********
#: 121510 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 22-Feb-95 02:49:02
Sb: #<<Acts of Sacrifice>> Fm: Trent K. Johnson 71020,1052
To: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644 (X)
Yet another astounding show! Wow!
I recently re-watched the pilot film, which had some very interesting goings-on in relation to what we have seen so far. But none had hit the mark so obviously than the juxtaposition of the relationship between Londo and Garibaldi. In some ways, Londo is a lot like he was in the pilot, a man alone, with dreams of Centauri past glories keeping him company, and Garibaldi his somewhat reluctant friend - kind of like how one tolerates an eccentric uncle.
Now, Londo is on the path which he feels is in the best interest of the Centauri: To give them back their place in the galaxy. He knows the great cost in lives, and he may even suspect at what personal cost this path may cause him, but he accepts it. The one thing he cannot accept is the loss of friendship from those around him, especially Garibaldi.
I have never felt that Londo was a "buffoon", nor did I feel he was played just for laughs. Londo was a fun loving guy who liked people to like him. He even seemed to have gotten over his remorse for the Centauri losing their stature, at least until outside pressures forced him to make his decision. But now, even with the amount of rise in his own personal status, he still cannot bear the fact that people are starting to dislike him.
I have grown to dislike his actions, as much as anyone would when someone they know changes, but I felt great pity for him sitting alone at the casino. It was a strange parallel to his scenes in the pilot, where he was alone, even while being surrounded by dozens of people.
I was happy to see Garibaldi stop by to have a drink with Londo in the end of AoS, and I think it helps show just what kind of guy Garibaldi is. Obviously, I felt that this was a very important element in the episode.
Kudos: Stellar performances again, by everyone in the cast! Let me also say that I thought Mary Kay Adams did a fine job as Na'Toth. She may be smaller in stature, but she's obviously done homework on the role.
A finely textured episode, with everything above, and of course the Narn mini power-struggle, the Lumati stuff, and of course, the wierd sex! *That* was a scream!
And since I'm a big "fanimator" let me close by saying the cargo bay "elevator" shot with the 2 Lumati disembarking was nothing short of beautiful!!! Is there anything these guys *cant't* do?
A round of Jovian Sunspots for all!
Cheers!
Trent/ReAnimators
******
#: 121567 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 22-Feb-95 04:17:42
Sb: #121510-<<Acts of Sacrifice>> Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: Trent K. Johnson 71020,1052
Thanks. I like this episode a lot, for many reasons including those you cite. I like the Garibaldi/Londo dynamic, which is taking on a lovely, if sad, direction. Londo doesn't see the changes, he thinks others are changing around him. And yet, in it all, these two try, one last time, to reach out to one another. Even knowing that it isn't going to last.
G'Kar is just a revelation, particularly in the scene where he tries to talk the other narns out of their actions. To go from the absolute top of his lungs, to a whisper, and the delivery behind it...it's just a thing of beauty.
It's really a character study on many levels, propelled by some action elements...and some of it just touches me very deeply.
And I continue to be absolutely astonished that we actually got the Ivanova Dance on the air....
jms

******
#: 129210 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 01-Mar-95 23:57:17
Sb: #129120- B5 Canceled?? Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: SysOp Dupa T. Parrot 70040,104
Chicago tends to be anywhere from a 3.1 to a 4.6 rating and a 7 share or thereabouts.
jms

******

In article <199503190917.AA158964648@relay1.geis.com>, <straczynski@genie.geis.com> wrote: >
Melody/Big Cat: > > Your message is smarter and more perceptive than you know. > > And you know a lot. > >
jms
Here is the original and a followup msg for those of you who don't have threaded newsreaders. Now then - what part is he referring to???
Christian
From: MWomack@ix.netcom.com (Melody Womack) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 Subject: The Third Age and The Coming of Crocs Date: 18 Mar 1995 17:37:57 GMT
Writers who truly know science fiction (God bless them and it) are few. The rest are parasites feeding off an ever-increasing thirst for exotic worlds and bumpy heads.
JMS and HE might be said to know SF. They have looked into the past and in it seen the future.
Much has been discussed of late concerning B5's opening line, "It was the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind," -- a point no doubt key to the arc. A thousand fans would have you believe a thousand different explanations, each equally grounded in clues and each equally lost to interpretation.
Well, here's my attempt:
No event of greater significance ever seems to happen on B5 without some relationship to the show's theology. Whatever JMS's religious persuasion, he seems to reliably focus on the spiritual instead of the material, the moral instead of the plot. Point of fact: the long-awaited reason for the Minbari surrender was that their souls were being reborn in human form. The humans on B5 don't believe it, I'm not sure I believe it either, but there it is.
Now let's take a look at the coming war. We know that the Shadows, like the Vorlons and the Minbari, are an ancient race. And ancient races tend to be very fixed in their alignments - either good, bad, or neutral - here we have all three. It's a safe bet that the Shadows are bad, and though JMS delights in trying to make us think otherwise, I'll bet that the Vorlons are actually cream puffs (I always though Kosh looked a bit like a blanc mange). Thata leaves the Minbari to balance them out. How do we know? What's the motto of the Grey Council? "We are grey. We stand between the Shadow and the Light." (And remember, Vorlons don't need flashlights.) But what's been happening to the Minbari over the last two thousand years? Their best and brightest souls have taken human form (PoD). Take away their strength and you weaken the balance. The wall is falling and the darkness enters in.
But where do the humans and the Third Age of Mankind enter into all of this? Keep thinking religion. Before the arrival of Minbari souls two thousand years ago mankind's views of religion and self existed in one diverse form. After their arrival a major transition took place that impacted virtually all races and religion: The Second Age of Mankind.
Don't get me wring. I'm not saying Christ was the first Minbari soul to attain human form, but the thought is intriguing.
So what's the Third Age?
Perhaps Lennier gave us a clue when he said, "The Shadows can only be defeated when the humans and Minbari join" (PoD). Could he be saying that the Shadows can't be defeated militarily? Possibly. Especially if only a restoration of natural balance and spiritual order will cast the Shadows back to where they've slumbered for eons, and the only way to do it is to give the Minbari back what they've lost in a very real and physical sense (remember Delenn's cramps).
>From the union of the two races will come a restoration of order and a Third Age of Mankind.
Now on to Londo and the Shadows. Londo has discovered that the man he thought Morden was, and the relationship he thought they had was an illusion.
He's staring at a smoking gun in disbelief and he now knows that it's power is bigger than the squabble between the Narn and the Centauri... Heck, it's bigger than the Centauri! And worst of all, he doesn't know why it's helping him. That scars the shit out of him!
So ... What's he gonna do? Ride the wave, of course. Why? For personal power, to some extent, but mostly because Londo is going to discover that it's far better to be at the trigger end of a smoking gun!
So, as the Narn are being reduced to scaley ashes, what's everyone else going to do?
I'll bet fifty dollars that answer is ... nothing.
Come on, someone disagree with me.
Why will they do nothing? Because that's what they've been doing.
Think about it. Ivanova says to Sheridan, "There's something out there, and it scares the hell out of me." Sheridan calmly agrees. But what are they doing about it ...? Nothing.
The Narn are concerned enough to send a fast reconnaissance ship to the Shadow home world, but when it's immediately destroyed they write it off as an accident. Then what do they do ...? Fight the Centauri, to be sure, but against the real enemy - nothing.
Why?
Because to accept the truth is a nightmare too terrible to bear.
Don't think it could happen?
Will no diagree?
Think about Europe in 1939.
100,000 Nazis marching through the streets of Berlin. What do the Poles do?
Nothing.
German armament factories at full strength. What do the French do?
Nothing.
Reconnaissance aircraft flying daily over Russian military position and not a shot from the Soviets.
The Narn are the Poles or perhaps the Belgians or maybe the French.
And what about the Earth Alliance? How about making them the U.S. (what could be more appropriate?)
What will they do in upcoming episodes? What did the U.S. do as London burned?
Nothing.
Officially there was too much going on at home (Psi Corps, pro-human movement, Mars Colony).
Unofficially I think Winston Churchill said it best (as he so often did):
"Each man feeds the crocodile as much as he can in hopes it will eat him last."
Funny, but I can hear G'Kar saying that to Sheridan very, very soon.
And what about Londo:
Strange, but at times he even looks like Mussolini, as he feeds the croc. Perhaps someday he will find out what Lincoln once called "The better angles of our nature."
But not tomorrow.
Or the day after.
Hakuna matata,
The Big Cat
From: pietrzak@magnolia.cs.uiuc.edu (John Pietrzak) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 Subject: Re: The Third Age and The Coming of Crocs Date: 18 Mar 1995 21:57:36 GMT
In article <3kf5pl$t3f@ixnews3.ix.netcom.com>, Melody Womack <MWomack@ix.netcom.com> wrote: > >Now on to Londo and the Shadows. [...] He's staring at a smoking gun >in disbelief and he now knows that it's power is bigger than the >squabble between the Narn and the Centauri... Heck, it's bigger than >the Centauri! [...] So ... What's he gonna do? Ride the wave, of course. > >So, as the Narn are being reduced to scaley ashes, what's everyone else >going to do? > >I'll bet fifty dollars that answer is ... nothing. > >Come on, someone disagree with me.
I disagree. You bring up the example of WWII, but Germany's actions at the beginning of the conflict destabilized governments around the world. Great debates raged in the US about whether or not to get involved, and although neutrality was the official policy for several years, the country was definitely not impartial. For example, Lend-Lease sent incredible amounts of materiel to the allies in Europe, without any real idea of receiving something in return for the items "leased".
And consider the state in which the Earth Alliance currently exists. After having practically their entire space fleet annihilated by the Minbari, it has been shown to the EA leadership that they are definitely living at the whim of at least that one alien race; and the Minbari may well not be the most powerful race out there, considering the Vorlon(s). Knowing this, and assuming that they want to survive, there are generally two overall strategies that they can pursue.
First, they can try to "make friends" with the bigger powers. Enter into diplomatic discussions, strengthen economic ties, encourage inter-species communication. Try anything to ensure that your continued existence is of benefit to them. The policies of President Santiago, and the Babylon 5 station itself, typify this approach.
Second, they can try to make their existence too costly to remove. Fortify the home planet, redouble the space fleet, invest everything into new armor and armament. Also, infiltrate alien societies, hoping to acquire new technology, or to be able to sabotage as much as possible if new hostilities break out. (Surprisingly enough, a diplomatic station like B5 is also valuable here, both for performing the espionage, and to hide true intentions.)
Both of these strategies are affected by the introduction of a new major power, one which the groups you are attempting to be friendly or hostile towards are worried about. In the first strategy, it's tough to be friendly to both of two groups which seem intent on starting a war with each other. If things start to heat up between the Shadows and the Vorlon/Minbari, the EA may be forced to choose sides, or lose whatever benefits were gained by the investment in becoming friends. Most likely, you'd want to choose whatever side the Vorlon/Minbari wind up on, and try to have them help defend you.
The second strategy would allow a cunning EA to stand on the edge between the two groups. Knowing the Shadows are antagonistic to the Vorlon/Minbari, one could attempt to use all the current infiltration of those groups as leverage to purchase Shadow military and political favors. All the while, continuing to build up the planetary fortress, and to feign friendliness with the original powers. Perhaps even try to doublecross the Shadows at some point, if value can be gained from it. At some point, however, the deceptions will be revealed, and by that point you also need to overtly choose sides. It will probably be easier to choose sides with the Shadows in this case.
At any rate, both pro- and anti- alien forces are definitely at work in the EA, and the recognition of the existence of the Shadows (which is certainly going to happen, since many humans have now had direct or indirect contact with them) will put even more of a strain on both groups, since it becomes the major point at which a decision must be made: essentially, to join the Vorlon/Minbari, or sell out to the Shadows. Because of the past history with the Minbari and the lack of a dialogue with the Vorlon, choosing the first does not guarantee survival against a potential Shadow assault. But, the lack of knowledge about the strength and the motivations of the Shadows makes any dialogue with them tricky to initiate. Both groups should quickly become desperate for greater information about both sides. (Once again, a place like Babylon 5 becomes invaluable for this task, especially with the dearth of information on the Shadows. G'Kar's earlier overt statements about this new (old) power should eventually be of great interest, and if the Londo/Morden connection is ever discovered, both sides would be tripping over each other to utilize it, to start a dialogue at the very least.)
Anyway, back to the point: If the EA wants to survive, doing nothing is the least optimal way to achieve this goal, IMHO. On the other hand, neither strategy I've outlined would allow overt military aid to the Narn against the Shadows; the war with the Minbari showed their inability to deal directly with that level of technology, and being barely a decade since that massive defeat, they still can't afford to use any major portion of their current forces in an offensive manner (especially against a major power). So, I guess, in that sense they would do nothing.
John
*******
"War Doth Make Murderers of Martyrs"
One aspect of JMS that impresses me most is his understanding that history, like math and science, is a universal constant. How many times has Pickett's Charge or Bosnia been repeated in human history? So then, how many times in UNIVERSAL history, on planets unknown and by races yet undreamed of. Just as 2 + 2 always equals 4, we are all, in similar situations capable of making the same mistakes. Life itself is the greatest drama, the greatest comedy, truly the greatest tragedy, constantly playing on a hundred billion stages.
FDR's Lend-Lease Act of WWII, as noble as it sounds, was Britain's burden and America's shame. The LLA was FDR's attempt to sidestep policy in his struggle to get congressional support for US military intervention in Europe, very similar to the situation Sheridan faces with the Narn. But do you really think sanctions and embargoes and a few extra guns can win a war? (Compare the effectiveness of Operation Desert Storm to Desert Shield. Or do you really think sanctions ended apartheid in South Africa?) The only truth here is that there's no force in the universe greater than the power of an idea whose time has come. Minds and thoughts turned into actions win or lose wars.
Until the end of 1941 Britain truly stood alone and the only good that came of it was when Churchill said "This was our finest hour." It truly was THEIR finest hour. How much longer before the Narn can make this same beleaguered boast?
And what about Churchill? Do you actually think you can impose 1990's political correctness on a 1930's figure and find a recognizable hero? We find our idols by viewing history selectively, keeping that which we agree with while discarding that which fails to fit. Sheridan is now finding out that truth is not always a pleasant thing, but a hero is anyone who recognizes the truth in a situation and acts appropriately. War is ugly, horrible, and inhumane. Go back and watch ST:TOS "A Taste of Armageddon" if you need a lesson. Even Shakespeare recognized that war doth make murderers of martyrs. Read Henry V, Act III, scene iii, lines 33-43 to see how even the grandest souls become butchers when war confronts them (these are arguably the most authentic lines uttered by Shakespeare's overly ennobled Hal). You simply can't make war politically correct -- don't even try!
Next, I've observed that many people seem to be having trouble with "We/I stand between the shadow and the light/the candle and the star." IMHO the problem comes from taking the whole concept entirely too literally. The Minbari don't stand between the Vorlons and the Shadows in a military or diplomatic sense, but rather in something a bit more Lovecraftian. Like the aliens in Lovecraft's mythos, the Shadows have been cast out, imprisoned perhaps, and the Minbari are their gate. But something happened 2,000 years ago - something that caused a weakening of the Minbari who are the very power holding the Shadows in check. Ever since then the Shadows have been creeping through, biding their time, building their forces, and waiting, waiting for a time when they can again sweep their hand of darkness across the galaxy.
Through all this, one question remains unanswered with no clue ever given. What happened to cause the Minbari souls to take on human form and weaken the crucial balance that has held back the Shadow forces for countless eternities? Perhaps we'll never know, but I'll bet that the answer would tell us much.
Finally, I've heard it commented that the reason why the Earth Alliance hasn't stepped into the war between the Centauri and Narn is because they're still rebuilding following the Minbari War. Sorry, but I don't buy that. With the exception of actual wartime, the periods immediately following a war are historically the most productive for the military and its personnel. POF, the number of military patents issued from 1945-1952 was nearly double that of those issued in the years preceding the war. Military contracts are still being filled and there often remains a general feeling of insecurity that is comforted by a strong military presence. If anything, the Earth Alliance should be considerably stronger and better supported now than before the war. Don't forget, 10 years have passed, plenty of time to rebuild and resupply.
The Earth Alliance simply has too much internal conflict to be bothered with the affairs of other races. It's a narrow view, but sadly a historically correct one. And remember, Kosh told Sinclair to "Let them pass." Perhaps this time keeping out of it is the best course of action. Unfortunately, I get the impression that for the EA another Pearl Harbor is on the way. Perhaps Franklin's father will be at Ground Zero when it hits. That was, after all, a hell of a setup. But ultimately I have no doubt EA will end up in the middle of this conflict, for better or worse. Fortunately, we only have to watch it
. *******
jms replies:
Melody: marry me. jms

