stammering

[Paul Edwards]

In the TV series, there is a time when there is a conversation that goes something like:

Blake (to Avon) I already said that everyone is free to leave whenever they want.

Avon: I will certainly do that. I'm after this ship when you have achieved your goals.

Avon did NOT stammer.

But I read one of the books and it said that Avon stammered in his reply. Completely out of character and a complete lie.

Anyone have the episode and timestamp and book and page number and sentence?

And who do I send the complaint to to get the book fixed? Freedom of speech shouldn't extend to blasphemy against our God.


Thanks. Paul.

[Igenlode Wordsmith]

On 14 Dec 2013 Paul Edwards wrote:

>In the TV series, there is a time when there is a conversation that
>goes something like:
>
>Blake (to Avon) I already said that everyone is free to leave whenever
>they want.
>
>Avon: I will certainly do that. I'm after this ship when you have
>achieved your goals.
>
>Avon did NOT stammer.
>
>But I read one of the books and it said that Avon stammered in his
>reply. Completely out of character and a complete lie.

I believe the books (the original tie-in novels) were prepared from
scripts before the show actually aired -- certainly my novelisation of
the first four episodes preserves an element which was subsequently
dropped for practical reasons prior to transmission, Cally's
(unspecified!) inhuman eye colour.

The books are NOT 100% transcripts of the transmitted episodes: a
certain amount of artistic licence is normally expected and required to
make the novel up to length, and the author is not acquainted at the
time of writing with characterization as established in subsequent
episodes. Tie-in novelisations of new TV series are not normally
regarded as Great Art, either: these books are the equivalent of the
[in]famous Target Dr Who novels.

>
>Anyone have the episode and timestamp and book and page number and sentence?

The dialogue you may be thinking of is at the beginning of "Time Squad":

AVON: I thought it was agreed we wouldn't do anything without discussing
it thoroughly.

BLAKE: True. It was also agreed that anybody could opt out at any time.
Just tell me when you want to leave.

AVON: Oh, I will. But in the meantime I think we have a right to know
what it is you're planning.

but it sounds to me more like some subsequent reference to this original
conversation...

Incidentally, the novelisation of this scene reads:

"Wait a minute, Blake". Avon sat up straight, his expression wary. "I
don't know what kind of wild scheme you've got in mind, but right at the
outset you agreed that we wouldn't get into anything without first
talking it through."

"That's right," Blake conceded amiably. "I also said that any time
anybody didn't like the way I was running this ship they can be put
down and left on the nearest habitable planet." He smiled and said
lightly, "Just tell me when you want to leave."

Avon glanced round at the others. He cleared his throat and said after a
moment, "Well I -- I just think we have a right to know what's
happening..."


As you can see, the dialogue is considerably expanded, and Trevor Hoyle
has also had to guess at the eventual way the actors would deliver the
lines: in the case of Avon, the characterisation he has selected clearly
differs from that which Paul Darrow ultimately chose to establish, but
that's not the fault of an author with no access to the finished
product...

>
>And who do I send the complaint to to get the book fixed? Freedom of
>speech shouldn't extend to blasphemy against our God.
>

Sphere Books have been taken over by Little, Brown Book Group :-p

--
Igenlode Wordsmith

Igenlode's erratic blog: http://igenlode.livejournal.com/

[Paul Edwards]

Hi Igenlode. Could you give the name of the book and page number for the below?

Thanks. Paul.

[Igenlode Wordsmith]

On 21 Mar 2014 Paul Edwards wrote:

>Hi Igenlode. Could you give the name of the book and page number for
>the below?
>

"BLAKE'S 7" (Terry Nation's "Blake's 7", novelisation by Trevor Hoyle)
Published simultaneously in hardback by Arthur Barker Ltd and paperback
by Sphere Books Ltd 1977
Novelisation (c) Trevor Hoyle 1977

Note that the date of writing *precedes* the BBC broadcast: the cover
flash reads "Now a stunning BBC-TV space adventure", and the back cover
categorises it under "science fiction/ TV tie-in"

Mine is the paperback edition, ISBN 0-7221-6321-5, and the scene quoted
is from page 156 (in chapter 10).

Hope this is the info you are looking for! (And nice to know that the
book I paid 15p for at a convention in 1995 is of use to someone... I
discovered the hard way that these novelisations are not entirely
accurate when attempting to use them as background colour for
fan-fiction, as the passage below is a line of dialogue I actually
referred to -- to be somewhat disconcerted when I discovered it doesn't
actually exist in the show as transmitted! I'm afraid I used it anyway,
on the grounds that it was in character for Blake and he might well have
said it 'off-screen' at some other time.)

>
>Incidentally, the novelisation of this scene reads:
>

> "Wait a minute, Blake." Avon sat up straight, his expression wary. "I

> don't know what kind of wild scheme you've got in mind, but right at the
> outset you agreed that we wouldn't get into anything without first
> talking it through."
>
> "That's right," Blake conceded amiably. "I also said that any time
> anybody didn't like the way I was running this ship they can be put
> down and left on the nearest habitable planet." He smiled and said
> lightly, "Just tell me when you want to leave."
>
> Avon glanced round at the others. He cleared his throat and said after a
> moment, "Well I -- I just think we have a right to know what's
> happening..."

--
Igenlode Visit the Ivory Tower http://ivory.vlexofree.com/Tower/

The moment you stop being polite, you lose credibility in what you say.

[Paul Edwards]

> The dialogue you may be thinking of is at the beginning of "Time Squad":

Specifically it is Series 1, Episode 4,
Time Squad at 03:15.

Avon: I thought it was agreed that we

wouldn't do anything without discussing
it thoroughly.

Blake: True. It was also agreed that
anybody could opt out at any time. Just

tell me when you want to leave.

Avon: Oh I will. But in the meantime I

think we have a right to know what it
is you're planning.

BFN. Paul.