The Anorak Zone Forums

[Pex]

satisfied? What?


I must admit, that whole first episode of Blake did make me sit up... you'd never get that now, would you?

A lot of Doctor Who fans (myself included) had a false memory that after the crew force Uvanov to stand down the mine he turns round and says "satisfied?" (just after he says close scoops, stand down etc..) when in fact he never said it at all, it's in the Target novelisation. There was a lot of talk that Robots of Death had that part edited out at some point. I think the whole thing was cleared up by Mark "Kettle" Ayres when like a true geek he brought out his own off air recording.

It's an interesting issue because it calls into question the idea that the Targets are written from a 'Programme As Transmitted' script. I must say I always found that a bit hard to believe - Terrance's interpolations in particular have 'shooting script' written all over them.

[Apparatchik]

Frankly I can't tell whether Gan is or is not really a nice guy or a murdering scumbag. Maybe thats the point, with the limiter in his head and all. He certainly seems like a killer in Breakdown. More could have been done with Gan, but I could say the same for Jenna, Cally, Dayna and Soolin.

[gatchamandave]

The fan theories about Gan being a lust murderer possibly arise from the impression I certainly have, and had at the time when first broadcast, that when he’s called on to ‘fess up the explanation of his crime - “ I killed a federation guard. He killed my woman. “ - David Jackson delivers the line in an intriguing manner, as if Gan’s not telling the truth, or at least the whole story, in some way. His voice drops off, as if aware that no-one’s quite buying the fib.

And as we’ve seen on the Dr Who Old Series board, entire novels have been generated out of less.

[Professor_Thascales]

"His voice drops off, as if aware that no-one’s quite buying the fib."
Could be, or it *could* be his voice drops off because it's painful to talk about.

[Apparatchik]

The Gan issue, for me, rests on three pieces of evidence.

In Cynus Alpha, in the fight at the end, Gan is shown pushing a spear into something. We cannot see it. Was he killing someone?

In Time Squad, there is his confession and psychotic dialogue with Jenna after emerging from the alien capsule. You could take the confession a number of ways and Jenna does not indicate a lack of trust in Gan afterwards. The psychotic dialogue is also too confusing, though he says its not possible for him to kill now. What I find more interesting is what happened when he goes to sort out the aliens. Gan has demonstrated great strength and the ability to take on a number of opponents at once and yet he fails to subdue the aliens or even damage them. Later Jenna finds him coming out of the capsule. What was he doing in there? Later Jenna is fighting with an alien in the teleport bay. Gan storms in with a gun but cannot fire and looks constipated. Later he is in pain and collapses in the seat. Something hurt him, but from what we can see, Gan was never attacked. So what is hurting him?

In Breakdown, Gan gets headaches, attacks Jenna and then attacks the rest of the crew. The crucial scene is in the meidcal unit. He tricks Cally into releasing him. He appears perfecting sane and in his right mind and then tries to strangle her. The ship veers and he gets his headaches again. This behavior continues until after Kayn's surgery. Also, Kayn, not the most neutral of men, but still a doctor, considers Gan a psycho on the basis of him having a limiter.

What does all this say? I don't know. In the Stevens and Moore book, this proves he is a head case and fit for CSI-SVU. For me the evidence is too thin.

[Camus]

For me, the actor playing Gan (who's name escapes me a the moment) is just so useless and not trying that it wouldn't matter how much subtext was in the script or the character, it ain't going to come across with that actor playing the part.

In my mind, I think it's a highly plausible theory, and would've made Gan a far more interesting character.

[SgtBenton]

Surely The Prisoner fandom is worse ?

Check out the nonsense going on here

http://www.sixofone-info.co.uk/

FFS it's only a TV show

[Anorak]

I'd forgotten about that.

[Pex]

I love that site. The irony of a Prisoner fanclub behaving like the Village cannot even be charted.

[SgtBenton]

What I find disturbing about Prisoner fandom is the intense seriousness of dedication to a show that lasted seventeen 50 minute episodes and finished 40 years ago . The p1ssing and moaning and open warfare between fandom factions is genuinely scary