********
I want to preface this by saying that Melody/Big Cat's last post leaves me in awe. How does she do it? When I read it, everything just falls into place. I am very impressed, and I don't think I impress easily. But enough fawning, now on to my thoughts. (From the sublime to the ridiculous...)
If something cataclysmic happened 2,000 years ago, then Melody/Big Cat is right: we've been given no clues. But one of the threads in this show is evolution. Delenn mentions it in AVitW1, Sheridan in ADS, and I think there's another mention (Sinclair?) that escapes me at the moment (3 am). There is an ebb and flow to life. No species lasts forever. An important question could be: Are there fewer Minbari born into each generation because Minbari souls are going to humans _or_ are Minbari souls going to humans because there are fewer Minbari being born into each generation? We have been assuming the former interpretation, but the it could also be the latter. The answer to this question could also tell us much. It is possible that the imbalance has been caused by the natural decline of a population.
If this is the case, then Valen's prophecy may be that humans will eventually take the Minbari's place as the gate. There have certainly been clues, most of them in "Babylon Squared" that the prophecy foretells a great change and that humans are the future. This could explain Delenn's transformation as the physical (symbolic) manifestation of a metaphysical evolution.
Another question is, of course, how the Vorlons fit into the picture. One possible theory, without any supporting evidence, is that before the Minbari were the gate, the Vorlons were. The Vorlons passed the torch (candle?) on to the Minbari as the Minbari are going to do with the humans. This could be what Kosh showed Delenn in "Chrysalis".
(more good stuff snipped)
--alta "Without the hope that things will get better, that our inheritors will know a world that is fuller and richer than our own, then life is pointless and evolution is vastly overrated." Delenn, AVitW1 ****** That was an interesting post although I think it was touch sophomoric.
The Lend Lease Act kept Britain alive and it clearly aligned a fairly isolationist U.S. with one side. While it may seem somewhat cowardly, it bought time for Britain and it gave the U.S. populace and U.S. industry time to prepare for war. If we entered the war too early, we would have been ill-prepared and we may not have had the resolve to push for the unconditional surrenders that ultimately replaced the Japanese and German governments with constitutional democracies.
I basically agree with you that ultimately force must be used against a totally recalcitrant adversary. In fact, I'm generally pretty hawkish. However, I believe we are fortunate that few adversaries are so intransigent that there is no action short of war that will derail their efforts.
There is a role, both in real life and in B5, for diplomacy and subtle activity. With these actions one side can test the resolve of another, as well as buy time for its own resolve to coalesce. An understanding of when to abandon these measures and resort to more extreme actions is what determines how history will treat a statesman. While it is easy to look back on a situation and makes claims about what choice was best, at the time, this kind of decision is incredibly difficult and erring on either side can be tragic.
I tend to agree with you that like the U.S. in WWII, the EA will wait too long and their foot-dragging will have tragic consequences.
Here is another point to ponder: While military development tends to continue after a war, this is more true of the victors than the vanquished. We get the impression that in the EA/Minbari war, much of EA defenses were just plain destroyed. Since Earth was spared, we might be able to assume that the EA defense infra-structure was not harmed and that the EA was able to quickly ramp up weapons production to replace lost equipment. There is still the question of time. We don't really know how long it takes to build Starfuries, etc. If we look at current development times for military hardware, it would seem that 10 years is not a lot of time to rebuild. It currently takes a very long time to build something like an aircraft carrier and our capacity to build aircraft is quit limited, even if we assume a wartime posture. On the other hand, if we consider the amount of time it took to build something as large and complex as Babylon 5, we may have reason to believe that there have been significant advances in construction and manufacturing methods. I think JMS can put whatever kind of spin on EA preparedness that he wants and still make a credible case for it given the evidence that we have seen so far.
Ron Parr parr@cs.berkeley.edu
********
#: 134825 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 07-Mar-95 22:06:38
Sb: #134342-#Vorlons Mystery Solved?? Fm: Phil Adams 72470,1156
To: Imran Naqvi 100073,1217
I believe Morden is as advertised, a human who did a great deal of work on The Rim. And I think he discovered Pandora's Box or its equivalent and awakened the Shadows. He's somehow managed to convince them to work with/ for him, or has positioned himself as an important intermediary between them and the other races (to produce the chaos they desire). For whatever reason, the Vorlons were out of the picture for centuries. People have been all over the place, have found all sorts of dead alien cultures and neat alien technology (could the organic tech of the first season story ??? have somehow been sufficient to repel the likes of the Shadows?), but no mention of the Shadows beyond the Narn legends. Does that mean the Narn are closest to the Shadows (distance-wise)? If not, why did the Narn fall to/know of the Shadows and not the Centauri (space-faring before the Narn were)? For all the races to be so close to each other and only the Narn (and Vorlon) to know directly of the Shadows makes me wonder. What stopped the Shadows in the past? What kept them down all these years?
If you follow the LotR line of thinking presented here before, could the Shadows be Sauron's growing army/power, spilling into the world in search of his ring of power? If so, is there a Saruman (sp?) analog, someone in the Shadows's service who gets greedy and tries to gain power on his/her own?
Or is there a biblical equivalent and this is Armageddon/Ragnarok? Is there a savior being reborn (with Minbari soul, of course)? Is there a false peace being offered somewhere by someone? Is there an angelic host to fight against the demonic host?
To follow the post-Vietnam Earth history analog, with Johnson... errr, Clark in power, how will things change? Will Clark wander around Earth Dome in his boxer shorts? Will Spy vs. Spy be the du jour flavor? The military buildup has already begun. Earth's tech may be far behind most others, but they seem capable of pumping out massive quantities of equipment, and they seem as capable as the Narn of pumping out the people (I won't begin to guess at Narn reproductive cycles/population). Is there a Great Society, but with Human concerns over alien concerns? Personally, I see more of a mix of history reflected in B5. McCarthyism (Humans and the Alien Scare), the loss of the dream in the 70s (dialogue between the doc and Garibaldi), the CIA of the late 60s (Psi Corp), Watergate/the Kennedy assassination/loss of trust in politicians (Clark & Santiago). And the description of Narn history sure sounds like Assyrian history.
So what does it all mean?!!! 8)
*****
#: 86278 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 20-Jan-95 12:40:47
Sb: #85860-A storm is coming Fm: Philip Hornsey 74053,2101
To: Sharon Foster 76360,301
Third Age of Mankind = The beginning of the Human dyaspora after Earth is destroyed.

Phil (who has ALWAYS assumed that jms is going to extinct Earth)

*****

#: 68108 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 03-Jan-95 08:27:49
Sb: 10 Reasons to Build B5 Fm: Gerard Keating (Ireland) 100012,3073
To: All
Picked this up in a News Group (Rec.Humor.Funny)
Top-10 reasons for building Babylon 5 ======================================
10) Tax write-off for Lockheed.
9) They wanted to try ZZomething different.
8) Really cheap after discovery of a planet where money really does grow on trees.
7) "Welcome to Babylon 5." "Three, sir!" "Three! Babylon 3!"
6) Same old story: drunk Congressmen and naked blondes on a slow cruise past Uranus.
5) Needed a restroom stop between here and the Centuari Republic.
4) EuroDisney was such a good idea, why not GalaticDisney?
3) Only safe place considering wide-spread crime in American cities.
2) Would serve as a defensible outpost against Cylon tyranny (sorry...that's on the wrong list...that's from "Top 10 Reasons to Build 'Battlestar Galactica'")
1) Three words: Fabulous Alien Babes!

