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selenakNote to self: this feedback-for-unwritten-stories meme is insane. Also inspiring. I loved bimo’s idea, but I’ve never written any Farscape characters, and I don’t think I have the guts to start with Scorpius, of all the people. Otoh, altariel1’s suggestion rocks, so I’m mulling over the idea of a Quark’s Day story – which season? It will have to be no sooner than season 4, post-Bar Association, since I do want to start with Rom ordering his breakfeast after the night shift. And I’m thinking pre-7, because I want to use Jadzia. But what else? After Quark loses his licence to the FCA? After he gets it back?
Season 6 would offer two great opportunities – a day in the life of the second occupation, or, if it’s set afterwards, a day in the life where Quark and Odo have that conversation about Odo almost getting Rom killed which has been nibbling at me for quite a while. Then again, that one might make its own story, plus picking late season 4 or early season 5 would provide more Ferengi-based angst (as opposed to everyone else’s angst which he’d notice anyway) because Quark is licence-less and a Ferengi rebel again his will.
Decisions, decisions…
Meanwhile, after this shallow attempt to prove I love The Other Space Station almost as much, back to B5. I couldn’t resist any longer and plunged into the goodness of the first six episodes (which I was able to do due to train journeys again). Okay, let’s try for some perspective other than “guh!”: they really showcase JMS as a writer, both his strengths and weaknesses.
The strengths not being just the Centauri Prime based-scenes; both personal and political subplots work very well together, as when Lyta’s relationship with Kosh II, resembling nothing as much as the one between abusive husband and abused wife, shows us on a personal level what the more abstract images of the Vorlons destroying entire planets do on a space operatic one. The Forces of Order are just as ruthless as the Forces of Chaos, and the correct choice between them is to choose neither.
I never had a quarrel with the fact the Shadow War didn’t end with a giant military defeat of the Shadows – or for that matter the Vorlons; in a war of ideologies, this would have been the wrong conclusion. My argument, and it seems pretty much everyone else’s, is with Lorien, so let’s get this dead equine out one last time. (And yes, that would be an illustration of a JMS weakness as a writer.) He’s a lazily-drawn character, a walking deus ex machina, and, as Andraste pointed out in her lj, superfluous to boot even for the purpose of resurrecting Sheridan, because the bit of Kosh I Sheridan was carrying around with himself might have sufficed as an explanation on why Sheridan a) didn’t stay dead, but b) had only 20 years – the living Kosh I might have been able to provide an entire life, but not the fragment. And, as I already stated once here, Lorien goes directly against the “get rid of the parents” philosophy otherwise driving the Shadow War arc. Okay. End of Lorien rant.
While I most of the time feel no more than benign indifference towards Marcus Cole, I have to admit his scenes with Ivanova in these episodes are cute. (And naturally, good old Marcus, the only certified canonical virgin we have – Vir at least got as far as one and a half, and Lennier might look inexperienced but who knows? He doesn’t say one way or the other – gets the most action in fanfiction.) As are those with G’Kar. Pikal envy indeed.
(And now I’ve restrained myself long enough.)
But really, the huge emotional pay-off these six episodes provide for me doesn’t come when Sheridan shows up again, or Garibaldi does (nothing against either gentleman), or when we get one of those patented “get the hell out of…” lines in the big climax. Nah. It’s in the scenes on Centauri Prime and later Narn. Londo and Cartagia, Londo and Morden, Londo and Vir, and then, finally, at the watershed of Whatever Happened with Mr. Garibaldi, Londo and G’Kar.
