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last_best_hope2010-06-18 09:35 pm
bluefall) wrote in last_best_hope2010-06-18 09:35 pm
Entry tags:
Discussion Post - 1x01 "Midnight on the Firing Line"
It's Friday night, it must be time for a discussion post! This week's offering:
1x01: Midnight on the Firing Line
When the Narn attack a Centauri colony, Londo and G'Kar nearly come to blows. Meanwhile, raiders are attacking transport ships near the station.
Vital Stats
Production number: 103
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Richard Compton
Original air date: January 26, 1994
Arc Notes / Story Points of Interest
- This season's intro narration, along with the emphasis of this story on the Narn/Centauri conflict and the role of the B5 staff in the Council, sets the stage for the primary five-season theme of war and peace among the stars. More subtle is the apparently "flavor" information about the presidential elections back on Earth. Sinclair's waning attention at Santiago's winning platform is an especially sneaky touch.
- The fate of Sophie Ivanova, though rather harder to miss, is likewise subtle in that it seems to be merely a combination of character detail and "this is how telepathy works here" Psi Corps exposition.
- The most deft moment has got to be Sinclair's conversation with Kosh. It's astonishing how much more sense the Vorlons make once the series is over.
Trivia
- The episode title comes from a song by Harry Chapin, specifically the lyrics
and if our future lies on the firing line
are we brave enough to see the signals and the signs
JMS also picked the name for somewhat meta reasons, referring to his belief that the show would come under fire and his decision to be cool with that.
- Part of the purpose of putting Sinclair in a Starfury was to prove that Babylon 5 "isn't Star Trek," since of course you'd never see Picard flying around shooting shit in a fighter craft. You may speculate amongst yourselves as to how JMS factored Kirk into this equation.
- It had been a while since the pilot movie was filmed, and most of the returning actors took a while to get back into character and remember their various motivations and secrets and tics and whatnot. Apparently Peter Jurasik just stood up straight and yelled "MISter GariBALdi!" and boom, just like that he was Londo.
Our story begins here, guys. So exciting! What were your first impressions? Your favorite characters out of the gate? Your questions and speculations? How'd you feel about the sets and costuming and special effects?
A reminder: not everyone playing along has seen the series before, so please be considerate about major spoilers. Vagueness, warnings and/or spoiler tags are appreciated.
1x01: Midnight on the Firing Line
When the Narn attack a Centauri colony, Londo and G'Kar nearly come to blows. Meanwhile, raiders are attacking transport ships near the station.
Vital Stats
Production number: 103
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Richard Compton
Original air date: January 26, 1994
Arc Notes / Story Points of Interest
- This season's intro narration, along with the emphasis of this story on the Narn/Centauri conflict and the role of the B5 staff in the Council, sets the stage for the primary five-season theme of war and peace among the stars. More subtle is the apparently "flavor" information about the presidential elections back on Earth. Sinclair's waning attention at Santiago's winning platform is an especially sneaky touch.
- The fate of Sophie Ivanova, though rather harder to miss, is likewise subtle in that it seems to be merely a combination of character detail and "this is how telepathy works here" Psi Corps exposition.
- The most deft moment has got to be Sinclair's conversation with Kosh. It's astonishing how much more sense the Vorlons make once the series is over.
Trivia
- The episode title comes from a song by Harry Chapin, specifically the lyrics
and if our future lies on the firing line
are we brave enough to see the signals and the signs
JMS also picked the name for somewhat meta reasons, referring to his belief that the show would come under fire and his decision to be cool with that.
- Part of the purpose of putting Sinclair in a Starfury was to prove that Babylon 5 "isn't Star Trek," since of course you'd never see Picard flying around shooting shit in a fighter craft. You may speculate amongst yourselves as to how JMS factored Kirk into this equation.
- It had been a while since the pilot movie was filmed, and most of the returning actors took a while to get back into character and remember their various motivations and secrets and tics and whatnot. Apparently Peter Jurasik just stood up straight and yelled "MISter GariBALdi!" and boom, just like that he was Londo.
Our story begins here, guys. So exciting! What were your first impressions? Your favorite characters out of the gate? Your questions and speculations? How'd you feel about the sets and costuming and special effects?
A reminder: not everyone playing along has seen the series before, so please be considerate about major spoilers. Vagueness, warnings and/or spoiler tags are appreciated.
no subject
An interesting thing I learned from Stargate fandom: notice that, in the credits, all humans have both full names and titles, while all aliens are first name only. It's especially noteworthy because they actually use Londo's surname in this very episode, yet we're still meant to think of him as just "Londo," not "Ambassador Mollari".
In a genre where species conflict is consistently and repeatedly used as a metaphor for race conflict, there's a subtle insult in regularly assigning names to aliens that code as more 'primitive' and treating them less formally than the humans around them. It's less blatant here than it was in Stargate because everyone is white, aliens included, rather than the "white humans, nonwhite aliens" thing the Gateverse was so fond of, but it still makes me raise an eyebrow whenever I see it.
They were wrong.
I don't mind it. The station kinda looks like it escaped from a Reboot episode, but not to a distracting degree, and I think the Starfuries look pretty cool.