A return of Babylon 5?
-
Yukaphile
- Overlord
- Posts: 8778
- Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2017 8:14 am
- Location: Rabid Posting World
- Contact:
A return of Babylon 5?
Let's assume that B5 was to return today, and JMS had less control over it than in the 1990s. What do you think would happen, what messages would they try to shove down our throats? See, for me, I've seen B5 as being optimistic in the same way Trek was. Hell, during a brutal, bloody civil war, Sheridan even begs the enemy to surrender so they can take prisoners and give them free passage back home. Would you see that in today's cynical environment? I doubt it very much. But what do you think?
"A culture's teachings - and more importantly, the nature of its people - achieve definition in conflict. They find themselves, or find themselves lacking."
— Kreia, Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
— Kreia, Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
Re: A return of Babylon 5?
I'm not sure you need to assume that JMS would need to have less control in order for the show to be 'messagey.' B5 pushed a fair number of lines which were - for its mid-90s airdate - fairly controversial.
A sample from the early seasons:
Season 1 Narn-Centauri conflict quite intentionally evokes the Israel-Palestine issues as they stood in the mid-90s, fresh in everyone's mind because there was a lot of focus on the peace process then.
Parliament of Dreams is all about religious tolerance.
The entire Homeguard subplot (e.g. The War Prayer) is about racism; TKO is essentially a Jackie Robinson story IN SPACE (complete with using an African American actor to make sure you get it).
The Psi-Corps provides ample opportunities for police-state and information control worries.
Gropos should be viewed in the context of limited American intervention in Somalia which produced the Black Hawk Down incident in 1993 (Gropos first aired in 1995).
Confessions and Lamentations is an AIDS allegory, back when (again, 1995) that was still potentially controversial.
So I think you could expect, even if JMS was in the driver's seat, you would get some messaging about his views. He's never shied away from it.
I have to admit, I do not see B5 as being optimistic in the way that Trek was. If I may offer a comparison, in TNG "Allegiance" when the Enterprise crew are being abducted to be tested, Picard responds by subjecting the captors to brief confinement to teach them the errors of their ways and then letting them go with a warning.
In "All Alone in the Night", when Sheridan gets abducted, they send a warship to get him back which opens fire immediately on entering realspace, before even broadcasting a warning - Ivanova is so enraged when the Streib kill the prisoners that she is prepared to destroy what she believes to be Streib escape pods. And the implication by Delenn is that the Mimbari response to the same actions some time previous was even more violent.
Sure, it's not Game of Thrones bitter-nihilism, but B5 can get pretty dark in what it finds in the human soul, compared to the positively pollyannish feel of TNG in particular (but also a lot of Voyager and some early season DS9). I'd actually consider Bester a far darker character than anything in Star Trek, save perhaps Dukat, precisely because Bester can be charming and witty and yet he is a complete monster.
A sample from the early seasons:
Season 1 Narn-Centauri conflict quite intentionally evokes the Israel-Palestine issues as they stood in the mid-90s, fresh in everyone's mind because there was a lot of focus on the peace process then.
Parliament of Dreams is all about religious tolerance.
The entire Homeguard subplot (e.g. The War Prayer) is about racism; TKO is essentially a Jackie Robinson story IN SPACE (complete with using an African American actor to make sure you get it).
The Psi-Corps provides ample opportunities for police-state and information control worries.
Gropos should be viewed in the context of limited American intervention in Somalia which produced the Black Hawk Down incident in 1993 (Gropos first aired in 1995).
Confessions and Lamentations is an AIDS allegory, back when (again, 1995) that was still potentially controversial.
So I think you could expect, even if JMS was in the driver's seat, you would get some messaging about his views. He's never shied away from it.
I have to admit, I do not see B5 as being optimistic in the way that Trek was. If I may offer a comparison, in TNG "Allegiance" when the Enterprise crew are being abducted to be tested, Picard responds by subjecting the captors to brief confinement to teach them the errors of their ways and then letting them go with a warning.
In "All Alone in the Night", when Sheridan gets abducted, they send a warship to get him back which opens fire immediately on entering realspace, before even broadcasting a warning - Ivanova is so enraged when the Streib kill the prisoners that she is prepared to destroy what she believes to be Streib escape pods. And the implication by Delenn is that the Mimbari response to the same actions some time previous was even more violent.
Sure, it's not Game of Thrones bitter-nihilism, but B5 can get pretty dark in what it finds in the human soul, compared to the positively pollyannish feel of TNG in particular (but also a lot of Voyager and some early season DS9). I'd actually consider Bester a far darker character than anything in Star Trek, save perhaps Dukat, precisely because Bester can be charming and witty and yet he is a complete monster.
-
Yukaphile
- Overlord
- Posts: 8778
- Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2017 8:14 am
- Location: Rabid Posting World
- Contact:
Re: A return of Babylon 5?
So imagine how dark it'd be today? In a cynical environment? Yeah...
"A culture's teachings - and more importantly, the nature of its people - achieve definition in conflict. They find themselves, or find themselves lacking."
— Kreia, Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
— Kreia, Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
