Blakes probably more than 7
Mar. 20th, 2009 07:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethFor reasons known only to my subconscious I woke up from dreaming about Blakes 7. To be specific, I was trapped in a crowd about to be massacred, I spotted Vila, we called in Blake, and we were about to run away through a sliding panel in a changing room when we discovered it was newly screwed, and so were we. There was shooting, there was acquiring tools, there was finding behind the panel another sheet of plywood, and then there was saying sod this for a lark, borrowing a knife, and a rather complicated set of running away that involved messing with the lift, sliding down a lift shaft, and eventually getting where we were going once I'd torn all my clothes, got friction burns and entirely run out of breath. Cleverly saving Blake's life in the process. I'd say I joined the crew then, but that might imply deciding to follow Blake, and no. I decided to give them the benefit of my actually functioning brain.
... I haven't watched B7 for a while but my subconscious has opinions. And possibly Avon envy.
So, anyway, once I woke up I started figuring who I'd cast in my version, as you do:
Burn Gorman as Vila. (He'd be all highly strung and have moments of showoff confidence, and he can do fear real well. He'd also have an edge of aggression to bring out when least convenient. Probably involving rebelling against the new boss too.)
Indira Varma as Jenna (though now I have plot bunnies of how interfacing with alien technology to pilot the Liberator makes her steadily more nuts, and I don't like women-go-nuts stories cause they always read as women-can't-handle-it. Maybe people would just think she's nuts and she's Secretly Right... but I hate that plot too.).
Paterson Joseph as Avon (The Marquis de Carabas had a certain Avon-ish arrogance and utter confidence in his own competence. Also I have fun ideas about how the expectation of a favor based economy would interact with the sort of arrogant follow-me Blake might be using.)
ETA: It has been bugging me how the balance changes if Avon and Blake are different genders. So swap: Indira Varma for Avon, PJ for Jenna. Then I can keep the alien tech plot thread without the can't handle it badness... except for then it bounces onto black people instead so I'll have to ponder that... /ETA
One more bloke, and he wouldn't play Blake. Also I want to mess with gender binaries and have a very femme bloke and a very butch woman as part of the main crew. So I don't know who he'd be precisely (I keep thinking Del Tarrant, for unhelpful reasons. But I want to gender swap someone... Cally?)
ETA: I swapped Avon and Jenna. Cally I can keep. But I can't much remember her. Hmmm, telepath, who can play... Marina Sirtis! Yes. Pretty.
So that leaves Tarrant as... /ETA
Matt Rippy wearing something fabulous, as wished for on the time travel question at the last convention. Tights, ruffs, frills, lace, silk, all the best stuff. The federation had uniforms for civilians, or that's one way to read the very limited sets of clothing they ever wore. Add in a noncomformist and apply pressure, and hello rebel.
If you write a future where all people are created equal, and oppressed accordingly, then you'd expect an even distribution of rebels from all social groups. But if you write a 'future' which is basically here and now with spaceships, you get the unequal application of power, so you'd have more rebels from the most oppressed groups. And the whole horrible dystopia thing I feel gets stronger the more it looks like today. With this application of logic you can get a Robin Hood in space that's mostly crewed by 'minorities'. Which is fun.
Three more women then. Yes, I know there weren't actually seven at once to start with, but I'm making stuff up. And I liked on Andromeda the idea that they had this huge ship and gradually acquired crew. A rebellion that can only manage a handful of people in a tin can isn't a very good one. It should grow and recruit and get more diverse and have trouble keeping itself together and be a bit politics.
Gan should be someone tiny and surprising, as discussed on the regendering panel at Redemption. Have sort of a mother lion thing going on, be vicious defending.
Naoko Mori ? I hesitate to combine 'asian' and 'there for fighting', but she is tiny and surprising and can be fierce. Also it suddenly struck me as meta-funny cause Tosh opened that huge heavy door on her own when Owen said it weighed a ton. Secret superstrength!
Nina Sosanya ? Dayna was interesting as is, specially if written well.
At this rate I'll have recast everyone except Soolin. Dayna can bring a girlfriend then. Hmmm, who to play her... you know I'm drawing a blank. That's not very useful at all. Ah! Mary from TW1-07, Daniela Denby-Ashe.
And then there's Blake. Rose Blake, unwitting figurehead of the revolution, widow of the great leader previously known as Blake, who starts out knowing nothing much but finds out the truth about her husband's 'working on another planet' and gets frighteningly efficient. I know that's a bigger change, but I kind of want to play with how women get perceived, you know, the oh so sad stories and put their picture on things and hold them up as an icon, compared to actually getting things done. I can't actually think of someone to play her. Older, strong, vulnerable side like a mask and pure steel underneath.
Or do I want NM as Blake and someone completely different for Olga Gan?
No I don't think of NM as older, but that's what I'm getting stuck on... which is right depressing actually, let's try harder...
You know, it would help if I watched more TV, cause I'm coming up Doctor Who and Torchwood actors mostly. And then when I don't want someone exactly like I saw them being I don't always know other work to see what their range is. Clearly I need to get out more.
Baby name website says Gan is a Vietnamese boy's name that means Near, and a Chinese boy's name that means Adventure. Cool. I know Japanese isn't either of those, but still cool.
... If I'm poking around looking at name meanings you know I'm really stuck.
Okays: Which older woman could play Blake?
Strong, able to play up the appearance of weakness, velvet and iron.
If I could decide exactly which band of older I mean I could probably have more of a go at that.
... I haven't watched B7 for a while but my subconscious has opinions. And possibly Avon envy.
