Speaking of B5, the wonderful podfic version of my story In Vino Veritas, aka the first Londo/G'Kar slash story to exist (yep, still proud of that), which ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
iamsab did back in the day, has been uploaded to the A03, and you can listen to it here. Sab's Londo and G'Kar voices are great, and as she herself is now so many years dead, it is incredibly poignant to me as well that this recording exists.
On to the subject of the day. A veritable challenge bywychwood, because of course Timov is my all time favourite "in one episode only" character, and I have written the fanfic to prove it. Other minor Centauri characters I love, like Virini, the poor Regent, are in several episodes; Adira is, too (courtesy of Neil Gaiman's season 5 episode Day of the Dead), and while I get a kick out of writing Mariel and Daggair, Londo's other wives, it would be cheating to nominate them for this particular spot. On the Narn side of the force, again, my faves other than G'Kar show up in more than one episode (I mean, the glasses-wearing Narn assassin in Parliament of Dreams is hilarious, but I hardly love him.)
Moving on to the human characters, again, candidates like Brother Theo are in more than one episode. Brother Edward, the character memorably played by Brad Dourif, definitely had a deep emotional impact on me, but that's not the same as character love. Then there's Michael York's character from A Late Delivery from Avalon, where I adored his scenes with G'Kar, but I'm not sure whether the solution the episode offers to the "is he or isn't he King Arthur?" question was the right way to go with this story, as opposed to leaving it a mystery. Another one time only human character with a great emotional impact on me was Zoe in Day of the Dead, but I'm not sure this was because of Zoe herself or the way Neil Gaiman managed to flesh out Lochley through her.
However, circling back to the Centauri, because let's face it, the Centauri are where it's at for me on B5 (well them, the Narn and Alfred Bester), an epiphany presents itself: a character who only shows up in one single episode, immediately comes across as three dimensional, is played very memorably and endearingly by his actor, and whose impact on the plot is considerable despite this one time only appearance: Emperor Turhan from the Hugo-awarded episode The Coming of Shadows. (The acting is as important as the script here, because Turhan has to deliver a lot of JMS style philosophical statements. When writing and actor match in this regard, you get G'Kar. When they don't, you get Byron.) Turhan's decision to make the unprecedented step of declaring repentance to the Narn, the one decision in his life where he breaks with tradition and expectations, and the profound tragedy that ensues (on every level, both political and personal) would be moving by virtue of plot, but Turhan Bey also endows him with great personal warmth and charm ("I should very much like to see a Vorlon"). At the same time, and this is easy to miss, as sympathetic as Turhan is, it's worth pointing out that he's been Emperor since the last years of the first Centauri Occupation of Narn, i.e. G'Kar's youth, and while, as Sheridan argues, he himself ordered the withdrawal and later offered several reconciliatory gestures before the one he intends to do in this episode, it is clear that despite being an absolute monarch, he did nothing to reform the Centauri Republic and society as a whole, which would have been as necessary as the acknowledgment of colonial guilt. This blind spot, and defaulting to "following tradition" until it is almost too late, is why Turhan isn't a saint, but a flawed person, and thus all the more real.
So yes, Emperor Turhan is my not-Timov one episode character choice, and I'll conclude the post with his most famous quote:
"So much has been lost: so much pain, so much blood--and for what? I wonder. The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us. And our lives slip away moment by moment in that vast terrible in-between. But there is still time to seize that one, last, fragile moment. To choose something better. To make a difference, as you say. And I intend to do just that."
The other days
iamsab did back in the day, has been uploaded to the A03, and you can listen to it here. Sab's Londo and G'Kar voices are great, and as she herself is now so many years dead, it is incredibly poignant to me as well that this recording exists. On to the subject of the day. A veritable challenge by
wychwood, because of course Timov is my all time favourite "in one episode only" character, and I have written the fanfic to prove it. Other minor Centauri characters I love, like Virini, the poor Regent, are in several episodes; Adira is, too (courtesy of Neil Gaiman's season 5 episode Day of the Dead), and while I get a kick out of writing Mariel and Daggair, Londo's other wives, it would be cheating to nominate them for this particular spot. On the Narn side of the force, again, my faves other than G'Kar show up in more than one episode (I mean, the glasses-wearing Narn assassin in Parliament of Dreams is hilarious, but I hardly love him.) Moving on to the human characters, again, candidates like Brother Theo are in more than one episode. Brother Edward, the character memorably played by Brad Dourif, definitely had a deep emotional impact on me, but that's not the same as character love. Then there's Michael York's character from A Late Delivery from Avalon, where I adored his scenes with G'Kar, but I'm not sure whether the solution the episode offers to the "is he or isn't he King Arthur?" question was the right way to go with this story, as opposed to leaving it a mystery. Another one time only human character with a great emotional impact on me was Zoe in Day of the Dead, but I'm not sure this was because of Zoe herself or the way Neil Gaiman managed to flesh out Lochley through her.
However, circling back to the Centauri, because let's face it, the Centauri are where it's at for me on B5 (well them, the Narn and Alfred Bester), an epiphany presents itself: a character who only shows up in one single episode, immediately comes across as three dimensional, is played very memorably and endearingly by his actor, and whose impact on the plot is considerable despite this one time only appearance: Emperor Turhan from the Hugo-awarded episode The Coming of Shadows. (The acting is as important as the script here, because Turhan has to deliver a lot of JMS style philosophical statements. When writing and actor match in this regard, you get G'Kar. When they don't, you get Byron.) Turhan's decision to make the unprecedented step of declaring repentance to the Narn, the one decision in his life where he breaks with tradition and expectations, and the profound tragedy that ensues (on every level, both political and personal) would be moving by virtue of plot, but Turhan Bey also endows him with great personal warmth and charm ("I should very much like to see a Vorlon"). At the same time, and this is easy to miss, as sympathetic as Turhan is, it's worth pointing out that he's been Emperor since the last years of the first Centauri Occupation of Narn, i.e. G'Kar's youth, and while, as Sheridan argues, he himself ordered the withdrawal and later offered several reconciliatory gestures before the one he intends to do in this episode, it is clear that despite being an absolute monarch, he did nothing to reform the Centauri Republic and society as a whole, which would have been as necessary as the acknowledgment of colonial guilt. This blind spot, and defaulting to "following tradition" until it is almost too late, is why Turhan isn't a saint, but a flawed person, and thus all the more real.
So yes, Emperor Turhan is my not-Timov one episode character choice, and I'll conclude the post with his most famous quote:
"So much has been lost: so much pain, so much blood--and for what? I wonder. The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us. And our lives slip away moment by moment in that vast terrible in-between. But there is still time to seize that one, last, fragile moment. To choose something better. To make a difference, as you say. And I intend to do just that."
The other days
