Babylon 5

[Jan]

Speaking of "the hair", what's up with that? Is it a piece they stick on, or do they plaster the actors hair up like that? I suspect a bit of both for the Centauri. At first I thought the hair was silly, but it's grown on me.

There was no description in the script but the theory was originally that the height of the crest would indicate rank. When they were first doing tests, they had the wig swept up and as a joke, Peter Jurasik showed it to JMS and said that he loved it. JMS, trying to be supportive of the actor's choices said to go with it. Then nobody wanted to go to the Executive Producer and confess to the joke so it stayed.

As far as I know it's entirely a wig on Londo and Vir.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

And that's just one family, on a planet with no extraplanetary colonies! Imagine how many accents there must be in the Centari empire!

I'm sure the native Centauri language does have a lot of accents. But, and much apologizings for my constantly bringing this up, Londo is speaking English. The only reason he should have an accent there is because of how well he did, or did not, learn the language. Now I can buy the explanation that he may have skimped a bit on his studies, and thus a strong Centauri accent shows up even when he speaks English. But that doesn't explain Vir.

Without Vir, I wouldn't have brought this up in the first place. Vir is much lower on the social status than Londo, yet Vir speaks perfect English without a hint of an accent. I'd have expected somebody as important as Londo to have access to much more resources (to learn English) than Vir would.

 

[Kail]

I think you'd pick up the accent of whoever taught you the language.

 

[Jan]

I'm sure the native Centauri language does have a lot of accents. But, and much apologizings for my constantly bringing this up, Londo is speaking English. The only reason he should have an accent there is because of how well he did, or did not, learn the language. Now I can buy the explanation that he may have skimped a bit on his studies, and thus a strong Centauri accent shows up even when he speaks English. But that doesn't explain Vir.

Without Vir, I wouldn't have brought this up in the first place. Vir is much lower on the social status than Londo, yet Vir speaks perfect English without a hint of an accent. I'd have expected somebody as important as Londo to have access to much more resources (to learn English) than Vir would.

I'm not sure I'm understanding the issue. Mira Furlan speaks English all the time and we hear her native accent. The way people are used to pronouncing things doesn't change without a lot of effort. The explanation, as JMS said, is that various people came from different areas of the planet.

 

[theenglish]

I'm sure the native Centauri language does have a lot of accents. But, and much apologizings for my constantly bringing this up, Londo is speaking English. The only reason he should have an accent there is because of how well he did, or did not, learn the language. Now I can buy the explanation that he may have skimped a bit on his studies, and thus a strong Centauri accent shows up even when he speaks English. But that doesn't explain Vir.

Without Vir, I wouldn't have brought this up in the first place. Vir is much lower on the social status than Londo, yet Vir speaks perfect English without a hint of an accent. I'd have expected somebody as important as Londo to have access to much more resources (to learn English) than Vir would.

This is a good point. Perhaps it is this. Even here on Earth, people will just speak a second language in a poor accent even though they could speak it better if they wish. It can be done either to show disdain for the people who speak the second language or as a means of showing pride in your first language. I've noticed this in international schools where I work, where kids will often speak a language with a strong accent but can "turn on" an American accent at will.

 

[Tim Walker]

Perhaps Interlac is a pidgin, somewhat similar to the original Lingua Franca.

 

[Stoo]

Londo's accent always seemed quite fitting to me. Between that, the costumes, and the Centauri trying to regain past expansionist glory, they come across a bit like some sort of 18th\19th century european Imperial power.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Since we're talking about Londo, here's one of my favorite Londo moments (from season 1 as to not spoil anything down the road):

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I have a lot of favorite Londo/G'Kar moments as well. But some of those might be spoilerish.

 

[Reverend]

Of course the boring real world reason is that Jurasik originated the accent based on the idea that he's an old, vaguely eastern/central European aristocrat, but none of the other actors to play Centauri (save Refa) followed suit.

Personally, I'm perfectly fine with the idea that not all members of the same race should have the same accent as is usually the case (hell, it's a rarity that they bother portraying aliens with distinctive accents at all.) In the real world accents can vary *by the town*, nevermind countries and continents.

 

[Kail]

I think wiping the mind of killers and making them do community service for the rest of their lives is an interesting concept. Not quite capitol punishment, but close.

