100 Reviews: 84
Okay, so let’s keep going. Also, I am kind of liking this taking a breather between episodes to jot down some of my thoughts thing.
Babylon 5: 1x02: Soul Hunter
I think I’m going to go with a list because there’s even less connection between my thoughts than there usually is.
1. For the record, the novelization of ‘In the Beginning’ does include the scene with the Soul Hunter coming for Dukat. ‘Atonement’ (I think...it might have been ITB, the duplicate scenes are jumbled a bit after this long) does remember it but doesn’t show that scene specifically, so the novelization put it in.
2. Isn’t Delenn setting the souls free in the end just about as presumptive as the Soul Hunters taking them in the first place? She can’t talk to them and ask them what they want to do. The Soul Hunters allegedly can, they just apparently don’t care that much about that question.
3. How old of a race are the Soul Hunters supposed to be? They’re supposedly functionally immortal which a trait of the old races (they can clearly be killed, but so can the Vorlons, in fact I don’t think even the Vorlons are said to be immortal but the Soul Hunters supposedly are), but they’re not classified that way when we actually start getting into that part of the mythology. Maybe the immortality isn’t...natural the way it is for the First Ones, but something they managed to bring out in themselves?
4. But as an older/immortal race I can kind of see how the philosophy of soul hunting fits. The younger/mortal races live such short lives relative, the idea of preserving it somehow would seem like a good idea. And the older races we know have some screwy ideas about the free will of younger races so again, where do these guys fit?
5. For the record, I barely sat through ‘River of Souls’ once when it first aired, so if some of my questions were addressed there (though clearly they weren’t First Ones since they were still around) I’m sure to have forgotten.
6. It’s interesting that in the beginning, Delenn was second only to Kosh as the most mysterious character, and Kosh barely counts as he’s basically a walking question mark. It doesn’t last that long, but the veil of mystery I don’t think really starts going away until John enters the picture. It lifts some in s1, but I seem to recall it came off much faster once we hit s2; granted the big secrets she was keeping were about the chrysalis and about what happened to Sinclair, so it may not be entirely John.
7. I’m not sure that evolutionarily the Soul Hunters make a lot of sense, although I addressed that I can kind of buy them culturally (though it does raise the question of if the Soul Hunter is race where they all have these beliefs or if it’s a sect that embraces this philosophy). How do you sense death across the stars or even be able to pinpoint it within the station? Are they telepaths? If they are they must be pretty powerful ones. Is it part of the soul network that lead to them developing this philosophy? The show does have elements of interconnectedness across the stars, but the Souls Hunters aren’t quite fleshed out enough to makes it completely work.
8. Also, how was Soul Hunter 2 pointing randomly at the station map any use at all. I couldn’t even tell that he was more specific than green sector, which was where they already were. Plus the station rotates and is three dimensional so his pointing seems really ineffective. Use him as a bloodhound sure, but that didn’t work for me.
9. You know who would have been a useful character in the beginning? Keffer. Because having Sinclair have to go out and catch the ship seems really dumb. Yeah he’s very hands on (and Michael will sort of call him on this kind of thing in a couple episodes), but he was in C&C, had to get to the other end of the station, suit up, get in the starfury, fly out to the Soul Hunter’s ship and catch it with seconds to spare. Wouldn’t it have been a lot faster to have one of the actual stand-by pilots do it so that they didn’t have to do it in such little time? I can let it slide when the command staff insists on going out to fight raiders on Sheridan’s eventual insistence on keeping in the books as also being a pilot and sometimes needing to be seen with the troops. But this time sensitive rescue doesn’t make any sense.
10. I’m fanwanking that in the scenes between Delenn and the Soul Hunter they were actually speaking Minbari instead of English. Otherwise there’s some stuff said that others should probably have overheard. Then again the obliviousness of that security guard when Delenn was in Medlab was kind of funny to think of straight.
11. S1 Medlab was a really compact set. The Medlab system is never all that well defined, but this tiny closet of a hospital really seems poorly thought out.
I guess that will do for now.
Next time:
I’m still thinking of doing more because I’m in a mood for it. But not until tomorrow I don't think.
