"By Any Means Necessary" discussion [spoilers]

[aris-tgd.livejournal.com]

(Sorry for the delay, folks! Working on a night shift + being in the pacific time zone == delays get stretched out.)

This is the discussion post for the episode 1X12, "By Any Means Necessary". 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 "By Any Means Necessary" at the Lurker's Guide.

Comments

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

This is one of my favourite episodes from the first season. Not sure why; it’s got a lot of flaws – Zento’s never anything but a one-dimensional villain, and it seems a little contrived that the Rush Act gives Sinclair personally the power to take any means necessary, and not the senate or their representative…
What can I say? I guess I just like to see a story once in a while where organised labour is unquestionably the good guys.

- Random design detail – I like that the Narn freighter looks like it has the same forward section as the Narn fighters in other episodes. Makes sense the Narn would be using modular designs for most of their ships, and that there’s not much difference between civilian and military craft.

- One of the things I like about the episode as part of the greater series is that it establishes B5 as a community, with its own internal disputes and crises. It makes it feel more plausible in season 3 that B5 could go it alone, that it’s got its own guilds and businesses and people who’ve made a life there, that it could work as a self-sufficient entity – I don’t think that would have worked if there hadn’t been a few episodes here and there focusing on civilian life on the station.

- It’s interesting that there seem to be clouds gathering over the Earth government even before President Santiago’s assassination – Sinclair says things are changing, and not for the better, and the senator seems to be just looking for an excuse to invoke the Rush Act. One rather wonders whether it would have made much difference for how Earth turned out if Santiago’s assassination had been prevented after all…

- On that note; there were riots on Ganymede twenty years ago, resulting in deaths. Mars we know is on the verge of open revolt. We never hear much about Proxima III, but they’re just as quick to declare independence in season 3 as Mars is. One wonders if the Earth government intentionally panders to xenophobia knowing that external threats are the only thing keeping the human colonies in the Alliance…

- C&C really needs some guards, or maybe just a lock on the door or something. I’m assuming the reporter from “Infection” was originally intended to be more of a recurring character… I don’t remember her appearing again after this. Probably for the better – the apparent ‘gag’ of ‘look, a reporter trying to cover a developing news event!’ is rather irritating. Works better here than in “Infection”, since here it ties into the episode better, by denying Sinclair even a moment’s peace…

- Narn seems to be very close to Babylon 5 – are we ever given similarly explicit information on how far away the other homeworlds are? Later episodes imply the fate of the galaxy's at stake in the Shadow war, but I've always preferred to believe that B5 only takes place in a very small section of space - if nothing else, the Earth Alliance only seems to have control of our system and Alpha Centauri, yet it's considered a major player.

- There’s only six other followers of G’quan there with G’kar; I’ve always wondered just how popular a faith it is. I’ve always rather felt it’s a minority religion – if nothing else, one assumes G’kar would have found it much easier to convince his government that the Shadows were returning in early season 2 if the majority of Narn were familiar with the Book of G’quan.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

One wonders if the Earth government intentionally panders to xenophobia knowing that external threats are the only thing keeping the human colonies in the Alliance…

Sounds plausible to me. Especially since given the relatively recent Earth/Minbari war (during which laws like the Rush Act were installed), during which humanity rallied behind one goverment, is fresh in everyone's memories, so trying to recreate an ongoing sense of threat in order to recreate unity was probably an easy strategy to think of. We've always been at war with Eurasia, etc, to quote good old Orwell.