G’Kar’s opening season monologue contains his first statement about Londo post-Dust to Dust, and it’s so much more than a nice bit of exposition along “the story so far…” lines: “It’s what he always wanted – power, responsibility. * beat * I think he’s more alone than anyone in the universe.” It’s interesting that we start out the season from G’Kar’s pov, because once G’Kar is dragged in to the throne rooom on Centauri Prime, we’re seeing him, relentlessly and exclusively, only from Londo’s pov, until after the liberation of Narn, when G’Kar enters another throne room, alone. When the show was first broadcast, and none of us could know exactly where Londo’s storyline would go (well, except for that death by strangling years into the future), there was much feverish speculation on my part on what it would take to bring Londo back to the light. Season 4’s reply to this is twofold:
a) Centauri Prime in lethal danger and
b) G’Kar getting tortured in front of him.
Given that Londo’s original motivation for his deal with Morden was, much as personal frustration and ambition also played their part, his patriotism, the first isn’t truly surprising. Since I witnessed the Spike Wars in the intervening years, I wonder whether there was any debate on whether Londo’s desire to save Centauri Prime can be considered redemptive at all. However, given that Londo spent a good deal of his time on B5 seething in anger directed not just against the Narn in general but against G’Kar in particular, and given that, whatever passed between them off-stage when Refa’s death was arranged, their last substantial encounter had been in Dust to Dust (i.e. from Londo’s pov getting beaten up and getting your mind raped), you’d think there would be at least a flicker of satisfaction when he sees his old enemy being brought in, chained, as a gift from the Emperor, no less. But no. From the moment he sets eyes on G’Kar, Londo just looks completely horrified. Later, when he visits G’Kar in his cell, it’s a mixture of horror, compassion and determination, with a new emotion coming in when G’Kar says “you didn’t ask the price”. Watch Londo’s face and Peter Jurasik’s subtly changed voice modus when he says “you’re not exactly in a position to bargain, G’Kar”. It’s not a put-down (and indeed he accepts G’Kar’s price a moment later), it’s, imo, very guarded and impressed delight that the stubborn Narn comes up with that one.
While the relationship between G’Kar and Londo alters substantially, and, as it turns out, for good, the Londo and Morden relationship reaches its final stage in these episodes. Their first scene together in The Hour of the Wolf is, btw, one of the creepiest things ever filmed on this show. But it also shows Morden making a fatal miscalculation in regards to Londo. “Because you’re drawn to power”. Well, not quite. While Londo didn’t make his original deal with the Shadows for purely altruistic reasions - he was ambitious for himself – Centauri Prime was always his primary motivation, and in a situation where it was power versus Centauri Prime, there was really no contest. Morden is also getting careless in these episodes; considering he has his deal with the Emperor himself, he doesn’t bother with keeping an eye on Londo anymore, either to manipulate or to intimidate him, otherwise he might have guessed what Londo would do re: Cartagia. And then, of course, we finally get it: the one scene where the unflappable Mr. Morden loses it and gives in to open panic and rage. It’s purely a matter of speculation, but I think Londo would probably have had him killed in any case, at least once he and the Shadows refused to leave the planet (which was predictable). However, what with Londo not being a sadist, it in all likelihood it would have been quick. After the Adira revelation? Well, Londo does have a rather dark imagination when he wants to. (See: Refa.)
Refa, Morden and Cartagia are more or less the only villains (villains that matter for more than one episode) on B5 – the shadowy (no pun intended) President Clark aside – who are painted as unambiguously evil. It’s interesting, though, that the most flamboyantly evil and openly cruel of them all, Cartagia, is the one in whose death the viewer can’t take delight, and this is because of Vir. Again, kudos to JMS as a writer, because right now I can’t think of another show where the death of an arch-villain – and not one with sympathetic traits, or some shot at redemption – is treated with such an emotional aftermath, which investigates what tyrannicide means to the person who deals out the blow. And kudos to Stephen Furst for what is arguably his finest performance on the show – both the utter shock when he pulls out the needle, and the drunk scene later with Londo.