So, anyway, once I woke up I started figuring who I'd cast in my version, as you do:
Burn Gorman as Vila. (He'd be all highly strung and have moments of showoff confidence, and he can do fear real well. He'd also have an edge of aggression to bring out when least convenient. Probably involving rebelling against the new boss too.)
Indira Varma as Jenna (though now I have plot bunnies of how interfacing with alien technology to pilot the Liberator makes her steadily more nuts, and I don't like women-go-nuts stories cause they always read as women-can't-handle-it. Maybe people would just think she's nuts and she's Secretly Right... but I hate that plot too.).
Paterson Joseph as Avon (The Marquis de Carabas had a certain Avon-ish arrogance and utter confidence in his own competence. Also I have fun ideas about how the expectation of a favor based economy would interact with the sort of arrogant follow-me Blake might be using.)
ETA: It has been bugging me how the balance changes if Avon and Blake are different genders. So swap: Indira Varma for Avon, PJ for Jenna. Then I can keep the alien tech plot thread without the can't handle it badness... except for then it bounces onto black people instead so I'll have to ponder that... /ETA
One more bloke, and he wouldn't play Blake. Also I want to mess with gender binaries and have a very femme bloke and a very butch woman as part of the main crew. So I don't know who he'd be precisely (I keep thinking Del Tarrant, for unhelpful reasons. But I want to gender swap someone... Cally?)
ETA: I swapped Avon and Jenna. Cally I can keep. But I can't much remember her. Hmmm, telepath, who can play... Marina Sirtis! Yes. Pretty.
So that leaves Tarrant as... /ETA
Matt Rippy wearing something fabulous, as wished for on the time travel question at the last convention. Tights, ruffs, frills, lace, silk, all the best stuff. The federation had uniforms for civilians, or that's one way to read the very limited sets of clothing they ever wore. Add in a noncomformist and apply pressure, and hello rebel.
If you write a future where all people are created equal, and oppressed accordingly, then you'd expect an even distribution of rebels from all social groups. But if you write a 'future' which is basically here and now with spaceships, you get the unequal application of power, so you'd have more rebels from the most oppressed groups. And the whole horrible dystopia thing I feel gets stronger the more it looks like today. With this application of logic you can get a Robin Hood in space that's mostly crewed by 'minorities'. Which is fun.
Three more women then. Yes, I know there weren't actually seven at once to start with, but I'm making stuff up. And I liked on Andromeda the idea that they had this huge ship and gradually acquired crew. A rebellion that can only manage a handful of people in a tin can isn't a very good one. It should grow and recruit and get more diverse and have trouble keeping itself together and be a bit politics.
Gan should be someone tiny and surprising, as discussed on the regendering panel at Redemption. Have sort of a mother lion thing going on, be vicious defending.
Naoko Mori ? I hesitate to combine 'asian' and 'there for fighting', but she is tiny and surprising and can be fierce. Also it suddenly struck me as meta-funny cause Tosh opened that huge heavy door on her own when Owen said it weighed a ton. Secret superstrength!
Nina Sosanya ? Dayna was interesting as is, specially if written well.
At this rate I'll have recast everyone except Soolin. Dayna can bring a girlfriend then. Hmmm, who to play her... you know I'm drawing a blank. That's not very useful at all. Ah! Mary from TW1-07, Daniela Denby-Ashe.
And then there's Blake. Rose Blake, unwitting figurehead of the revolution, widow of the great leader previously known as Blake, who starts out knowing nothing much but finds out the truth about her husband's 'working on another planet' and gets frighteningly efficient. I know that's a bigger change, but I kind of want to play with how women get perceived, you know, the oh so sad stories and put their picture on things and hold them up as an icon, compared to actually getting things done. I can't actually think of someone to play her. Older, strong, vulnerable side like a mask and pure steel underneath.
Or do I want NM as Blake and someone completely different for Olga Gan?
No I don't think of NM as older, but that's what I'm getting stuck on... which is right depressing actually, let's try harder...
You know, it would help if I watched more TV, cause I'm coming up Doctor Who and Torchwood actors mostly. And then when I don't want someone exactly like I saw them being I don't always know other work to see what their range is. Clearly I need to get out more.
Baby name website says Gan is a Vietnamese boy's name that means Near, and a Chinese boy's name that means Adventure. Cool. I know Japanese isn't either of those, but still cool.
... If I'm poking around looking at name meanings you know I'm really stuck.
Okays: Which older woman could play Blake?
Strong, able to play up the appearance of weakness, velvet and iron.
If I could decide exactly which band of older I mean I could probably have more of a go at that.
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-20 11:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-22 12:27 pm (UTC)but then I realise one of my subconscious criteria is 'British'
though Matt Rippy isn't... he's just been here ages and does conventions and is very pretty... Maybe I could swap him for Peter Wingfield or someone...
no subject
Date: 2009-03-20 03:30 pm (UTC)Strong, able to play up the appearance of weakness, velvet and iron.
Judi Dench, Zoe Wanamaker, Floella Benjamin.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-22 12:26 pm (UTC)These are interesting possibilities.
I'm now wandered off to rebellion as patchwork and secret communication via crochet patterns...
no subject
Date: 2009-03-22 08:52 pm (UTC)I'm kind of doing a bit of both with my story. What's left of Earth is populated by the poor (because their ancestors didn't get to leave), fewer of whom are white than on some of the richer planets. So you do get a very diverse crew.
My Vila-equivalent is played by Gina Torres, I've decided.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-22 09:32 pm (UTC)If GT playe Blake, she'd probably wipe the floor (the space!floor?) with the Federation faster than Fox could cancel the series.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-22 09:40 pm (UTC)