A Niner Watches Babylon 5 (NO spoilers, please)

[Deranged Nasat]

I did enjoy what little we saw of Mr Garibaldi in this episode, it appears that the PsiCorps captured him somehow in order to learn what he knows about the Shadows. If so, why can't they just do a mind scan on him? I guess I'll find out in The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari, which is sure to be almost entirely about Garibaldi.

Actually, that episode is entierly about Lennier's pet gok that escapes into the hydroponic gardens where it befriends a larval pak'ma'ra and they...well you'll find out.

Lennier named his gok "Londo Mollari"? Does he have a Madagon named "G'Kar"? That would be nicely appropriate.

 

[JoeD80]

It's like when the Defiant was destroyed, it was a powerful moment, but then they replaced it with an exact copy (except for the ugly carpet) and made the emotional context of the earlier episode a bit pointless. The same is true with the Enterprise A in TVH.

It's not quite the same case here, because these ships were shown several episodes *before* the original was destroyed. In those other cases the ships conveniently appeared after the original's destruction without previous mention.

last year they were trapped in an elevator together with G'Kar gleefully awaiting Londo's death, now they're willing to work with one another?

G'Kar said he would only help if Londo freed Narn. It's not like he's helping for lack of something better to do.

It's at times like this that I really wish I had seen Londo's overture to G'Kar in And The Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place.

At the time Londo freed 2000 Narns as the price, as well as letting the Narns kill Refa. There probably wasn't anything to it beyond "I have a plan, and I will free 2000 Narns and let you kill Refa."

 

[Vestboy]

If Lorien seems oddly familiar, it's because Wayne Alexander was last seen playing Mr. Sebastian (Jack the Ripper) back in season 2. Well actually he was last seen playing one of the Narn that tore Reefa's head off, but it's easy to miss him in that part as it was only a few lines of dialogue.
Alexander is one of those actors that does well under prosthetics so they keep bringing him back. You have have already noticed that all the Drazi and most of the Narn characters feel like they're all played by the same two or three guys...probably because they are.

Yeah, in addition to Wayne Alexander, there was Mark Hendrickson, Jonathan Chapman and Kim Strauss. Those guys really were kind of the unsung champs of Babylon 5.

 

[Stevil2001]

I saw Michael McKenzie (who did quite a few Narns plus a Markab and a Drazi) in A Man for All Seasons last year. He was no Paul Scofield, but he was pretty good. His bio in the program ended with "He has also appeared in many, many episodes of Babylon 5."

 

[Reverend]

^For the record, Michael McKenzie chalked up 12 episodes in the first three seasons, appearing as a Narn three times, Drazi three times, twice as a Minbari and once each for a Markab, a Grome and I think he even got be to a human in 'Exogenesis', but I haven't figured out which one is him yet. Jan, mind checking out the script and see what if any dialogue "Man" had?

 

[Jan]

^For the record, Michael McKenzie chalked up 12 episodes in the first three seasons, appearing as a Narn three times, Drazi three times, twice as a Minbari and once each for a Markab, a Grome and I think he even got be to a human in 'Exogenesis', but I haven't figured out which one is him yet. Jan, mind checking out the script and see what if any dialogue "Man" had?

He didn't have any dialogue unless you count a few screams and yells. 'Man' was the one we saw in the Teaser who was getting the Vindrizi on his back and then died.

Jan

 

[Reverend]

You know, I think screaming dose count as dialogue as far as the (I presume SAG) rules of accreditation are concerned. If memory serves, I think the woman who screamed in 'Chrysalis' at finding Garibaldi collapsed in the transport tube got a credit too.

 

[Forbin]

Amazingly, in the entire series, we're only going to encounter one person who actually thinks it might be a good idea to give a White Star its own name. Everyone else apparently thinks the numbering system is hunky-dory.

I figured they were like PT boats, so what the heck.

Conversely, I always thought Klingons should number, and NOT name their Birds of Prey, which had essentially the same mission as Whitestars. Just seemed to me to be more the way Klingons would think.

 

[AdmiralGarak]

Conversely, I always thought Klingons should number, and NOT name their Birds of Prey, which had essentially the same mission as Whitestars. Just seemed to me to be more the way Klingons would think.

