Discussion Post - 1x01 "Midnight on the Firing Line"

[bluefall]

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.

Comments

[rahxepheon]

I haven’t seen the series before, so I was curious as to why the human race is (or seems to be) in charge of Babylon 5, and if the crew becomes more diverse as the series continues? Also, is there a reason for Londo having a significantly different accent from the rest of the Centauri we have seen, particularly when compared to his nephew?

[bluefall]

Babylon 5 doesn't suffer as badly from "race of warriors, race of scientists, race of diplomats," etc etc, as most sci-fi franchises - the Narn aren't the Klingons by a long shot - but each species does still kind of have a shtick, and apparently, "multiculturalism" is humanity's. Delenn actually has a line about that, later in the show, that only humans would build and staff a space station and then invite other races to come hang out there. So basically the humans run B5 because nobody else would have thought to have created such a place.

is there a reason for Londo having a significantly different accent from the rest of the Centauri

Actually yes. Jurasik came up with the accent himself, because he thought it would make him more convincingly alien, and then once they actually start casting other Centauri, they didn't make anybody else use it.

[aulayan]

so I was curious as to why the human race is (or seems to be) in charge of Babylon 5

IIRC, there might be more reasons given in "Sky full of Stars" and "Babylon Squared", so I won't spoil the reasons here (even though it's background information).

Needless to say...It actually makes sense why it happened that way. It's more than just the multicultural humanity thing, but it also plays off humanity's previous experience with aliens. (Humans have a naivete problem, oh yes.)

[rahxepheon]

Cool, thank you both for the explanations.