Babylon 5

[Yanks]

I may be wrong, but I always thought the gunstar from 'The Last Starfighter' was designed with newtonian manoeuvring in mind, even if it wasn't exactly depicted that way in the movie.

Maybe, it's been "light-years" since I've seen that movie

One thing that B5 did that most similar shows/movies never seemed to bother with is point out how there's a physical limit to the kinds of crazy manoeuvres they can pull off, not because of the limitations of the craft, but the pilot. Too much delta-v and the pilot will black out, which is not the kind of thing you generally want to do in a dogfight.

True. No "inertial stabilizers" here

Let's just pretend for a second that everything that was said and done here regarding that was over the picture of a 16 year old Bruce Boxleitner wearing nothing but a jockstrap. Somehow I don't thing the majority of people here would be anywhere near as comfortable with that.

I wouldn't bat an eye. Hey, if they want to make a policy - fine. But to arbitrarily remove a completely legal picture because someone thinks it may offend someone it overstepping I think. (not that what I think makes a hill of beans)

Regardless, Claudia isn't here so the "she's OK with it" argument is irrelevant. Go do it on her twitter or facebook account where it will apparently be more appreciated. Bottom line: this isn't the place for that sort of thing, so lets all at least *try* to have a little tact.

I think this whole thing is just drama.

Slightly harder trivia question: what's the name of the two-seater version of the Starfury designed and built for 'In The Beginning' be never used on-screen? Bonus point if you can name the episode where an entirely different two-seater fury was briefly seen on-screen.

Badger Class Starfury.

http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/Badger-class_Starfury

'A Voice in the Wilerness' - was the episode.

I never would have remembered this had I not looked it up, so deduct a point

 

[John Clark]

I remember the Badger (It pops up in some of the B5 game books that I have), but don't think I noticed the other two seater Fury.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

badger badger badger badger badger badger badger MUSHROOM MUSHROOM

 

[JWPlatt]

...Bruce Boxleitner wearing nothing but a jockstrap. Somehow I don't thing the majority of people here would be anywhere near as comfortable with that.

A jock strap is more hyperbole. A Speedo swimsuit is a more appropriate analogy. But with a name like Boxleitner, he should be in boxers. And I've seen pictures of Decker's Unit on these forums. That was apparently okay. Not that I'm complaining.

 

[B.J.]

In reply to all of this about swimsuits and such, I think it only fair to mention Sinclair's d*ck.

Spoiler: Sinclair's D*CK

Many long time fans will remember the old B5 fandom joke started by JMS of Sinclair's Duck. It started way back before the moderated newsgroup formed. It was even pre-rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5, when alt.tv.babylon-5 was the B5 newsgroup. Basically some less than polite people started a thread commenting on female body parts. This eventually lead to someone forming a thread called "Sinclair's D*CK." This was the result:

From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 18 May 1994 06:28:13 -0400
Subject: Re: Sinclair's D*CK!

I don't understand...what does Sinclair's duck have to do with
anything? We weren't even planning on introducing the duck until late in
season two. I suspect a leak. Nothing worse than a leaky duck.

jms

 

[Forbin]

I've got some screen grabs of 18-year-old Don Johnson in nothing but a loin cloth, playing a blue-eyed Indian boy in an episode of Kung Fu, if anybody wants to see.

(KIDDING!! )

(And I grabbed them for a friend, just for the record).

Anyway - this is peripheral trivia. Monogram Models released plastic model kits of Babylon 5 and the Star Fury when the show was on. It came to be realized after a while that the Star Fury model looked slightly squished. Further analysis revealed that they used the original Amiga-based computer model as reference, and the Amiga computer used slightly rectangular pixels. I guess they must have converted the files for IBM PCs with normal square pixels, and thus the reference images were squished. And thus the model kit is squished.

 

[Romdoll]

Love B-5.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I've got some screen grabs of 18-year-old Don Johnson in nothing but a loin cloth, playing a blue-eyed Indian boy in an episode of Kung Fu, if anybody wants to see.

(KIDDING!! )

(And I grabbed them for a friend, just for the record).

Thank you, by the way.

 

[Kail]

Back on subject, I watched "In the Beginning". I enjoyed it, it was good. The trying to "de-age" the actors was a bit comical with some bad dye jobs. But over all grade B+. As always with B5 the CGI is dated, but there were some pretty good space battles/action sequences. I was glad Claudia was back. The story was an interesting blend of new, and revisiting things we've previously seen in episodes. I enjoyed the "fleshing out" of the B5 mythos. I was particularly pleased with the ending, Emperor Molari watching in on Delenn and Sinclair. I can't think of the episode title when we saw this before, but it tied together nicely.

I'm trying to figure out this symbiot Londo has on him. Not sure exactly how it works. Londo gets to be himself most of the time, do what he wants, and this creature only expresses it's will over him sometimes? Also I've picked up that if Londo is drunk, he can talk "privately". But beyond that...

I'm going to pay close attention on my re-watch of B5, because I now know Sinclair knew both G'Kar and the Doctor before his assignment to B5. I don't remember them mentioning that upon his introduction to the series. But I could be wrong. I often am.

 

[Gov Kodos]

War Without End is the episode, I believe, @Kail. The 2 parter with B4 and Sinclair returning.

