tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post3785957748114773746..comments2024-03-27T08:49:38.786-03:00Comments on Siskoid's Blog of Geekery: Babylon 5 #77: Racing MarsSiskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-32379347101388594542014-09-23T21:42:19.068-03:002014-09-23T21:42:19.068-03:00On that last part, we certainly agree!On that last part, we certainly agree!Siskoidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-5542699572621117352014-09-23T17:08:35.315-03:002014-09-23T17:08:35.315-03:00Marcus has had a complete 180 degree character cha...Marcus has had a complete 180 degree character change from the guy in Matters of Honor who said "I don't speak unless I have something to say." I wonder how much JMS had sketched him out in advance. Franklin's "And that's when I shot him, your honour" made me laugh out loud.<br /><br />Sheridan apparently doesn't own any DVDs, and all the TV channels are blocked (even the porn ones! Harsh!) Also, he should have probably invited Michael for dinner, either in his quarters or at the Resh Air Restaurant or something, rather than trapping him in a hallway.<br /><br />When Wade(I think that's his name) tries to recruit Garibaldi, he tells Michael that Sheridan's approach isn't good for Earth, the president etc... Garibaldi's complaints have nothing to do with the actual secession from Earth. They're based around his belief that Sheridan has a god-complex. If his complaints were genuine, he should have walked away there and then.<br /><br />I love the idea that the regular people on Mars (and by association, lots of other planets) have no idea that there was a big war involving ancient races and the destiny of the universe.<br /><br />The Ivanova and the smugglers scene goes great, right up until the end and "you seeing anyone, Ivanova?" I love Claudia Christian, but I can do without her double takes and the "wa wa waaaa" music.LiamKavhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01996095233681105682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-35422615650954832012014-09-22T19:21:11.081-03:002014-09-22T19:21:11.081-03:00Madeley: That's a great story! I guess I never...Madeley: That's a great story! I guess I never thought much about it because my mom always had gay friends growing up. I don't know how I learned they were gay or what it meant, or how I was convinced of equal marriage rights or whatever. I just don't have that memory. It could be an after school special for all I know.<br /><br />Ryan: Yes you've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating.<br /><br />And I do hate the misogyny propagated by some religions, don't you?Siskoidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-59475486761034448482014-09-22T10:04:25.669-03:002014-09-22T10:04:25.669-03:00JMS says much the same about this one, describing ...JMS says much the same about this one, describing it as a "furniture moving" episode that mainly exists so that future episodes can build on what it sets up. And you can really feel him struggling to come up with things to say about it, to the point where he pretty much just ignores the main plot.<br /><br />One thing there is a lot to say about, of course, is the portrayal of human prejudices in the future being redirected outward. I may have said this before but I can't recall: his major thesis was that upon being confronted with all kinds of different aliens, humans would tend to start seeing other humans as normal whatever their race, sex, or orientation. So we get this quietly subversive storyline where all the humor of the situation comes from Marcus and Franklin's personal issues with each other, rather than "They have to be gay, isn't that wacky?"<br /><br />And oddly enough, the show didn't get one word of complaint about it, as JMS was fully prepared for. What he wasn't prepared for was how many people would take offense to the offhand reference to a female Pope, which got a bigger response than any other single line in the show's run, with people still writing in to this day accusing him of trying to bring down the Church, when as he puts it, if he really wanted to do that he could have hit a hell of a lot harder.<br /><br />Anyway, "What would you have us do, show them swishing down the halls?" Suck it, Rick Berman.Ryan Lohnernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-39287283946366814492014-09-22T08:45:10.695-03:002014-09-22T08:45:10.695-03:00For a fairly incosequential episode, this one'...For a fairly incosequential episode, this one's pretty significant for me because it's an illustration of how important science fiction can be. It's a latter day example, I think, for how SF can change the way people think about the world, and makes me understand how important the progressive messages in the original Star Trek must have been.<br /><br />I was a teenager in the mid-Nineties, relatively knowledgable about politics thanks to a politically-switched-on family, very left wing and liberal even then. Yet the concept of gay people being able to marry literally did not occur to me. Not because I thought it shouldn't happen- not even because I came from a family who disapproved of homosexuality, because my immediate family are very progressive- but because as a concept it did not exist to me (and that's privilege in action for you, right there.)<br /><br />So this throwaway concept in B5, used basically for humour, was like being hit by lightning. OF COURSE gay people should be able to marry. Of course that would be the norm in the future. It was a complete revelation.<br /><br />JMS has been praised and criticised for whatever was going on with Talia and Ivanova (for what it's worth, for me, watching the scene where Ivanova reaches over to the empty spot in her bed clearly implied they were lovers. So clearly that I don't really understand how it can be taken as anything else). But this small gesture was the most important thing B5 ever did, to my mind.<br /><br />At the time, I really did think it would take 250 years for us to get that far. Less than 20 years later, where I'm from anyway, we're almost there.Madeleynoreply@blogger.com