"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

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

One of those rather weak episodes that isn’t laughably bad like Infection or Grey 17 Is Missing, but just doesn’t have much merit to it either. It’s kind of meh all round.

I feel there’s two main problems; one is that Garibaldi’s alcoholism is dealt with much better in later episodes. That’s not a fault with this one, but it does mean it comes across even weaker in hindsight.

The other fault is that the plot doesn’t seem to hang together too well. The frame job against Garibaldi is incredibly unsubtle, and it’s fairly obvious by process of elimination who has to be behind it. Of course, if Home Guard have an agent as high up as Cutter, one wonders why they were bothering to plant the first bomb in the fighter bay themselves in the first place – unless the whole idea was to screw up that bomb so Garibaldi would be framed, which seems a little too complicated for them to be able to handle... Can’t they just shoot the president?

The other thing that kind of annoys me is that I feel the episode rather wastes the idea of the president visiting. A scene or two of the ambassadors either talking to or planning to speak to the president would be far more interesting than all the fuss being made about the new Starfuries the station gets... Warren Keffer was presumably piloting one of the new Starfuries, which in hindsight actually makes their arrival seem even *less* important.

- I was going to mock Garibaldi’s horrible shirt, but just before I started typing, Londo mocked it for me.

- A ‘wing’ in Babylon 5 terms apparently consists of a mere six starfuries. I know the definition of wing differs from country to country – has there every been any airforce that used that term for such a small number of craft?

- I hadn’t noticed before; n’grath doesn’t have claws, just a single point on each arm. He’d have to use both arms if he wanted to actually grasp something. Maybe his people mainly grasp things with their mouths or something... or they’re telekinetics!

- Seriously, why are there secret access tunnels between the alien sector and regular levels? The alien sector isn’t going to work well unless every entrance is an airlock...

- It’s nice of Home Guard to use a bomb that only goes off when the fighters are actually launched, not just set to a timer.