tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post5837440987637877448..comments2024-03-27T08:49:38.786-03:00Comments on Siskoid's Blog of Geekery: Babylon 5 #4: Born to the PurpleSiskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-20462590704829757852014-07-21T21:44:19.699-03:002014-07-21T21:44:19.699-03:00@Chuck
Siskoid has asked us to keep potential spo...@Chuck<br /><br />Siskoid has asked us to keep potential spoilers vague, just in case there are any people watching for the first time. I'd say that comment is a bit borderline, but you might want to be a bit more discreet.<br /><br />And yeah, he did plant stuff that didn't play out for years. Of course, he also planted stuff that went no-where. Some of which was rewritten in to better stuff, but I think there's some things that were done in case of potential cancellation or cast emergencies.LiamKavhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01996095233681105682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-41763116263056778552014-07-21T20:08:40.130-03:002014-07-21T20:08:40.130-03:00FYI, Londo's feelings for Adira will lead to t...FYI, Londo's feelings for Adira will lead to tragic consequences two seasons down the road. JMS often planted seeds that would not bear fruit for quite some time.Chuck Lavazzihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11648785168147837794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-85249426522175714682014-07-11T13:40:41.636-03:002014-07-11T13:40:41.636-03:00Great reviews, I'm enjoying the vicarious revi...Great reviews, I'm enjoying the vicarious revisiting!<br /><br />And Ryan, thanks for the added comments from the script volumes. I was always curious about those...I balked at the (anticipated total) price when they first started coming out.Benjaminnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-70373259364838773812014-07-11T13:02:15.313-03:002014-07-11T13:02:15.313-03:00The thing is, the hairstyle perfectly suits their ...The thing is, the hairstyle perfectly suits their culture... it's ridiculously decadent and over the top. You can imagine it being one of those things where someone popular at the Centauri court started to wear their hair high, and then everyone copied him, and then over the years they just got higher and higher, with no-one ever daring to be the one to stop doing it. This is probably the same universe that led to TOS or the reboot movies where we've got all the way to the 23rd century without any women going "do you know what? I think I'm going to wear trousers for my work uniform rather than a miniskirt."<br /><br /> (There is a historical precedent for this that's slipping my mind at the moment.)<br /><br />I also think it's intentional that the Centauri are the more human looking ones and the Narn are the more alien ones. It affects our initial impressions of them, and how those impressions are played with as the show goes on.<br /><br />Larry DiTillio was, along with Bob Forward, a story editor/showrunner for Transformers: Beast Wars, which was the series that basically saved the franchise back in the late 90s. It was done by the same studio that did ReBoot, so he has experience with slightly rough but well meaning CGI. Also, Beast Wars was awesome.LiamKavhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01996095233681105682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-40818873551431418752014-07-11T11:44:00.591-03:002014-07-11T11:44:00.591-03:00One major reason the whole show works as a single ...One major reason the whole show works as a single grand story so well is that it's largely the product of a single mind. Of the 110 episodes, a mere 18 were not written by JMS personally. And here we have the first of these, by Larry DiTillio. He and JMS had been friends since the very beginning of both their careers, and JMS dearly wanted him to be the show's story editor as they worked together so well, but the network was skittish about this unknown quantity. So he was given this episode to write as basically his audition for the job.<br /><br />Though it got him the job, DiTillio was actually a bit disappointed by how the episode turned out. He had written a couple action scenes that had to be scrapped for money and time, and he also imagined Garibaldi's hacking would feature much more impressive effects. But in his introduction in the script volumes, he says he certainly can't feel regret any more, knowing how well the whole thing turned out.<br /><br />Given the focus on the Centauri, I'll bring this up now: their hairstyle was actually the result of a practical joke. Peter Jurasik convinced the hair and makeup people to give him the "fountain" wig and told JMS it was his idea for the Centauri, expecting to be laughed out of the office. And JMS, baffled but wanting his actors to feel their input was valued, agreed. Jurasik was now too embarrassed to reveal the truth, and by the time it did come out it was too late to change. It did work quite well as a way to make the Centauri easily distinguishable from humans, but also caused some issues later that I'll get to at the proper time. Also, the wigs looked terrible for the whole first season but thankfully improved.Ryan Lohnernoreply@blogger.com