It was the dawn of the third age of mankind: Babylon 5

[selenak]

So good to have lots of free time after months and months and months of manuskript writing and revising. And lots of DVDs. Today I aquired the second season of B5 and, interrupting the Farscape rewatch, treated myself to three episodes of the arc show to end all arc shows.
Seriously: Babylon 5 did change the rules of TV, for good or ill. (The ill would be Chris Carter trying to improvise gigantic arcs without having thought them through first.) To this day I'm still amazed JMS managed to pull it off: his five-years-long novel on TV. All these plots and subplots. Episodes which didn't get their pay-off until two seasons later at which time the viewer had to be ready to remember exactly what had happened back then.
Rewatching the first season, which I did some months ago, brought back the very early days. As with most shows, there are highlights and some utterly forgettable episodes at the start, but unlike some fans, I wouldn't ever recommend starting the show with season 2 (which is when the action gears up in speed). Season 1 moves more slowly, but you have to meet Londo when he's still a tired-old never-quite-has-been with a romantic streak and in a position which he knows was meant as a joke, you have to meet G'kar when he's full of bluster and ruthlessness. You have to meet Delenn as the mysterious, somewhat dangerous Minbari ambassador. You have to meet Vir as the bumbling fat aide, and Lennier as the shy acolyte who does not dare to look Delenn in the face until she tells him to.. Their character arcs are so important to the show that you can't miss the first chapter.
And then there's the command staff. Sinclair, Ivanova and Garibaldi have a quite different dynamic from Sheridan, Ivanova and Garibaldi later on.
I remember how confused I was when season 2 started and the commander of the station, no less, had been replaced. Also frustrated because I had liked Sinclair and had been intrigued by just what the story with the Minbari was, by "Babylon Squared", and the relationship with Delenn. It took me a while to find Sheridan equally interesting (this happened in "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum", to be precise), but what struck me then, and did strike me now upon rewatching, was that regrets about Sinclair's absence aside, those first episodes were all so well written that it was impossible not to continue to watch.
"Chrysalis", the first season finale, had been a real cliffhanger, ending with one regular (Garibaldi) shot, one having entered a mysterious transformation (Delenn), and with the conspiracy-caused death of the Earth President clearly modelled on the Kennedy assassination. (JMS even took care that Vice President Clark's rushed swearing-in ceremony which is shown in the news clips was a close copy of Lyndon Johnson's, down to placing a woman in a Jackie-Kennedy-lilac dress next to him.) Not to mention the fact that Delenn had been finally ready to tell Sinclair the truth about his missing 28 hours, and that Londo had quite obviously made the proverbial Faustian deal by accepting Morden's "associates"' help.
"Points of Departure", the season 2 premiere, had the job of picking all those dangling plot threats up, to introduce a new main character, and to provide an explanation about the departure of the former leading man. It did all of this without insulting the audience's intelligence. Given that at this point it's already clear something shady is up with the new Earth government, it made sense they'd try to get rid of Sinclair. It made also sense the Minbari would request him as an ambassador. Sheridan, despite having the same initials, comes across as sufficiently different - brasher, with less gravitas and more of a temper, but not without intelligence - so that he doesn't appear as a copy. Also, it was clever to establish him and Ivanova as old and friendly aquaintances. Which contributes to the different dynamic: Sinclair and Garibaldi in season 1 are close friends, with Ivanova as the junior partner. Whereas you just can't imagine Garibaldi having the "fasten/zip" conversation with Sheridan, not even around the end of season 3 when they're at their friendliest; now it's Sheridan and Ivanova who have the "buddy" vibe. The way Sheridan teases Ivanova about her promotion in "Geometry of Shadows" being a case in point.
The same is true about the ambassadors. Sinclair had a somewhat warmer relationship with Londo than with G'kar due to his experiences with them in season 1. Sheridan gets introduced to Londo when Londo is trying one of his shady manoeuvres, and to G'kar when G'kar is trying to warn everybody about a very real danger; this in turn doesn't make his subsequent attitude to both of them not surprising. (Though by season 5 and "The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari", we get Sheridan - and Delenn - ruefully confessing to each other they can't help it, they are fond of Londo.)
Not letting Garibaldi recover from being shot at right away helped with the emotinal realism of this show, as was not letting Delenn finish her transformation until episode 3. It provided excellent suspense, too; I renember holding my breath by the time we finally find out just what she has turned into. Incidentally, one storyline Sheridan definitely did inherit from Sinclair was the developing relationship with Delenn; I suppose Catherine Sakai would have been Sinclair's Anna if there hadn't been a switch of leading actors. Speaking of Anna Sheridan, I must say watching those first three episodes in their original Engllish language version (those I had previously seen only in German) helps making Sheridan's grief for his dead wife much more real; Bruce Boxleitner does quite a lot with his voice. A fellow B7 fan told me that as soon as it was revealed Sheridan's late love had been called ANNA it was clear what was to come, but since I discovered B7 after B5, I didn't guess at the time and thought all the Anna-backstory was somewhat distracting. (I wanted to know what the hell was going on with Delenn, dammit.) Not anymore, for obvious reasons.
Watching "The Geometry of Shadows" makes it clear this is when Vir starts to come into his own. They're an amazing pair, Londo and Vir; if you watch the Babylon 5 pilot and the first two or three episodes, you could be forgiven for thinking they're the comic relief ambassador and his bumbling even more comic relief sidekick. By the end of season 1, it's already clear Londo is definitely not comic relief (not that, praise the Great Maker, he'll ever stop getting the good lines, though); with Vir, the second sesaon starts the change. "The Geometry of Shadows" points out his courage when confronting the Techno Mages, and, though it's done in the background, show his unease during Londo's conversation with Lord Refa. Which grows into Vir becoming simultanously Londo's argued-against-conscience and confidant. When hmpf and I talked about Vir, I said he's basically Sam (from Lord of the Rings, not Stargate): begins as bumbling and funny, ends up as quietly heroic. (Or not so quiet when he thinks Londo needs to be yelled at.) Sam goes with Frodo to Mordor; Vir goes with Londo through a more metaphorical Mordor (and season 2 is certainly Londo at his darkest) as his only companion, and the fact he (and he's the only one) never loses faith in Londo's better side keeps the viewer hoping, too. Two scenes out of many come immediately to my mind when I think of Vir and Londo, one from season 2 and the other from season 4. The season 2 one, which I'm looking forward to watching again soon, is from "The Coming of Shadows" when Vir tries to persuade Londo from making one of his most fatal decisions: "I know you don't take me seriously, but for once in your life listen to me. Londo, Londo don't do this!" "I don't have a choice." "Yes, you do."
(And Vir's reply is correct of course - he does have a choice. That's the tragedy.)
The other one, two years later, comes after Vir has killed for the first time. Out of most dire necessity; but he did kill, and it burdens him terribly. So he gets drunk about it. Thus, we have Londo in the unusual position of comforter, and his quiet lines show how far these two have come since we met them at the beginning of the show. "I can not tell you that your pain will ever go away. I cannot tell you you will ever forget his face. I can only tell you that it was necessary. You did a hard thing. But you still have your heart. And your heart is a good one. You would not be in such great pain otherwise. And for that, I find I still envy you."
Which is a summing up of their two paths, one could say.
Rewatching "The Geometry of Shadows", when Londo starts his association with Lord Refa, and lobbies to get some techno mage support to make political points with the folks back home, it struck me that we get one of those patented JMS foreshadowing sentences: Confronting the techno mage one last time, Londo demands to know whether he'll spend the rest of his life paying for one mistake (i.e. trying to trick the mages) and gets the reply: "Yes, you will. Oh, not for this one; it was trivial. But there are others." (And then of course we get the "My followers?" "Your victims" exchange with Michael Ansara's deep voice used to terrific effect.) Ouch, ouch, ouch. Oh yes. And now I'm starting to get misty-eyed again.
Two last thoughts of the trivia kind:
I. JMS and his Tolkien love: "Do not try the patience of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger". Didn't spot that back then as a direct LOTR quote, but caught on upon reviewing.
II. Something I'll never get, which frustrates me since the time B5 was originally broadcast: why isn't there fanfic about Londo and G'kar and Vir? B5 fanfic mostly consists of John/Delenn and Marcus/Ivanova. Not that I dislike either, but neither, imo, of course, is anywhere near as complex or interesting, as my two favourite Centauri and G'kar.

