"Survivors" discussion [spoilers]

[aris-tgd.livejournal.com]

This is the discussion post for the episode 1X11, "Survivors". Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.

Extra reading:

The article for "Survivors" at Lurker's Guide.

Comments

[aris-tgd.livejournal.com]

Personally, I find it fascinating that Zicree, in the intro to the script in the script book, worked really hard to do a realistic portrayal of alcoholism in the original script only to watch it get dumbed down for production. I found Garibaldi's alcoholism dealt with much more sensitivity/realism in S5. It's a difficult subject to deal with in fiction, and I think later B5 did pretty well with it.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Well, to be fair, we're talking about one single episode versus an entire arc here. But yes, what happens later strikes one as more realistic.

It also says something about the way tv has changed, not least thanks to B5, that when I watched this the first time I didn't expect Garibaldi's alcoholism to be touched on again, whereas now when someone gets introduced as an alcoholic, no matter whether one who drinks or one who is abstinent, I expect it to be followed up upon.

[aris-tgd.livejournal.com]

It's really interesting--I watch people who are watching B5 for the first time nowadays, who expect things introduced in one episode in S1 to be HUGE later in the program, when later in the season there are these huge multi-episode arcs which never touch on the S1 stuff again. But current television does so much with the arc thing that we forget how pre-90s TV did things. Babylon 5 really was on the forefront of these things, but it did take more than a season for it to catch on.

[alexcat.livejournal.com]

I think B5 is still the only show that deals with a stroy arc well. JMS had the story in mind all along whereas now, as with Battlestar Galactica, they had NO plan and made it all up as it went along. The story arc there was really not one at all but writers scrambling to figure out how to end the thing.

[widsidh.livejournal.com]

with Battlestar Galactica, they had NO plan

... and the ending suffered for it :-(

I also like the way B5 (still) blends episodic and arc elements., so that there are standalone episodes, apparent standalaones that do turn out to be come relevant later, and full-blown arc ep that make no sense to out of context.
And that there is relevant stuff in all of them.

[alexcat.livejournal.com]

I had never thought about it that way. I remember when I used to watch the X-files. There were standalone x-files and then there were arc stories... B5 did manage to do both at the same time.

[widsidh.livejournal.com]

I've only noticed during the rewatch.

I think there is more to compare it with now than ther was at the time, and there is some virtue in coming back to it after some time.