The Keeper is more like a guard or watcher. It is in contact with the Drach at all times and has its own limited sentience like a lot of Shadow technology. The person its bonded to is more like a dog on a leash. You can try to act any way you want but the Keeper will inflict punishment if you don't behave the way the Drach want. Being biological, it can be drunk under the table which Londo discovered. Very likely, that's why Londo was hoping Sheridan had a whisky supply when he visited Minbar. The Centauri Trilogy has more about the Keepers and the Drach and they are canon to the series if you should want to look for them.

 

[Forbin]

I think ItB recons Sheridan knowing G'Kar and the Doc back then. It was indeed never mentioned during the series.

 

[Snatcher42]

War Without End is the episode, I believe, @Kail. The 2 parter with B4 and Sinclair returning.

Yup. As I mentioned before, if you go back and re-watch "War Without End Part 2", especially now that you've seen "In The Beginning", most of the unanswered questions from the end of the series are addressed there. Yes, the novels spell everything out explicitly, but all the major points are in that episode.

I often like to use "In the Beginning" to bookend my re-watches of B5 because it alludes to the end of Londo's story, while simultaneously taking us back to the start of everything. Though yes, it tries a little TOO hard to connect everything, with certain characters encountering each other in ways that had never been alluded to before.

Btw, the remaining movies are a bit... different. Thirdspace and River of Souls are stand-alone stories of varying quality. A Call to Arms is a lead in to the Crusade spinoff, Legend of the Rangers was a failed pilot for another spinoff, and The Lost Tales was a failed attempt to bring B5 back as a direct-to-video anthology series.

 

[Reverend]

I'm trying to figure out this symbiot Londo has on him. Not sure exactly how it works. Londo gets to be himself most of the time, do what he wants, and this creature only expresses it's will over him sometimes? Also I've picked up that if Londo is drunk, he can talk "privately". But beyond that...

As you might guess, they're Shadow organic technology. Semi-intelligent and telepathically bonded to an individual Drakh who can choose to observe and communicate directly through the Keeper.

Their influence with a host grows over time, but even then it's very limited. At the very base level it uses aberrant conditioning by inflicting significant pain or pleasure, directly through the host's nervous system. The idea being to get the host to obey commands of their own accord rather than take them over. It sounds like the sort of thing strong person can overcome, but remember these things are with the host night and day and everyone has their breaking point.

They can take more direct control of the motor functions, but it is clumsy & limited. Mostly to prevent speech if they sense the host is trying to say something they shouldn't or to force an action, like say, pulling a trigger (recall how Captain Jack's hand was shaking when pointing the PPG.)

Since they are parasites, they feed off the host which is where the alcohol comes in. They have a much smaller body mass and higher metabolism so it affects them quicker but also passes quickly, giving only a small window to act freely.

I'm going to pay close attention on my re-watch of B5, because I now know Sinclair knew both G'Kar and the Doctor before his assignment to B5. I don't remember them mentioning that upon his introduction to the series. But I could be wrong. I often am.

It's a bit of a retcon since I don't think there's any indication that any of them have met before (aside from Ivanova having served with Sheridan at Io) but conversely I don't think anything directly contradicts it. Also keep in mind it was a *secret* mission , one that failed quite catastrophically. Not the kind of thing any of them need bring up again, a least not in any exchange we witnessed in the course of the show.

 

[Jan]

Franklin greeted Sinclair quite familiarly when he came on board, even though he didn't specifically say 'good to see you again'. We didn't see any of the others meet for the first time on the station, iirc, so as Reverend said, there's nothing to contradict them having met before.

 

[shivkala]

There may not have been anything to contradict it, but it to me was the weakest part of ItB. Definitely easy to be hand-waved by saying that Sheridan and Franklin realized it was a classified mission and didn't play up the fact they knew each other.

G'Kar, too, could have hidden that fact to have deniability.

I just felt that the whole mission didn't have much impact on anything.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

There may not have been anything to contradict it, but it to me was the weakest part of ItB. Definitely easy to be hand-waved by saying that Sheridan and Franklin realized it was a classified mission and didn't play up the fact they knew each other.

G'Kar, too, could have hidden that fact to have deniability.

I just felt that the whole mission didn't have much impact on anything.

Agreed. It was just a bit of connecting-the-dots that didn't serve the story. And it made the B5 universe feel really small that all these characters had encountered each other during the war.

Franklin greeted Sinclair quite familiarly when he came on board, even though he didn't specifically say 'good to see you again'. We didn't see any of the others meet for the first time on the station, iirc, so as Reverend said, there's nothing to contradict them having met before.

I didn't have as much a problem with Franklin knowing Sinclair as I did him meeting Sheridan in ItB. I figure Sinclair picked Franklin to replace Kyle, and probably either interviewed him or had previously known him in the past.

 

[Forbin]

Meanwhile in England...

 

[Kail]

I really need to get my mind out of the gutter.

 

[Jan]

Agreed. It was just a bit of connecting-the-dots that didn't serve the story. And it made the B5 universe feel really small that all these characters had encountered each other during the war.

That's a valid point - it was pretty convenient. But I had to smile when I saw it, remembering the outcry when Legend of the Rangers came out and it had races we'd never heard of.

Re: The t-shirt: Ivanova has chosen *green*!!

 

[Kail]

What is the significance of a green shirt?