"Signs and Portents" discussion [spoilers]

[ruuger]

Sorry for the delay - my internet connection was down last night.

This is the discussion post for the episode 1X13, "Signs and Portents". 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 "Signs and Portents" at Lurker's Guide.

Comments

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

Not a perfect episode, but a very good one. Its main weakness is the raider storyline; the raiders were never portrayed as particularly powerful or interesting, and so having a decent chunk of the episode be devoted to them feels like a waste of time. It’s a nice looking battle sequence, but Sinclair’s tactics almost feel like overkill, considering how weak the raider ships seem to be. A lot of the exposition about jump-gates and jump-points felt rather clunky too…

Another problem is the thread of Babylon 5’s prophesied destruction, one of the few plot points that was very clearly a victim of the eventual changes in the storyline – the resolution in “War Without End” never felt particular satisfying, and has massive plot holes. Most of the time, the show does a pretty good job of clearing up abandoned plot threads in a satisfying fashion, but this one really sticks out on re-watching.

It occurs to me one of the differences between G’kar and Londo’s answers isn’t just that G’kar’s goals are finite – it’s that G’kar’s heart isn’t entirely in it. He’s big on loud rhetoric and speeches – and we’ve already heard this sort of thing from him, in “Midnight on the Firing Line”, with his bit about carving Centauri bones into flutes. But when pressed further, he says that “As long as my homeworld’s safety is guaranteed…”, not, interestingly “As long as the Centauri are destroyed…”. There’s two possibilities – either he sees the extermination of the Centauri as necessary for Narn security… or, and I think more likely, that a lot of what he’s saying is just rhetoric, deliberately over the top, and he knows it. He talks about wanting justice – a lot of it is just as likely to be an effort to remind others of just what the Narn suffered under Centauri rule as literal desires to annihilate the Centauri.

It also occurs to me that G’kar’s speech is framed in terms of justice and protecting his homeworld, while Londo’s desires are fundamentally selfish; his self-image and pride are tied to the success of the Centauri Republic.

Not, admittedly, that I think G’kar would have done any better if presented with the power that the Shadow’s offered Londo. But I do think there were reasons beyond the explicit limits of G’kar’s desires that led Morden to chose Londo instead.

Other notes:

- I rather like how… tacky the Eye is. It looks like – well, like the sort of ultra-gaudy sort of thing the ruler of a new empire would commission to demonstrate his power and wealth. Emperors aren’t exactly known for their taste or subtlety…

- One wonders why Morden thought it was even worth the effort of arranging an audience with Delenn. I guess as long as he was on the station, he thought he might give it a shot.

- So, what was the deal meant to be with the silver triangle on Delenn’s head? I always thought it one of the silliest looking ideas in the show.

- My mum watched the series with me the last time I rewatched it, a few years back. She somehow interpreted Kosh’s “Leave this place, they are not for you” statement as an instruction, not a demand… it wasn’t until “In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum” that she realised Morden wasn’t working with the Vorlons… Not sure what she thought damaged Kosh’s encounter suit…

- Of course, considering the Vorlons and Shadows are meant to have a truce at this point, I guess that’s still an open question. I like to imagine it involved phrases like “I’m going to keep walking and just waving my pseudopods around, and if you get hit, it’s your own fault” “Oh yeah, well I’m just going to keep walking forward waving my forelimbs around, and if you get hit, it’s your own fault!”

[zefire2.livejournal.com]

Another problem is the thread of Babylon 5’s prophesied destruction, one of the few plot points that was very clearly a victim of the eventual changes in the storyline – the resolution in “War Without End” never felt particular satisfying, and has massive plot holes. Most of the time, the show does a pretty good job of clearing up abandoned plot threads in a satisfying fashion, but this one really sticks out on re-watching.

I've always thought the opposite really. We see what is essentially one of the very last scenes in the show early on, but it isn't exactly what we think it is.
I read the bit about the original ending, but the way it played out really fits togeather far better then what was billed to the network; I wonder how much was just sales pitch & spin off opportunities to get the show going.

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

Well, "Babylon Squared" also alludes to Babylon 5 being destroyed in the future (Sinclair's flash-forward to Garibaldi making a last stand) - I think there was a clear intention during the first season that B5 would be destroyed in combat during the run of the show.

And, of course, "War Without End" goes out of its way to explain those references, something I don't think would have happened if Ladira's vision had always been intended to refer to "Sleeping In Light".