First off: Avon is a truly terrible actor. Which actually fits the character perfectly in my view, so... Well done, PD? Seriously though, everything about his voice and face as tries to explain away his and Dayna's presence just shouts "I'm making this up as I go along." Loudly. "Why should you doubt me", indeed...
I'm curious about whether Zen really would have given them away by answering that line though? After all, they usually (if not always) preface their initial questions to the computer with its name ("ZEN, what's our course and speed" etc.) Logically enough, as Zen does not automatically try to answer all and any questions ever spoken out loud on the flight-deck.*
*Ahaha, or maybe I just found the solution as to why everyone keeps excessively and superfluously calling each other by name in this show: they're doing it to let any voice-activated computer that might be around know they're not talking to it, so they won't accidentally give it all kinds of weird instructions. *g*Dayna is awesome! (So awesome that they
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I'm not so sure. The more I watch this show the less I think that Avon's insults are Vila's worst problem. Many of the others (Cally in particular, but in S1 and S2 also Gan, and Blake) often have a patronising tone with him that, while superficially "kinder", looks to me like it might be more damaging in the long run, both to Vila's self-esteem and other peoples appreciation of him. In some ways, the insult-game he's got going with Avon carries a greater (if covert) degree of respect, both for his intelligence and for his ability to "take it", and it looks to me as if Vila does respond to that. When the others treat him with annoyance, or tell him to "stop whining and do as he's told", or just ignore him, he usually just seems to accept it. With Avon (who, if nothing else at least rarely ignores him), he gives as good as he gets, and often gives off a lot more confident impression in the process.
Which is not to say that I don't think they all should have treated him better, particularly in front of outsiders. But I don't think Avon
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I don't think Avon's "spare part" crack hurt Vila; it would have just been another snipe in their battle of wits. However I think Tarrant and Dayna took it as face value and it coloured their perception of him.
Cally is fond of Vila--she was glad to see him on Chenga--but yes, she's often very dismissive, especially at the end of City at the Edge.
It's no wonder Vila was depressed. I'd have bolted at the first chance, and he had some. He could have teleported to any planet they were near and thrown away his bracelet, and he obviously was capable of flying Scorpio alone. Maybe his will was completely sapped by then.
What I remember from the first time I saw this is the tension and the sense of menace and claustrophobia on board the Liberator - and even now that I know who the killer is the story still stands up. It's a great Tarrant episode too - I love the antagonism between him and Avon, and he's actually using his brain here (for once). Telling Avon he thinks he's stupid is not a good move, however - he really isn't going to forgive that! I did wonder at the end whether Avon really was planning to hand him over to Klegg, and only thought better of it at the last minute - from the look on Tarrant's face this wasn't something they had agreed between them
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Telling Avon he thinks he's stupid is not a good move, however But rather entertaining. :-) It made me laugh how Avon seems so annoyed that Tarrant's seen through their cover story that he barely even tries to maintain it, instead starting to defend the logic of why it should have worked. <3
I suspect that he just doesn't much like being on the move all the time, irrespective of what is going on on the Liberator I think it's the situations that he is forced into by being on the Liberator that's the problem, not the actual people. I imagine that the company that Vila's been used to having to handle before has probably tended to be a lot more dangerous and abusive on the personal level, and that compared to that, the Liberator crew is a positive haven. But the situations that being with these (by comparison) nice, friendly people get him into however... I suspect it amounts to a degree of terror, death and destruction that's unprecedented for him. Gan's death may have been the final straw to tip the balance between wanting to stay
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Remembered quite liking this one. The murder mystery angle on the ship is fun and although the crew are serparated for a lot of it, there's more cutting back and forth so no one seems out of the story.
Tarrant is more interesting as a potential enemy than an ally
Vila is fairly resourceful albeit utterly duped, and I love it for that too.
Avon's story is delivered so flatly it's pretty unconvincing - is he SUPPOSED to be a rubbish liar? Vila's attempt was better!
I love the way Vila's broken arm goes from woe-is-me to "nothing really" when confronted with a pretty face, and to "alright if you don't count the agony" when it's Cally who's asking!
