The Anorak Zone Forums

[Apparatchik]

I am sure Gan may top the polling here but which of the regular heroes and villains of the series did you like least and why?

[Anorak]

Why did Tarrant become so unpopular amongst the series' unwashed lesbian fanbase I wonder?





(This is not to be taken as a slight against lesbians, who are God's gift to mankind..... I'm just talking about the old bulldykes who spend all day writing fanfic and don't know the word bath).

[Apparatchik]

Maybe because he is less macho than Avon or Vila. I always found Tarrant the hardest character to pin down. He is arrogant, but he can apologize for a mistake. He has tactical skill with ships and has enough subterfuge to murder his way through a Federation squad yet is bambozled by the likes of Bayban and tries the "infantry charge" approach to attacking the undead alien.

[Brian-Flynn]

Why did Tarrant become so unpopular amongst the series' unwashed lesbian fanbase I wonder?

To be honest, I just never found him all that interesting. I wouldn't say that he's my least favorite (main) character but he's close. I guess maybe Gan is the least interesting for me but even he has his good points...

[bandraginus6]

The lumbering, snorting, impotent Olag Gan and the cockney, charmless thug that is Travis MkII.

[Apparatchik]

I will say that Servalan in the long run was the worst. It stems from the fact that they felt a need to have a opposite villain and really Blake and co. were fighting a system, not just a villain. In the first season Servalan is a good character, rarely scene and under pressure from politicos while turning the screws on Travis. In the second season the rot starts settling in with Servalan appearing in places far too dangerous for the head of space command to be. I could see Servalan meeting the crew in Orac as the mission was exceptional, but in Weapon or Pressure Point it seemed ridiculous. She was at her best in episodes where she was not directly invovled with the crew: Trial, Voice from the Past, Star One. Afterall, she's just a cog in the Federation machine itself.

In the 3rd season, Servalan becomes president of a "runied empire", so seeing her on a star cruiser surrounded by mutoids seems correct. Near the end of Volcano, after failing to capture the Liberator, Servalan and a mutoid conclude that without Blake, the Liberator is no threat and that it will keep. Then she forgets this and tries to capture the blasted ship in 3 more episodes. She was starting to remind me too much of Wyile E. Coyote, Genius. I did like her setup on Terminal, but she still interacted with the crew too many times and should have died on the Liberator in her moment of triumph. The less said about the Sleer character the better, though I did like her role in Games.

[GathererHade]

Its got to be Gan really

[Professor_Thascales]

what Apparatchik said about Servalan. She was okay in the first two seasons, because of the dynamic of Servalan, Travis and the Federation politicos interacting with each other. But after Blake left--well, as my friend put it, "Evil for its own sake isn't even very interesting." Plus having Avon and co. keep not killing her--even romancing her--even saving her from a revolution (what a time for Avon to suddenly care about something besides himself!)--arghhh!

[Tone]

I liked Gan. He was alright. I was sad when he died. There I've said it. What's up with characters who die on TV SF shows? The audience all seem to go, "well, I hated his/her guts anyway! Glad he's dead!" Can't anyone just shed a tear for a fallen hero? Is this some kind of distaste to emotion that causes a reaction like that? Or do well-intended Producers always kill off some useless spacker on the ground that they were useless and then think "at least if he dies, people will feel sorry for him", all the while unaware that people will cheer?

[Anorak]

Tone, you're talking about two particular characters that were particularly bad. It's not as if people don't get upset when real favourites die.