Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Babylon 5

[selenak]

It's a great time to be a fan. Firstly, I see the trailer for Prizoner of Azkaban is online. If I weren't inclined to like Alonso Cuáron already because of his interviews, this definitely would do the trick - letting the children sing the witches' spell from Macbeth in the manner of a Christmas Carol as the soundtrack was a splendid idea. And hmpf, I think Gary Oldman as Sirius does look here like "a once handsome man who has been going through hell". The much maligned Mr. Thewliss looks like he's going to be a good Remus, though the little mustache is news to me - that wasn't apparent on the one photo I saw.

Secondly, I wish I was in London right now. Failing that, I'm delighted to read kathyh's report of the Lord of the Rings exhibition here.. I'm also totally envious at her description of how Theodén's armour looks up close, or the three Elvish rings. How long till RotK is it again?

Thirdly, my season 3 Babylon 5 DVDs arrived, and I temporarily abandoned DS9 in favour of my other favourite space station to watch the first four episodes.



Matters of Honor introduces Marcus the Rescue Ranger, as he's called in a B5 filk. Now I never was a Marcus fan; in fact, I found him annoying for quite a while, then was vaguely amused, but only really warmed up to him when he died. Afterwards, I was a bit flabbergasted at the amount of Marcus/Ivanova fanfic (I think it's a tight race whether Marcus/Ivanova or Sheridan/Delenn dominates the fanfiction scene), but to my surprise found I had fun including him in my Vir story. Matters of Honor reminded me again why my initial reaction was annoyance. Enter the dashing, dark-haired, brooding ranger. (Later thankfully JMS let Ivanova do the brooding and gave the light-hearted teasing to Marcus, which stopped him from being a walking, talking Byronic cliché. Alas, then we got Byron.) What Aragorn could have been in the film version of LotR if a) Jackson, Wash and Boyens weren't such good scriptwriters and b) Viggo Mortensen wasn't such an excellent actor.

But enough about Marcus. By making it clear at the end of the first episode of the season that Earth government was tight with the Shadows, and with Morden, JMS not only cleared away any lingering doubts but also set up this season's major challenge for the human characters. (And btw explained why Morden on his initial visit to B5 never bothered to contact Sinclair and ask him what he wanted; he didn't have to, having much higher-ranking contacts already.) Conspiracies and bad political decisions are one thing; and the establishment of Nightwatch, which happens in season 2, might look suspicious if you're a TV viewer but not necessarily from the pov of characters like Zack. With the tag scene to Matters of Honor, though, it became obvious that sooner or later, Sheridan & Co. would have to break with their government completely. Not an easy thing to do with you're a member of the military; not easy at all.

Meanwhile, Londo makes his first attempt to put the genie back in the bottle and break with Morden. And of course we all know it won't be that easy, but JMS neatly goes against expectations and doesn't let Morden make any veiled threats. At this point, Morden doesn't have to because he's still secure in his ability to manipulate Londo when necessary. When the Earth representative shows Londo the recording of the Shadow ship, we're also reminded that for all his dealings with Morden, Londo so far never saw one - except in his dreams. And he recognises it instantly from the vision. The extremely disturbed way he reacts makes me wonder: if for some strange reason G'Kar would have shown G'Quan's little Shadow vessel sketch to Londo at an earlier point, would Londo have made the connection as well and become distrustful of Morden's "associates" earlier?

Speaking of Londo and G'Kar, the second episode, Convictions, is where JMS gets to strike out another item on that little laundry list of slash clichés he must have kept somewhere in the drawer during the writing of the show - Two Enemies Stuck In An Elevator. Okay, seriously now. I just love the long silent look that passes between Londo and G'Kar, all the facial acting of Jurasik and Katsulas, before Londo says he'll wait for the next one (and then of course the explosion forces him to jump for his life). They're alone; it doesn't even occur to Londo to bluster the way he would have in former days, nor does it to G'Kar. It's just such an incredibly intense relationship in every stage. And at this point, G'Kar hasn't yet reached the limit of his hatred. Being willing to die so he can see Londo die, too, instead of working together to free themselves is if you want a throwback considering that in Coming of Shadows, he had made the decision that living for his people is more important than revenge, but that's what makes G'Kar such a real character - he doesn't transform into a saint instantly. BTW, when rewatching this episode I noticed Londo isn't really afraid to die. Angry and annoyed, yes, but not afraid. Because he knows he won't, due to his death vision? Oh, and a trivia observation: the song G'Kar sings is the same from Parliament of Dreams, right? With a slightly changed text, of course.*g* Regarding the text changes, I think this is only one of two times G'Kar calls Londo "Londo" instead of "Mollari" (or in earlier days "Ambassador"). (The other time would be in Dust to Dust when he yells "show me your secrets, Londo").