His misreading the situation though would have been more convincing if they didn't keep dropping such blatant hints about his 'contribution' - Then Cally who's been shown far less in terms of suspicious behaviour is the one who twigs there's something wrong.
Cally sensing that Vila was hurt is interesting - never followed up on! - but interesting nontheless.
is he SUPPOSED to be a rubbish liar? Vila's attempt was better! I think it actually fits both characters very well... Vila is pretty much always playing a role to some extent; he would be good at it. Avon otoh is neither particularly expressive himself (in terms of body-language, inflection etc), nor does he connect easily to other people. It makes sense to me that he would find it difficult to convincingly pretend to be someone else. ...Although, as emmzzi says, whether that was an intentional bit of characterisation is a different question. :-)
Cally sensing that Vila was hurt is interesting There was also that bit in 'Hostage' when she seems to pick up Avon's guilty feelings. She seems to be able to mind-read (or at least emotion-read) a lot more than she claims to be able to when we first meet her.
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I'm curious about whether Zen really would have given them away by answering that line though? After all, they usually (if not always) preface their initial questions to the computer with its name ("ZEN, what's our course and speed" etc.) Logically enough, as Zen does not automatically try to answer all and any questions ever spoken out loud on the flight-deck.*
*Ahaha, or maybe I just found the solution as to why everyone keeps excessively and superfluously calling each other by name in this show: they're doing it to let any voice-activated computer that might be around know they're not talking to it, so they won't accidentally give it all kinds of weird instructions. *g*Dayna is awesome! (So awesome that they ( ... )
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If I'd been Vila, I'd be long gone.
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Which is not to say that I don't think they all should have treated him better, particularly in front of outsiders. But I don't think Avon ( ... )
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Cally is fond of Vila--she was glad to see him on Chenga--but yes, she's often very dismissive, especially at the end of City at the Edge.
It's no wonder Vila was depressed. I'd have bolted at the first chance, and he had some. He could have teleported to any planet they were near and thrown away his bracelet, and he obviously was capable of flying Scorpio alone. Maybe his will was completely sapped by then.
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But rather entertaining. :-) It made me laugh how Avon seems so annoyed that Tarrant's seen through their cover story that he barely even tries to maintain it, instead starting to defend the logic of why it should have worked. <3
I suspect that he just doesn't much like being on the move all the time, irrespective of what is going on on the Liberator
I think it's the situations that he is forced into by being on the Liberator that's the problem, not the actual people. I imagine that the company that Vila's been used to having to handle before has probably tended to be a lot more dangerous and abusive on the personal level, and that compared to that, the Liberator crew is a positive haven. But the situations that being with these (by comparison) nice, friendly people get him into however... I suspect it amounts to a degree of terror, death and destruction that's unprecedented for him. Gan's death may have been the final straw to tip the balance between wanting to stay ( ... )
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Tarrant is more interesting as a potential enemy than an ally
Vila is fairly resourceful albeit utterly duped, and I love it for that too.
Avon's story is delivered so flatly it's pretty unconvincing - is he SUPPOSED to be a rubbish liar? Vila's attempt was better!
I love the way Vila's broken arm goes from woe-is-me to "nothing really" when confronted with a pretty face, and to "alright if you don't count the agony" when it's Cally who's asking!
His misreading the situation though would have been more convincing if they didn't keep dropping such blatant hints about his 'contribution' - Then Cally who's been shown far less in terms of suspicious behaviour is the one who twigs there's something wrong.
Cally sensing that Vila was hurt is interesting - never followed up on! - but interesting nontheless.
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Whether PD thinks Avon is a rubbish liar is another matter...
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I think it actually fits both characters very well... Vila is pretty much always playing a role to some extent; he would be good at it. Avon otoh is neither particularly expressive himself (in terms of body-language, inflection etc), nor does he connect easily to other people. It makes sense to me that he would find it difficult to convincingly pretend to be someone else. ...Although, as emmzzi says, whether that was an intentional bit of characterisation is a different question. :-)
Cally sensing that Vila was hurt is interesting
There was also that bit in 'Hostage' when she seems to pick up Avon's guilty feelings. She seems to be able to mind-read (or at least emotion-read) a lot more than she claims to be able to when we first meet her.
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