Babylon 5 Discussion: Special Poll Edition!

With or without *cough* assets *cough* ? 
 

Reminds me of Vir asking Ivanova for relationship advice, and her reaction: "Six?!"

I'm not surprised I missed that reference; while I enjoyed Interstellar more than most of Nolan's work (and liked it, to be sure), I had to turn my brain off to do so.

To be fair, baseball seems to appear a fair bit in science fiction, but it's hard to ignore the similarity between the stations as well. I call that a nice nod. Good catch.

Concepts for O'Neill cylinders have been around since the 70s and the idea of a rotating wheel space station is at least twice as old. There have been countless artistic depictions of how they might look like in reality, and what we see in B5 or ME or Interstellar represents a very typical view of such concepts. I'm not seeing any reason to assume that Cooper Station is a reference to Babylon 5, when they both look just like your standard O'Neill cylinders.

You're right, it is just speculation without a smoking gun tying them together, but the thought that it might be a reference nearly has me at the point of wanting to watch Interstellar again.

Near the end of the war it is pretty clear that neither side is "good." At the climax ("Into the Fire," I think), when Sheridan is addressing both the Shadows and the Vorlons, he accuses them of being too narrowly focused on their own, very specific, questions (what do you want/who are you) and being more interested in proving the other side wrong than shepherding the younger races as they originally intended. When both sides are willing to wipe out billions of sentient lives to remove a few offenders, neither side has the moral high ground.

What clues Sheridan into that is the realization that both sides (certainly the Vorlons) had the means to strike directly at each other but preferred to fight proxy battles instead. But the Vorlons may very well be the worst offenders simply because they were the ones that became dominant (for whatever reason... we know the story of the war 1000 years prior to the show, so it's been at least that long). We hear some of Lyta's Vorlon programming in Third Space, talking about the arrogance/pride of the Vorlons, how they thought they had ascended to become deities; the galaxy was the Vorlon's playground, and they could do whatever they wanted with it. And the Shadows had to still be around if the Vorlons were going to rub the Shadows' noses in it. Or, perhaps, it was as much about respecting their nominal peers (the other First Ones) as it was about proving they were right, and using the "lesser species" to make their point.

Either way, by the end of the Shadow/Vorlon arc, I didn't have much respect left for the Vorlons (except Kosh), and was better able to appreciate the Shadows. That's one of the things I love about the series: you start out with one side clearly portrayed as the bad guys (Narns/Shadows), by mid series you (I) have had your expectations/sympathies reversed (or at least chiseled away at), and by the end you (I) realize that they're all the same -- just their circumstances are different.

Doesn't G'Kar say something to that effect in the first season? "No one here is exactly what he appears." No truer words.....

I remember JMS teasing us on the boards that when the true motives of the Shadows were finally revealed, there would be many who would agree with them.  No matter how gifted a story-teller I believed him to be, I could not imagine a scenario at the time that would lend truth to those words.   As I get older, I find myself on their side of things more often than not

We definitely need a dislike button not for your post but for that guy Bester  .

Sorry but i can  .

I just finished watching the 1st episode of season 1.....Im going to give it 1 season to see if it can hook me. From what I saw, this series screams mass effect. Looks like that station is the citadel. Im kinda not cool with the psychic thing..but if they can explain it by using science, I will give it a shot.

Did you start with the pilot, or the first episode, "Soul Hunter"?


While you'll hopefully see enough in season One to hook you, may I suggest that you extend that commitment to include the first 5 episodes of season 2?   Also, as you are watching for the first time, please do come here and share thoughts, opinons, questions, etc, because it is truly fun to relive the experience with someone watching for the first time.  For me, the first one you'll hit in the run that is some really good TV is episode 5.

There was a woman on YouTube who watched it a few years back and uploaded videos of her reactions.  It was awesome.

Hope you find some things that speak to you

The 1st episode I watched..was yesterday..it is called " Midnight on the Firing Line"   .. I am loading up Soul Hunter right now,as a matter of fact. Yes, this is my very 1st time watching this show. I am liking how the station is a huge blend of different species. I am learning the names of the characters...the one I find interesting at the moment is the woman who appears to be a commander of sorts...Ivanova?  She looks like she will be a type of commander riker character..which I really like.