*******

#: 105761 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 07-Feb-95 21:04:21
Sb: #<CoS and Choices> Fm: Gary Feldman 71303,41
To: all
I know that a few days ago, Chester Cuaresma posted a message that discussed, among other things, the signifance of Londo's Choice in "Coming of Shadows." I'd like to make a stronger statement concerning Choice.
In most episodes of the first season, and still, most episodes to date, the episodic plot is foremost, and you have to dig deeper to find the arc related material. With "Coming of Shadows," the arc material is most prominent, and you have to work harder to extract the episodic story. And I'd submit that the episodic story is about Choice.
We begin with the Emperor, making what he believes to be his first true choice. In a sad irony, he simultaneously denies choice to his Prime Minister, a man who no doubt has far more experience making decisions, and in so doing, condemns them both to death. The Emperor did not prepare for the immediate consequences of his action, either to preserve his health by consulting with Dr. Franklin, or to protect the Prime Minister with guards and warnings, or both. Yet, were it not for the interference of destiny, the Emperor's planned action could have caused the most profound change for the better among all sentient life in the galaxy, and that was his goal. The Emperor chose for the future, and was denied.
We then moved to G'Kar, making what he believes to be his last true choice. In contrast to the Emperor, G'Kar is well aware of the direct, immediate consequences of his planned action. He is the only one to prepare for his action, by the recording of his last statement and will. He knows that he is sacrificing himself, and unlike the others, is literally ready to die. He is not particularly concerned with the past history, which as Captain Sheridan pointed out, could not really justify his action. Nor has he thought much beyond the personal consequences. G'Kar chose for the present, and was denied.
Finally, we get to Londo, making what he believes to be no choice at all. As Vir attempts to dissuade him from this path, Londo makes his belief clear, exclaiming (and I quote directly) "I have no choice." Londo is well aware that he is starting a war, yet that does not change him. He would have been less concerned with the personal implications, if it weren't for his Centauri ability to dream of the future. He is driven intensely by his desire for the renewed Centauri Empire, as of old. Londo chose for the past, and is doomed to repeat its horrors.
Gary

*****

#: 104957 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 06-Feb-95 23:34:35
Sb: #104124-#<The Coming Of Shadows> Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: David Fox 75300,2272 (X)
"What can he possibly come up with next?"
Not counting this week's episode, which is in some ways an arc place holder...hmm...how about major and permanent changes in Delenn's status, a rather surprising revelation about Sheridan, kidnappings, torture, a secret agenda within the EA, attacks in and around the station, weird sex, midnight meetings....
Nah, nothing much in the 3 after "Gropos."
jms
******

#: 104911 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 06-Feb-95 22:52:56
Sb: <Coming of Shadows> NTSA Fm: Robert Miller 71501,3042
To: ALL
"It was the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind, the day the Great War came upon us all."
To me one of the most chilling scenes in this episode was not the attack on the Narn colony, nor was it Londo's dream, nor even the confrontation with G'Kar in the hallway, although all of these were chilling. To me, the most chilling scene was where G'Kar buys Londo a drink and drinks a toast to the Emperor's health and to Londo's. If it had not been for the scene immediately previous, this would have been the climax to the series. As it is, G'Kar embraces the hope of peace with the Centauri just in time for that hope to be destroyed. Londo, on the other hand, sees the possibility of breaking the cycle of hate he bemoaned in "A Voice in the Wilderness" ("here we are, victims of mathematics"), knowing that what he has just set into motion removes that possibility. It is a scene which should be hopeful and optimistic, and isn't.
Vir talks like he knows something about the road Londo is walking. Is there a story there?
Turhan Bey's performance lent an immense air of dignity to the character of the Centauri Emperor. It made sense that he refused the wig. After all, when you are the Emperor you don't *need* status symbols. He also was not at all the idiot one of the characters (I think it was Kiro?) described him as. I had not heard of Bey before, but I will recognize his name the next time I see it. Strange that he could have transformed galactic relations, if not for the schemes of Londo and G'Kar.
It was great to see Sinclair again. I do like Sheridan, but I still consider Sinclair to be the moral center of the show, and he is missed. It is nice to see him evolving into The One, which also stresses the inevitability of the Great War. I hope he shows up again before the end of the season.
One of the things which makes the glimpses into the future of the show particularly spooky is the details. G'Kar isn't just older in Londo's vision, he is missing his left eye. The station doesn't just blow up in Ladira's vision, it blows up just after a lone shuttle escapes. It reinforces that there is a lot to this story we don't know about, yet.
So now there will be war, and it is doubtful that the Earth Alliance, Minbari, and League can stay out of it for long. There will doubtless be epic battles. There will equally doubtless be destruction, devastation, and death. In order for the death to have meaning it will include some that we know. (I have suspicions about one character in particular.) And yet, the Great War can't really go one for three and a half seasons, can it? Is there that much dramatic potential in a war?
Nothing's the same anymore.

*****
#: 104987 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 07-Feb-95 00:09:03
Sb: #104838-<Londo and G'kar> Fm: Jan Fennick 71670,254
To: Rae Augenstein 72752,1653
>>Of course there would have been a war had G'Kar killed the Emperor. Does he think that because he started it that the Narn would have had the upper hand this time?<<
That's the one thing that made me nuts about CoS. I want to feel sorry for G'kar. I want to ache that the Shadows and then the Centauri blasted the s**t out of the colony in Quadrant 14. But then I think about what G'kar was planning to do *and* would have done, given the chance...if they'd only propped him up <g>. However, he did react in a positive way toward what the Emperor said and even showed some remorse. But considering the look on Londo's face when G'kar grabbed him and told him the news, I wonder if he (Londo) would have continued on the same course had he known earlier. We don't know and I guess we never will. (Unless, of course, DC ever comes out with the Apocryphal B5 comic series...)
In a way, it's just that you see these two characters that you care so much for caught in this never ending, utterly *stupid* dance (meaning IMO that war and aggression is stupid) and you wanna grab them and slap them and talk sense into them...and then you realize that even if you did do that, they wouldn't listen and would just go back to their fighting. Argh.
My brain hurts.

*******

#: 60145 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 22-Dec-94 09:44:48
Sb: Bureau 13 Fm: Philip Hornsey 74053,2101
To: Francis B. Welch 72622,436
Another option is that Ivanova has her own very personal agenda. Remember that Harriman Grey noted that she felt his very mild scan. Perhaps Ivanova is a very skilled telepath in her own right. If so she can cloak her abilities with great skill.
Given this, JMS could use her to acomplish things, for her own reasons, that would advance the plot in any direction he wished. As a free agent it would be unnecessary to fit her into the scope of a single conspiricy and would make her actions impossible for Sheridan to predict even if he gets sources of info on the operations of Bureau 13.
Didn't JMS say once that the big three (Sinclair/Sheridan, Ivanova, Garibaldi) would not betray each other?
Phil

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#: 60064 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 22-Dec-94 06:07:53
Sb: #58889-Bureau 13 Fm: Francis B. Welch 72622,436
To: Dennis & Laura Matheson 71101,2315
Ivanova being blackmailed - it makes sense. It's possible that she's made a deal with Bureau 13 to keep her out of PsiCorp. Bureau 13 could be a creature of PsiCorp or it could a conspiracy that includes PsiCorp operatives (as well as politicians and military personnel). I think they would need more than PsiCops to pull off the assasination of the EA President.
Anyway, the thing that Ivanova fears is being controlled and manipulated by PsiCorp. She saw her mother destroyed by PsiCorp and is deathly afraid that the same fate awaits her. If Bureau 13 can insure that she won't be conscripted into PsiCorp, she might be willing to deal with them even if some of their operatives have psi abilities.
FBW

******

"The Coming of Shadows": Commentary Let's begin with some spoiler space, shall we?...
There, I hope that's enough. Well, I really don't know where to begin with this episode. I'm speechless.
The first thing I have to say is: wow!
The second thing I have to say is: wow!
Essentially, this sums up all I have to say about this latest episode of Babylon 5: everything else I write beyond this point will merely be an extension of saying, "wow".
This episode just could not go wrong for me. Political intrigue, tons of action, great direction, an imminent war, frightening and poignant character development: the episode kept getting better and better and I was just watching, hunched before the Glowing Box in absolute awe. Babylon 5 is not afraid to tackle big storylines, and this was the most engaging example of how well this device can work.
"Now get a hold of yourself Adam," I think in some embarrassment, "and for God's sake wipe the foam off your mouth! It's only a tv show after all."
Ah, that's better. So, onward to the specifics.
The ongoing Londo/Shadow plot has been my favourite since "The Geometry of Shadows", and as I've often said, Londo was the only character I loved right from the beginning. For good or ill, I'm delighted to see him getting further caught up in the cycle of dark events over which he is fast losing control. In addition, G'Kar finally gets a good showing this episode as well: before "The Coming of Shadows" I never felt particularly convinced by his standpoint or character. That is, I understood his purpose, but I never really *felt* it. Well, that certainly changed with this episode.
However, before I go further, let me start from the beginning: a sense of order is always helpful.
The episode opens with a first-time introduction to the Centauri Emperor. Any presentation of the sovereign or elected leader of an entire planet is bound to be somewhat disappointing with a television budget, but I tried to disregard the lack of grandeur and indeed nearly forgot about it immediately as I saw the actor playing the Prime Minister. I was surprised and pleased to see Malachi Throne, an actor who has played parts on both the original Star Trek series and The Next Generation, in this role. It's a shame he didn't have more to do. One little thing that bothered me about this scene is that I was left wondering whether *all* Centuari are supposed to have the accents that Londo and Refa have, or whether these accents represent some other language group on Centauri, or what. I know the only real answer is those people who can fake the accent well, do it: those that can't, don't (yes, I know the actor playing the Emperor was not faking that accent).
The episode seemed like it was going to be a simple setup for an assassination attempt at first. With G'Kar practically telling Sheridan he was going to kill the Centauri Emperor, I'm surprised our Captain didn't do something more to restrain the Narn ambassador.
Things really started picking up when the Emperor actually arrived on the station. We were treated to some well-exectued scenes of political intrigue between Londo and Refa which had the side-effect of providing some more depth to Vir's character with being the only one to disapprove of what's about to happen. Watching Londo one gets the feeling that events are finally moving too fast for him: the whole episode is essentially an expression of the inner turmoil warring inside the Centuari ambassador. It's obvious Londo has been shaken since his encounter with Elric (the technomage), and as he realises more fully that he really has no control of what's going on but can't untangle himself from what he's precipitated, his character comes across as very *real* to me.
Most of our normal station personnel didn't have much to do this episode: the Earth Force was essentially a bystander while events unraveled. The scene between Emperor and Sheridan was a decent one, however. Although the Emperor was perhaps too obviously written to be a totally sympathetic character, he was nevertheless appealing. The last days of the sad and strangely powerless Emperor regretting what has been done in the name of his Empire is not a new theme, but it was handled well in that it wasn't belaboured too much.
The assassination scene was also a bit obvious in coming, but when it did it was directed beautifully. The wordless chain of events beginning with G'Kar's fidgeting with his dagger, the Emperor's slow-motion approach and collapse, and the reaction of his telepaths... I don't think the scene could've been executed much better. The music framing the action was also nicely appropriate. Maybe the scene wasn't fantastically original, but one doesn't have the pleasure of witnessing camerawork even slightly out-of-the-ordinary on series television. The director (Janet something?) did a classy job.
The previous scene might have been a bit more powerful had the Emperor died then and there, but he hung on long enough to do some more regretting. Dr. Franklin interrupts what was becoming a darkly funny scene when G'Kar was expressing his frustration with his aborted assassination attempt. Perhaps the best line of the episode was his: "he [the Emperor] has the *indecency* to start dying on his own!"
Though the Emperor's apology and the nature of his visit were a little predictable, I found them both effective being relayed through Dr. Franklin to G'Kar. G'Kar's reaction also showed a refreshingly conciliatory side to him: a side which, unfortunately, was not to endure for very long.
lony, and the sheer rancor that explodes from him in his furious pursuit of Londo. This is the scene that really made me a believer. The ease with which Londo arranged for the destruction of almost a quarter million Narn civilians was his last grasp at some sense of control over what's unfolding. It's obvious he is merely some sort of pawn for the power behind the shadows, but he's trying to ignore this emerging fact by confirming his position among the new powers of the Centauri. Vir's sense of disappointment is once again evident when he sees what Londo arranges, and it puts his character in a strangely superior position over his employer.
Londo's dream sequence was, at its most basic level, just really cool. The flash of images were very puissant: I watched with enjoyment as I saw Londo looking up from a planet's surface to see a fleet of Shadow ships flying off to battle; Londo being crowned Emperor; an aged and mutilated G'Kar extracting ultimate revenge from Londo as a weak and dissatisfied monarch. Flashes of the "great hand reaching out of the stars" were also a nice touch and a good reference to Elric's warning in "The Geometry of Shadows".
The actual battle scenes at the Narn colony were really impressive in that adrenaline-rush way, but the Shadow ships seem almost *too* powerful. The ease with which they just show up and slice through everything in sight makes me wonder how anyone will be able to combat them. Well, who knows what the Vorlons can do...
This leads me to one of the most powerful sequences I've seen on Babylon 5 in a while: G'Kar's outrage at what happened to the Narn cor in G'Kar's character. Although his rage and sense of betrayal drove him through this scene, it was his underlying flood of grief which made the most impact: his sense of loss, his fear for the deaths of his people, his horrible frustration at being betrayed. It was painful to watch, and it worked really well for me.
The whole side-plot of the Sinclair's message and his "rangers" (anyone else think Aragorn when they heard this?) didn't quite do it for me though. Mainly they just provided inconsequential interludes between the real meat of the story. However, it was a neat surprise seeing Sinclair again after so long, but it was *strange*. I've gotten so used to (and fond of) Sheridan this season that Sinclair almost seemed out of place (though not as much as he could've been). I thought his message to Garibaldi was really more cryptic than it needed to be, especially since not much was actually communicated with it. The last line in his communique' did stick out, though: "stay close to the Vorlon..." This was the second hint at Kosh and the Vorlons' role in the upcoming struggle, with the first being Kosh's direct prediction of how everything will end ("in fire") that he gave the dying Emperor. It should be interesting to see exactly what part the Vorlons will play in future episodes.
Although the Centauri Emperor's death was a little dragged out, there was a definite sense of loss when he finally died. Londo's spontaenous lie ("take my people back to the stars") was also in keeping with character.
The episode winds down with a meeting of the council. This scene was also well executed (I'm just repeating myself aren't I? Well, the episode was *that* good). The general condemnation of Londo, though tangible in and of itself, was nothing compared with G'Kar's supressed and almost wordless anger. G'Kar comes across as a man focused and certain. Worms of doubt know longer gnaw at him: for good or bad, he is utterly secure in his belief that the Centauri must be destroyed. Andreas Katsulas (I'm sure I misspelled his name) gave an extremely powerful and versatile performance throughout the whole episode.
Well, that's good enough for now. The episode next week also looks like action-packed fare. That was Paul Winifield (Captain Terrell of Star Trek II) I saw on the preview I think: I understand he's to play Dr. Franklin's father. Finally, however, events have started moving more quickly: war comes at last! That's what I love about this show: it's not afraid to shake things up a little. Or a lot. Or a heck of a lot... :)

