39 (Review) Babylon 5 << Prev Next >>
by: ColonelZen	IP: 101.146	rated: 0-0	posted: 2008-09-02 22:21:26
Originally at: http://www.ip-wars.net/story/2005/2/15/233727/240       (Review) Babylon 5   Posted on Tue Feb 15th, 2005 at 23:37:27 EST     I recently finished viewing the disk set again, and a reference has been made here again, so I thought I'd scribble a couple quick paragraphs just in case anyone else feels like talking about it as well. A pleasant much needed diversion if nothing else     First and foremost, IMO this is the best science fiction series ever done. This is not the silly fantasy of Star Wars or the pollyanna political correctness of Star Trek. No this is about flawed humans and flawed aliens and in many ways a flawed universe all trying to find their way through some tough times. Government is not pure and good and really trying to do it's best for people, it's corrupt and petty top to bottom. Ok maybe not as much so as in reality but a lot more so than you see in other SF fare.     Of course I have my problems with it. Having had some training in the physical sciences... well I'm sorry but a space battle is never going to be a photogenic event. By the time you can see your enemy by naked eye, either you or he will be dead. And if you do see him it'll likely be for no more than a couple seconds as the relative velocities in space are just so far beyond what we evolved to cope with. Then there are all the ignored problems relating to time-space contiguity if there is FTL travel (maybe that's why it's always 3AM on B5 whenever anyone calls from off station). And JMS doesn't seem to really understand just how big the galaxy really is...     A lot of the criticism elsewhere is about the acting. I used to think so, but now beg to differ. Most of the cast were trained as stage actors, the overstated gestures and overemphasized intonation are practiced, expected and necessary where much of the audience is a hundred feet away. Does that mean they were wrong for a TV show? ... I think JMS did that on purpose. B5 is a willfully created mythology. He wanted characters larger than life. To be and do what the story called for they had to be something extraordinary to be believable in context. Add to that that most of the characters were practicing politicians on one level or another; drama and grandiloquence are part of their stock and trade. It didn't always work, dramatically and in scene, but most of the time it worked well enough not to be distracting, and it made many moments work which wouldn't have with characters who didn't portray a flamboyance to which the audience had become accustomed.     The story. (Spoiler warning if you haven't already seen the whole series.)     It's one story told in a hundred plus episodes with some TV movies and "canonical" books grafted on. That's part of what made it special. JMS knew in broad outline how the "arc" would develop from the beginning. As a single story it has a beginning, a middle and an end. The end played out a little tumultuously because of budget and schedule fights with the networks. In many ways the "arc" story ended with season four and season five was additional material that he wanted to work in but didn't have time to when he thought he would have to bring it to a close in season four. From the very beginning there are forward references which make little or no sense until later material is exposed (As Kosh meets Sinclair for the first time in "The Gathering" he says something like "Good to see you again, Entil Zha").     It begins with the pilot movie "The Gathering" where Sinclair takes over as B5 commander shortly after it goes operational, ten years after the Earth-Minbari war roughly a hundred years after Earth was discovered by the Centauri and sold "jumpgates" opening interstellar travel. Mysteries within mysteries. The EM war ended as the vastly superior Minbari "surrendered" after having blown Earth's last defenses out of the sky. Sinclair was one of the very few who survived "The Line" that last desperate and suicidal defense. The first season along with setting the stage begins to investigate this, hints at some mysteries about the "barren" planet around which B5 orbits, the fate of B4, and forebodes dark and sinister forces at work, and begins to show a little bit of the EM War/Sinclair mystery.     The second season opens with Sinclair mysteriously disappeared, and ambassador Delenn having undergone a transformation from pure Minbari to a hybrid halfway between Human and Minbari. This mystery is teased and coiffed as we learn why the EM War ended. Meanwhile John Sheridan, a gung ho, by the book officer takes over command. We learn more background, we learn of Telepaths and Bester, and we learn of the Shadows and that continuation of a million year old war is coming. Meanwhile lots more is going on ... including war between two of the major powers of the many aliens who's ambassadors populate B5. And we learn that the Vorlons have been among and interfering with other races so long that they are legendary, appearing as supernatural beings (yet of differing appearance)to almost all.     In the third season things get hot and heavy, between Sheridan and Delenn, for one. But also in the Shadow War, pieces move into place and the battles begin in earnest. Meanwhile Earth, under influence of the Shadows has begun cracking down on her colonies who naturally want more independence: Sheridan declares B5 independent following attacks by Earth on the Mars colony. Sheridan is effectively commander of all the "forces of light" leading the battle against the Shadows; his game plan gets Kosh killed. We find out what happened to B4 and to Sinclair and as part of that much of the how and why of Delenn's transformation. And at the end of the season, as Delenn spends her first night in Sheridan's quarters, his wife (presumed dead) shows up - oops! While the show has it's normal share of obviously funny moments, there are lots of situations where high tension and humor are mixed so, intentionally I think, the audience really doesn't know what it's supposed to feel. Anna Sheridan leads her husband to the home of the Shadows where after learning, from their viewpoint what it's all about and refusing them, he jumps off a ledge into an immeasurably deep chasm seconds before his ship carrying over a gigaton of stealth weaponry dives on the Shadow city and explodes. He dies ....     