Before he was Blake, a rebel on the run from the Federation with his friend Avon, GT played Shem, a man from the planet Medusa on the run from his mistresses with his friend Adam.
It's a riot. They've escaped from a matriarchial society, and Gareth's character is more the follower than anything else. At one point a young girl spots them hanging about trying to hide, and she runs off saying she's going to tell her mother.
Gareth's character nearly panics. "SHE'S GOING TO GET HER MOTHER!!!"
Gareth takes the piss out of the sexism wonderfully, IMO. The other guy is dead serious, and Gareth is playing poor little timid innocent to the hilt. I used to have it on VHS, but gave it away to a Blake-lover. :^)
I thought that too when I first heard of the show. However it's not a feminist bashing show at all. The roles in the Medusan society are reversed so that the women are in charge and the men do the menial and domestic tasks and are looked after by their mistresses. The women aren't depicted as being evil or cruel but it is a very unequal society. Medusa is a safe, well ordered, technologically advanced community where violence is at a minimum. In fact Shem, after experiencing his freedom on Earth wants to go back to Medusa where he feels safe.
Going by 'Life on Mars', our society was almost as unequal. Does Shem have more than one mistress? In which case I feel for him; I had two bosses in my last job and it was a nightmare.
BTW the names interest me: Shem (which also means 'name' in Hebrew) and Adam. Are the others old testament too?
Going by 'Life on Mars', our society was almost as unequal.
I think it was intended to be a mirror image of our society's standards of the time. The counterpoint to the Medusan characters are the leading Earth characters, who are of course mostly men, assisted by one or two women.
The men of Medusa were expected to obey all women, whether or not they worked for them.
As for the Medusan women's names, they seem to be somewhat Roman in origin. Adam's mistress was Grand Councillor Fulvia. The Chief of Security was Octavia. Clara was the President of Medusa.
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Is one of those women GT is drag?
Well in the interview about the show GT did say his character was the more "feminine" of the two male leads.
Gareth's character nearly panics. "SHE'S GOING TO GET HER MOTHER!!!"
Edited at 2007-11-16 03:13 pm (UTC)
BTW the names interest me: Shem (which also means 'name' in Hebrew) and Adam. Are the others old testament too?
I think it was intended to be a mirror image of our society's standards of the time. The counterpoint to the Medusan characters are the leading Earth characters, who are of course mostly men, assisted by one or two women.
The men of Medusa were expected to obey all women, whether or not they worked for them.
As for the Medusan women's names, they seem to be somewhat Roman in origin.
Adam's mistress was Grand Councillor Fulvia.
The Chief of Security was Octavia.
Clara was the President of Medusa.
Mmmm. Conquerors v slaves perhaps?