*******
"Kosh is always and forever *exactly* what he appears to be, no less and no more. At the same time, Kosh is absolutely *nothing* like what he appears to be."

********

#: 105978 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 07-Feb-95 23:36:34
Sb: #105761-<CoS and Choices> Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: Gary Feldman 71303,41
Excellent analysis.
For me, nothing is more pivotal than the issue of why we choose to do something, what that choice means to others, and how far you will go to realize that choice. Personal actions and choices have consequences. We believe we're powerless. We're not. Our choices echo down the ages. "We will be remembered in spite of ourselves," Lincoln wrote.
World War II grew out of World War I; World War I grew out of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated because his carriage driver, having been told to turn one way at an intersection, chose to turn left instead of right and shave a little time off the trip. And put Ferdinand right in the bullet's path.
Millions died because one man made a wrong turn.
Everything in our culture today teaches us that we can have no affect, that you can't fight city hall...well, in fact, you *can*. You can do whatever it is you choose to do.
But you must choose *wisely*.
I don't tend to lecture in this show; if by now you haven't figured out that prejudice is bad, that murder is wrong, that sexism is stupid, seeing 44 minutes of TeeVee about it ain't gonna change anything. I prefer to go in the direction of nudging in more general terms...not so easily answered. The unexamined life is not worth living, as someone said. So we must now examine.
B5 is about choice, and who we are, and who do we *think* we are, and where we're going, and where we're NOT going unless we get our act together, and what do we believe, and WHY do we believe it? Those, to me, are the issues I want to go after on this show.
jms

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#: 11672 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 27-Oct-94 14:15:56
Sb: #11592-<Chrysalis - WHAM!> Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: Barbara Pfieffer 72302,2453
What Delenn has done is not generally known, but will become so in time.
The question...is another issue.
jms

******

In the thread "UK: Infection," Ian Jeffries (posting from ewartgrp@vax.oxford.ac.uk), wondered: >Anyone else noticing early episodes that are now making *much* >more sense and fitting into the larger picture, when before they >were true stand-alone stories (rather that directly arc related >stuff)?
In a word: yes.
[Be warned: SPOILERS through "Acts of Sacrifice" are below. They're protected by a good number of lines of incidental text and a ^L, but they *are* there. Skip this article if you want to be unspoiled.]
If you have the early episodes on tape, *go back and rewatch them.* There's stuff in there that you wouldn't believe - but you wouldn't catch it if you don't know what the arc has in store for the characters and the universe. B5 is holographic storytelling, as JMS has been known to say.
Remember a *long* time ago, when JMS was talking about holographic storytelling? JMS said that he used to describe B5 as linear, but then a grip told him otherwise. The grip said,
(from JMS_answers.txt) "That after he read two scripts, he went back and reread the first one, and now he could see things in it that he hadn't seen before. When he'd read three, again he glanced over the first, and new things had come out. "What it is," he said, "is not side-by-side images, but *overlapping* images, like old fashioned photographic plates stacked up one on top of the other. Each has a piece of the whole picture. When you line them all up, one behind the other, and look through all of them at once, you realize what the picture is. It's three-dimensional storytelling."
Recently, thanks to the kindness of Matt Ryan, the B5 librarian of Hyde Park, Jen "the mighty wombat" Ottesen and I had the opportunity to discover the true power of holographic storytelling. We borrowed the tape that contained "Midnight on the Firing Line" and "Soul Hunter" for a late night viewing spree. This post is based on ideas that arose from our discussion; it's a more or less collaborative effort. (Of course, *I* got to write out almost the whole thing. *grumble*) "Soul Hunter" will be the concern of a later post; for now, we're chiefly concerned with MotFL.
The original (er, consensus) opinion of MotFL was that it wasn't that great of an episode. If the episode is viewed as a stand-alone, that's still true: the pacing and direction isn't very good, the effects are miles below what we're used to now, and the writing isn't as tight as it has become. It's enjoyable to watch if you know and care for the characters already. It suffered the handicap of being our first real introduction to the new series.
As a part of the arc, on the other hand...
Thank you, sir. May I please have another?
[spoilers through "Acts of Sacrifice" - mostly for "The Coming of Shadows, though.]
"Midnight on the Firing Line" is very much a parallel of "The Coming of Shadows." The parallels Jen and I found are below; afterwards is my explanation of why B5 is an extraordinary series. (Yes, it's relevant.)
THE PARALLELS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Threat of war between the Narn and the Centauri.
The aggressors change between the episodes, but the threat of
war remains the same. In "Midnight," the war is averted (hey,
season 1 was happier); in "Shadows," the outcome is far less
fortunate. In addition, note these similarities between the attacks
on Raghesh III and on the Narn colony on the unnamed planet in
Quadrant 14:
- Both colonies were largely civilian.
- Both times, the side being attacked didn't know who the
attacker was (for a time).
- A conversation between the ambassadors of both sides in
which only one knows the story behind the attack.
2. Londo's dream.
The dream is seen in "Shadows," but referred to in "Midnight."
Moreover, the dream features shots from "Midnight:" the Narn
fighters and the exploding Raghesh III station.
We also see, in the dream,
3. Londo and G'Kar strangling each other,
just as they do in the zocalo in "Midnight."
4. One of the ambassadors tries to kill another.
Londo plans to kill G'kar in "Midnight;" G'kar intends the
same for Londo in "Shadows." (It's interesting to compare
Londo's relatively calm attack to G'kar's raging frenzy.)
5. Vir tells Londo not to do something and is ignored.
In "Midnight," he cowers and pleads Londo not to throw a
bottle of wine at him [Londo throws the bottle at the door,
sending glass flying]. In "Shadows," he begs Londo not
to send the Shadows against the colony in Quadrant 14.
Interestingly, in both situations, Londo is drunk: with
alcohol in "Midnight" and with power in "Shadows."
6. Londo acts against the wishes of his government
by going to the council in "Midnight," and through all his
machinations with Refa in "Shadows."
7. The attempted murder is stopped by an EA official who points out to the would-be murderer the two choices of revenge or helping his people.
Garibaldi stops Londo, telling him, "If you kill G'kar, none of
those colonists will make it out alive!" Sheridan stops G'kar,
telling him to choose between revenge and saving his people.
Both Londo and G'kar choose to live and help their respective
people.
8. Resolution by bluff.
Sinclair threatens to expose the Narn connection with the raiders
if the Narns do not pull out of Raghesh III; Sheridan threatens
to send observers to the Narn colony in Quadrant 14. Both bluffs
work; the Narns pull out of Raghesh III and Londo agrees to
release the Narn civilians. (The bluff in "Shadows," however,
is insufficient to prevent the war - remember, first season
is happier.)
Something else interesting about these bluffs is that both take
place in the Council Chamber - even though Sinclair's bluff is
"unofficial." Hmmm...
WHY BABYLON 5 IS AN EXTRAORDINARY SERIES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As I've rewatched the first season episodes lately, I've come to realize just how extraordinary this series is. I remember in the show's early days - people said, "So what's so special about this series?" JMS's reply was along the lines of, "You've only seen a few episodes. You haven't seen the series - yet."
He was right, too. Babylon 5 isn't extraordinary due to its scripts, plots, or acting - sure, those are all good or great. What makes it extraordinary is the fact that it's literature - that is to say, it uses literary tools that are *never* used on television at least not on this scale. Foreshadowing, for instance. Metaphor. They're used in TV, sure - but on a scale of one hour, or two. Perhaps several hours, over the course of a miniseries (or the exceedingly rare bird of a series, such as _The Prisoner_ - all 17 hrs of it).
B5 uses metaphors on the scale of *years.*
Think about that for a minute.
"Midnight on the Firing Line" isn't a great episode - *on its own.* But I urge you, if you possibly can, *watch that episode now!* The metaphors, the foreshadowing, the parallels - yowza.
In the zocalo, G'kar says to Londo, "The wheel turns, does it not, ambassador?" He's referring to the Narn turning against the Centauri, but he might as well refer to what happens when the wheel turns back - a year later. In "Acts of Sacrifice," G'kar says something to Delenn about being crushed under the wheel.
That's *damn* impressive. Why is the series extraordinary? Because it uses literary techniques in ways that TeeVee just *doesn't* *do.*
I said something similar in a post on r.a.s.tv that the Doge found worth reposting on r.a.s.b5, but I didn't run my mouth as much as I wanted. Now I have. I'll post more about other first season episodes in time. However, I needed a place to start, and "Midnight on the Firing Line" seemed as good a place as any.
[This post was based on ideas developed by myself and Jen Ottesen. I'm sure there's something I missed that she'll clarify.]
=========================================================================== = David Hines dzhines@midway.uchicago.edu = = "If you are going to kill me, then do so. Otherwise I have considerable = = work to do." - Lennier, of the Third Fain of Chu'domo. = ===========================================================================

*********

I *cannot* tell you how pleased I am that these elements are starting to be noticed. Now you have enough pieces to start seeing the overall patterns and pictures.
jms
*********

[What's in store for the rest of the season?]
Jms at B5: Lots of things blow up. Then it gets quiet. Then somebody
isn't who we thought that...
person was. Then more stuff blows up. Then something
mind-bogglingly awful happens.
Jms at B5: And then we wait for next season.
ClaudiaB5: ANd those are just the commercials.

