Signs and Portents
31 May 2016 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kangeikoI introduced a couple of friends to Babylon 5 recently, and I have been watching the show alongside them. I didn't realise that this was fairly wide-spread; evidently, the 20th anniversary has brought about a resurgence of interest!
We've covered Season 2, and are in the middle of S3 thus far. Some thoughts, with the benefit of hindsight:
1) I used to draw hearts around Delenn and Sheridan, then went through a phase of having absolutely no interest in them. I've come back around to being very interested in them again, primarily because of the utter respect on both their parts for the other. They are very different, and yet they respect those differences and try to accommodate them. I don't know whether it is a case of television moving towards bombastic, dramatic relationships and away from quiet build-ups, or whether this was always somewhat rare to see, but it strikes me as something I no longer see on screen. Even on shows where there is ostensibly a slow-build, it feels more like a will-they/won't-they dynamic, rather than a gradual growing together. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I do like it.
2) I'm more and more convinced that there was an intention to do something with Talia's arc rather than just leave it hanging. Did we ever see this resolved in a novel? I know that Bester references her later on in Dust to Dust but I feel that his comment is more designed to provoke.
3) I really, really appreciate the creation of the different races. Yes, we have the main players, but we also get to see the other races fleshed out until you can spot them. OK, maybe I never learned the name of the fishpeople, but I remember Ambassador FishPerson being concerned with Homeguard terrorism. I can spot the unfortunate Markab, the garrulous Drazi, the curiously identical-looking Brakiri. (I think it's established that the Drazi don't have any females - or that they reproduce in a non-binary way, anyway - but is it ever explained about the Brakiri? Or have I selectively not noticed any female Brakiri?) And the Hyach (Hyatt? No, that's a hotel chain) and the Pak'Ma'Ra and so forth. Even if they are not one of the main races, from very early on they have a coherent look which helps the station to feel real.
4) I've discovered the Babylon 5 audio guide podcasts and they are excellent! Great discussion for each episode, and suitable for both new viewers and those doing a re-watch. (They have a loud noise to indicate the start of spoilers.)
5) You can now find a whole bunch of convention videos online! The 20th anniversary con panels are mostly on YouTube (here, here, here and here... and here, here) but here are also some 1990s clips. I haven't watched them so I can't swear as to the quality, but it's nice to see them!
6) I feel like more than a couple of governments have watched this show and thought, "yes, the Earth Alliance approach to things is actually pretty great, we should totally implement that at home." Some of it is even worse. I'm fairly certain that Donald Trump's speeches map word for word against Londo's most bombastic, aggressive declarations. He is, after all, going to make the Centauri Republic great again.
7) Julie Musante would have been hired by David Cameron's team in seconds.
8) I really like how we see representatives of the Earth Alliance and they're not all American? There are people from all across the Alliance.
9) ... I miss Andreas.
We've covered Season 2, and are in the middle of S3 thus far. Some thoughts, with the benefit of hindsight:
1) I used to draw hearts around Delenn and Sheridan, then went through a phase of having absolutely no interest in them. I've come back around to being very interested in them again, primarily because of the utter respect on both their parts for the other. They are very different, and yet they respect those differences and try to accommodate them. I don't know whether it is a case of television moving towards bombastic, dramatic relationships and away from quiet build-ups, or whether this was always somewhat rare to see, but it strikes me as something I no longer see on screen. Even on shows where there is ostensibly a slow-build, it feels more like a will-they/won't-they dynamic, rather than a gradual growing together. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I do like it.
2) I'm more and more convinced that there was an intention to do something with Talia's arc rather than just leave it hanging. Did we ever see this resolved in a novel? I know that Bester references her later on in Dust to Dust but I feel that his comment is more designed to provoke.
