A Question of Priorities

"Denise Felt" wrote:

> Um, James. I didn't make up anything. In fact, I'm not even the one who
> brought the age issue up in the first place. I was merely agreeing with
> another poster that Mary was a good deal younger than Straker. And just to
> be exact, since people are nitpicking, I don't think she was a teenager.
> Slightly over twenty was my guess the first time I saw it, and my opinion
> hasn't changed much with future viewings. If you're going to throw darts,
> at least aim them at the right target.

Fair enough, Denise, I didn't skim back through the thread - I just
took the post I replied to at face value.

Cheers
James

"MCCAUG" wrote: I think Denise may have hit this on the head - why didn't
the rest of us see it?

Because Denise has just made it up. I don't believe there's any
> intention to portray Mrs Straker as a teenager at the time she
> got married.

There are tons of young women (and teenaged girls) who look far older and
more sophisticated than their chronological ages. Look at Liz Taylor for
instance. When she was 18 or 19 (getting married to Nicky Hilton) - she
looked anything but a teenager. She was labelled "the most beautiful woman
in the world" when she was barely 15 yrs old! I think the idea of Mary being
quite young still works......Pam

--- In SHADO@y..., Marc Martin <marc@u...> wrote:
> >Furthermore, strangely enough, in the official bio for Straker,
Mary is
> >described as Mary Nightingale, a secretary at the ministry of
defence.
> >Straker is described as being born in 1940. The marriage took
place in
> >December 1970, (following what's in this bio ) Ed would have been
30. Strict
> >canon.
>
> "The official bio for Straker"? You mean the made-up-by-Fanderson
> bio? I wouldn't count that as canon, just creative thinking...


Yes indeed. Interestingly enough, Fanderson used to have a bit of a
phobia about "made up" biographies and background etc. I assume their
stance has now changed,seeing as how they themselves seem to be
responsible for quite a bit of that sort of embroidery.

And there is nothing wrong with that either...as long as other fans
aren't criticised for the same thing....

Simon

On Sun, 24 Nov 2002 Denise Felt <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Actually, Jeff. It's obvious from the episode that she's a lot younger
> than he is. So I always knew of the age difference.  

Denise, your powers of observation are clearly better than mine, since I
only realized the age difference by examining Ms. Neve's face with the
aid of enhanced DVD resolution. By contrast, seven years ago I had her
figured as either immature or overly emotional.

<<...I have simply felt since I was old enough to consider the matter that
a
strong man would prefer a strong partner...>>

Interesting point -- a so-called 'strong' person who surrounds themselves
with 'weaker' people is not really all that confident, and hence not all
that
'strong.'

<< ...But I've long since realized that Gerry Anderson and I don't agree
on that point! *grin*>>

Given that Gerry divorced Syliva (a 'strong' woman') and subsequently
married one of his secretaries (a 'weaker' woman), it looks like you
are dead-on-the-money!


On that same day, Pam <[hidden email]> added:

<< I was always so annoyed by her increadibly immature behaviour, her
jealousy, her refusal to have any kind of life outside the 4 walls of their
home, etc (i.e. not making her own friends, meeting the neighbours, etc).
NOW it all makes more sense... Kind of Princess Diana-Prince Charles
relationship in terms of age difference and maturity levels. . >>

Love that analogy!

Later, James Gibbon <[hidden email]> objected with

> Because Denise has just made it up. I don't believe there's
> any intention to portray Mrs Straker as a teenager at the time
> she got married.

Intentional or not, this theory fits the character beautifully. It is
also a plausible explanation for her behavior, and far less
mysognystic (SIC) than the usual brat/shrew/emotional thinking
that we have assigned to this character over the years.

Ameila [hidden email] chimed in with:

> Physically Mary didn't look like she was still in her teens
> during CCAOK to me, but that's a personal opinion...

Ahh, but neither did Straker! This is a weakness of pre-queling
the characters. The age difference is really the key, and not
how they looked during their honeymoon; both actors were
obviously older than their characters during those sequences.

>...so is my opinion Straker wouldn't marry a teenager.

But how different is a 20-year-old from an 18-year-old? I had
a 19-year-old personal trainer a number of years ago, and she
had graduated early at 17. This gave her two years in the work-
force and plenty of time to build up professional behavior and
creditability. But it was clear in regular conversation that the
amount of things that she had been exposed to was no better
than the typical 19-year-old, even if she professionally comported
herself in the manner of someone ten years older.  

Remember, Mary was a secretary at the Ministry of Defence,
and would have learned decorum in professional situations. That
is mostly likely the circumstance under which she and Straker
first met. It is quiet likely that the physical attraction set in before
Ed realized how immature Mary actually was as an individual.

On Mon, 25 Nov 2002, Denise responded to James Gibbon

> If you're going to throw darts, at least aim them at the right target.

Sorry for the trouble that I caused you, Denise. Hey, Jim -- over here!

Jeff Kuzma

I'm about to take my life in my own hands once again and wade into
this disagreement because my opinion on Suzanne Neve's age seems to have been
the starting point for this discussion.
I said judging from the role she played in the 1961 TV episode of
Sherlock Holmes The Adventure of the Copper Beeches that she might be around
20. However I did leave room for error saying she might be as much as 5
years either was. However since she surely wasn't as young as 15 it would be
more wise to make her oldest age 25. She in her other roles played women
older than teenagers for the most part. In Naked Evil she played a college
student which would be in the range of 18 to 22. In the film Bunny Lake is
Missing she play a mother of another girl at the school the missing girl
attended which would also put her character age in the mid 20's. If you
take the mid age between 20 and 25 which is 23 and you add the 8 years till
1969 you get a age of 31. Which would have her playing Mary in AQOP as a 31
year old who married at 21 or 22 which sounds more logical. But then logic
has very little to do with fiction or fan fiction.

James K.
"The farmers always win."


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