Down the road suggestions still accepted
Babylon 5: 1x02: Soul Hunter
I think I’m going to go with a list because there’s even less connection between my thoughts than there usually is.
1. For the record, the novelization of ‘In the Beginning’ does include the scene with the Soul Hunter coming for Dukat. ‘Atonement’ (I think...it might have been ITB, the duplicate scenes are jumbled a bit after this long) does remember it but doesn’t show that scene specifically, so the novelization put it in.
2. Isn’t Delenn setting the souls free in the end just about as presumptive as the Soul Hunters taking them in the first place? She can’t talk to them and ask them what they want to do. The Soul Hunters allegedly can, they just apparently don’t care that much about that question.
3. How old of a race are the Soul Hunters supposed to be? They’re supposedly functionally immortal which a trait of the old races (they can clearly be killed, but so can the Vorlons, in fact I don’t think even the Vorlons are said to be immortal but the Soul Hunters supposedly are), but they’re not classified that way when we actually start getting into that part of the mythology. Maybe the immortality isn’t...natural the way it is for the First Ones, but something they managed to bring out in themselves?
4. But as an older/immortal race I can kind of see how the philosophy of soul hunting fits. The younger/mortal races live such short lives relative, the idea of preserving it somehow would seem like a good idea. And the older races we know have some screwy ideas about the free will of younger races so again, where do these guys fit?
5. For the record, I barely sat through ‘River of Souls’ once when it first aired, so if some of my questions were addressed there (though clearly they weren’t First Ones since they were still around) I’m sure to have forgotten.
6. It’s interesting that in the beginning, Delenn was second only to Kosh as the most mysterious character, and Kosh barely counts as he’s basically a walking question mark. It doesn’t last that long, but the veil of mystery I don’t think really starts going away until John enters the picture. It lifts some in s1, but I seem to recall it came off much faster once we hit s2; granted the big secrets she was keeping were about the chrysalis and about what happened to Sinclair, so it may not be entirely John.
7. I’m not sure that evolutionarily the Soul Hunters make a lot of sense, although I addressed that I can kind of buy them culturally (though it does raise the question of if the Soul Hunter is race where they all have these beliefs or if it’s a sect that embraces this philosophy). How do you sense death across the stars or even be able to pinpoint it within the station? Are they telepaths? If they are they must be pretty powerful ones. Is it part of the soul network that lead to them developing this philosophy? The show does have elements of interconnectedness across the stars, but the Souls Hunters aren’t quite fleshed out enough to makes it completely work.
8. Also, how was Soul Hunter 2 pointing randomly at the station map any use at all. I couldn’t even tell that he was more specific than green sector, which was where they already were. Plus the station rotates and is three dimensional so his pointing seems really ineffective. Use him as a bloodhound sure, but that didn’t work for me.
9. You know who would have been a useful character in the beginning? Keffer. Because having Sinclair have to go out and catch the ship seems really dumb. Yeah he’s very hands on (and Michael will sort of call him on this kind of thing in a couple episodes), but he was in C&C, had to get to the other end of the station, suit up, get in the starfury, fly out to the Soul Hunter’s ship and catch it with seconds to spare. Wouldn’t it have been a lot faster to have one of the actual stand-by pilots do it so that they didn’t have to do it in such little time? I can let it slide when the command staff insists on going out to fight raiders on Sheridan’s eventual insistence on keeping in the books as also being a pilot and sometimes needing to be seen with the troops. But this time sensitive rescue doesn’t make any sense.
10. I’m fanwanking that in the scenes between Delenn and the Soul Hunter they were actually speaking Minbari instead of English. Otherwise there’s some stuff said that others should probably have overheard. Then again the obliviousness of that security guard when Delenn was in Medlab was kind of funny to think of straight.
11. S1 Medlab was a really compact set. The Medlab system is never all that well defined, but this tiny closet of a hospital really seems poorly thought out.
I guess that will do for now.
Next time:
I’m still thinking of doing more because I’m in a mood for it. But not until tomorrow I don't think.
Down the road suggestions still accepted