3) I really, really appreciate the creation of the different races. Yes, we have the main players, but we also get to see the other races fleshed out until you can spot them. OK, maybe I never learned the name of the fishpeople, but I remember Ambassador FishPerson being concerned with Homeguard terrorism. I can spot the unfortunate Markab, the garrulous Drazi, the curiously identical-looking Brakiri. (I think it's established that the Drazi don't have any females - or that they reproduce in a non-binary way, anyway - but is it ever explained about the Brakiri? Or have I selectively not noticed any female Brakiri?) And the Hyach (Hyatt? No, that's a hotel chain) and the Pak'Ma'Ra and so forth. Even if they are not one of the main races, from very early on they have a coherent look which helps the station to feel real.
4) I've discovered the Babylon 5 audio guide podcasts and they are excellent! Great discussion for each episode, and suitable for both new viewers and those doing a re-watch. (They have a loud noise to indicate the start of spoilers.)
5) You can now find a whole bunch of convention videos online! The 20th anniversary con panels are mostly on YouTube (here, here, here and here... and here, here) but here are also some 1990s clips. I haven't watched them so I can't swear as to the quality, but it's nice to see them!
6) I feel like more than a couple of governments have watched this show and thought, "yes, the Earth Alliance approach to things is actually pretty great, we should totally implement that at home." Some of it is even worse. I'm fairly certain that Donald Trump's speeches map word for word against Londo's most bombastic, aggressive declarations. He is, after all, going to make the Centauri Republic great again.
7) Julie Musante would have been hired by David Cameron's team in seconds.
8) I really like how we see representatives of the Earth Alliance and they're not all American? There are people from all across the Alliance.
9) ... I miss Andreas.
no subject
Date: 2016-06-01 10:00 am (UTC)And after digging through my stuff for half an hour, I found the book: Other Voices Volume 3 has a rundown of the Non-Aligned Worlds and a glossary of Centauri, Narn, and Minbari. I remember just being kind of disappointed that their Brakiri headcanon didn't agree with mine. ;)
But yes totally to the JMS Marcus/Ivanova fanfic. What even was that. Besides incorrect.
no subject
Date: 2016-06-01 09:24 pm (UTC)I bought a few of them when they came out, but sadly I was an impoverished student at the time and couldn't keep up with the rate of release! I'm trying to catch up with them now, but it looks like Volume 15 will be forever out of reach. I keep seeing the whole lot on sale but as I have most of them now re-buying them just for that volume seems excessive...
I'm actually hoping that video will eventually surface of the joke script being acted out, btw. I was at the con where it happened and I've got photos of the kiss (I have a horrible feeling I may be one of the few that did, because I ran to the front and nearly got squashed by Andreas!) BUT I do know that Rick was in the front row with a video camera. So somewhere out there, there exists video footage of the joke script being acted out.
I have decided that fanfic is fanfic and it doesn't matter that it was by JMS, it's just wrong and we can quietly ignore it.
no subject
Date: 2016-06-02 05:36 am (UTC)Bill Mumy told me that he and Peter David wrote a script for Season 5 that (obviously) never got produced, but neither of them has a copy any more and Mumy finds even thinking about Season 5 to be really depressing (he hasn't watched any of the episodes.) I'd love to dig that out of the ashes! So much B5 stuff is just lost and it makes me sad.
... Of course, what I want more than anything is a proper Blu-Ray remastering with all-new effects shots in 16:9 aspect ratio, but that's just dreaming.
no subject
Date: 2016-06-03 12:12 am (UTC)Oh God yeah, I think it was in one of the 20th anniversary panels that he mentioned the betrayal was the one time he didn't internalise the actions and just 'acted', because he disagreed 100% with what happened. He something like, there was another Ranger in there and no matter what Lennier may have felt about Sheridan, he would never abandon another Ranger. I can completely see why he's so upset about it still!
I desperately hope that the interest in Sense8, and the resurgence of interest in B5 following the 20th anniversary, will make it worthwhile for some studio to re-run it again - and off the back of that, to remaster it for Blu-Ray. I can see why it would be incredibly hard because of all the aspect ratio nonsense, but if they were able to do it to 1960s footage of original ST, why can't they do it to 1990s footage? A question for more technical minds than mine, but I shall keep hoping...