Carnell (Blake's 7)

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Carnell is a Blake's 7 character. He is a psychostrategist who worked with Servalan and appeared in the episode "Weapon."

from a 1987 interview in Down and Unsafe #6 with Scott Fredericks, who portrayed Carnell

Portayed by Scott Fredericks

Fredericks was a con guest at Scorpio IV in 1986.

Pairings

• Avon/Carnell

Fan Comments

I write less B7 these days - partly due to lack of time, partly due to other writing interests, partly due to enthusiasm for Carnell - I can't write about him all the time so I write less (I imagine zines wouldn't accept stories which feature Carnell every time!) and partly due to very little feedback.

I was bitterly disappointed when Blake disappeared - the series was never the same without him. If Avon had gone instead. I imagine I'd have continued to watch and perhaps have found a new hero; but I can't be SURE of that. I could survive without the others - but without Avon??? Almost inconceivable, yet who knows; I mean, Carnell might have taken his place..Only Carnell could be superior to Avon (but better to have both of them along). As for the specific question, WHO IS B7 - the answer is sure to be totally individual!

I can't see why Avon fans should do down Blake unless it is that they resent the fact that Blake was - in my opinion - always the leader. I suspect many fans emotionally need Avon to lead and when he doesn't, they want someone to blame. I find this attitude inexplicable, but then I never did see Avon as a willing leader. Having watched the series from the start, I didn't expect Avon to lead and -be honest- he didn't make too good a job of it when he eventually had to try. I know some fans will want to lynch me for that, so remember I adore him too...but that doesn't stop me psychoanalysing him and deciding, rightly or wrongly, that Blake's the boss - ALWAYS. I imagine some of us will never be able to agree on this matter. As for Blake being a manipulator, what's wrong with that? One of Avon's prime problems is that he isn't too good at manipulating people. How boring this series would be if all the characters were saints! As for the manipulators - I LIKE them in stories. They make things happen. Carnell must surely be B7's prime manipulator.

The Atonement Cycle [in Tales from Space City #4 (2002)] (title courtesy of Executrix) started because I wrote a PGP, in Avon's POV though not his voice, where he is living in a cell (without a lock), doing what Blake orders him to and is more or less deprived of speech or touch. He doesn't know how long the sentence will last but is sustained by a book of Hans Andersen fairy tales which seems to promise redemption if you pass enough tests.

Some folks on the list protested that Blake wouldn't be that cruel. In my mind, Blake was humouring Avon's craving for redemption, afraid that otherwise he might kill himself. But I didn't say that, because Willa had already asked if she could write it from Blake's POV and I didn't want to pre-empt what she might do. As it happened, her take on it was exactly mine, but with a brilliant twist - Carnell had devised the plan and was overseeing it. Since I love writing him, I decided to take it further. In subsequent episodes, he devised a scenario that would allow Avon to redeem himself and Blake to remit his sentence. Meanwhile Carnell had fallen for Vila and nearly got his wish, but backed off because Vila was scared. Avon found out the truth about the set-up, got mad at Blake but, since Willa was writing this bit, ended up happily shagging him and finally honeymooning in a hotel with an enormous bubble bath. In another part of the forest, Nova could not bear to leave Carnell unHEXed and wrote a reconciliation for him and Vila in the same hotel (and you thought the RPG was complicated?) The Nova story, in Carnell's (drunken) voice, is lovely. The whole thing is an interesting example of how fanfic writers get inspiration both from profic writers and each other.

How is it that 'Blake's Seven' fans, who pride themselves on being a pretty down to earth bunch (well, Blake's Seven did deal with some pretty earthy issues in a very realistic manner) can go all agog over a small bit part character like Carnell? Let's be brutally frank here for a moment, the guy appears on screen for about 5 minutes (okay, a slight inaccuracy, but you can see what I'm trying to emphasis here). In a very average episode, and fans, female fans everywhere are writing stories about him, creating backgrounds and slobbering about how wonderful he is. Excuse me! Now, I may not be the best judge of women, but surely this is Mills and Boon at its worst, something any half decent Blake’s Sevener wouldn’t touch with a Liberator handgun - or would she? Someone - please explain it to me!

Carnell as Mills and Boon? I suppose you sneer because you don't find him attractive but why should you? One reason, I suspect, for our devotion is that B7 has been around a long time now and some of us have spent so long discussing the main characters that we perhaps feel it's time to find other topics and now heroes. There are other guest characters I also dote on and they got into my stories. I wish they'd get invited to cons [...] if slobbering is what you object to. Keep on slobbering, fans - it's fun.

So Carnell only had a bit part? Well, Michael, size isn't everything! What Carnell has was Scott Fredericks, and sex appeal, which explains why he stuck in people's minds. As, therefore, did the idea of the psychostratagist, which is in itself interesting. Authors tend to take interesting ideas and write about them. Whether any of this writing could fairly be classified as slobbering I can't say, I haven't read any of it, but Mills and Boon? That seems a bit harsh. I expect Anais Nin is more what they have in mind!

I had to smile at Michael Bennett's letter re Carnell. It's not surprising he's gained the impression that Carnell is considered important by many, predominantly female, B7 fans, but I think he's probably been misled by the number of times one fan in particular mentions his name. In fact it's probably entirely due to Ros Williams' efforts that Carnell has featured more prominently in fan literature than his actual appearance in the show would seem to warrant. On reflection it's no bad thing as by using an existing character, expanded somewhat, the author is more likely to stick to the original concepts of the show - well that's the theory anyway.

You could be forgiven for thinking that I am a one-woman Carnell fan-club and it's solely due to me that he’s popular, but- that's not so. Carnell was adored right from the start by a select few. In the days when I, like so many, had eyes only for Avon. Carnell appeared very occasionally in fiction before any of mine was written, and most of my early, fiction (everyone knows) stars Avon. It is true that I haul Carnell into view whenever I get the chance nowadays and he stars, or at least strongly features, in nearly all my recent stories. It’s also true that I'm still by no means his only fan, as I’ve discovered since I started promoting him - I'm Just by far the most vociferous! It’s interesting that you think there's a lot of Carnell fiction around. If there is, I wish someone would tell me about it as I can't find much at all, apart from my own, nearly all of which still waits on zine editors issuing it.

Fanworks

Fiction

• Time is a Weapon by Deb Walsh in B7 Complex #10 (1987)
• Carnell Knowledge by Dee Beetem and Renae Ransforf in Standard by Several #2 (1988)
• Fear by Tom Beck (1989)
• Mind Games by Cathy Conrad in Southern Comfort #6.5 (Cally/Carnell) (1991)
• Puppeteer by Aya Katz in Avon the Terrible (1990)
• What If...? fiction by Ros Williams from The Forgotten Seven (1990)
• If You Would Have Power by Ros Williams in Horizon #15, #16 (1991, 1992)
• Giving Off Sparks by Sophia Mulvey (Deltah Base Series) from The Seven Live On #7 (1993)
• Game Plan by Gillian Puddle. in Avon #16 (1995?)
• Unfinished Business by Nova. Blake/Carnell, Avon/Blake (2002)
• Divide by babel (Travis/Carnell. Author's note: "Written for the lgbtfest@LJ prompt 107: A Federation crackdown on "moral deviancy.") (2010)
• Strings Attached by by x_los (2015)

Fanart

• 

  Carnell as "the puppeteer" in The Measure of Affection

Meta and Further Reading

• Carnell Knowledge; copy: Carnell examines the Blake/Avon relationship to find out whether they were having sex. (2004)