******

#: 76295 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 11-Jan-95 23:10:49
Sb: #75631-#B5 Influences Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: JP Frantz 70440,215 (X)
Jeez, I'm not sure where to start. Yeats was *always* a favorite; certainly Tennyson was a big influence on me (I've referenced his "Ulysses" more times than I can mention, including in B5). If you want to include classical works verging on SF, fantasy or horror, I'd definitely put Edgar Allen Poe and Bram Stoker into the mix. I've always loved Shirley Jackson's very subtle way of creating things through indirection, and I think I've managed to read just about everything Mark Twain ever wrote, including his Journals, the 10-volume set you can only find at libraries.
I'm a big fan of the early Greek writers, Sophocles, Eurpides, and Aristophanes...one of the first actual plays I ever saw was as a kid, when my class went off to see an open-air performance of "Oedipus Rex." I was absolutely *enthralled*. I'd never seen anything like it, and proceeded to gobble up anything else I could read in this vein. This led me into the classical area in general, so I was listening to Beethoven and Mozart and reading "Electra" at maybe twelve years of age. It was about this same time that I also went bonkers for Shakespeare, and have a fairly complete collection of his work. When I was living in San Diego for a number of years, I had the chance as a college student doing reviews to gorge myself on old Will, through the wonderful Old Globe Theater, which also has the Cassius Carter Center Stage and the open-air theater for Shakespeare under the stars. Over a few weeks, I saw a *gorgeous* production of "Midsummer Night's Dream," "Two Gentlemen of Verona," and "Hamlet," *plus* Alan Ayckbourn's "Norman Conquests" trilogy, AND Ionesco's "The Lesson," all through the Globe.
I always availed myself of any opportunity to experience these things and learn from them, with the result that I have a fairly classical education, nominally self-taught. I don't know nearly as much as I'd like, but I know enough to appreciate them, and to find out more if necessary.
At the same time, though, I was also chugging down Bradbury and Ellison and Heinlein and Clarke and Asimov and Lovecraft (lots and lots of Lovecraft) and Tolkein and Clark Ashton Smith and Dunsany and as many comic books as I could get my hands on, and watching all of the worst grade-B science fiction/horror films ever made.
It's a very weird, eclectic background...but I've found it very useful. The best writers, I think, are generalists.
jms
There is 1 Reply.

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#: 12184 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 27-Oct-94 23:21:37
Sb: #11724-<Chrysalis - Wow> Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: Jackie Pearcey 100265,3647 (X)
Yeah, there's hope for Londo...but not in the way I think anybody will expect, and not in the way Londo would like.
jms

******

"Wherever this goes, however it ends, we're with you."

******
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 7 Dec 1994 01:32:58 -0500 Subject: Re: Where's the Ring? (minor L
Anyone who looks too closely for LoTR allegories will over the long haul be disappointed; remember, we're also constructing a story that casts an eye toward the events of the last 25 or so years, our own fall from a vision of the future, and it's designed to have some parallels to the story of the original Babylon. Thus far, though a few have started to get glimmers of where this puppy's going, very few yet really get just how *big* this story is going to get.

*******
Ah, but you're assuming that the Londo-strangling-scene is as it seems to be; maybe it is, but maybe it isn't. You don't know the context yet.
*******
"Sinclair is 'The One' -- right?"

Question is, the One *what*?

*******
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 17 Dec 1994 04:54:38 -0500 Subject: Attn. JMS: JMS as Father Chri
Okay, let's see, what can I tell you to tide you over...the next six new episodes that'll run are, in order, "A Race Through Dark Places," "The Coming of Shadows," "GROPOS," "All Alone in the Night," and "Acts of Sacrifice," with "Hunter, Prey" being the final new one in that cycle.
I can say that all of those episodes (with the nominal exception of "GROPOS," which though it is a solid arc episode doesn't change the overall direction of the series) are stories that have major and substantial effects on the show's direction. In season one, we built all season to maybe three major WHAM episodes. ("Sky," "Signs," "Chrysalis.") This year we have double that number at minimum, and with greater impact.
All of our major characters will start going through major upheavals in their lives during this period. It's a *very* intense six weeks. Several characters make decisions that completely change the direction of the show, and the way their character fits in with the series. One episode will look very much unconnected to the arc until the last five minutes, at which point there's a revelation that will likely astonish some and confirm suspcions for some other viewers.
Simply put, by the end of those six episodes, in many ways the show you're used to isn't the same anymore, and the relationships between several major characters simply aren't the same anymore. And most interesting for me is that we get to push some of the characters' emotions to the very edge...and snap them.
These six represent some of the strongest episodes we've ever done; I consider "Coming" to be probably the best episode to date. In "GROPOS" we're going for broke and are doing some *amazing* CGI stuff.
How's that for a start?

*******

Re: "turning weakness into strength," that's generally what humans DO. We stare into the abyss, we *know* the cause is hopeless, we know we're probably gonna get creamed trying, but we straighten our shoulders and *do* it.
It is, I think, one of our better traits. jms

******
Now that you've seen this much, now you can begin putting together the other level of the metaphor that is B5...consider: a war that did not end satisfactorily for us, not winning or losing, a sort of peace with honor....the death of a president...the rise of intelligence agencies and military power...start to sound familiar? Now what we begin to do is to start moving around the pieces, shifting the mirror of the story to reveal different aspects of ourselves, as well as tell the other separate story of B5 itself. Again, the idea is for this story to function on *many* different levels: future-history, myth, adventure story, mystery and a metaphor.

********

Oddly enough, while I always had just one title for each of the first two season, I have several competing titles for year three, and haven't quite decided which to go with. Somewhere near the top of the list is, "I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds." May be a bit too much, though....

*********
The best way to approach this is to discuss my approach to writing in general. I've now written two published novels, and have a third ready to be written as soon as I have six months to a year to spare (i.e, not for a while yet). My structure is always very tight on these things, in the sense that I plan out the basic *spine* of the novel. I know I'm starting at point A, I want to end at point Z, and I want to hit a certain number of spots along the way. Then I start writing. Once I've committed to that STRUCTURE, everything else becomes expendable or fluid. I've ha background characters suddenly lurch into the foreground, and major characters (or characters I *thought* would be major) fall into the background. Sometimes, while chugging along the structure highway, I'll see something interesting just off the main road, and I'll go poke around in there for a while.
Basically, I like being *surprised*. And I think, in general, that readers do as well. At no time do I diverge from where I want to go; the spine never alters. But the details are absolutely fluid.
When I write an episode, I do exactly the same thing. I *HATE* to outline; I think it freezes the story too much. So in general I just sit down at the keyboard, knowing the title of the episode, the primary incidents that have to happen, and a few character moments, and stgart writing. And things suddenly occur to me, I get surprised by moments when the characters turn to me and say, "Hey, stupid, don't do THAT, do *THIS*." And I go where they tell me. The result is that the scripts I write tend to be VERY tight: they go where they're going, and move like a house afire...BUT there's the real sense that ANYdamnedthing can happen at any moment, because I'm not locked in.
The same applies to the series overall. I know *exactly* where the series is going, the final denouement, the benchmarks of each season, and have brief synopses on most of the episodes. But you have to be open to surprises, have to allow yourself to be pulled one way or another on the details, otherwise you get predictable, and you lose the spark. Also, the reality is that actors are human; there can be contract disputes, health problems, any number of things...so there have to be trap doors built into the storyline for *every single one of the characters* without exception.
The closest comparison, I suppose, would be doing a story about World War II. The individual pieces can move around, people can come and go, live or die, suddenly be revealed to be counterspies...but the basic progression, the storyline of the war, is not changed. (Unless you're doing alternate history, which we're not.) When I write, I basically carry the whole storyline in my head, and I run the episode through that to make sure that it all parses.
It's as if you've flashed back in time to WW II, and you're in a battalion going into Normandy Beach. You know that in the long run, the Allies will win the war...but you look around at the other people in the landing craft with you, and you have no idea which of them is going to make it through to the end. One is set. The other is fluid.
The final destination of the story, and the chief points along the way...none of that has altered so much as an inch. Within that structure I may move some elments up, push some back; you have to find the *feel* of the story as you write it, something you can't prepare for until you're actually writing it. But the structure remains, giving me freedom to roam where I want...if I decide to kill off one of the three really major human characters in year three (and I'm NOT saying I'm planning on it, I'm just discussing hypotheticals), I can do it, and the overall storyline isn't touched.
A destination may be fixed on the horizon...but sometimes the most fun you have is getting lost from time to time on the way there.
jms

*********
Emotion, for me, is the key to all drama. If it doesn't make you feel something, what's the point? The writer's job is to touch passion, not be burned by it, and come back to tell what it was like.

********

LAUREL So, Doctor...just what *did* you see
when you looked inside that suit?
KYLE (a long beat, then:)
There are moments in your life when
everything crystallizes. When the
whole world reshapes itself, right
down to its component molecules, and
everything changes.
(beat)
I've looked upon the face of a
Vorlon, Laurel...and nothing's the
same anymore.

****************

"they do not seek conformity. They do not surrender. Out of their differences comes symmetry. Their unique capacity to fight against impossible odds. Hurt them, they only come back stronger. The passions we deplore have taken them to their place in the stars, and will propel them to a great destiny. Their only weakness is that they do not recognize their own greatness. They forget they have come to this place through two million years of evolution,struggle, and blood. They are better than they think and nobler than they know. They carry within them the capacity to walk among the stars as giants. They are the future. We have much to learn from them."

************

I ended up giving Peter info on "Signs" prior to shooting "Chrysalis" last season; that was the biggie there. For "CoS" in order for the scene to match what's going to happen several years down the road in the series, I had to kinda give him the context of the dream, and what was really happening in that scene, and what caused it, and how he got to that place with G'Kar's hands around his throat.
He seemed quite...astonished.

*********

Yeah, on several levels, writing "The Coming of Shadows" was hard; there were times I felt as though I'd just jumped onto the back of a runaway dynamite truck. Halfway through that story you can feel the arc kinda moving underneath you, like some huge, dark fish about to break surface.
The only way to make a viewer feel a character's pain is if you feel it in the writing, and a lot of that came through. I live with these characters running around in my head 24 hours a day...and when I'd finally finished "Shadows," it was as if they all sorta stopped and looked at each other, and at me, and said, "Gee, thank you EVER so fucking much, jeezus, why don't you just go pluck somebody's eye out while you're at it?"
To which the only reply is, "Now that you mention it...."

**********
And, as you note, one of things that I like to play with is the layering of ambiguity. Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that we set up two sides: Shadowmen vs. Vorlons, which looks like evil vs. good. Fundamentally, I would find that boring. What you would then have to do is get into WHY they're doing what they do, and HOW they're doing what they do.
There is, for instance, the "good" that says, "We know what's best for you, we'll protect you, nurture you, but you'll do it our way, and we'll keep you away from ideas and beliefs you shouldn't be exposed to." Okay, maybe that fits one definition of good...but is it?
On the flip side, for instance, there's the "bad" that says "There must be conflict and death, because it's only through conflict and death that we grow stronger, that we can eventually create an ordered universe. The gene pool must be kept strong. To do that, there must be war and strife and death." Okay, maybe that fits the definition of evil, but is it?
The key, again and always, is that nothing is what it seems on Babylon 5. And even if it looks like it IS what it is, you have to look at WHY it is what it is...and maybe at that point it isn't.
One of the things about this show is that you see as much as you're willing to see. You can gloss over it, say, "Okay, these are the good guys, these are the bad guys." But the closer you look, the more you see the shades. I imagine when the Shadowmen are more fully revealed, some folks'll think we're going for a basic good/evil conflict...but believe me, there's a hell of a lot more involved in it than that.

*********************

The single most moving kind of story for me is the "last man on the bridge"...the last defender who has to hold the line while others get away, knowing he will probably not survive it. This has great power for me, and for many others, which is why it shows up again and again in films, literature, TV and other venues. The Garibaldi scene has NOTHING to do with Aliens, and everything to do with that figure. Re: *why* it is that humans are special...has nothing to do with sacrifice, or dedication (well, that's not quite true, it has something to do with it), but that's not the totality of it. There's one more element you don't know about yet, that won't be revealed until season two, episode one, "Points of Departure." Once you see that episode, you'll fully understand that there is one very particular thing about humans that is very special indeed.

**************

Re: we/I... yes, it's interesting, isn't it? You'd almost think it was contradictory or something.

And of course there's the story of the man who dreamed he was a butterfly, and when he awoke, wondered if he was actually a human who dreamed he had been a butterfly, or a butterfly who was dreaming he was a human....

One of the themes in this show is how you face life...and how you face death. Ramirez faced his honorably. In the end, honor and dignity are all we have left.

