"Midnight on the Firing Line" discussion [spoilers]

[ruuger]

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.

Comments

Observations, Part II

[selenak.livejournal.com]

What strikes me that the s1 set up is in several ways the reverse of the s2 set up, as very visible in this episode: here, Ivanova is the newbie in the core command staff, Garibaldi is the one who is close to the commander and knows him from the old days. Whereas Ivanova is the one who knows Sheridan, Sheridan himself is the newbie, and Garibaldi even at the best of times was never that close to Sheridan. (This, btw, is why Garibaldi's s4 storyline doesn't have quite the intended impact for me - I mean, it's horrible for Garibaldi in any case, but JMS clearly went for a "best friend forced to betray best friend" scenario, and Sheridan and Garibaldi simply weren't. With Sinclair, the same scenes would have been even more powerful.)

Also, Sinclair at this point clearly doesn't like and distrusts G'Kar (no kidding, since G'Kar had tried to hand him over to the Vorlons and in this story is involved in an attack and some piracy), and sympathizes with Londo. While Sheridan's very first encounter with Londo painted Londo as untrustworthy and powerhungry (he never got to meet first season Londo), whereas to him G'Kar always comes across as well-meaning, if at times frustrating. (He's not aquainted with "hooray for sneak attacks, as long as they're ours" G'Kar, either.)

Garibaldi stopping Londo from going after G'Kar with a gun finds its echo in Sheridan stopping G'Kar from going after Londo, and so forth.

Garibaldi's fondness for cartoons is by and large an endearing character trait, but I can understand why Jerry Doyle felt it was shameless product placing by the WB...

Re: Observations, Part II

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

This, btw, is why Garibaldi's s4 storyline doesn't have quite the intended impact for me - I mean, it's horrible for Garibaldi in any case, but JMS clearly went for a "best friend forced to betray best friend" scenario, and Sheridan and Garibaldi simply weren't. With Sinclair, the same scenes would have been even more powerful.

Maybe that was part of the original plan was to have Garibaldi betray Sinclair, but when the story changed, so did the situation. I agree with you here - to me, it just doesn't make sense that Garibaldi is targeted the way he is. It would make more since for Ivanova to have been captured by Bester and implanted with the orders. Just think of the coup that would have given Bester. Granted, it would keep her away from developing the relationship with Marcus, but the ramifications of those actions would have been even more devastating on Sheridan, Garibaldi, etc. than what we were presented with. To me, it just felt like "dogpile on Garibaldi" from the beginning of season 4 to the end of the series.

Re: Observations, Part II

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Well, I could see why Bester went for Garibaldi - because his (Bester's) motivation wasn't to deal a blow to Sheridan & Co. (though that was an okay side effect after Epiphanies), it was to ferret out what Edgars had planned for telepaths. And for this, he needed both a good detective - which he knew Garibaldi was - and someone Edgars would plausibly hire. I can't imagine a scenario where Edgars would hire Ivanova, and remember, Edgards didn't know Garibaldi was brainwashed. To repeat: for Bester, it never was about Babylon 5 or Sheridan, it was about all things telepaths. So from his perspective, the use of Ivanova would not have made sense. Unless JMS had changed Bester's motivation, but I always liked the fact that Bester was an antagonist who wasn't an evil sadist (tm) for the hell of it but saw himself as doing the right thing for "his" people. (That he was deluded there is no question, but it's what makes him an interesting character.)

Re: Observations, Part II

[aris-tgd.livejournal.com]

(This, btw, is why Garibaldi's s4 storyline doesn't have quite the intended impact for me - I mean, it's horrible for Garibaldi in any case, but JMS clearly went for a "best friend forced to betray best friend" scenario, and Sheridan and Garibaldi simply weren't. With Sinclair, the same scenes would have been even more powerful.)

One of the things that I remember from the script books that didn't get on the screen as much as JMS wanted was the idea that the life-energy transfer from Revelations in Season 2 really did mean they shared more than just energy, that they became like brothers, in a way. That would have made the betrayal much sharper. But it never really came off as well as it should have.