Avon was a Natural Leader

[kalinda001]

I've taken leadership courses and there are many types of leaders and Avon definitely falls into one of those types. He's actually a natural leader. He expects people to follow him, he slips into a leadership role quite easily without having to ram it down people's throats like Blake and Tarrant, he initiates actions and people naturally look to

Comments

[kalinda001]

You know what I realized. People think Avon was uncomfortable as leader. But when I look at him, I don't see that. I see him very clearly comfortable as leader, although he was uncomfortable with some aspects of what he had to do

[jacteest]

Maybe the fact that I never saw the first episode (at least I can't remember having seen it in those days) is the reason that I was introduced to a different Blake than everyone else. The Blake that took action and organised their escape (which admittedly went wrong); the one who was not prepared to let innocent people die in order to stay in control of the ship's computer.

The way you view him, I'm surprised you put up with him all these early episodes. If I hated a character that much, I would probably have stopped watching, but I suppose it's your love for the character of Avon that kept you going.

I like a happy Avon I'm afraid I've always had a knack for unhappy people, suffering from a guilty conscience,a dark secret or some other kind of physical or mental pain. Maybe that's why I like Blake there.

I've started doing my owen version of S1/S2 episodes and editing Blake entirely out of them
Looking forward to reading it.

[kalinda001]

I haven't read your whole essay yet, but re: the last scene between Avon and Blake before the end of Star One, where Blake says that he always trusted Avon, from the beginning, I read an interview of Paul Darrow who said that in acting that scene, Avon's reaction to Blake saying about trusting him, PD's words were so startling that they stuck in my mind for 20? years: "I did nothing, absolutely nothing. I thought: you figure it out," the you being the viewer. I never thought of an actor not acting.

[jacteest]

I like it that the viewers are left to figure things out for themselves. There are far too many shows in which everything is explained in detail.
About the 'not acting': I remember an interview with Anthony Hopkins who said he did the same in The Elephant Man. Not acting is sometimes more true to life than acting.

[kalinda001]

One thing about that scene in Star One that PD may not have remembered. It's very true he had no reaction whatsoever when Blake said he always trusted him, there is no facial movement or change in the eyes. I know that for a fact because I verified it for myself after other people claimed they saw Avon was affected by what said. But look at Avon's face after Blake leaves. His eyes narrow. Avon's eyes only do that when he is suspicious of someone and is not having a positive reaction. And one other thing PD doesn't seemed to have noticed is that when Avon is touched by something, you can clearly see it in his eyes. SO the fact that Avon has absolutely no reaction actually doesn't leave me guessing, to me it means that he is not touched at all by what Blake said. Because then that would be consistent with Avon's behavior in other instances.

eyes

[kalinda001]

I read once that people blink more when their brain is processing new incoming information.
After Blake's trusting comment, I think Avon blinked 2-3 times, dropped his eyes away from Blake, then looked towards the flight deck as he began to turn. I thought his eyes narrowed due to the future upcoming fight.
On a related topic, PD and Michael Keating seemed to be the only actors with grim faces about the threat of death at the end of Star One. It was irritating to see Jenna and Cali just looking pretty.
Avon blinked a lot at Blake's belly? chest? when he shot Blake. I thought that was odd, since Avon knows darn well guns kill. Because of the excessive blinking, I wondered if Avon was surprised by the gun firing not once but three times.

Re: eyes

[kalinda001]

I have studied that scene very carefully because it is such a landmark moment. There is no blink, no movement of the head after Blake says the trust bit, only a tiny movement of the pupils