire their tour guide.
It's such a cool line, though! :)
I don't know about OOC because it seems like you and I would both agree that for Vila to have survived this long, he's got to be tough underneath even though he prefers caution and probably does have certain phobias. I think it took real guts to stroll right up to those troopers in "Seek-Locate-Destroy" when they could have, and for all he knew, would have blown him away the second they saw him. Not the act of a coward, in my book. I'm jumping ahead, but remember in "Rescue"
SPOILERS AHEAD!!! sorry folks, but I need it for my point...
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when they first board Scorpio and Avon is directing the rest to do this, do that, and then he says, "Vila," and Vila snaps out, "Ready!" clutching his weapon in a very determined (bordering on macho) way, and Avon looks taken aback, with a "Good God, man, calm down, will you?" expression as he tells Vila what to do. Obviously, not the behavior Avon's used to from Vila, but there's no reason why Vila has to behave exactly as Avon expects. :)
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END OF SPOILERS
so from that I think we see that Vila is capable of acting in a forceful way. It might be just bravado, but I think he's capable of the real thing.
Sorry about all the extra lines; I couldn't figure out how to hide the spoilers behind the cut--it kept showing up in the preview.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

You can't put cuts in a comment--only a post--so that's why it didn't work. :-)

Oh yes, Vila is genuinely brave; I've always said so. He talks a lot about being afraid, but he acts regardless. It's just that jabbing someone with a gun and actually talking tough didn't seem much like him. But yes, it could be like his spiel in S-L-D: an act he had fun with.

He's cool under fire--when he's firing back on the neutron blasters, or picking a lock--and he carried out several rescues over the series. Me, I'd have been terrified witless. Vila really gets an undeservedly bad rep as a coward, but with him--as with Avon--you have to look at what he does rather than what he says.

Vila's also quite tough in S4 in 'Gold' when he thinks Avon's dead, and look at how well her performs (hem hem) in 'City'. I do think he'll leave it to someone else if he can, but do a pretty damned good job if there's no one else around to do it. :-)