What exactly does a drowned rat look like, anyway?
1. It is RAINING LIKE A MOFO. I believe the official meteorological term for this weather is "crappy." Since it's more or less been raining and gray and cold since Monday, all I want to do is crawl into a hole and stay dry. We're in for some major storms today and this weekend, and I'm wondering how lame of me it would be to bail on several
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And thanks again for hosting me and Hookles for the B5 event! Those beets were indeed ultra-yummy.
As for the episodes themselves, I agree completely on the effective setup of the geopolitical (cosmopolitical?) situation, as well as the charming artificiality of the CG effects and the awe-inspiring woodenness of Sinclair. I think when the show first debuted, The Hook and I had just seen Mystery Science Theater 3000 presenting Teenagers From Outer Space, and Sinclair struck us as a dead ringer for one of the alien invaders. (I don't remember if it was the captain or the puppy-disintegrating Thor, but I hope it was the latter.) This time, Hookles was reminded of the evil mad scientist from Re-Animator, but that guy can seriously act.
The one thing that bugged us when we saw the pilot movie, and doesn't seem to have been covered in the episodes yet either, is the reason for the existence of Babylon 5 itself. If all these alien empires hate each other, and humans are just the newest kids on the block, then why would they all send ambassadors to a human-owned and -operated space station? And what kind of decision-making power could the station's resident "council" realistically have? Maybe it has something to do with this "league of non-aligned worlds" we keep hearing about, or maybe it's seen as a relatively neutral venue for informal diplomacy, but so far we're still trying to figure out if this space station is supposed to be the United Nations or a trading post or what. I guess this is where the use of blatant real-world allegories might serve as a useful crutch for the dense or inattentive viewer. :-)
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I hope that went well. I discovered the hard way that I have a hole in the sole of one of another pair of shoes, and walked around all day today on a cold and soggy sock. And then BART, as usual, was messed up tonight. Fortunately, it only took me two hours to warm up after I got home.
I am so glad you both came, and as I type this I am admiring my bedbug. Acquaintances come and go, but friends give each other Giant Microbes. Or something. :)
If all these alien empires hate each other, and humans are just the newest kids on the block, then why would they all send ambassadors to a human-owned and -operated space station?
I'm really interested to see if that question gets answered later in the series. I suspect it might not, simply because in some ways the show seems like a product of its times, and if it does follow those Cold War lines of thinking, then (a) of course the humans (Americans) are assumed to stand for peace, and everybody recognizes that without either articulating or questioning it, and (b) actually maintaining diplomatic contact is in and of itself a strategic initiative, whether or not it's meant to be productive. Point (b) seems like something we should be doing more of now. Although possibly with something that sounds less like an oxymoron than the "league of non-aligned worlds."
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First, glad you're enjoying the bedbug. Those Giant Microbes are cute as all get-out. :-)
As for the whys and wherefores of the Babylon 5 station itself, I'm relieved that Hooks and I aren't the only ones wondering. Perhaps this was addressed in the pilot movie, but I recall being just as puzzled when I saw the pilot as I am now, so perhaps not.
It occurs to me that, from the Earth perspective, creating this faraway outpost could be a way of keeping these "alien" cultures at arms' length. We don't know yet whether there's any significant alien presence on Earth (diplomatic or otherwise), or any human presence elsewhere in space for that matter, but I can imagine a scenario in which Babylon 5 is actually a workaround for terrestrial xenophobia. Based on the episodes thus far, however, I have absolutely no clue whether the writers have anything like that in mind. Just have to keep watching, I guess. :-)
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