 

[Kail]

I loved Londo in season 1. He was funny, he was interesting, I expected him to be my favorite character, then they gave him a little power and he went into full monster mode. I'm sure this will pay off story wise down the road, but I hate what the writers did to him. I preferred him as comic relief.

 

[Chekov's Phaser]

I like comic relief Londo too, but there is a reason he is a lot of people's favorite character. He is so much more than comic relief. What the writers did to him was make him the most three dimensional character of the show. Without a doubt the best written character of the whole series.

 

[Marsden]

I think another thing is, who is comic relief in real life? Babylon 5 isn't just some deep space franchise, it's about something. It's characters are constructed to be characters, not the caricatures/archetypes we get in most shows that pass as characters. People go through phases of their lives, things happen to them and they are forever changed. There is no reset button in Babylon 5.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I'm sure the native Centauri language does have a lot of accents...

"The" Centauri language? What makes you think there's only one? And what makes you think Londo and Vir are native speakers of the same language?

In fact, there's one important reason to believe they don't: Londo and Vir converse with EACH OTHER in English. It could just be a "Hunt for Red October/Camera translation" thing, but it's just as likely that Londo and Vir don't speak the same CENTAURI language anyway and neither would understand the other in their first language. They speak English because learning English was a prerequisite for the job position and it's the only language they have in common.

So what we're hearing from them, in other words, is the accent from their OWN native languages. Londo's language probably sounds closer to French/Mediterranean of some kind while Vir's sounds like muddled Polish spoken by a kid from Chicago.

Without Vir, I wouldn't have brought this up in the first place. Vir is much lower on the social status than Londo, yet Vir speaks perfect English without a hint of an accent.

Actually, Vir speaks with a pronounced West Coast American accent. I think you mean to say that Vir's accent sounds very similar to YOURS, in which case I agree.

 

[Kail]

The actress playing the new political officer is terrible. How does someone that bad even get on a show? Granted, she's very good looking, but aren't there millions of good looking actress' who can actually act?
While I am enjoying Babylon 5, and appreciate TPTB are telling a sweeping, epic tale, but sometimes they write in these grand strokes, the result of which is some pretty stilted dialog.

 

[Chekov's Phaser]

I think another thing is, who is comic relief in real life? Babylon 5 isn't just some deep space franchise, it's about something. It's characters are constructed to be characters, not the caricatures/archetypes we get in most shows that pass as characters. People go through phases of their lives, things happen to them and they are forever changed. There is no reset button in Babylon 5.

Exactly. Most characters in shows, including B5, when they go through an arc are changed by it. But then that is it. As if we only have one arc we go through in life. Londo has many arcs. Some good some bad. He doesn't just have an arc and then nothing else happens to him. Like all of us he continually goes through phases.

 

[Chekov's Phaser]

While I am enjoying Babylon 5, and appreciate TPTB are telling a sweeping, epic tale, but sometimes they write in these grand strokes, the result of which is some pretty stilted dialog.

Welcome to Babylon 5.

 

[Jan]

While I am enjoying Babylon 5, and appreciate TPTB are telling a sweeping, epic tale, but sometimes they write in these grand strokes, the result of which is some pretty stilted dialog.

There are two reasons for that. Well, three.

First, (and most obvious to me) was JMS trying hard to have all information a viewer might need in every episode. For some unknown reason there were almost never 'previously on Babylon 5' reminders-generally only when the show'd been off for an extended period. So you ended up with gobs of "I should have remembered that exposition exposition exposition had happened so it was inevitable that we'd be blah blah blah" scenes. Arc TV was new back then.

Second, JMS postulated that speech patterns would be in a more formal phase than we are now.

(I've also made the mental assumption of a return to a new
formality in 2260, since styles go in and out of fashion. People use
the word Mr. and Ms. more often, there's a more formal stance with
people you often get when a culture comes out of a major war, as we did
after WW2.)

And third, sometimes it just didn't work...

 

[DonIago]

Isn't this regarding the episode where Captain Sheridan almost goes where eveyone has gone before?

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

The actress playing the new political officer is terrible. How does someone that bad even get on a show? Granted, she's very good looking, but aren't there millions of good looking actress' who can actually act?
While I am enjoying Babylon 5, and appreciate TPTB are telling a sweeping, epic tale, but sometimes they write in these grand strokes, the result of which is some pretty stilted dialog.

That's JMS dialogue.

I've always found his dialogue overwrought in his other works — comics, novels and other shows — as well.