The Anorak Zone Forums

[Apparatchik]

The debate on Gan's character made me think about Cally. How alien is she? She looks human, but has telepathy. That's the obvious bit. On one hand Aurons seem normal enough, aside from telepathy, but there are other things. For example, Cally wasn't affected by the poison gas/rain the Federation used to kill off the Saurian resistance. I assume the Saurians were human settlers, according to Blake's information. Another example is in Shadow. Here Cally with the aid of a few plants stops an inter-dimensional invader that makes Blake's war with the Terra Nostra seem small by contrast.

It seems Gan wasn't the only one poorly written for.

[kitten_of_death]

Isn't there a line in one of the episodes where someone says something like ``sooner or later, everyone's from Earth''? Which would make Cally and her people human, but maybe genetically-engineered.

[Apparatchik]

I remember that. I guess I am confused. On the one hand we have Franton's cloning being in operation for about 30 years and yet in "The Web" and "Dawn of the Gods" it would seem that the changes in the Aurons occured earlier.

In the end I think it comes down to one thing: bad writing and continuity from guest writers who did not understand the series well. The best episodes were always coming from either Nation or Boucher, with Tanith Lee getting an honorable mention.

[kitten_of_death]

Maybe their ancient `gods' did the initial tinkering with them, and they're only figuring out how to clone for themselves now?

Cally's pretty annoying really isn't she?

She's probably filthy in bed though.

[Anorak]

It's weird because she starts out as hard as nails then turns soft.

[Apparatchik]

Kitten - I don't think of Cally as annoying or filthy. She is for me one of the better characters of the show and the most sane over time. I just wished the background and writing for her was as detailed as that for Avon or Blake. I agree that probably the Auronar were humans who met some really powerful beings, like the garden gnome in Dawn of the gods, and changed as a result.

Anorak - I think the trajectory of the character was correct, but badly handled. I think of her as an amatuer guerilla who eventually becomes depressed over the loss of Blake and the inabilty to go back home. Then again, maybe Jan Chappell just did not get into the character.

I still stand by my view of a third season of Blake with just Avon, Villa and Cally. It would have rocked!

[Hancocked]

Didn't I read somewhere that Cally was originally supposed to have blue or green skin, to emphasis her alienness?

As it is, there are times when she's written as a kind of cross between Louise Jameson's Leela and Mr Spock - a sort of stoic warrior - but it's rather diluted by the number of times she's relegated to teleport duty or first in line to be knocked out by the bad guys. With two 'action heroes' in the series as it was - Blake/Avon to begin with, Avon/Tarrant latterly - there wasn't really enough episode space for a third, let alone one of the female characters. Dayna also suffers in this regard, while Jenna is simply under-written and developed more or less from the off.

[Apparatchik]

According to the Stevens and Moore book, she was to have red hair and red eyes to go with the Saurion Major background. Then she became an Auronar and more normal looking. I actually found Jenna to be the more action heroine in the first season. She certainly has more kills than any other character in that season.

One suggestion I read had Jenna and Cally as sort of a Cagny and Lacey counterpart to Blake and Avon.

Cally's terrorist background would have been served better with more terrorist things to do.

For example:

The Web: Instead of being mind controlled to divert the Liberator to the Auronar. Cally does it in her right mind, in order to kill "The Lost" as traitors to her people.

Seek Locate Destroy - Why couldn't she just shoot the Federation prisoners since they probably would have died in the explosions anyway. It sounds cruel, but it would have more emphasized her militancy and the nature of Blake's cause. I dis like how she survived the interrogation.

Mission to Destiny: "We must help these people" - really Cally? I would think that the neutrality of Destiny would have been as disgusting to her as that of Auron.

Project Avalon - Cally would have been better to work with Blake to help Avalon and murdering Fed guards along the way.

Breakdown - I like how Blake threatens Kayn, but I think terrorist Cally would made better threats and then shot the good doctor and his assisstant for their obviously counter-revolutionary attitudes.

Orac - Avon threatens to kill Travis but Blake stops him. What if Cally didn't stop and shoots both Servalan and Travis.

Having a hard-hearten terrorist would have been good counterpoint to Blake and Avon, but on different levels.

[MatSmith]

Project Avalon - Cally would have been better to work with Blake to help Avalon and murdering Fed guards along the way.

Wasn't that how it was before Knyvette threw a wobbly? Or was it only the opening bits in the caves that she nicked?

[Professor_Thascales]

I think, in "Star One," Blake should have given control of the Liberator to Cally instead of Avon. Cally was loyal to Blake (like Jenna and Gan), and she's the only other committed revolutionary. Avon, on the other hand, kept trying to stab Blake in the back.

It's a sign of Thomas and Darrow's acting ability that they made that scene work at all--and that Thomas could have Blake tell Avon, "I've always trusted you," with a straight face.