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Weapon (203)
The one with the clone, Carnell... and the collars
Costumes
What were they thinking? Coser is a beta-grade technician, not the ruler of an exotic planet. He should have been in something dull and utilitarian, not a flamboyant outfit encrusted with semi-precious gems. Rashel is a bond slave and she too has a killer collar which surely made the menial tasks I assume she did somewhat difficult--unless she was Coser's possession and her duties more--- recreational as Avon would say. Perhaps Coser's outfit was something he wore when he had fantasies about his own importance.
The theme is continued: Clonemaster Fen has a towering collar (which I could accept for her) and Servalan has rather a nice lacy one.
Vila's plain black shirt suits him (pity we never see it again), and hey, it's the first appearance of the red lobster suit for Avon!
Gadgetry
IMIPAK is an incentive and chilling idea. I do wonder though how long the effect lasts. Surely not a lifetime as Coser says when everyone's cells get replaced constantly so that after 7 years (I think) we're made anew.
Not well thought out
I find it unlikely to say the least that Clonemaster Fen would know what Blake's wearing on the Liberator, but the clones are wearing the same outfit.
Much worse however is the pause Blake, Gan, and Avon all make in open view so that Travis can zap them with IMIPAK. Firstly it's stupid for each one to pause in the open like that, and secondly, how come they couldn't see Travis if he could see them? They all stand obligingly there and look his way.
Also rather odd is the clone calling to Coser, then asking who he is.
CLONE 2: [O.O.V.] Coser. [Enters] I am not armed.
COSER: I know you. You're Blake. Blake!
CLONE 2: Thank you, but I know I am. Who are you?
Perhaps he was thrown by Rashel's presence and thought they were someone else?
Staginess
The choir of angels when the Clonemaster descends the stairs amused me greatly, but she does explain it's a mood room and I suppose it reacted to her stagy, dramatic entrance. :-) I love that Servalan tries to do the same to her office afterwards with the colour changes.
PD however was even more stagy in this ep. He out-hammed everyone with hs deliberate and carefully enunciated delivery.
Huh?
Speaking of Avon, what the hell was the "Justify stupid" bit about? People quote it but it doesn't make sense. He fires it at Vila with such triumph too. Did he really mean "Define 'stupid'"?
Rashel
Rashel is a wonderful character. She is intelligent, brave, and would take charge very capably if Coser weren't such a snob. He talks about freeing her, but then continues to treat her as a slave; I notice that after he says he's set her free, she has to follow him, carrying his bags. It's a pity she speaks like an Alpha born and bred, but that's only a small niggle.
There's an interesting parallel to the way Coser speaks to her in the way the Liberator crew talk to Vila, a free citizen.
Themes
A large one is freedom: Rashel's, freedom from grade strictures and expectations, and freedom from the threat of IMIPAK as Rashel says at the end: "We must get a message to Blake, and tell him he's free too."
Another is the unpredictability of events and people. Even Carnell didn't get the timing of Coser's breakdown right, he didn't take Rashel into account because he didn't know about her, and Servalan ignored her and the clone, and got marked too.
Which brings us to my favourite: just how much a seemingly unimportant person like Rashel can matter and change things. She had never been free, but she shows independence of thought, courage, and intelligence, and she confounds all of the Federation's plans. I love Rashel.
Quite a good episode--not one of my favourites, but Rashel and the delectable Carnell and his eyelashes are among my favourite guest characters.
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And, oh dear god, don't get me started on Carnell. *fans self* You've listend to the Kaldor City audios, right? *happygrin*
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The choir of angels when the Clonemaster descends the stairs amused me greatly, but she does explain it's a mood room and I suppose it reacted to her stagy, dramatic entrance. :-) I love that Servalan tries to do the same to her office afterwards with the colour changes. Huh, that reminds me: PD was even more stagy in this ep. He out-hammed everyone. I must add that.
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I agree with you re: PD. He did seem to turn the scenery-chewing up a notch for this one, didn't he? I luv the guy, in that cheerfully tolerant way us fans have, but sometimes he really is too much. Still, everyone needs a good giggle every now and then, and he can be relied upon to provide it, I find - even if it's inadvertantly. :)
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(and can someone please pass me a rake, I seem to be up to my knees in plotbunnies all of a sudden - DARN YOU! I really do *not* need my fic muses coming out of hibernation just now...)
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My explanation of their get-up has always been that Coser escaped by joining a travelling circus, posing as a conjuror plus lovely young assistant.
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Or if Rashel was born a bond slave, she could have been owned by upper grade people and grown up speaking that way, rather like many well-educated slaves in Rome. I can see her, like Vespasian's freedwoman Caenis, being more than capable of success and respect as a free citizen.
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"Justify, stupid!" I can't remember the exact dialogue around it, but doesn't Vila describe something they're clearly going to end up doing as stupid?
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ETA: It just occurred to me that maybe Mickey Bricks & Co. sold the Imipak to Servalan, and they didn't think anybody would be mad enough to try to USE it...
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Ah but if Mickey had sold them IMIPAK, it would have apparently worked during the demo and never again.
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...unless Rashel IS Stacie.
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I don't have the exact dialogue handy, since sadly I am at work, but earlier in the scene Vila supports Blake by saying that his plan to attack a Federation weapons base isn't necessarily stupid. Then, a little later, he says something to the effect of "Who'd be stupid enough to do that [attack a Federation weapons base]?" And that's when Avon says "Justify stupid." Which I guess means "Justify why you're calling it stupid now when before you defended it." But it's still an odd and awkward line. Plus, "justify" to me sounds distractingly like 1990s hip-hop slang. I don't know if it actually was (and of course if it was, that's not the fault of the B7 writers in 1979) but I always want to snicker, as though Avon's trying to sound cool and failing.
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"Justify, stupid!" I can't remember the exact dialogue around it, but doesn't Vila describe something they're clearly going to end up doing as stupid?
He does - "Who'd be stupid enough to do that?" - but Avon's reply doesn't make sense, to me anyway, and it's obviously meant to be very clever.
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The RP doesn't worry me; I have always assumed that by then, TV or its equivalent are so ubiquitous and education so standardised that everyone speaks more or less the same (with a few eccentric exceptions like Jarriere).
Coser is a deeply envious, embittered man and I think when he ran, his priority even over grabbing Immipak was snitching the most Alpha set of clothes he could find handy....
That pause was unbelievable! Except for Avon, who I assume is silently saying "shoot me before anyone else sees me in this suit".
One thing I like a lot, and it sets things up for later, including some of S4, is that Avon for once doesn't see safety in running; he wants to find Immipak before anyone can use it on him.
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"shoot me before anyone else sees me in this suit"
Bwhahaha! But no one forced him into it!