Londo and Vir ended the third season on something of a shaky note, given Londo’s ruthless use of Vir to set up Refa in And the rock cried out, no hiding place. But the very first episode of the fourth season shows Londo has learned his lesson. This time, he asksVir for his help (and the way Vir beams at the “I need a patriot, Vir, and I need a friend, and you are both” declaration is yet another “must hug Vir now” moment), and keeps him aprised of developments every step on the way. The Long Night and Into the Fire is about this relationship as much as anything else, with Londo and Vir going from the nervous tenseness (and black-humoured jokes) before the assassination to the aftermath and Vir’s despair, while Londo moves from impatience to tenderness and regret, to the moment on Centauri Prime where the Vorlon Destroyer shows up and Londo asks Vir to kill him, to the last, relieved and loving hug once everything is over and Vir feels free to tell Londo that the universe won’t begrudge him at least one night of happiness. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Vir is Sam.
(Though Sam probably never would have been able to kill Frodo, whereas I think Vir would have been able to kill Londo, if the Vorlons had stuck around a bit more. Not because Vir loves Londo less, but because he’d have known it to be necessary to save Centauri Prime, and that Londo trusted him to do it.)
As I discussed with both![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sabine101 and andrastewhite, G’Kar makes his final sacrifice for his people here. From this point onwards, after the liberation of Narn is accomplished, he drifts apart from them. The scene in the throne room at the end, when he rejects the throne offered to him (and btw, again a parallel/contrast to Londo who got made Prime Minister in the same room, knows this is the next step to being Emperor, looked more appalled than anything else but knew he had no choice but to accept it) and walks out on the other Narn who stare after him in incomprehension is a signal in this regard. It’s worth speculating on whether the presence of Na’Toth (or of Julie Caitlin Brown playing Na’Toth) throughout the show would have made a difference to the way G’Kar’s storyline plays out; probably, but in the end I think it would have been the same. His experiences changed him too much to go back to the way he used to define himself before.
Now I know I meant to keep thoughts about goings-on at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
theatrical_muse for the inbigtrouble update journal, but the most recent roleplaying made me come up with this vignette. Unfortunately, I don't think I can post it as a story with my other ones - it probably depends too much on the events of the roleplaying earlier as background. Or?
Lastly,estepheia pointed out to me this competition, designed for people who indulge in writing English but have another mother tongue. Have a look, hmpf and bimo et all. She tells me that the final entry date is handled leniently.
Season 6 would offer two great opportunities – a day in the life of the second occupation, or, if it’s set afterwards, a day in the life where Quark and Odo have that conversation about Odo almost getting Rom killed which has been nibbling at me for quite a while. Then again, that one might make its own story, plus picking late season 4 or early season 5 would provide more Ferengi-based angst (as opposed to everyone else’s angst which he’d notice anyway) because Quark is licence-less and a Ferengi rebel again his will.
Decisions, decisions…
Meanwhile, after this shallow attempt to prove I love The Other Space Station almost as much, back to B5. I couldn’t resist any longer and plunged into the goodness of the first six episodes (which I was able to do due to train journeys again). Okay, let’s try for some perspective other than “guh!”: they really showcase JMS as a writer, both his strengths and weaknesses.
The strengths not being just the Centauri Prime based-scenes; both personal and political subplots work very well together, as when Lyta’s relationship with Kosh II, resembling nothing as much as the one between abusive husband and abused wife, shows us on a personal level what the more abstract images of the Vorlons destroying entire planets do on a space operatic one. The Forces of Order are just as ruthless as the Forces of Chaos, and the correct choice between them is to choose neither.
I never had a quarrel with the fact the Shadow War didn’t end with a giant military defeat of the Shadows – or for that matter the Vorlons; in a war of ideologies, this would have been the wrong conclusion. My argument, and it seems pretty much everyone else’s, is with Lorien, so let’s get this dead equine out one last time. (And yes, that would be an illustration of a JMS weakness as a writer.) He’s a lazily-drawn character, a walking deus ex machina, and, as Andraste pointed out in her lj, superfluous to boot even for the purpose of resurrecting Sheridan, because the bit of Kosh I Sheridan was carrying around with himself might have sufficed as an explanation on why Sheridan a) didn’t stay dead, but b) had only 20 years – the living Kosh I might have been able to provide an entire life, but not the fragment. And, as I already stated once here, Lorien goes directly against the “get rid of the parents” philosophy otherwise driving the Shadow War arc. Okay. End of Lorien rant.