Londo sitting by Lennier's side in sickbay and talking to him while Lennier is unconscious, as well as Londo's conversation with Delenn one episode later, reminds me of hobsonphile's and andrastewhite's observation that Londo, as opposed to G'Kar, likes people and wants people to like him. And he knows that the two Minbari don't, not anymore, just like Garibaldi, which makes both these scenes so sad. (Plus later we learn that Lennier did hear Londo in his coma - well at least he heard the lightbulb joke - and not a minute later that Lennier does think saving Londo's life might have been the wrong thing to do.)

Mind you, not that Londo's guilt and ruthlessness aren't depicted as well in these early season 3 episodes. hobsonphile in her essay about Londo and G'Kar suggests three episodes in which it could be claimed Londo hits moral rock bottom; A Day in the Strife is one of them, because of the way Londo taunts and humiliates Na'Far. It's Londo in his Macbeth mode, having decided that with all the blood already on his hands, he has to go the whole way. Of course, A Day in the Strife is also the episode in which Londo demonstrates his sympathetic side when asking Delenn to get Vir that post on Minbar. deborah_judge made an interesting comparison a while ago between this scene and Delenn keeping Lennier at her side, even after she realises how Lennier feels about her, which ultimately leads to Lennier ruining himself for her. Delenn tells Londo he needs Vir and probably means he needs him in same way she needs Lennier, as the one emotional support she can always count on. Londo thinks he will save Vir from his own darkness by sending him away. Now Delenn is right about Londo needing Vir - and when Londo tells Vir this in season 4 it's a very important step in their relationship - but one wonders if it wouldn't have been better for Lennier if Delenn had done what Londo tries to do in A Day in the Strife, i.e. sending her aide away for his own good.

Passing through Gethsemane remains one of my favourite B5 episodes and like season 1's Believers an example of B5 tackling complex questions without delivering easy answers. It's also one of these episodes where you have to care about the guest character in order for it to work, despite the fact we only see him in this one ep, which is why I'm glad they cast Brad Dourif. Who is superb. He must have played a psychopath in every genre show there is (and made them all memorable), but Brother Edward, and that's the tragedy, isn't one. Not anymore. The concept of the "death of personality" - a complete mindwipe which takes all the memories from the murderer and replaces them with a new personality, dedicated to serve others - was introduced in season 1, where Garibaldi declared it to be too merciful; something which he still believes in this episode; Garibaldi has his own experience of what it means to be brainwashed ahead of him, not to mention what it means to need forgiveness.

It's fascinating to compare the way B5 treats the concept with the way Farscape deals with it through the Nebari and the character of Durka. Otoh, Farscape presents the "reprogramming" of a sentient being as wrong in pretty much unambiguous terms; otoh, reprogrammed Durka comes across as creepy and as an artifical personality anyway, and when Rygel accidentally breaks the conditioning, the real Durka emerges, as sadistic as ever. In Passing through Gethsemane, however, Edward's personality is treated as something completely real, while at the same time being revealed as the result of a mindwipe, something which comes close to shattering him when he finds out. He is a good man. We never meet the psychopath he used to be except in very brief glances through his reawakened memories, but there's no doubt it was your average sadistic serial killer. Doesn't mean Charles the murderer wasn't a real person. So who is Edward? Charles, with memories missing, or a genuinely new being which was born when Charles got mindwiped? Is he responsible for deeds he can't remember? He thinks so, and offers his life as atonement. If the episode would have ended there, with Edward's death, it would have been good but not great. Yet then comes the great twist. Sheridan along with probably a good deal of the audience mourns for Edward and declares that certainly, Edward should have been forgiven. Enter Edward's murderer, now also windwiped and reprogrammed into a good, community-serving man. It's a slap in the face to both Sheridan and anyone who's been nodding along. Because Sheridan's first reaction is to glare in hatred and revulsion. He can't bring himself to touch the man, which is when Brother Theo quotes his own words back at him. And yes, forgiveness is a hard thing.

Like Buffy and Angel, Babylon 5 is a show created by an atheist and full of Christian imagery. In Passing through Gethsemane, it's very explicit with Edward going through his own version of Gethsemane and even ending up crucified, but it's far from the only example. G'Kar gets flogged the 30 or rather 29 times, and walks through the streets carrying his cross in season 4; Sheridan gets to rise from the Dead, complete with doubting Thomas (Garibaldi); and Londo gets to sacrifice himself to hang on a symbolic cross for the rest of his life near the end of season 5. You can see some parallels between Edward and Londo in The Fall of Centauri Prime if you want; Edward, praying and waiting for his killers to catch up with him, then facing them without resistance, and Londo, going to the Drakh and accepting the Keeper after that last conversation with G'Kar which is probably the closest Londo ever comes to a meditative prayer, among other things. Edward gets the absolution he longed for desperately from Brother Theo while he dies. Now I don't think Londo ever longed for absolution as such (his big inner crisis in The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari is about admitting responsibility and repentance, not asking for absolution). And he certainly never asks. But G'kar, who is really the only one who could do something like this, gives it to him during that last meeting, and one of the many aspects which make this moment so infinitely moving is that on this show, forgiveness really is a hard thing. People struggle for it, both to give and to receive.

