Babylon 5 notes
Dec. 9th, 2008 01:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jack* From JMS. "When they needed those scientific and nanobiological answers in 24 hours, why didn't they ask one of the older races? Why not ask Kosh?" "Would you really want to ask Kosh for technical information? He'd day something like 'The heart does not sing with its parts', and that's probably not specific enough"
* Who is Kosh? How about, how Lawrence of Arabia is seen? He has a profound and mostly positive effect on us, yet his own reasons for being there are dragging us into a massive ideological conflict which we'd rather not be in and are massively outgunned in.
* Midwinter did mention this, but it still bugs me just a little. When they go searching amongst the command staff for a hidden psychic trigger, Garibaldi fakes them out, pretending to collapse, and then saying "boo". Which is great. But I still felt like it was going to be a ruse on behalf of the newly uncovered subconscious personality. (Of course, Lyta would have been able to tell, they could have mentioned that if they'd thought of it and had time.)
* Sheridan is kidnapped by a race of aliens looking to investigate different alien species and find ones vulnerable to exploitation. This seemed ridiculously impossible. However, if you image space in 2260 similar to sea in 1800, it tracks. The Hornblower books feel consistent, and you can certainly imagine Hornblower leading an important off-ship mission in some far quarter of the world, being kidnapped by a minor naval power, which was then intimidated into dust by the Royal Navy and allies.
* I found Earth's new Ministry of Peace "or minipax as we like to call it round the office" way too unsubtle. Until I saw 1984 ministry names being used in real life :(
* When Sinclair found out he was going to be Valen, did he ever get to eat any of those portions of flarn set aside at traditional minbari meals for him?
* Fairly often I see a science fiction story, and say "Why do they go to all this trouble? Why did they never try dropping an asteroid on" whatever-it-was. In this case, the Centauri do take this approach. Londo, watching the bombardment, is one of the few things that regularly moves me to tears. (Perhaps because for many English people it's easier to empathise with a middle class social climber present at a genocide, than a victim.)
* When Ivanovna taunts the Sigma 957 first ones into supporting the army of the light, she plays on their resentment of the Vorlons. At the time, this seemed like a standard hey-look-the-transcendant-beings-have-emotions-too joke. Now, we know very precisely what their gripe is. The Vorlons were left out of the transcendence, and fell to dicking about with the younger races for their own amusement, and now Ivanovna and earth, being taken for a fucking ride by the Vorlons, come here and throw it right in the first ones' faces. No wonder they were cross!
* Who is Kosh? How about, how Lawrence of Arabia is seen? He has a profound and mostly positive effect on us, yet his own reasons for being there are dragging us into a massive ideological conflict which we'd rather not be in and are massively outgunned in.
* Midwinter did mention this, but it still bugs me just a little. When they go searching amongst the command staff for a hidden psychic trigger, Garibaldi fakes them out, pretending to collapse, and then saying "boo". Which is great. But I still felt like it was going to be a ruse on behalf of the newly uncovered subconscious personality. (Of course, Lyta would have been able to tell, they could have mentioned that if they'd thought of it and had time.)
* Sheridan is kidnapped by a race of aliens looking to investigate different alien species and find ones vulnerable to exploitation. This seemed ridiculously impossible. However, if you image space in 2260 similar to sea in 1800, it tracks. The Hornblower books feel consistent, and you can certainly imagine Hornblower leading an important off-ship mission in some far quarter of the world, being kidnapped by a minor naval power, which was then intimidated into dust by the Royal Navy and allies.
* I found Earth's new Ministry of Peace "or minipax as we like to call it round the office" way too unsubtle. Until I saw 1984 ministry names being used in real life :(
* When Sinclair found out he was going to be Valen, did he ever get to eat any of those portions of flarn set aside at traditional minbari meals for him?
* Fairly often I see a science fiction story, and say "Why do they go to all this trouble? Why did they never try dropping an asteroid on" whatever-it-was. In this case, the Centauri do take this approach. Londo, watching the bombardment, is one of the few things that regularly moves me to tears. (Perhaps because for many English people it's easier to empathise with a middle class social climber present at a genocide, than a victim.)
* When Ivanovna taunts the Sigma 957 first ones into supporting the army of the light, she plays on their resentment of the Vorlons. At the time, this seemed like a standard hey-look-the-transcendant-beings-have-emotions-too joke. Now, we know very precisely what their gripe is. The Vorlons were left out of the transcendence, and fell to dicking about with the younger races for their own amusement, and now Ivanovna and earth, being taken for a fucking ride by the Vorlons, come here and throw it right in the first ones' faces. No wonder they were cross!