Babylon 5
- Thread starter Kail
- Start date
Don't you hate when that happens?Did I kill the thread?
I think we're all waiting for Kail's next post to see what episode he's on.It's the early season 5 slump.
To this day, I still don't understand the hate for a certain individual from the early Season 5 era. In fact, the person I did start to not like during that time was Lyta, but I understand why they went in that direction.
In hindsight, I wish the Rangers were more of a covert Navy Seals type organization. I loved the conspicuousness of the group in seasons 2 and 3, but when they opened it up to everyone, I started to lose interest in the whole thing. It also might be one of the reasons I never had an interest to see Legend of the Rangers.
Their mantra - We Live for the One We Die for the One - began making me uncomfortable when they were using it every other spoken line, like some participant with a death wish in a cultish Jim Jones commune. I assumed it was because the writers were running out of things to say. If I recall correctly, this was happening not so much in Babylon 5, but in the spinoffs.
Only in 'Legend of the Rangers' pilot movie, really. And from what JMS has said, that may have ended up being a plot poiint. We'll never know, though.
Another quick aside:
Today would have been Richard Biggs' birthday. He was a wonderful man who died much too early in 2004 due to an aortic dissection.
Many people didn't know that he was deaf in one ear and losing his hearing in the other. I've been told that much of the money that he earned from convention attendance and autograph sales went to a school for the deaf.
When he published the Babylon 5 scripts, JMS dedicated the first volume to Rick:
"Dedicated with love and respect to the memory of
Richard Biggs
whose ship departed unexpectedly
and far too early.
We envy the stars his magnificent company."
Today would have been Richard Biggs' birthday. He was a wonderful man who died much too early in 2004 due to an aortic dissection.
Many people didn't know that he was deaf in one ear and losing his hearing in the other. I've been told that much of the money that he earned from convention attendance and autograph sales went to a school for the deaf.
When he published the Babylon 5 scripts, JMS dedicated the first volume to Rick:
"Dedicated with love and respect to the memory of
Richard Biggs
whose ship departed unexpectedly
and far too early.
We envy the stars his magnificent company."
He was only 44 when he died. Very sad indeed. 
I have finished "Strange Relations". I saw the surprise of the new Captain having once been married to Sheridan coming a mile away. They didn't give Bester much to do in this one. I believe I have already remarked how heavy handed the writing on this show can be, and this episode is a prime example. From the verbose willow analogy to the final scene of the long haired, angelic telepaths singing Kumbaya. The writers might as well hit me over the head. On the brighter side, I love G'Kar being given the job as Londo's bodyguard. Yeah, that seems like a good idea. Nothing could go wrong there. Also a bright spot, Lyta was looking mighty fine.
The telepath arc didn't work very well but it does end and there is plenty of good stuff like G'Kar and Londo. The telepath issues largely disappear early in the series when their underground railroad through B5 gets discovered. We saw some of the bad side with Bester but that left a lot to infer rather than be direct story points for the episodes he was in (Selective breeding, totalitarian control, actual thought policing, etc.) There are also hints in comments from Talia and Lyta but they are few, not usually central to a plot and easily forgotten.
With all the Shadow War and Clark finished so abruptly for logistical reasons the telepaths pop in very suddenly with a large arc that needed more seeding to see why folks on B5 are behaving as they do toward the ragamuffins. A lot of that might have been carried by Ivanova who had a history of criticism on telepath issues and was a latent telepath herself.
Also, Byron is such an obvious Jim Jones cult leader who really isn't offering anything different from Psicorp, he just wants his own version. It makes him and his people seem narcissistic and unsympathetic. In the early seasons, we got to see the discrimination telepaths faced, but that really got forgotten with Lyta's involvement with the Shadow War and the Earth War. It seemed odd that the crew is so standoffish to her in season 5, especially Delenn who Lyta had no trouble going to for help back in the early days. That I put down to carrying Ivanova's possible purpose (trafficking telepaths like she was Narns, and getting involved with Byron) and Lyta having issues with her Vorlon superpowers and getting dragged into the mess.
With all the Shadow War and Clark finished so abruptly for logistical reasons the telepaths pop in very suddenly with a large arc that needed more seeding to see why folks on B5 are behaving as they do toward the ragamuffins. A lot of that might have been carried by Ivanova who had a history of criticism on telepath issues and was a latent telepath herself.
Also, Byron is such an obvious Jim Jones cult leader who really isn't offering anything different from Psicorp, he just wants his own version. It makes him and his people seem narcissistic and unsympathetic. In the early seasons, we got to see the discrimination telepaths faced, but that really got forgotten with Lyta's involvement with the Shadow War and the Earth War. It seemed odd that the crew is so standoffish to her in season 5, especially Delenn who Lyta had no trouble going to for help back in the early days. That I put down to carrying Ivanova's possible purpose (trafficking telepaths like she was Narns, and getting involved with Byron) and Lyta having issues with her Vorlon superpowers and getting dragged into the mess.
When Pat found out that jms had written a nude love scene for her and Byron, she went to him and said "Okay, why did you wait until I had just had a baby and my boobs are huge to do this?"
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