Some additional thoughts:
- the way Lennier gives a brief biography of Valen in this episode when talking to Edward about Minbari religious life is great foreshadowing, of course. "A Minbari not born of Minbari" indeed. Smooth.
- It's interesting to note that Lyta is greeted with far more distrust than Talia was from the start; not that it isn't understandable given the circumstances of her return, but it probably contributed to the seed of alienation; of course at this point Lyta is still enthralled by the Vorlons
- Lyta is also presented as more aggressive than Talia from the start, in the way she threatens Londo when he attempts to intimidate her into telling him about the Vorlons
- I had forgotten that the Merlin/Arthur relationship between Kosh I and Sheridan was actually quite fun ("I hate it when you do that" - "Good").

Comments

I'm so excited I could piss!

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

"Prisoner of Azkaban" is my favorite HP novel! And after seeing that trailer, I'm chewing my calendar counting the days until it comes to life on the screen! Thanks for sharing that!

[molly_may]

Thanks for the link to the PoA trailer! That's my favorite book in the series, and the bits of the movie glimpsed at here look marvelous.

[hobsonphile.livejournal.com]

The PoA trailer is certainly tantalizing.

Your comments on B5 are, as ever, spot on. I only have one additional comment regarding the following:

(Plus later we learn that Lennier did hear Londo in his coma - well at least he heard the lightbulb joke - and not a minute later that Lennier does think saving Londo's life might have been the wrong thing to do.)

You know, some time ago, I was discussing this with Flora, and we both agreed that this could be a source of conflict between Vir and Lennier. It's a shame this was not explored.

you're welcome *g*

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty excited as well. (Though my favourite is OotP.) Am whistling that Macbeth carol since hours now...

More Vir and Lennier scenes in general....

[selenak.livejournal.com]

...would have been great. But you're right, it could be a source of conflict - at least debate. Especially since only two episodes later, we get the scene where Vir defends Londo to Delenn and Lennier after Lennier says that Londo is beyond hope.

Mind you, this is at a point where Lennier still sees things pretty much in black and white terms; the Minbari civil war hasn't started yet, and though he's probably already aware that a) he loves Delenn and b) she's about to fall for Sheridan, he thinks he can resolve this by being her loyal platonic knight. Basically, he's Lancelot in the "C'est Moi" stage (if you ever saw or heard the musical Camelot). In later seasons, he probably thinks differently.

[kathyh]

Damn. I want to download the Prisoner of Azkaban trailer but my internet connection seems to be roughly the speed of a dozy slug at the moment. Great B5 reviews. Our DVDs have arrived as well but one of the discs was rattling around in the box getting scratched so I spent part of Monday checking it was OK. That involved watching a chunk of 'A Late Delivery from Avalon' which is not my favourite episode...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the scratch, but say, on the same disc there should be excellent eps like Ship of Tears or Interludes and Examinations, so didn't you watch them to check?

[kathyh]

I gave all of them a quick look, but the beginning of the disc seemed to be the most effected. As it turned out it's all OK, which was a relief as I didn't want to go through the palaver of sending the set back.

[breidablik.livejournal.com]

Have just finished watching A Day in the Strife for the first time, despite having seen the vast majority of the rest of the series. I just love how complex Londo is in this one. To go from deliberately humiliating Na'Far to trying to send away Vir from his own good, shows such a level of self knowledge and awareness that is almost too much to take in.

That so much of what Londo does is with this almost acceptance of knowing how wrong it is, of the personal toll it is taking on him and Vir and yet he does it regardless because that is the path he has chosen. First go round, I just don't remember Londo being quite such a tragic figure.

And Jurasik and Katsulas are just superb. They just make everything feel so real, without you sitting there and going 'wow, that was great acting'. They are so matter of fact, it isn't till later that you really think how good they are, as during the show you are so caught up with their characters and the story. To me, that is the way good acting should be.

Thanks for your B5 comments, I've had so much fun rediscovering this series with the DVD releases. Your insights are simply the icing on the cake!

you're most welcome

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Londo breaks my heart on a regular basis every time I watch this show, precisely because of such episodes as A Day In The Strife. Can't think of another character with this kind of tragedy and complexity.