Comments

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

Something I noticed about Londo and Vir while re-watching 'A Day in the Strife' while writing my fic:

When Londo asks Delenn for her help in getting Vir posted as ambassador to Minbar, she says that he shouldn't send Vir away, she thinks he needs him. Then when Londo tells Vir to go, Vir says, "But if I go, you'll be all alone," and Londo says "Bah, I am always alone."

That just reminds me a little too strongly of the Delenn/Lennier conversation from All Alone in the Night, when he pledges himself to remain by her side and swears that she will never be alone. Delenn lets Lennier destroy himself for her sake. Londo send Vir away so he won't be destroyed by what he has become. And in the end, it looks like it's Delenn who made the better decision.

(Although - Londo's wish was for the greatness of the Centauri Republic. In Sleeping in Light, it looked like the Centauri Republic was doing pretty well under Vir. Maybe, because he managed to save Vir, he finally got his wish. He just didn't live to see it.)

That's the great thing about B5 - it doesn't make the moral choices easy.

Now those are intriguing parallels and contrasts.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Of course, the ambassadors aren't the only ones making the decisions - the aides do, too.

There is also the question of basic mindsets; Delenn, as you let Lennier observe in your story, is an idealist who thinks that while Lennier might through being at her side be in physical danger (war) and shared exile from Minbar, the fact he loves her will not damage him emotionally. She seems to have believed she could live with both Sheridan and Lennier - "three are sacred".

Otoh, Londo is a cynic (though one who also manages to be a romantic at the same time) who is sure that if Vir stays with him Vir WILL end up damaged, whether through corruption or through association. (Not to mention the Centauri habit of employing poisons and the like.)

Of course, in the end they're both right and wrong at the same time. Lennier has that basic integrity, but he is not a saint; for a moment, he gives in. Vir doesn't get corrupted but he does lose his innocence bit by bit through returning to Londo and helping him, whether it's by Londo deliberately using him to get rid of Refa, or Londo needing him for a genuinenly higher cause, as with the entire Cartagia affair. And let's not forget that Londo asks him to kill him in that moment when they believe the Vorlons will attack Centauri Prime; you know, I think Vir would have done it, but what would that have done to Vir? And in the end, this is probably why Londo ensures Vir will stay away from him as much as possible when appointing him ambassador in "The Fall of Centauri Prime" - not just because otherwise the Drakh might either kill him or give Vir a keeper, too, but because he wants to spare Vir from having to witness what is to come.

Sidenote: Lennier would have done it to Delenn, too, in a comparable situation - he does accept her remaining in the Star Wheel, after all, because she has asked it of him - but this, too, might have destroyed him emotionally.

Oh, and you're right - by saving Vir, Londo does manage to give the Centauri a future, after all. And he probably knows since the prophecy that Vir will be their last, best chance.