While I most of the time feel no more than benign indifference towards Marcus Cole, I have to admit his scenes with Ivanova in these episodes are cute. (And naturally, good old Marcus, the only certified canonical virgin we have – Vir at least got as far as one and a half, and Lennier might look inexperienced but who knows? He doesn’t say one way or the other – gets the most action in fanfiction.) As are those with G’Kar. Pikal envy indeed.
(And now I’ve restrained myself long enough.)
But really, the huge emotional pay-off these six episodes provide for me doesn’t come when Sheridan shows up again, or Garibaldi does (nothing against either gentleman), or when we get one of those patented “get the hell out of…” lines in the big climax. Nah. It’s in the scenes on Centauri Prime and later Narn. Londo and Cartagia, Londo and Morden, Londo and Vir, and then, finally, at the watershed of Whatever Happened with Mr. Garibaldi, Londo and G’Kar.
G’Kar’s opening season monologue contains his first statement about Londo post-Dust to Dust, and it’s so much more than a nice bit of exposition along “the story so far…” lines: “It’s what he always wanted – power, responsibility. * beat * I think he’s more alone than anyone in the universe.” It’s interesting that we start out the season from G’Kar’s pov, because once G’Kar is dragged in to the throne rooom on Centauri Prime, we’re seeing him, relentlessly and exclusively, only from Londo’s pov, until after the liberation of Narn, when G’Kar enters another throne room, alone. When the show was first broadcast, and none of us could know exactly where Londo’s storyline would go (well, except for that death by strangling years into the future), there was much feverish speculation on my part on what it would take to bring Londo back to the light. Season 4’s reply to this is twofold:
a) Centauri Prime in lethal danger and
b) G’Kar getting tortured in front of him.
Given that Londo’s original motivation for his deal with Morden was, much as personal frustration and ambition also played their part, his patriotism, the first isn’t truly surprising. Since I witnessed the Spike Wars in the intervening years, I wonder whether there was any debate on whether Londo’s desire to save Centauri Prime can be considered redemptive at all. However, given that Londo spent a good deal of his time on B5 seething in anger directed not just against the Narn in general but against G’Kar in particular, and given that, whatever passed between them off-stage when Refa’s death was arranged, their last substantial encounter had been in Dust to Dust (i.e. from Londo’s pov getting beaten up and getting your mind raped), you’d think there would be at least a flicker of satisfaction when he sees his old enemy being brought in, chained, as a gift from the Emperor, no less. But no. From the moment he sets eyes on G’Kar, Londo just looks completely horrified. Later, when he visits G’Kar in his cell, it’s a mixture of horror, compassion and determination, with a new emotion coming in when G’Kar says “you didn’t ask the price”. Watch Londo’s face and Peter Jurasik’s subtly changed voice modus when he says “you’re not exactly in a position to bargain, G’Kar”. It’s not a put-down (and indeed he accepts G’Kar’s price a moment later), it’s, imo, very guarded and impressed delight that the stubborn Narn comes up with that one.