The fourth season is the climax. JMS was given a "this is the end" note at the beginning of the season so he had to cram the rest of the story in. ... or does he die? He is evidently caught and protected by the mysterious Lorien, not one of the First Ones, The First One. The Shadows keep coming back to Zha'ha'dum because they know he "lives" there. Lorien restores Sheridan's life "for a time" and evidently Sheridan has given Lorien impetus to act. Meanwhile Sheridan "has opened an unexpected door" and it's all out war between the Shadows and the Vorlons. Entire planets of any younger race sympathetic or just convenient to one side or the other are targeted and destroyed by the other. Sheridan uses his charisma of the only man to come back from Zha'ha'dum (after having killed millions of the enemy) and having come back from the dead to build a coalition of almost all the "younger races" and maneuvers them to force a showdown between the Shadows and Vorlons with themselves in between. He "understands" his way out; proving to the old ones that their stewardship of the younger races is over; they are now free to join the other First Ones beyond the galaxy. But there's still Earth for Sheridan to deal with. The coalition falls apart immediately as almost every race has its own problems to deal with, and Sheridan and Earth are no different. More than half the season is this civil war and it is if lesser in scope more personnaly dramatic and traumatic for the characters.     But the networks relented too late and gave JMS his fifth season. Naturally it's somewhat of a letdown. But there's still lots there making it worth while. We see how telepaths came to be - though told and rumored for all of human history there was never a demonstrable telepath until about a century before B5 and how the Telepath War (not shown but everyone knows it's coming) starts. There is a lot more personal interaction and drama in this season. And the last episodes are basically showing how the rest of their lives as influenced by their B5 history begins for the main characters. The final episode, "Sleeping in the Light", 18 years after the prior episode shows Sheridan's "going away" party and death as he feels the end coming.     Of course in a hundred hours of showtime there's a lot that doesn't fit in that synopsis which is still crucial. And there are some episodes which are free standing and not part or necessary to the overall story at all. Most episodes are structured as telling two stories with varying levels of connection between them. Some could be two separate half hour stories with no loss of continuity and others are so tightly connected that other than the character focus you can't separate them at all.     The characters are what make it work. Almost all the characters are "larger than life". But the intriguing thing is that all the characters change somewhat drastically through the story. In actual fact a good many of them are known to be dead before Sheridan's death. Kosh and Marcus as main lead characters die during the episodes as do some supporting cast members; between the end of the contiguous episodes and Sleeping in the Light we know from flash-forwards and supporting material that G'Kar, Londo, Lyta, and Lennier die in that time period.     Londo begins as a petty, pathetic bureaucrat and ends as Emperor of his people an even more pathetic figure. G'Kar begins as a belligerent warrior and ends a gentle mystic. Sheridan begins as a by-the-book stuffy officer and ends making it up as he goes along. Lyta is used as a tool by just about everybody, but end leading a revolution (Interesting comparison with the Sheridan character there).     The most interesting lead character is Michael Garibaldi. He begins as a tough, smart, but alcoholic and self doubting Security Chief barely hanging on and ends the confident and collected head of a mega corporation. Along the way he falls off the wagon a few times, both through his own weaknesses and as a result of extraordinary abuse, but each time he picks himself up and - painfully - puts himself back together. It's interesting that the two most human characters, Garibaldi and Zack Allen are both in turn security chief. This is a metaphor: the above the line characters can go and do the great things for the greater good but the real job of security for real humans belongs to real humans (I wonder if JMS consciously knew he was doing that; I've read most of his notes on http://midwinter.com but I don't recall any mention of that).     The philosophical overtones are interesting. The Minbari are supposedly a million year old culture, and deeply spiritual. They look awfully human and petty to me when you take away their fortune cookie wisdom. Some of the deeper wisdom of Delenn and the Minbari comes straight out of Loren Eisley and Carl Sagan. I've read a fair amount of philosophically inclined science exposition myself; it may impress a lay audience, but it's mostly saying obvious things, both scientific and common observations, in grandiose words.     The most referenced bits, of course, are the Vorlon and Shadow questions: "Who are you?" and "What do you want?". They sound important. They are important to those who don't know at any particular time and place. But they are tricks: at bottom they are trying to force one to define himself in words. But people (well we hope it's true for all sentients) are not words. Words are fixed in time and fluid in meaning. The individual is transient in time but discrete in actions and purposes at any moment.     There are also many interesting recurring themes throughout. That self sacrifice may be required, but is not enough. Successful action requires not just planning but pure intention. The individual is expendable but the job is not. It is Londo Mollinari who is a case study for almost all of these. Garibaldi may be more interesting from a human perspective but it is Londo Mollinari who is a greek tragedy all by himself who is a case study for all these themes. Indeed my point above regarding the Vorlon and Shadow questions is well exemplified by him: he answers the Shadow question, gets what he wants at that point in time and is changed by the experience to discover that who he is is not what he wants. Of course that's why we kicked the bastards out!     Well I wrote a lot more than I intended. But it was fun.     -- TWZ