Babylon 5 - I'm finally going to do it

[The_Emperor]

Man, I loved this show! I got a Netflix membership for my brother so he could watch the new Battlestar Galactica, but now that that's pretty much over with, I think I'm gonna reset the address on the Netflix account back to me and start ordering B5 DVD's and rewatch the whole series. It's easily one of the best sci-fi series I've ever seen, and it kills me what happened with both Crusade and Legend of the Rangers.

 

[Mr Light]

I'm getting my way through Season One. In the episode "Grail" Delenn and Lennier say several times there are only two Minbari castes, warrior and religious. Did JMS not invent the Worker Caste until Season Two? Did he not invent the Minbari obsession with trinity until Season Two? Could make sense. Sinclair and Delenn makes two... Sinclair and Delenn and Sheridan makes three.

 

[Lindley]

That was retconned later as the Religious and Warrior tendency to discount the Workers as unimportant.

 

[The_Emperor]

I'm sure it must've really irritated the Worker Caste whenever they heard the Religious and Warrior Castes talking about how there were only two castes.

 

[Reverend]

In the interest of hairsplitting, I don't think they every said "there are ONLY two castes of Minbari, warrior and religious" rather, I think it was phrased "there ARE two castes of Minbari, warrior and religious". So it's not a direct contradiction and does support the tendency for the others to overlook them. Some of this is touched on in "City of Sorrows" and even Delenn is seen to be a little prejudiced in that regard.

 

[Forbin]

It's a record of some sort, too, as I recall. I don't know of any other writer who was so prolific. David E. Kelley was credited on most teleplays for Boston Legal, and Aaron Sorkin for most teleplays on The West Wing (during the seasons, 1-4, that he was involved with), but those were often in collaboration with other writers. And for all the public credit that he recieves, Ronald D. Moore is only named in the writing credits of 12 episodes and the miniseries (13 if you count 'Daybreak' as three episodes) of Battlestar Galactica. Love him or hate him, but Joe Michael Straczynski is the closest thing television has ever had to an auteur.

Rod Serling wrote 92 eps. of The Twilight Zone one more that JMS wrote of B5.

But they were only half as long...

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Perhaps JMS pushed forward their friendship at an accelerated pace because he thought season four would be the last?

That's essentially it. For a period of time, it was pretty certain S4 would be the end. Everything is wrapped up rather neatly, if a tad hurried.

 

[The Evil Dead]

I agree with your assesment of the series up to the end of season 4, tomalak301...The rising action of season 2 and 3 was the height of the series for me and the stuff I have continued to enjoy revisiting the most over the past 10 years.

Regarding Londo and G'Kar...Bare in mind, after their initial storyline in season 4, these two characters really don't have much to do for the remainder of the season. There is a lot of time they could have spent together between No Surrender, No Retreat and Rising Star that we just don't see. Anyway, I think you'll find the evolution of their relationship one of the highlights of season 5 and it culminates in one of the most well earned dramatic payoff scenes between two characters I've ever seen.

 

[Reverend]

Actually, as I recall G'Kar made a very specific point about "spending time" with Londo after the liberation of Narn: -

"My world is now free. You no longer exist in my universe. Pray that we never notice one another again."

I think rather adequately accounts for the pair of them moving to the background. Which is not a bad thing, it as after all an ensemble show, so someone is always going to have lees screen time, to do otherwise would rather drastically defocus the overall storyline.

 

[The Evil Dead]

I know, I am specifically talking about the time from September 2261-December 2261, between No Surrender, No Retreat and Rising Star.

 

[Chekov's Phaser]

Now that tomalak301 as reached the point of "Deconstruction", I have some questions about that episode that have always bugged me. Why did the Alliance allow the Great Burn to go by without the help of rebuilding Earth? I know that the Rangers were secretly helping them regain their technology, but why did it need to be secret?

I understand that it is suppose to be analogous to the fall of Rome and the Dark Ages, but how could we lose all of our sense of technology and other alien life within a few hundred years?

 

[tomalak301]

Now that tomalak301 as reached the point of "Deconstruction", I have some questions about that episode that have always bugged me. Why did the Alliance allow the Great Burn to go by without the help of rebuilding Earth? I know that the Rangers were secretly helping them regain their technology, but why did it need to be secret?

I understand that it is suppose to be analogous to the fall of Rome and the Dark Ages, but how could we lose all of our sense of technology and other alien life within a few hundred years?

That's something I didn't understand. It was like after the great burn, earth reverted back to the middle ages. I guess the adage of bombing them to the stone age applies here but were humans of earth at that time so bad and so uncaring that everyone else didn't come to help them?

 

[Mr Light]

Maybe Earth went around invading its neighbors with its racist religious ideals and so was in very poor standing indeed when it nuked itself, so most of the Alliance could give a frak what happened to Earth. Just look at what happened to you-know-who at the end of Season Five and how they dealt with it.

 

[tomalak301]

Maybe Earth went around invading its neighbors with its racist religious ideals and so was in very poor standing indeed when it nuked itself, so most of the Alliance could give a frak what happened to Earth. Just look at what happened to you-know-who at the end of Season Five and how they dealt with it.

Careful, I just saw the first episode so I don't know who you're talking about.

 

[Trubinator]

Maybe Earth went around invading its neighbors with its racist religious ideals and so was in very poor standing indeed when it nuked itself, so most of the Alliance could give a frak what happened to Earth. Just look at what happened to you-know-who at the end of Season Five and how they dealt with it.

I'm sure he would have done a lot more than that if he hadn't been pwned.

 

[Hyperspace05]

Guys, easy with the season 5 spoilers!!!!

 

[Mr Light]

That's why I was intentionally vague. Incidentally how do you do spoiler code I can never figure it out?

 

[tomalak301]

I think it's:

[ spoiler= What the spoiler is about ] Spoiler [ /spoiler ]

Minus the spaces of course.

Spoiler: What the Spoiler is about

spoiler

Like that

 

[Hyperspace05]

Even better would be to have no spoilers at all. There are other B5 threads. Or new threads can be made.

 

[Jan]

That's something I didn't understand. It was like after the great burn, earth reverted back to the middle ages. I guess the adage of bombing them to the stone age applies here but were humans of earth at that time so bad and so uncaring that everyone else didn't come to help them?

I think the idea is twofold. First, that Earth had become extremely isolationist before the Great Burn and that their plans to sneak attack their enemies alienated the other worlds as well. Also, once they'd almost annihilated themselves, there was a general backlash against all technology which is why the monks of Alwyn's order work to preserve technology with the help of the Rangers.

Jan