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Draft:Dayna Mellanby

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Dayna Mellanby
Blake's 7 character
First appearanceAftermath
Last appearanceBlake
Portrayed byJosette Simon (Original series)

Angela Bruce (BBC Radio)

Yasmin Bannerman (Big Finish Productions)
In-universe information
SpeciesHuman
GenderFemale

Dayna Mellanby is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Blake's 7, played by Josette Simon. ..post series...

Miscellaneous

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INSIDE STORY - jenna leaving p 89ish p92 equity etc p93 caption and text

p95ish Cally leaving


The Making of Terry Nation's "Blake..., Rigelsford, Adrian



Kirstie Pooley, Lindsey Duncan, Floella Benjamin Marina Sirtis [1]

student from Central School of Speech and Drama, no Equity card ("union membership card without which, in the 1970s, it was virtually impossible to work as an actor"[2] "Maloney, having seen her interviews and screen tests with Paul Darrow, was convinced that Simon was worth taking on."[2] Had not seen show before being recruited.[2]

Notably, the fact that Dayna is Black is only ever referred to three times within the series[2] "production team’s only stipulation about her appearance when casting the role had been that she should not be a brunette, in order to provide maximum contrast with Cally"[2] "The casting of a Black British actress with a receive pronunciation accent as Dayna was particularly inspired, as most Black actresses in Britain at the time had Caribbean or American accents, reinforcing the erroneous notion that Black and British identities are somehow mutually exclusive."[2]

relatiobship with Avon[3] Tempest[3] Plot points - Stevens/Moore

Blakes 7 mag issues 5, 17


BLAKE'S 7: The Sevenfold Crown BBC Radio 4 17 January 1998: 2.30pm – 4.00pm[4] Angela Bruce (Dayna)[4] "regional accent, and is audibly much older than Josette Simon in 1981"[5]


BLAKE'S 7: THE Syndeton Experiment BBC Radio 4 0 April 1999: 3.02pm – 4.00pm Angela Bruce (Dayna)[6]


In 2017 it was announced that the role of Dayna had been recast and would now be played by Yasmin Bannerman for Big Finish Productions.


"only the second black woman to be cast in a leading role in a British TV sci-fi series."[7] "Elizabeth Adare played Elizabeth M'Bondo in the ITV children’s sci-fi series The Tomorrow People , which ran from 1973–9."[8]


"Josette Simon was adored by my generation of Britons as Dayna"[9]

[since Uhura] "few black female characters have played memorable television roles in an outer space context. " "a resistance fighter" [10]

See Enterprising Women


women inc Dayna not in leaership roles, unlike Federation[11] death[12] "eye-candy"[13] Blake's Junction 7 parody[14] (Ginny Holder)

Initially a strong character, "vowing revenge against Servalan" for father's death, Dayna "gradually (and debatably) lost her agency as a heroic figure of lex talionis."[15]

References

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  1. ^ Stevens & Moore 2000, p. 183.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Stevens & Moore 2000, p. 184.
  3. ^ a b Stevens & Moore 2000, p. 12.
  4. ^ a b Stevens & Moore 2000, p. 358.
  5. ^ Stevens & Moore 2000, p. 360.
  6. ^ Stevens & Moore 2000, p. 361.
  7. ^ Goddard 2017, p. 82.
  8. ^ Goddard 2017, p. 92.
  9. ^ Iyengar 2006, p. 58.
  10. ^ Adesola Mafe 2018, p. 122.
  11. ^ Powers 2016, p. 84.
  12. ^ Powers 2016, p. 86.
  13. ^ Powers 2016, p. 92.
  14. ^ Powers 2016, pp. 98–99.
  15. ^ Powers 2016, p. 123.

Book sources

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  • Adesola Mafe, Diana (2018). Where No Black Woman Has Gone Before: Subversive Portrayals in Speculative Film and TV. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-1-4773-1523-1.
  • Goddard, Lynette (2007). "11. Side doors and service elevators: racial constraints for actressses of colour". In Gale, Maggie B.; Stokes, John (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to the Actress. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 215–234. doi:10.1017/CCOL9780521846066. ISBN 978-0-521-60854-1.
  • Goddard, Lynette (2017). "Will we ever have a black Desdemona? Casting Josette Simon at the Royal Shakespeare Company". In Jarrett-Macauley, Delia (ed.). Shakespeare, Race and Performance. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 80–95. ISBN 978-1-138-91382-0.
  • Iyengar, Sujata (2006). "Colorblind Casting in Single-Sex Shakespeare". In Thompson, Ayanna (ed.). Colorblind Shakespeare: New Perspectives on Race and Performance. New York: Routledge. pp. 47–68. ISBN 978-0-415-97802-6.
  • McCormack, Una (2006). "9. Resist the host – Blake's 7: a very British future". In Cook, John R.; Wright, Peter (eds.). British Science Fiction Television : a Hitchhiker's Guide. New York: I.B. Tauris. pp. 174–191. ISBN 978-1-84511-047-5.
  • Muir, John Kenneth (1999). A History and Critical Analysis of Blake's 7, the 1978–1981 British Television Space Adventure. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-0600-5.
  • O'Connor, John; Goodland, Katharine (2007). A Directory of Shakespeare in Performance 1970–2005. Vol. I: Great Britain. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-1734-8.
  • Oddey, Alison (1999). Performing Women: Stand-ups, Strumpets and Itinerants. Basingstoke: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-71394-5.
  • Powers, Tom (2016). Gender and the Quest in British Science Fiction Television: An Analysis of Doctor Who, Blake's 7, Red Dwarf and Torchwood. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1-4766-6552-8.
  • Richards, Sandra (1993). "The Recent Actress". The Rise of the English Actress. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 230–260. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-09930-6_11. ISBN 978-1-349-09930-6.
  • Singh, Jyotsna (2019). Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4081-8605-3.
  • Stevens, Alan; Moore, Fiona (2000). Liberation: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Blake's 2. Prestatyn: Telos. pp. 100–112. ISBN 978-1903889541.
  • Tylee, Claire (2000). "The black explorer: female identity in black feminist drama on British television in 1992". In Carson, Bruce; Llewellyn-Jones, Margaret (eds.). Frames and Fictions on Television : the Politics of Identity within Drama. Exeter: Intellect. pp. 100–112. ISBN 978-1-84150-009-6.
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