Really? Honestly, I always thought it was a little strange in Star Trek that the security chief was always leading teams personally. I mean, how many raids does a chief of police lead in real life? Their job's to manage, direct, and organize responses to everything that might be happening at a given time, and they can't do that as well out at the front of a specific team on a specific incident.
Jake's Babylon 5 Watch
- Thread starter JRoss
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Really? Honestly, I always thought it was a little strange in Star Trek that the security chief was always leading teams personally. I mean, how many raids does a chief of police lead in real life? Their job's to manage, direct, and organize responses to everything that might be happening at a given time, and they can't do that as well out at the front of a specific team on a specific incident.
Oh yeah, definitely; I think the same thing about captains or base commanders getting directly involved too. I mean, that's not their job, don't they trust the people under them to do theirs? It's micro-management is what it is.
(Granted, there are of course some spoilery reasons I won't get into here for Jake's sake about why it makes slightly more sense eventually for those two in particular, yeah.)
Okay, so I finished the series a couple months ago, but I haven't really had time to sit down and ponder. After finishing the first season I have various thoughts.
I actually remember seeing the episode with Babylon 4 as a kid. I'm pretty sure that's the last time I watched it during the original broadcast.
Jeff: Not a bad character. I know that we're pretty much done with him, and I read of Michael O'Hare's tragic life.
Ivanova: Hasn't really changed in my book.
Garibaldi: No real change. I like where his story is going.
Dr. Franklin: Probably the best human character. Arrogant but relatively open-minded. Principled and a man of action.
G'Kar: I like hat they use him sparingly. He's always up to something (or almost always), and I like that he's relatively sympathetic and more than just a Snidley Whiplash type.
Na'Toth: Really probably the least-developed of the characters. I'm guessing that her admiration for G'Kar's acumen is mixed up with romantic feelings.
Talia Winter: Interesting enough. I hope she starts something to change the psionic status quo.
Delenn: I want to know more about her people and their motivations for starting and finishing the war with humanity.
Lennier: Hilarious. That episode where Londo takes him out clubbing? Gold.
Vir: Kinda boring, but he's got potential.
Londo: The man. Very charismatic. I'm surprised that Peter Jurasik isn't a household name.
Favorite Guests:
I liked David Warner as that pilgrim dude, the lady whose mom was healing people and Morden (sp?)
Least Favorite Guests:
Disliked What's-his-name Shepard, the "I'mma eat your death" guy. You know, Ira Graves. Also disliked the ref in the Sho-Rin.
Favorite Episode:
That one with Lennier and Londo at the club.
Least Favorite Episode:
TKO.
I actually remember seeing the episode with Babylon 4 as a kid. I'm pretty sure that's the last time I watched it during the original broadcast.
Jeff: Not a bad character. I know that we're pretty much done with him, and I read of Michael O'Hare's tragic life.
Ivanova: Hasn't really changed in my book.
Garibaldi: No real change. I like where his story is going.
Dr. Franklin: Probably the best human character. Arrogant but relatively open-minded. Principled and a man of action.
G'Kar: I like hat they use him sparingly. He's always up to something (or almost always), and I like that he's relatively sympathetic and more than just a Snidley Whiplash type.
Na'Toth: Really probably the least-developed of the characters. I'm guessing that her admiration for G'Kar's acumen is mixed up with romantic feelings.
Talia Winter: Interesting enough. I hope she starts something to change the psionic status quo.
Delenn: I want to know more about her people and their motivations for starting and finishing the war with humanity.
Lennier: Hilarious. That episode where Londo takes him out clubbing? Gold.
Vir: Kinda boring, but he's got potential.
Londo: The man. Very charismatic. I'm surprised that Peter Jurasik isn't a household name.
Favorite Guests:
I liked David Warner as that pilgrim dude, the lady whose mom was healing people and Morden (sp?)
Least Favorite Guests:
Disliked What's-his-name Shepard, the "I'mma eat your death" guy. You know, Ira Graves. Also disliked the ref in the Sho-Rin.
Favorite Episode:
That one with Lennier and Londo at the club.
Least Favorite Episode:
TKO.
B5 is a very interesting show in a way that often these small ponderings turn out to be plot points. Sinclair might be looking for trouble and might not even realize it. Like Garibaldi stated to him: he might be looking for something worth dying for because it's easier than finding something worth living for.
Yeah, me, too. Would enjoy further reaction posts as he continues.
Okay, so I found out that you can watch Babylon 5 for free, legit at go90.com. started Season 2. Watched the first three episodes.
Ivanova is actually fun now. It was cool to see Franklin using that life draining medical device. Sheridan seems cool.i knew he was coming. The reveal about what happened at the Battle of the Line was crazy awesome.
Londo is digging himself into a hole. Of, and G'kar, man! A note to any would-be sci fi writers: Yeats is an awesome poet, but you can't use him in your work. It is cliches by now. It was okay when they used him to name a few Trek books, but I literally rolled my eyes in that Tipton Pact book when Dax started quoting him. That said, it was so cool when G'kar was reading him.
Ivanova is actually fun now. It was cool to see Franklin using that life draining medical device. Sheridan seems cool.i knew he was coming. The reveal about what happened at the Battle of the Line was crazy awesome.
Londo is digging himself into a hole. Of, and G'kar, man! A note to any would-be sci fi writers: Yeats is an awesome poet, but you can't use him in your work. It is cliches by now. It was okay when they used him to name a few Trek books, but I literally rolled my eyes in that Tipton Pact book when Dax started quoting him. That said, it was so cool when G'kar was reading him.
Just watched episode 4. It's cool that it was written by Dorothy Fontana. I was a bit distracted by Sheridan's captain friend. Like they gave so muhc of the episode's lines to him, and the actor didn't seem quite up to the task. Since this is Dorothy Fontana, is the Cortez somehow supposed to be the Enterprise or some other Trek-themed analogy?
I believe JMS had editorial control over all the scripts so he would likely have changed anything that didn't fit in with the B5 'verse. D C Fontana is a professional writer, who did lots of work other than Trek so I assume she adhered to the series' bible and any notes or story outline provided by JMS about how he envisaged the episode. The EAS Cortez was a deep-space exploration ship with its own jump engines that could deploy new hyperspace jump gates in systems. Size wise, the Cortez is 6 km long; the TOS Enterprise only about 289 metres. They're both starships exploring deep space and making contact with new races but that's a common trope.
http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/Explorer_class_ship
http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/Explorer_class_ship
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Either JMS or Larry DiTillio would have had a pass at the script, that's true. Most of the scripts written by the outside writers were premises assigned by JMS. Here's the beginning of her introduction from the B5 script books:
She doesn't mention much in the way of changes. The captain of the Cortez was based on a dear friend of hers.
One other trivia note from her introduction is that Harlan Ellison had given her that old Egyptian blessing many years before.
I always figured that much of that was for lashing struts to be used for jumpgates?
Ah, now I understand. Well, they'd been known to sneak in the occasional remark ("Deep Space Franchise") but if this was one, it's never found its way into the lore that I've seen.
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