I like this one (except for the Franklin & Dad bit), partly because it is so different. Shows how B5 can navigate various sub-genres with relative ease, and also shows a part of the military not notmally seen on space opera type shows.
Like selenak, I liked Neil Gaiman bringing back Dodger.
- General Franklin is known as the “liberator of the African Bloc”. Sounds like there were fairly major conflicts on Earth itself within living memory… How recent is Earth unification meant to be?
If memory serves me right, in the fist of the Psi Corps novels (Dark Genesis), the Earth Alliance is a federation *on earth, and not all countries are members. That novel ends with the birth of bester, which provides a time scale.
- So, Garibaldi gives orders to seal off the more ‘colourful’ areas of the station… and that didn’t include the casino?
He may not have got away with that, there'd have been a riot ;-)
- Why do space navies get to be far more relaxed and informal than their real-world equivalents, while futuristic armies always seem to still be employing the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket?
I am told real-world air forces are much more relaxed, too, and the nick-name airboy suggetst that an airforce rather than a navy is envisaged. Which ties in with the real-life space programmes being run by the airforce (I believe).
BTW, I like the nick-name airboy, at a place and time when pilots rarely get near an atmosphere. Like VCR, a nice observation on how conservative language can be (and unlike VCR, it hasn't been overtaken by real life...). I love this kind of attention to detail.
that last scene is a sad illustration of death being the great leveller.
Less so than it might have been. First time round, I had fully expected the general to be killed too. Still the anti-war messge was good; somehow that kind of thing, though not new, never gets quite as cliched as other things do.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-08-24 12:38 pm (UTC)Like selenak, I liked Neil Gaiman bringing back Dodger.
- General Franklin is known as the “liberator of the African Bloc”. Sounds like there were fairly major conflicts on Earth itself within living memory… How recent is Earth unification meant to be?
If memory serves me right, in the fist of the Psi Corps novels (Dark Genesis), the Earth Alliance is a federation *on earth, and not all countries are members. That novel ends with the birth of bester, which provides a time scale.
- So, Garibaldi gives orders to seal off the more ‘colourful’ areas of the station… and that didn’t include the casino?
He may not have got away with that, there'd have been a riot ;-)
- Why do space navies get to be far more relaxed and informal than their real-world equivalents, while futuristic armies always seem to still be employing the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket?
I am told real-world air forces are much more relaxed, too, and the nick-name airboy suggetst that an airforce rather than a navy is envisaged. Which ties in with the real-life space programmes being run by the airforce (I believe).
BTW, I like the nick-name airboy, at a place and time when pilots rarely get near an atmosphere. Like VCR, a nice observation on how conservative language can be (and unlike VCR, it hasn't been overtaken by real life...).
I love this kind of attention to detail.
that last scene is a sad illustration of death being the great leveller.
Less so than it might have been. First time round, I had fully expected the general to be killed too. Still the anti-war messge was good; somehow that kind of thing, though not new, never gets quite as cliched as other things do.