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Ruuger ([personal profile] ruuger) wrote in [community profile] b5_revisited2009-01-25 09:04 pm
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"Midnight on the Firing Line" discussion [spoilers]

This is the discussion post for the episode 1X01 "Midnight on the Firing Line". 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 "Midnight on the Firing Line" at Lurker's Guide.
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[identity profile] madrona.livejournal.com 2009-01-26 05:02 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, gosh, if my brain were less mushy I'd look up the length of time between the Gathering and Midnight, and I'd have some idea if that was reasonable or not.

They keep saying a hundred years ago in the episode. But you're right, JMS and chronology are *not* close friends.

[identity profile] vjs2259.livejournal.com 2009-01-26 11:09 am (UTC)(link)
He's not bad once the series starts. Every season a year, January to December pretty much. The station goes online 2256, The Gathering is 2257, MotFL begins 2258, and so on.
I tend to write long complicated B5 epics, and timelines drive me mad. I appreciate shortcuts like that. Every place is three days travel apart. You can communicate instantaneously, and you hand-wave the time differences. Yay.

I think it's one of those collective memory things for G'Kar, or maybe the royal 'we'. It's one of the things you notice about both Londo and G'Kar; their people's history is not past to them. All their grievances are viewed as current, and they can't move past them.

[identity profile] madrona.livejournal.com 2009-01-27 05:00 am (UTC)(link)
G'Kar has a story about his father and mother being slaves to the Centauri while he was growing up, so no, it's not the royal we.

Also, I've noticed that Centauri Prime is very close to Babylon 5 (Londo sitting upright in a transport that looks very much like the coach section of a plane indicates a quick trip) and while the Grey Council ship is not far, Minbar is quite further. I always thought that the Narn homeworld was pretty close, too, considering the amount of meat G'Kar eats, as is the Markab homeworld, although the Markab homeworld isn't on route to anywhere else, so it's just a little side pocket in space.

Earth is hard to judge, because our ships are crap, so travel time might be exacerbated by that.

But if it takes an episode or two in a top of the line Minbari ship to get somewhere, a la Delenn's visits to homeworld? Yeah, that's far.
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