tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post3718019585105670273..comments2024-03-27T08:49:38.786-03:00Comments on Siskoid's Blog of Geekery: Babylon 5 #11: BelieversSiskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-3764806530212182022014-07-19T22:01:12.589-03:002014-07-19T22:01:12.589-03:00When I was young, I could never get behind anyone&...When I was young, I could never get behind anyone's view in this episode other than Franklin's, and so hated this episode. As I got older, I came to appreciate that everyone's viewpoint was valid, and I'm actually rather fond of the episode now.Cradoknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-87325228000768814652014-07-19T00:08:51.224-03:002014-07-19T00:08:51.224-03:00John: Aww cute.
Alexander: Deep Space Nine was al...John: Aww cute.<br /><br />Alexander: Deep Space Nine was also forging ahead in this direction with "heavy lies the head" endings, something else the shows had in common.Siskoidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-75339661871526493852014-07-18T21:43:10.671-03:002014-07-18T21:43:10.671-03:00This was one of the first episodes I saw that made...This was one of the first episodes I saw that made me realize B5 was shooting for more realism (at least from the actions of the characters) than other science fiction shows up until that point. And even with it being the most comparable to Star Trek, it made a much larger impression than any of the Trek episodes where they debated medical vs. religious ethics. It could have been smarmy, but it wasn't. The weight felt real, especially when at the end the whole thing blew up in Franklin's face. And the conundrum of what to do when the outcome (the child's death) is inevitable, brings up an interesting point. What action do you take, the one where you can live with yourself, or the one where someone else can live with themselves? <br />JMS was always much slicker about his messages than anyone gave him credit for in the beginning, and it's plots like these that always have me begging my suspicious friends to watch B5 with an open mind. Randomnerdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11216600316804854172noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-42127518929063659282014-07-18T20:58:27.427-03:002014-07-18T20:58:27.427-03:00This was interesting because, at the time, endings...This was interesting because, at the time, endings like this WEREN'T commonplace.<br /><br />Nowadays, well, I guess TV's a darker place.<br /><br />But I remember the web (as it was at the time) flooded with posts by people who were surprised at what happened to the kid, but also at the parents' role in it.Alex Osiashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14851139031311819958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-26671207714799020062014-07-18T19:20:36.717-03:002014-07-18T19:20:36.717-03:00The incident with Franklin and the egg actually ha...The incident with Franklin and the egg actually happened in real life. David Gerrold gave one of the original Tribbles to a sick child so that she would do her breathing exercises. When she left the hospital, she asked them to give the Tribble to another sick child who might need it.John Trumbullhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14491855677872686708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-10971010144489668992014-07-18T12:12:03.038-03:002014-07-18T12:12:03.038-03:00Every episode of season 1 features some kind of fo...Every episode of season 1 features some kind of foreshadowing for later, but this one has the most superfluous of the lot with Kosh's line about the avalanche, which doesn't really add anything to our understanding and could have been placed anywhere.<br /><br />David Gerrold, best known for perhaps the most famous Star Trek episode of all, The Trouble with Tribbles (which led to a supporting character being modeled after him in the animated series episode More Trouble, More Tribbles), really didn't want to do this episode, seeing it as a preachy cliche of an idea, but JMS insisted he was the perfect choice, and Gerrold realized what he meant when halfway through writing it, he was driven to check on his own sleeping son. This is literally the only thing he says about it in his introduction from the script volumes, which is easily the shortest of the bunch.<br /><br />Basically, the whole thing is one big middle finger to Trek ideology, particularly the unbearably smug first couple years of TNG, where you just know if this story had happened it would have ended exactly as Franklin expected, or at least with a last minute deus ex machina discovery of a third option that everyone would be satisfied with. The ending is basically a big neon sign saying "We're not that show."<br /><br />The Ivanova story is...weird, though at least JMS himself has said we weren't meant to think she'd actually defeated all those raiders, and instead she simply hauled ass out of there while occasionally firing back. It seems the A-plot simply took up too much time to give us a true resolution here.<br /><br />The episode does try its hardest to present the alien Christian Scientists with an equal voice, but I do get pissed off every time I see them chastise Delenn for not respecting their religion, literally seconds after they were asking her to disregard her own. She was extraordinarily nice to let that one go.Ryan Lohnernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-82405731270653807082014-07-18T10:17:41.369-03:002014-07-18T10:17:41.369-03:00The Star Trekiest episode they ever did on the sho...The Star Trekiest episode they ever did on the show. I never really liked it for that reason, even though the questions of politics, religion and ethics are a big part of why I love B5 so much.<br /><br />I always liked the way JMS used to leave the question of how much "religion" in the B5 universe was bogus, or advanced science/weird physics, or Actually True (and this comment probably relates more logically to episodes like Soul Hunter, but I'm behind on reading these columns so I'll pop it in here). To my recollection, I feel JMS expressed his approach more explicitly while writing Spider-Man than in this show, during the (much-reviled) spider-totem stuff.<br /><br />For the record, and I think I've mentioned it before, I never really minded the spider-totem stuff, and I think it's fits into the "mystical" side of the Spider-Man/Marvel universe better than many of the biggest detractors like to admit. I don't think it's an all-time classic story arc, but it doesn't bother me the way it does some. The pertinent scene (and I'm working from memory, so the specifics probably aren't right) is where Spidey asks a mystical character whether he believes Spidey's powers were given to him by a spider-god, or by weird science, and the character responds by saying he believes the myth of the sun being destroyed every evening by a serpent, and being reborn every morning, and he also believes that the sun is a giant nuclear furnace that the Earth revolves around.<br /><br />I think many people see this approach as a cop-out, needing to know what the ACTUAL intention is, where JMS is actually planting his flag, but I think it's an accurate observation of human nature that we frequently maintain two contradictory viewpoints in our beliefs, be they spiritual or otherwise. I think it's one of the most fundamental ways in which our minds work.<br /><br />So yes, JMS gives ample evidence that "souls" are real and Minbari belief is correct, while also [spoilery spoiley spoiler, something about DNA, we shall revisit this].Madeleynoreply@blogger.com