************

Re: your question...at this juncture, I think I'd have to choose "The Coming of Shadows" as the one episode I'd use to represent the series. That one episode came out so close to perfect, so close to what I saw in my head when I wrote it, that the difference is no difference at all. It has all the elements I'd feature in a B5 discussion...the CGI, the characterization, the complexity, the politics, the language, the performances.
There are, by the way, some really extraordinary episodes coming up. The first one in the next cycle of new episodes, "And Now for a Word," will, I think, be very popular, and to my knowledge does something that has never been done in SF television before; "There All the Honor Lies" is a fun episode with some nice characterization and solid humor; "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum" is an episode that is as emotionally raw as "Chrysalis" with some major revelations that force Sheridan to make the most important decision of his life; "Confessions and Lamentations" I'd put right next to "Believers" in intensity, a terrific Franklin episode; "The Long, Twilight Struggle" is probably the biggest episode of the entire two years to date, story and EFX and character wise, and will have a profound effect on the series that I'd compare to a cross between "Signs and Portents" and "Chrysalis"...and "Divided Loyalties" will produce a stunning revelation about one of our major characters.
The latter half of this season is all about tightening the screws until you hit the screaming point. I've got to send this show over the edge, because THAT'S where the really interesting stuff begins to happen.
I have a big sign on my office wall. It's a quote from Franz Kafka. (And by big I mean 2' x 3'.) "The point of no return; that is the point that must be reached." The latter half of this season will send us tumbling end over end beyond the point of no return...and taking many of our characters with us.
jms

******

Pledging oneself to someone's side is not common, and carries great significance. From that point onward, you are bound to that person until your death, and you must defend that person at the cost of your own life.

***********
In a way, there are several Sheridans in that dream, signifying changes currently in the works, changes yet to come, messages forthcoming or unrecognized. It's a very reflective dream, which will grow clearer the deeper one gets into the show.

**********
You'll see at least one piece of Sheridan's vision decoded before season's end.

*******

[What's in store for the rest of the season?]
Jms at B5: Lots of things blow up. Then it gets quiet. Then somebody
isn't who we thought that...
person was. Then more stuff blows up. Then something
mind-bogglingly awful happens.
Jms at B5: And then we wait for next season.
ClaudiaB5: ANd those are just the commercials.

******
Oh, not much...accusations of murder against one of our characters, a whole new perspective on Earth and B5, betrayals by friends, a little conversation between Sheridan and Morden, sacrifices on top of sacrifices, the death of two billion people, a sudden development in the war, interrogations and several very large surprises.

******
<Two billion people!!!!!>
Yeah, well, I kinda wanted to start slow to get the ball rolling.

*******
Well, I mean, what the heck *should* I say? I mean...in the final episodes (two batches) yet to come this season, we learn who Morden is and where he came from, a second Vorlon ship docks at B5, two billion die, Kosh is revealed, the Narn/Centauri War takes an irrevocable turn, at least one major character is revealed to be something other than what he or she appears, the death of another major character is prophesied, a character is accused of murder, hundreds die in and around Babylon 5 on at least two occasions, Control is revealed, we learn that one of the EA regular characters has been lying to the others for a very long time now, Lyta Alexander returns with a warning, and a teddy bear is loosed upon the station at exactly the same time as one moment of perfect beauty.
And *that's* only part of what happens between now and the end of this season.
jms
I *hate* it when he does that. :D

******
As I write this we are now just under one month away from finishing filming on year two. Last day of shooting is April 20th. I have now written 14.5 episodes out of 22, and should have the very last script for this season (#15 for me personally) done by late next week. By the end of April we should know whether or not we have been renewed. We are now hip deep in pursuing that goal. This time of season is much akin to that moment in "The Pit and the Pendulum" where the swinging blade is about 1/15th of an inch from the chest of our unwitting protagonist, and the rats are chewing at his bonds, and there's some small debate about which set of teeth is going to hit flesh first. Consequently...for the next 30 days, you might find me more than usually intemperate. More bluntly, expect to find me tired, irritable and generally, garden-variety cranky. I'm getting 3-4 hours sleep per night, and upon arriving at the B5 offices I look rather like a death row inmate walking the last mile...which is about the standard look on anyone running a show this time of year. I will continue to try and moderate my replies, but if an unintended edge creeps into the phosphor dots crawling across your screen...you'll know whence it comes. Or to quote the Terminator...."I need a vacation."
Item the second: Tomorrow, Wednesday, at 8:00 p.m. in most markets airs a wonderful stop-motion piece called "The Wrong Trousers" on PBS. Story in brief: a man and his dog take in a penguin as a boarder...and the story take a funny/dark turn worthy of a Hitchcock movie. It's simply the best thing I've ever seen in this medium, and encourage everyone to watch. Absolutely hysterical, and wonderfully done.
Item the third: To allow for more time to finish the EFX work and some audio work, we'll probably reverse the first few episodes and start with "There All the Honor Lies" at the end of April, and spring "And Now for a Word" as the first true May sweeps episode. As you were.... jms

*******
Telepaths were finally and conclusively proven to exist around the early 2100s; by about 2120 or 30 the Psi Corps was formalized and became a branch of the government. jms
*******
in return for your good post, here's a gift: while we won't see Zathras this season, we will HEAR his name, but not from anyone who was on B4. He's around, but he's not *here*.

*******
I mentioned this elsewhere, but I figured I'd note it here as well. In a few days we will begin shooting the final episode of season two: "The Fall of Night." In terms of action, this is the biggest thing we've ever attempted. Where normally our scripts have 50-80 scenes/shots (as noted in numerical sluglines), this one has 134; of which 64 are EFX shots, some in combinations. To understand the weight of that, there were 60 EFX shots in the entire two-hour pilot. In addition, this has more and more *complex* CGI than the first 13 episodes of our first season put TOGETHER. Nothing on quite this scale has ever been attempted in series TV before, and the irony is that the major part of this covers only a few minutes in the fourth act.
This stuff is going to involve every one of our EFX divisions, compositing, makeup, prosthetics, costuming, practical effects, mattes, CGI; the visual EFX meeting was the biggest we've ever had, and everyone's both sober and excited. Because there are only two options when you go for something this substantial: either you're going to do something truly amazing, or you're going to massively fall on your face. For our EFX people, this is kinda like boarding the wildest ride at Magic Mountain and leaving off your seatbelt on a dare...it's one hell of a ride, but boy is it dangerous.
But as Ron Thornton pointed out: no guts, no glory.
This is also going to be a Janet Greek-directed episode, who for various reasons was only available to do our first episode prior to this, but she's kind of our good luck charm, and we wanted someone who's done as much for us as she has to come in here and helm this...because it could probably break a less experienced (on B5) director.
One last item, unrelated: the month of May is a good one for final conversions. We're going to have some of our strongest episodes during that month, and the first one up in May (second new episode) makes for a very good recap/introduction to the show for newbies. Starting with that one, we're going balls-to-the-wall on the arc from that point on through the rest of the season, with only one exception, which is a very intense episode but in a different way.
Up through "The Coming of Shadows" we were still warming up; with CoS we really hit our stride on the show, and now we're going flat-out from here on out. We stop for nobody.
jms

*******

The way it was constructed is that we'd have a few arc stories in year one, the rest mainly stand-alones. We then roughly double that number in year two. Increase it again by year three...such that by year five, every story is an arc story, all closely connected, because by then all hell has broken loose, and you're racing toward the conclusion of the story.

*****
While the triangle is one element of the Grey Council symbology, it is not present and visible at all times and under all circumstances; it has a particular purpose or meaning.

******
"If the Shadows are active on Earth, we need to ask why Psi-Corps haven't picked them up."
Yep.

******
Here is Londo's arc through the five year storyline:
Funny and light; then funny and dark; then dark and tragic; then tragic and light.

******
Let's just say for now that Londo's eventual fate is kind of everything at once....

******
As for Kosh, when it came time to design the character, I gave very specific instructions to, first, Peter Ledger (the artist who did the early conceptions of Kosh for artwork for the studios), and then our costume designer and prosthetics people. I had very detailed elements that had to be included, given what's inside, so everything kind of had to bend to that.

******
>>>>>> Melody Womack (MWomack@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
: "War Doth Make Murderers of Martyrs"
: Next, I've observed that many people seem to be having trouble with : "We/I stand between the shadow and the light/the candle and the star." : IMHO the problem comes from taking the whole concept entirely too : literally. The Minbari don't stand between the Vorlons and the Shadows : in a military or diplomatic sense, but rather in something a bit more : Lovecraftian. Like the aliens in Lovecraft's mythos, the Shadows have : been cast out, imprisoned perhaps, and the Minbari are their gate. But : something happened 2,000 years ago - something that caused a weakening : of the Minbari who are the very power holding the Shadows in check. : Ever since then the Shadows have been creeping through, biding their : time, building their forces, and waiting, waiting for a time when they : can again sweep their hand of darkness across the galaxy.
: Through all this, one question remains unanswered with no clue ever : given. What happened to cause the Minbari souls to take on human form : and weaken the crucial balance that has held back the Shadow forces for : countless eternities? Perhaps we'll never know, but I'll bet that the : answer would tell us much.
OH MY GOD! It ALL fits! Melody, I don't think jms was kidding in his response. I thinks it's his way of saying you're on to something here.
In regard to another followup, as to whether there were fewer Mimbari born because there were fewer souls, or there were few sould because there were fewer Mimbari born (see Revelations), I'm not sure it matters, there is defintely a migration going on here. Also, the Mimbari must have known about it for some time, or at least they have some understanding of the nature of their souls. Remember Soul Hunter? The Mimbari "died by the hundreds" rather than let Valen's (?) soul be captured, why? And what about Kosh.
Kosh: I will teach you. Sheridan: About you? Kosh: About you. Until you are ready. Sheridan: Ready for what? Kosh: To fight legends.
This implies that the humans have some hidden nature that they are not yet aware of, but Kosh is. And what about the "they are a dying race..." line? What if Kosh views them as "dying" because they have already lost most of their souls. Not to dump any one religion into this, but most religions have some concept of a place for the damned. If there is a paradise after death, then there must also be a hell, if for no other reason than to compare paradise to. And given the concept of eternal punishment, think about TCoS. The Emperor asks "how will this end?" We've assumed that the answer referred to war, but what if it was more than that. Wars end. And now think about what the Emperor said to Londo, could that have been more than just an idle curse? Now on to Deathwalker, Think about Kosh's statement. If we accept for the moment that "souls" move on when someone dies, and that the Mimbari souls moved to humans because for some reason humans became better "hosts", then couldn't "immortality" as Kosh referred to it mean not that you don't die, but that your "soul" doesn't need to move on. Why? Because there is no longer a threat. What I mean is that it's not the Mimbari, or even the humans, that are the gatekeepers, but the "souls" that defend against the Shadows. IF any of this is correct, and only jms knows for now, it may answer the big question of "what are the Vorlons?"
Sorry if this rambled, or if anyone took offense. It's just that Melody's comments seem to make this fit together pretty well. The more I think about it the more things seem to drop into place. This just occured to me while I was writting this. The technomage's comment to Londo that he "saw a hand reaching out ..." and Londo's dream with a hand reaching out of the fire. Since we "know" that that was Londo's hand, what was it reaching for? Was it reaching to pull others in, or was it reaching, hoping that someone would pull him out? (TGoS). IF that is right, what about Sheridan's dream, "Tha man in the middle....", could that be Londo, looking for help?
Now I'm more confused that ever.
Later,Tim.