That doesn't fit Klingons at all. Birds-of-Prey are weapons with as strong a mythos in their society as Bat'leths, and are frequently owned by individual Klingon Houses rather than the state. These are vessels fighting epic wars that future warriors will sing great songs about. Who the hell wants to gather round the bar and drunkenly sing "The Ballad of Imperial Escort Spacecraft #34643-Beta-47c"?

If you want a Trek race that probably only numbers their ships, than look to the Jem'Hadar or the Borg.

 

[Stevil2001]

^ Or the Cardassians.

 

[AdmiralGarak]

^ Or the Cardassians.

Cardassians name their ships.

I'd bet that whenever a new Cardassian ship is commisioned, every pompous Gul in the fleet demands for the ship to be named after them.

 

[Reverend]

I think the reason the White Stars were numbered rather than named had a little to do with just how many they were churning out in such a relativity short span. I can just see a Minbari worker cast looking at a big long heck list of things to do before they're all finished, with 'name of ship' right at the bottom. He briefly considers the prospect of coming up with 100 names that the religious caste liaison will find appropriate and suitably poetically symbolic and thinks to himself "bugger that for a game of conkers!" and promptly numbers them all instead before nipping off down the pub.

 

[David cgc]

Well, I should hope not, unless he was really upset with the God Squad engineers and planned to come back to work after the drinky-drinky had made him all stabby-stabby.

 

[stonester1]

I think the reason the White Stars were numbered rather than named had a little to do with just how many they were churning out in such a relativity short span. I can just see a Minbari worker cast looking at a big long heck list of things to do before they're all finished, with 'name of ship' right at the bottom. He briefly considers the prospect of coming up with 100 names that the religious caste liaison will find appropriate and suitably poetically symbolic and thinks to himself "bugger that for a game of conkers!" and promptly numbers them all instead before nipping off down the pub.

Awesome! I'm just imaginig a clatch of grease and soot covered working class Minbari down at the local watering hole, bitching about the Man and having a good belly laugh about the names they wanted to use.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I think the reason the White Stars were numbered rather than named had a little to do with just how many they were churning out in such a relativity short span. I can just see a Minbari worker cast looking at a big long heck list of things to do before they're all finished, with 'name of ship' right at the bottom. He briefly considers the prospect of coming up with 100 names that the religious caste liaison will find appropriate and suitably poetically symbolic and thinks to himself "bugger that for a game of conkers!" and promptly numbers them all instead before nipping off down the pub.

Awesome! I'm just imaginig a clatch of grease and soot covered working class Minbari down at the local watering hole, bitching about the Man and having a good belly laugh about the names they wanted to use.

You can't go wrong with "Valen's (____)". Valen's Name, Valen's Fist, Valen's Eye, Valen's Arse, I'm sure we can think up 100 or so in no short order.

 

[Aeon]

I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but Sheridan's nickname Starkiller fits him really well. He destroyed the Black Star during the Earth-Minbari War and now he has nuked Z'ha'dum with the White Star. He really likes to blow things up!

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but Sheridan's nickname Starkiller fits him really well. He destroyed the Black Star during the Earth-Minbari War and now he has nuked Z'ha'dum with the White Star. He really likes to blow things up!

These and a few other incidents I shall not mention here were also the reason why Bruce Boxleitner started to refer to his character as John "Nuke 'em" Sheridan.

 

[Aeon]

Oh yeah, I remember that! Funny!

 

[lennier1]

I think the reason the White Stars were numbered rather than named had a little to do with just how many they were churning out in such a relativity short span. I can just see a Minbari worker cast looking at a big long heck list of things to do before they're all finished, with 'name of ship' right at the bottom. He briefly considers the prospect of coming up with 100 names that the religious caste liaison will find appropriate and suitably poetically symbolic and thinks to himself "bugger that for a game of conkers!" and promptly numbers them all instead before nipping off down the pub.

Awesome! I'm just imaginig a clatch of grease and soot covered working class Minbari down at the local watering hole, bitching about the Man and having a good belly laugh about the names they wanted to use.

You can't go wrong with "Valen's (____)". Valen's Name, Valen's Fist, Valen's Eye, Valen's Arse, I'm sure we can think up 100 or so in no short order.

Would you really want to travel on a ship called Valen's Gonads?

 

[David cgc]

Unfortunately, we haven't gotten to that point yet, else I would post another relevant extract from "The Missing Lines."