While the relationship between G’Kar and Londo alters substantially, and, as it turns out, for good, the Londo and Morden relationship reaches its final stage in these episodes. Their first scene together in The Hour of the Wolf is, btw, one of the creepiest things ever filmed on this show. But it also shows Morden making a fatal miscalculation in regards to Londo. “Because you’re drawn to power”. Well, not quite. While Londo didn’t make his original deal with the Shadows for purely altruistic reasions - he was ambitious for himself – Centauri Prime was always his primary motivation, and in a situation where it was power versus Centauri Prime, there was really no contest. Morden is also getting careless in these episodes; considering he has his deal with the Emperor himself, he doesn’t bother with keeping an eye on Londo anymore, either to manipulate or to intimidate him, otherwise he might have guessed what Londo would do re: Cartagia. And then, of course, we finally get it: the one scene where the unflappable Mr. Morden loses it and gives in to open panic and rage. It’s purely a matter of speculation, but I think Londo would probably have had him killed in any case, at least once he and the Shadows refused to leave the planet (which was predictable). However, what with Londo not being a sadist, it in all likelihood it would have been quick. After the Adira revelation? Well, Londo does have a rather dark imagination when he wants to. (See: Refa.)
Refa, Morden and Cartagia are more or less the only villains (villains that matter for more than one episode) on B5 – the shadowy (no pun intended) President Clark aside – who are painted as unambiguously evil. It’s interesting, though, that the most flamboyantly evil and openly cruel of them all, Cartagia, is the one in whose death the viewer can’t take delight, and this is because of Vir. Again, kudos to JMS as a writer, because right now I can’t think of another show where the death of an arch-villain – and not one with sympathetic traits, or some shot at redemption – is treated with such an emotional aftermath, which investigates what tyrannicide means to the person who deals out the blow. And kudos to Stephen Furst for what is arguably his finest performance on the show – both the utter shock when he pulls out the needle, and the drunk scene later with Londo.
Londo and Vir ended the third season on something of a shaky note, given Londo’s ruthless use of Vir to set up Refa in And the rock cried out, no hiding place. But the very first episode of the fourth season shows Londo has learned his lesson. This time, he asksVir for his help (and the way Vir beams at the “I need a patriot, Vir, and I need a friend, and you are both” declaration is yet another “must hug Vir now” moment), and keeps him aprised of developments every step on the way. The Long Night and Into the Fire is about this relationship as much as anything else, with Londo and Vir going from the nervous tenseness (and black-humoured jokes) before the assassination to the aftermath and Vir’s despair, while Londo moves from impatience to tenderness and regret, to the moment on Centauri Prime where the Vorlon Destroyer shows up and Londo asks Vir to kill him, to the last, relieved and loving hug once everything is over and Vir feels free to tell Londo that the universe won’t begrudge him at least one night of happiness. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Vir is Sam.
(Though Sam probably never would have been able to kill Frodo, whereas I think Vir would have been able to kill Londo, if the Vorlons had stuck around a bit more. Not because Vir loves Londo less, but because he’d have known it to be necessary to save Centauri Prime, and that Londo trusted him to do it.)
As I discussed with both
sabine101 and andrastewhite, G’Kar makes his final sacrifice for his people here. From this point onwards, after the liberation of Narn is accomplished, he drifts apart from them. The scene in the throne room at the end, when he rejects the throne offered to him (and btw, again a parallel/contrast to Londo who got made Prime Minister in the same room, knows this is the next step to being Emperor, looked more appalled than anything else but knew he had no choice but to accept it) and walks out on the other Narn who stare after him in incomprehension is a signal in this regard. It’s worth speculating on whether the presence of Na’Toth (or of Julie Caitlin Brown playing Na’Toth) throughout the show would have made a difference to the way G’Kar’s storyline plays out; probably, but in the end I think it would have been the same. His experiences changed him too much to go back to the way he used to define himself before. Now I know I meant to keep thoughts about goings-on at
theatrical_muse for the inbigtrouble update journal, but the most recent roleplaying made me come up with this vignette. Unfortunately, I don't think I can post it as a story with my other ones - it probably depends too much on the events of the roleplaying earlier as background. Or? Lastly,
estepheia pointed out to me this competition, designed for people who indulge in writing English but have another mother tongue. Have a look, hmpf and bimo et all. She tells me that the final entry date is handled leniently.