*************
Just combining two brilliant observations of others, for everyone's convenience: Melody Womack (MWomack@ix.netcom.com) wrote: Next, I've observed that many people seem to be having trouble with 'We/I stand between the shadow and the light/the candle and the star.' IMHO the problem comes from taking the whole concept entirely too literally. The Minbari don't stand between the Vorlons and the Shadows in a military or diplomatic sense, but rather in something a bit more Lovecraftian. Like the aliens in Lovecraft's mythos, the Shadows have been cast out, imprisoned perhaps, and the Minbari are their gate. But something happened 2,000 years ago - something that caused a weakening of the Minbari who are the very power holding the Shadows in check. Ever since then the Shadows have been creeping through, biding their time, building their forces, and waiting, waiting for a time when they can again sweep their hand of darkness across the galaxy. Through all this, one question remains unanswered with no clue ever given. What happened to cause the Minbari souls to take on human form and weaken the crucial balance that has held back the Shadow forces for countless eternities? Perhaps we'll never know, but I'll bet that the answer would tell us much.
And now from Steve Kirkish's Why? Understanding? (s_kirkis@kla.com): ... In 'A Distant Star', Delenn mentions that the biggest secret in the universe is that we are all 'star stuff, the universe made manifest as a way of trying to understand itself.' Is this the classic philosophical question turned on its ear? That we are always asking 'Why? What are we here for?', and that Babylon 5 is suggesting that the Universe is asking the same question. So if we are the universe made manifest who's doing the monitoring? The Vorlons? This gets way metaphysical, as I'm sure Joe intended. What I like about, though, it is that it still allows for free will. So where do the Shadows fit in? Morden, as a representative of the Shadows, asked the Narn and Centauri 'What do you want?' Certainly, this can also be interpreted as looking for understanding, but something tells me that much more is at stake, because of the way Morden refers to Londo when talking to the Shadows. Londo is clearly a pawn, but what is the game? .... The final answers (such as they may be) will look religious to some, metaphysical to others, but in the end we'll probably have to decide fr ourselves.
Ok, now to ride on the coat-tails of combined brilliance: First, I believe that candles and stars were chosen as symbols because candles produce just aboutthe least amount of light possible, while stars produce the most. If the Shadows have been cast out (as Melody says), then I believe it is because while still of minimal value/virtue, they are essentially like a candle: dangerous fire offering little. Who represents the stars which the Minbari are seeking to protect from the candles which have been cast out? The Vorlons? The future of sentient races (Talia is the future in one context)? Or all sentient life-forms now? As Steve pointed out, Delenn describes us ALL as 'star stuff, the universe ...trying to understand itself.' We will never have a chance to understand ourselves if Melody's 'gate' is broken down and the Shadows come through. We are on the verge of the Third Age of Mankind (perhaps of all sentient kind) but it's still possible that it won't happen if the Minbari prophecy fails to be fulfilled and Earthers and Minbari fail to join together against a very ancient enemy of the universe and its 'goal'. The Great Maker knows I don't want to turn this thread into another religion/science or theist/atheist flame war, but has the following occurred to anyone? The Minbari noticed their 'soul' problem 2000 years ago. That is presumably 2000 years ago in Minbari Base 11. Like Zathras, math not Sherry's strong point, but would 2000 in Base 11 work out to the birth/death of a certain famous human prophet? Just a thought, and please no flames about this! You'll have to flame all by yourself-I won't provide additional fuel. On to a safer but no less confusing topic. Tim(tim@skidmark.mitre.org) made a response to the Big Cat Thread about, 'The technomage's comment to Londo that he 'saw a hand reaching out...' and Londo's dream with a hand reaching out of the fire. Since we 'know' that that was Londo's hand, what was it reaching for?... My view is that the hand is reaching out of the candle or fire, that it is reaching out from the Shadows in order to draw in more of Londo's predicted victims. It is both a destroyer and a victim. If your own hand were in fire and drawing others in, you can bet you'd be in a bit of pain yourself. But Londo is himself not the fire (candle) nor does he appear to be 'star stuff' at the moment, so yes I suppose he could be the man in the middle. The only thing is, I believe that everyone is the Bab5 universe is pretty much in the middle at the present time, but the Minbari and eventually the Earthers most so if they are indeed the prophecied gate-keepers. Beats me how you can cut down the man-in-the-middle image to just one sentient being, Sheridan's dream not withstanding. OK, I'm getting dizzy from all this, so ...good-bye and happy thinking. Sherry

******
#: 67988 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 03-Jan-95 00:20:37
Sb: #67793-<Revelations> Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: Tom Knudsen 72347,1626
Also, the edge of known space is *big* (to paraphrase Hitchhiker's Guide.)
Just look at our own galaxy. To understand the kind of size we're talking here, take a five-pound bag of sugar and pour it on the table. Each grain of sugar is a star. Now pour five *more* bags of sugar onto the table.
Now move each grain of sugar so that it's FIVE MILES apart from every other grain.
NOW you have some sense of how big just our own little galaxy is.
That's a LOT of room to explore....
jms

******

#: 69437 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 05-Jan-95 00:28:19
Sb: #68886-#Spoo! Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: Philip Hornsey 74053,2101 (X)
Spoo is/are (the plural of spoo is spoo) small, white, pasty, mealy critters, rather worm-like, and generally regarded as the ugliest animals in the known galaxy by just about every sentient species capable of starflight, with the possible exception of the pak'ma'ra, who would simply recommend a more rigorous program of exercise. They are also generally considered the most delicious food in all of known space, regardless of the individual's biology, almost regardless of species, except for the pak'ma'ra, who like the flavor but generally won't say so simply to be contrary.
Spoo are raised on ranches on worlds with a damp, moist, somewhat chilly climate so that their skin can acquire just the right shade of paleness. Spoo travel in herds, if moving a total of six inches in any given direction in the course of a given year can actually be considered moving. They stay in herds ostensibly for mutual protection, but the reality is that if they weren't propped up against one another, most of them would simply fall down. They do not howl, bark, moo, purr, yap, squeak or speak. Mainly, they sigh. Herds of sighing spoo can reportedly induce unparalleled bouts of depression, which is why most spoo ranchers wear earmuffs even when it's only mildly cold, damp, wet and dreary outside. If there is any life-or-death struggle for dominance within the spoo herd, it has not yet been detected by modern science.
Spoo ranching is one of the least regarded professions known. Little or no skill is required, once you've got a planet with the right climate. You bring in two hundred spoo, plop them down in the middle of your ranch, and go back to the nearby house. Soon you've got more. When it comes time to cull out the ones ready for market (the softest, mealiest, palest, most forlorn-looking spoo of the pack), little physical effort is required since they're incapable of rapid movement without falling over (see above). They do not resist, fight, or whine; they only sigh more loudly. When spoo harvest time comes, the air is full of the sound of whacking and sighing, whacking and sighing. Even an experienced spoo rancher can only harvest for brief periods of a time, due to the increased volume of sighing, which even the sound of whacking cannot altogether erase. (also see above) Some have simply gone mad.
Spoo are the only creatures of which the Interstellar Animal Rights Protection League says, simply, "Kill 'em."
Fresh spoo (served at an optimum temperature of 62-degrees) is served in cubed sections, so that they bear as little resemblence as possible to the animal from which they have just been sliced. Spoo is usually served alongside a chablis, or a white zinfandel.
Further information on the care, feeding, eating and whacking of spoo can be found in the second edition of the Interstellar Guide to Fine Dining. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jms
(Since this question has often been asked, if this message could a) be archived, and b) posted on other systems, since I don't have this on disk and am writing more or less on the fly, that would be nothing less than a wonderfulness.)
There are 9 Replies.

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#: 777381 S13/Babylon 5 [SCIFI] 30-Jul-94 19:55:25
Sb: <3rd Principle of Life> Fm: JASON D. MCALPIN 74047,2221
To: All
Did anyone get the line Trall said
Trall: What is the 3rd principle of sentient life....
Trall: It is the capacity for self sacrifice, the contious ability to overide evolution for a cause, a loved one, a friend...
I wonder how this applies to Sinclair and what he tried to do...
I wonder if they discovered that humans will fight to the death when cornered and will sacrifice themselves to protect their beliefs and loved ones... A race of those willing to sacrifice themselves may be considered to be holy... or too rare to be destroy.
The question I'm curious about is why Sinclair... although I think it may be because they considered the war won, all the earth forces destroyed .... but the line still stood willing to sacrifice themselves to defend earth... and then when the line was smashed Sinclair still came willing to sacrifice himself... such a person must be a true seeker a person willing to give his life for others... and we all know how many times hes put himself in harms way even when it ment death to himself...
So what do you think....
So JMS am I getting warm <g>
Jason

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#: 790598 S13/Babylon 5 [SCIFI] 13-Aug-94 10:35:38
Sb: #788899-Babylon Squared title Fm: Robert Pankratz 72440,1552
To: Ken Mayer 71333,1030 (X)
> >Is this just a play on 2^2 being 4, or does it have some other >meaning? > >Two stations ... sheesh.
Just to point out the obvious. IMHO, Squared can mean four sided, or in the shape of a square. The 3 dimensions of "reality" plus time equals 4 dimensions, and Time is called the fourth dimension. And of course B4 is being dragged through time.
Robert Pankratz <via WigWam 2.0>

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#: 740710 S13/Babylon 5 [SCIFI] 16-Jun-94 11:52:06
Sb: B5er Credo Fm: Tom Knudsen 72347,1626
To: All
The below is adapted from a humorous meeting summation I just received, but I think it fits the bill:
We fully realize that we have not succeeded in answering all of our questions...
Indeed, we feel that we have not answered any of them completely...
The answers we have found, only serve to raise a whole new set of questions, which only lead to more problems, some of which we weren't even aware were problems...
To sum it all up...In some ways we feel we are as confused as ever, but believe we are confused on a higher level, and about more important things.
Howzat??
Tom

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#: 730971 S13/Babylon 5 [SCIFI] 06-Jun-94 23:24:41
Sb: #Minbari Ceremony Fm: Brett Sherris 75136,161
To: All
I have certain theories about the Minbari religious ceremony from the episode "Parliament of Dreams."
What follows is the text of that scene; I would be most interested if everyone would jump in with their interpretations of the dialogue:
-----Will you follow me into fire into storm into darkness into death.
And the nine said, Yes.
Then do this in testimony to the one who will follow who will bring death couched in the promise of new life and renewal disguised as defeat.
[Fruit is passed out by Lenier.]
From birth through death and renewal you must put aside old things old fears old lifes This is your death the death of flesh the death of pain the death of yesterday.
Taste of it....and be not afraid.
For I am with you....to the end of time. [Directly to Sinclair]
Taste of it. [Directly to Sinclair]
And so....it begins.

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#: 731997 S13/Babylon 5 [SCIFI] 07-Jun-94 21:58:01
Sb: #731928-#Minbari Ceremony Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: Brett Sherris 75136,161 (X)
You will hear "And so it begins" once more this season, from a very unlikely source, which will cast a slightly different light on the whole question of what the ceremony means.
jms

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#: 844818 S13/Babylon 5 [SCIFI] 04-Oct-94 22:53:14
Sb: #844517-<Chrysalis> of course! Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: Imran Naqvi 100073,1217 (X)
Correct; Garibaldi's aide has *always* been a plant. I seeded him in from the beginning, specifically for that purpose. It was the aide who got Sinclair out of his quarters in "Sky," was the liaison who got Benson on line (also in security, you'll remember), and helped dispose of the body. If you watch his reaction in "Sky," he's the one who brings info to Garibaldi looking to clear Benson; and when Garibaldi sees through it, you can see his aide move off looking very worried.
Originally, it was Laurel Takashima who would have betrayed those around her, as this character did. When Laurel was transferred, I had a choice: keep that arc for her replacement (Ivanova), or give this part of it to someone else. Now, knowing how the folks here on the nets and elsewhere think, and knowing that they knew about the Laurel-possible-traitor thread, I figured that everyone would assume that Ivanova would get that part. (And, sure enough, a lot of people did.) This became a wonderrfully convenient blind behind which to build the *real* plant.
And thus far, *nobody's* seen it coming. He was right there in clear view, we used him many times (also in "By Any Means Necessary," for instance), and nobody ever paid him the slightest attention.
It is, in a way, the classic magician's trick of misdirection: you try to get everyone to look at your hand so they won't look at the huge elephant being wheeled up onto the stage in plain sight.
jms

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#: 845725 S13/Babylon 5 [SCIFI] 05-Oct-94 20:41:25
Sb: #845515-<Chrysalis Spoilers> Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: Nelson Cunnington 100340,214
"If the Shadows are active on Earth, we need to ask why Psi-Corps haven't picked them up."
Yep.
jms

