B5: A Late Delivery From Avalon

[Kinky Vorlon]

My neighborhood was one of the first to get cable in the late 70's. Pretty much the first movie I ever saw on HBO was The Four Musketeers, starring Michael York. For those who don't know. They made the closest thing to a faithful adaptation of The Three Musketeers and split it into two movies since it was so long. It's directed by Richard Lester, so there's a bit more comedy than one would expect, but it's a good pair of movies, with some legendary actors in it.

Anyway, I was around 9 and combining it with Logan's Run a gave me special place in my heart for Michael York. Him playing King Arthur, even as a delusion, just seems right. As you say, it's not essential to the big plot, but it's a great character piece and gives a good reminder of what war can do to people, both good and bad. It ends on a message of hope, which actually is essential to the characters.

Is this the version that also had Christopher Lee, Charleton Heston and Oliver Reed?

[hammerofglass]

I love that version. Not only for the humor, but for some of the best sword fights I've seen in a movie.

[Scififan]

My neighborhood was one of the first to get cable in the late 70's. Pretty much the first movie I ever saw on HBO was The Four Musketeers, starring Michael York. For those who don't know. They made the closest thing to a faithful adaptation of The Three Musketeers and split it into two movies since it was so long. It's directed by Richard Lester, so there's a bit more comedy than one would expect, but it's a good pair of movies, with some legendary actors in it.

Anyway, I was around 9 and combining it with Logan's Run a gave me special place in my heart for Michael York. Him playing King Arthur, even as a delusion, just seems right. As you say, it's not essential to the big plot, but it's a great character piece and gives a good reminder of what war can do to people, both good and bad. It ends on a message of hope, which actually is essential to the characters.

I even like the way they cut from Franklin & Marcus wondering about The Lady of the Lake and the cut to Delenn. It's a great example brevity. Some might have had a scene of theme going to Delenn and asking for help, but that was unnecessary. Given her character as we knew it at this point, there's no way she'd say no. Given what we learn later, we know she's coming from a very similar place as Arthur/David and probably understands what he's going through better than anyone else alive. She probably feels directly responsible for his pain since he was a low level soldier unaware of the situation doing what his captain ordered. She was on the Grey Council.

She was just as responsible for the Earth-Minbari as anyone.

[CrypticMirror]

I love that version. Not only for the humor, but for some of the best sword fights I've seen in a movie.

There is a persistent rumour that the director, Richard Lester, had to forcefully remind both Oliver Reed and Christopher Lee that it was only a movie and they were not actually trying to kill each other, as they had both got a bit too much into character at one point. How true that is is up to the reader, although Christopher Lee was a trained fencer from all the way back to his schooldays, and Oliver Reed was noted for losing himself in parts with the help of a lot of booze. So, it is possible.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I gotta say, Dr Franklin was pretty bone-headed in this one, although maybe that was the point. If you could cure mental illness just by proving to somebody their delusions are false, therapists and psychologists would be out of a job.

Depending on the type of mental illness, in this case extreme PTSD, having the patient confront their delusions is the first step to actually helping them to cope and move past them. Franklin is right, sort of, but the show down plays the long period of follow up care that will be needed afterwards. Therapists and psychologists are part of that long term follow up.

It can be part of that, if done in a controlled manner and by a mental health professional, who Dr. Franklin is decidedly not. That's his biggest character flaw, IMO, he can fix people medically, so he thinks he can fix everything else about them. And that's sometimes. Sometimes, the best way to deal with it is to take your hair dryer to work.

Come to that, does B5 have ANY sort of mental healthcare or did they just forget about psychiatrics and therapy shortly after we reached interstellar space?

[CrypticMirror]

Come to that, does B5 have ANY sort of mental healthcare or did they just forget about psychiatrics and therapy shortly after we reached interstellar space?

Within the context of the BabFive universe I think, with a fair degree of horror, that mental health care for humans probably involves Psi Corp dicking with your brain in some way. It would be very much on brand for that sort of set up. And that is completely horrifying, for me anyway.

[PerrySimm]

To Garibaldi, the Postmaster is just a bureaucrat on a power trip. To the Postmaster, Garibaldi is just a bureaucrat on a power trip. Ultimately, I'm going to come down on the side of "just deliver the package already" simply because there's food in it that might spoil.

An interesting tidbit about this episode, easy to miss, is that the Postmaster is also doing backdeals to keep G'Kar in touch with Narn, which has got to be a dangerous job that doesn't pay very well. With the budget being what it is, he could just as easily turn up his nose at the risk, but he still does it. Neither rain nor sleet.

[Fianna]

I gotta say, Dr Franklin was pretty bone-headed in this one, although maybe that was the point. If you could cure mental illness just by proving to somebody their delusions are false, therapists and psychologists would be out of a job.

Depending on the type of mental illness, in this case extreme PTSD, having the patient confront their delusions is the first step to actually helping them to cope and move past them. Franklin is right, sort of, but the show down plays the long period of follow up care that will be needed afterwards. Therapists and psychologists are part of that long term follow up.

It can be part of that, if done in a controlled manner and by a mental health professional, who Dr. Franklin is decidedly not. That's his biggest character flaw, IMO, he can fix people medically, so he thinks he can fix everything else about them. And that's sometimes. Sometimes, the best way to deal with it is to take your hair dryer to work.

Come to that, does B5 have ANY sort of mental healthcare or did they just forget about psychiatrics and therapy shortly after we reached interstellar space?

I think that we're meant to assume mental healthcare falls under the general umbrella of healthcare that Franklin and other doctors take care of; television often takes roles that should be covered by distinct specialists and have them all done by a single character.

You could also see there being an ethical component to Franklin's decision here. If he knows who "Arthur" really is, does he, as a medical professional, have the right to withhold such vital information from a patient?

[hammerofglass]

The healthcare on B5 in general is atrocious if you think about it. A city of a quarter million people should have multiple full sized hospitals, but instead they have a tiny medical bay with a half dozen beds.

[ran76]

Just to clarify, the door can't latch. It's a 130 year old door, the latch broke and I can't find replacement parts for it (even the screws are milled differently than modern screws so they can't thread correctly). It's a major overhaul to fix, but if this continues I'm going to have to add it to the list.

It's such a long list....

for the screws, I can suggest a combination of wood putty and threaded insert screws.