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#: 735755 S13/Babylon 5 [SCIFI] 11-Jun-94 01:56:22
Sb: #735550-#B5 Futureview Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: Rob Reti 100046,2457
Allow me to take issue with you for a moment.
The bulk of your message about humanity not surviving itself could have been written at any point in our history...in the throes of World War I, or at any time when things have not gone well for us (and, in fact, there have been few times when things *have* gone well for us). We are always quick to predict our own destruction.
But yet consider it...there are at this moment thousands of nuclear warheads all over the planet. Since the close of world war two, *none* of them have been used against another population. Not once. We as a people, as a species, are every bit as eccentric, as argumentative as we've ever been. But we've learned to temper it...that there *is* a limit.
If I can go to ST for a moment, since that is a common currency, there was the episode in which Kirk says that our nature is to kill...but we can CHOOSE not to kill *today*. This is a different scenario from that in which the impulse to kill has been utterly erased from humanity, in which no moral choice is really involved, no struggle to *better* ourselves is ongoing. You can neuter a cat and tone down its aggressiveness. Humans, *being* humans, are at their best when it is their CHOICE to do good.
People who think that B5 is downbeat or pessimistic need to look back, as well as forward. We have come to this place through two million years of evolution, struggle, and blood...it is our passions, unbridled as they may sometimes be, that have also propelled us forward. We need not sacrifice our basic humanity in order to go to the stars, any more than people needed to stop being people and become some Perfect Form before coming to America.
What the Babylon 5 universe represents is the duality of our species. Yes, we do stupid things. But yes, we also built a station whose purpose it is to foster communication, and hopefully create a lasting peace. We carry within ourselves the seeds of greatness, but greatness never comes without price. The fire may burn us, but it also strengthens us. Humans are tenacious, we don't give up, whatever the odds might be.
Fifty years ago, humans from all over the globe, from far-flung places with unfamiliar names came together in an impossible cause, and despite their arguments and their flaws and their frailties, shrugged off their fears, set their shoulders, and walked into death to create a better world for their children. Their enemy stood astride a continent on legs of fire and steel, a terrible force, the mightiest conceivable...but common men and women, joined in common cause, with all their inconsistencies and their fears intact, triumphed against all logic.
But that's what it *is* to be human. This isn't something we need to be ashamed of, to retreat from, to deny or suppress. We don't have to become something other to walk among the stars. From the invention of fire to the slow spread of mustard gas across a field in France to the summoning of a deadlier fire over Nagasaki and Hiroshima, there have always been those who felt that these were the end times, that we were dooming ourselves.
But we go on. And we learn. Though our basic nature doesn't change much with the passage of time, we *do* learn. That is our future view, our past, and our present...we stumble and struggle, but the process makes us stronger. And maybe, gradually, we kill a few less of our own kind. Babylon 5 is not pessimistic, or downbeat; it says that we have hope, that we will continue to struggle and learn, and that we go on. That B5 exists in the year 2258 means that despite our problems, we HAVEN'T blown ourselves up. It may not always be the best of futures, but it *is* a future; we DO go on.
Our humanity is our greatest flaw, and our ultimate hope, and THAT is what Babylon 5 celebrates...the process of overcoming, which will never be finished, because the future is always under construction. That is not a thing to hide, but a thing to glory in, and take comfort from.
Any race that can pierce the atom, compose sonnets, walk on the moon and shake the world until civilization appears where once there was only dust...has nothing to apologize for.
jms

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#: 706123 S13/Babylon 5 [SCIFI] 16-May-94 13:33:12
Sb: #JMS' Master Plan For B5 Fm: Brett Sherris 75136,161
To: All
The following message was posted by JMS on one of the Babylon5 newsgroups on Internet this past Sunday.
I found it quite interesting, so I am reproducing it here verbatim:
----------From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Subject: Re: Trekkers and Babylon 5 Date: 15 May 1994 18:25:23 -0400 Organization: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
Let me dive in here for a moment, with some thoughts about the show, people's expectations, and the like.
In my case, I've always tried to be very honest about which episodes I think are spiffy, and which are less than effective, whether I wrote them or not. ("Infection," for instance, is one of my least favorites.) What I have talked about being special is the *series* per se. The cumulative and total effect of it. Where this series will go, is somewhere no other series has gone.
But you can't just dive in from zero. You have to establish your world, and your characters. Otherwise you'll lose your audience because it's coming too fast, and they're not sufficiently grounded to appreciate what's going on. So the first batch of episodes were, for the most part, very straightforward. They gave little hints and tastes of what was going on elsewhere, but they were fairly standard in some ways. And, of course, we got hammered. "Where's this special series that we were all told about?" Well, to that, I say, "You haven't SEEN the series yet, only the opening."
My point of comparison, I suppose, would be "The Lord of the Rings," which spends the first several chapters, a LOT of time...on Bilbo's birthday party, dividing up his belongings, bringing in Frodo, the relationships between all the various Baggins's and other relatives, with Frodo waiting around, and finally hitting the Road. You get a *sense* of things happening around the corners, at the edges of the story, but for the most part, it's fairly standard. Now, you could stop at this point and say, "Well, so what's so special about this? It's just about some dumb birthday party." But it's the *book* (or books) that are truly extraordinary; it's where the road takes you.
Like Tolkien, and Jonathan Carroll, whose wonderful books start out looking very nice and comfortable...and gradually take you to someplace strange and dark and unique...I've tried to apply a similar structure to Babylon 5. It seems to be chugging along at a good clip along relatively familiar terrain. Now my job is to walk up alongside the story with a crowbar and give it a good, hard WHAM! to move it into a different trajectory. "Parliament" was just sort of a preliminary nudge. "And the Sky Full of Stars" was a good, solid WHAM! This week's episode, "Signs and Portents," is another WHAM, even bigger than the one that precedes it.
There are two more major WHAM episodes: "Babylon Squared," dealing with the fate of Babylon 4, and "Chrysalis," our season ender, which is really more of an atomic bomb rather than a crowbar. So roughly about one-fourth of this season's episodes are WHAM episodes. That figure will increase in year two to about one-third. Year three (Neilsen willing) will be half-WHAM and half-not. Year four would be three-quarters WHAM. And year five is all WHAM.
I guess where I'm getting in all this, is that I don't think that I have hyped the episodes. (No, you didn't say this, I'm responding to what you're responding to.) The only time I've slipped and waxed rhapsodic about the show...is when talking about the *show*, which is in my head, all of it...I know who the Shadowmen are, and what they want, and why the Minbari surrendered, and what the Psi Corps is up to, and who is on that shuttle you see in the last moments of "Signs and Portents," and what led up to that moment. For me, the goal has always been the book in its totality.
Along the way, we have an obligation to make each individual episode stand alone, and be as entertaining as humanly possible. We invest astonishing amounts of time working to make the show as good as it can be. I try to keep down the "unrealistic expectations" you note as much as possible. It's hard when you have such an incredibly talented team as we have assembled *not* to sometimes glow a little, but we do try and keep it down to a roar.
From my point of view, I think we've got a dynamite first season under our belts. As I noted elsewhere, if in my entire career I never did anything more than "Chrysalis," I'd be happy. Out of 22 episodes, I think we have maybe four that, if all the negatives vanished tomorrow, I wouldn't feel bad about. The rest I'll put up against any other SF series ever produced. That we could make something as nifty as "Mind War" in our first season should be achievement enough; to also have made "Sky," and "Signs," and "Babylon Squared," and "Chrysalis," and "Parliament" in the same first season is almost more than could've been hoped for.
And finally, some folks are never gonna like it. Lots of folks like country music. I can't abide it. (Exceptions for bluegrass and anything from Leon Redbone and the Red Clay Ramblers.) Tastes vary. And we have encountered some who are defensive against the show, and dismiss it without a fair chance. But there are always those on *every* show. So this bothers me not at all. What matters most to me is that we are true to the vision of what this show is, and true to our audience, that we don't dumb it down or fail to deliver 100%. And in that, I feel very comfortable.
jms

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#: 712428 S13/Babylon 5 [SCIFI] 22-May-94 01:11:56
Sb: #712094-Michael O'Hare Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: Michael C. Benton 74164,3131 (X)
No, the departure of Sinclair from the story for a time doesn't disrupt it at all. This was in part what kind of led me to broach the subject with Michael. Sinclair formed the focus for the first season, as a catalyst and pivot, in getting the station fully operational, and getting all of the various players onto the stage. Then, in looking at the outline for year two, it seemed to me that his character fell a bit by the wayside, because by then we'll have fully revealed the Battle of the Line mystery, and we'll start to turn our attention to a much larger and more vital mystery, with massive repercussions for *all* of our characters.
So at that point, with Sinclair fading a bit, it seemed logical to say, "Well, why not just pull him out for an indeterminate period and REALLY set the cat among the pigens in terms of the other characters?" That one action would open up *vast* possibilities for the story. So what it does, really, is to keep the story *precisely* on track, while heightening some aspects of it that would've been a little less tense otherwise.
Overall, the show's direction is exactly what it has always been. This just sets us on a quicker and more interesting road to get there.
jms

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#: 841900 S13/Babylon 5 [SCIFI] 02-Oct-94 01:33:08
Sb: #841481-Sinclair Return? Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: jimmy Burk 72662,1076
"Will Michael O'Hare ever return to the command of B5?"
For a moment, let me play devil's advocate here.
Aside from the fact that that's how you first saw him...why should he?
People don't change or remain static. This is one of the concerns that I've heard about ST over the years: why did Riker stay 1st officer for SEVEN YEARS, which in any real military would mean that your career is over?
What's more interesting: the character, or the bars on the epaulets?
What if (and I'm not endorsing any of these, only throwing out notions) Sinclair became an ambassador? Or head of a planetary government? Or ran a multi-world coalition against the Shadowmen? Or took command of an army?
I've never liked a static universe. Change is at the root of evolution. The problem with some of this is that it comes at our show from a ST perspective, where things shouldn't change. But they do. In year two, as has been noted elsewhere, Ivanova is promoted to Commander rank under Captain Sheridan, and given added responsibilities outside the Observation Dome. The roles of virtually all of our ambassadors change considerably over the course of season two. What interests me is what happens to a character, and how it affects that character.
jms

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#: 787211 S13/Babylon 5 [SCIFI] 10-Aug-94 02:14:24
Sb: #787194-#B5 syndicated ratings Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: Larry Rosenblum 72122,1555
I just showed "Chrysalis" to a couple of people today, who didn't know what was in it. And there's one thing that they had seen over and over in prior episodes of the series which they never thought twice about, which they just sorta accepted...only to suddenly have this understanding totally turned on its head.
The look on their faces was *priceless*.
This is probably the longest and most extensive setup/payoff in SF television history. And afterward, once you discover what that is, if you go back suddenly there's a LOT of different meaning in prior episodes.
jms

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#: 772094 S13/Babylon 5 [SCIFI] 24-Jul-94 21:57:41
Sb: #772074-#<A VOICE IN THE...- WOW> Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: Guntis Glinavs 72411,1421 (X)
Quick thoughts....
Re: the planet being so near B5...not so much convenient as hopefully engendering the question of why here, why now, and who if anyone knew about this when B5 was being built?
Re: using beam weapons one minute, missiles the next...the right tool for the right job. Species should be free to use a range of weapons, not just be confined to one type. Missiles for close-range, more exotic stuff for long-range.
Re: Sinclair and Ivanova leaving...first contact protocol requires the presence of at least one command-rank officer, preferably two. This kind of job cannot be trusted to anyone below Sinclair's and Ivanova's rank, given that the last big First Contact was screwed up and led to the Earth/Minbari War. Better to lose one person, even if on an important post, than start another war.
Re: easy to remove Varn from the machine...only because at that point he wanted to be removed. To remove him against his will wouldn't work.
Just some other possibilities to consider....
jms
There are 2 Replies.

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#: 74337 S5/Babylon 5 [SFMEDI] 10-Jan-95 06:51:47 Sb: B5 - The Lost Episodes Fm: Gerard Keating (Ireland) 100012,3073 To: All
BABYLON 5: THE LOST EPISODES!
6 Jan 1995 07:53:40 GMT University of Illinois at Urbana
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5[2]
AND TONIGHT'S TOP TEN CATEGORY IS:
Top Ten Newly-Discovered "Lost" Episodes of *Babylon 5*
10. "Symphony in a Minor Key"
Intrigue abounds when the Narns send their Homeworld Symphony Orchestra on a good-will visit to Babylon 5. Will Ambassador Mollari demand a forensic analysis of the Narns' flutes? Why have the Narns put Haydn's *Surprise Symphony* on the program? And what are "the twenty-three ways a Thenta Makur assassin can kill with a bassoon"?
9. "Odd Woman Out"
A-Story: A rogue Technomage unleashes a computer demon that breaches the security of MedLab's patient files. Scandal ensues when it is learned that Talia Winters is the only person aboard Babylon 5 who is not bisexual. B-Story: Captain Sheridan frets over the menu for the dinner party he intends to host when Ambassador Sinclair visits the station on a vacation from his duties on Minbar. After weighty deliberation, Sheridan settles on a main course of roast duck with orange sauce.
8. "C.I.C.A.D.A."
When the Home Guard sabotages Babylon 5's Zima processing pl