"And Now for a Word" discussion

[ruuger]

This is the discussion post for the episode 2X15, "And Now for a Word". Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.

Summary:
ISN Special Report about a regular day on Babylon 5.

Extra reading:
The article for "And Now for a Word" at Lurker's Guide.

Comments

[nolivingman.livejournal.com]

Some nice Narn/Centauri tension, but overall, I just loathe this episode. Not even Reva Shayne can save us from JMS Making A Statement About The Press. I'm with Delenn in crying. Which I found embarrassing as a viewer, but realistic. She's new to human emotions; they're tough to deal with. And she still has that lame hairdo and it looks bad on TV. I'd cry too.

I find the assertion that 250,000 humans died during the Earth-Minbari war to be an interesting fact. I guess we can make the math work if we assume small outposts were taken, smaller ships, etc., but it's weird how over-the-top the reactions in In the Beginning (which I adore) are in comparison to that number. I'm not prepared to say continuity problem, but I would need some talking into it.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

*icon courtesy of IPX sponsoring this episode and Max Eilerson being a company man*

I remember upon first watching finding the different format narration interesting and being amused by the Psi Corps ad, complete with subliminal message. But it's not an episode I cared to rewatch, so this is actually only the second time, as opposed to how often I rewatched other eps.

Looking back, Cynthia is actually the reporter who fares best on all five seasons of B5 and in the spin-offs. She's not declared oxnoxious for just doing her job (s1), presented as a tool for fascist evil (s4) or humiliated and ridiculed for daring to ask a head of goverment for an interview (Lost Tales); JMS even gives her the concluding plea to keep B5 running. This being said, I'm never quite sure how the audience was supposed to take the Delenn interview. On the one hand, bearing Delenn's personal involvment in the Earth/Minbari war in mind which she can't bear to acknowledge out loud, her extreme reaction here isn't out of the question and ties with the earlier incidents in GROPOS, on the other, I can never quite unite the Delenn who crumbles in tears every single time someone critisizes her or shows hostility because of her transformation with the Delenn who faces torture by Sebastian, the Markab dying around her and later breaks up the Grey Council. So this makes me wonder whether we were supposed to go "how dare that reporter make Delenn cry!".

Interview and character moment I had forgotten but which I really liked upon rewatching: Franklin's story about his friend airlocking himself. It's haunting and a good reminder of the danger of living in space.

Corwin's interview with Ivanova in the background was amusing.

The mentions of the new minstery and Clark's "astronimical" popularity are parts of the ongoing transformation of Earth from a democratic into a fascist society. The characterisation of the Mars independent movements as bloodthirsty unreasonable terrorists menacing the Earth-loyal populace makes me think certain situations created in the last eight years, ahem.

Speaking of parallels: the episode reminded me again that JMS played up the "prelude to WWII /Munich agreement" parallels in s2 with the Centauri. (Which ended in s3 - Londo's memorable rant to Refa about only kings of idiots fighting multiple front wars comes to mind.) I remember a lot of viewers at the time were expecting the Centauri to eventually turn on Earth as to follow the pattern set, which did not happen. In this case, I'm voting deliberate red herring because the fact Earth, via Clark, is already allied with the Shadows (which Sheridan & Co. can't know about) means it can never have been intended as a parallel to the Western Allies.

All this being said, I wasn't bored, but it's not an episode I'll rewatch any time soon, either, and I really wish the Delenn scenes had been handled differently.

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

We’ve kind of discussed one scene in this episode a fair bit already – the interview with Delenn. On re-watching, I’m not entirely sure how we’re meant to take it. On the one hand, reporters don’t exactly have a good reputation in Babylon 5, and this is a scene that ends with a normally sympathetic main character on the verge of tears. On the other hand, Delenn really doesn’t come across very well – she’s apparently initially refused requests for an interview, and unlike G’Kar and Londo doesn’t seem at all prepared. It’s hard to see how we’re meant to be automatically taking the side of someone who seems that unwilling to take advantage of an opportunity to communicate her viewpoint regarding a change that was supposed to help build connections between Minbari and humans; if she doesn’t even want to talk about it with humans, one has to ask what the point is?

Of course, this goes back to the point Neroon made a few episodes back that the Grey Council is out of touch and unanswerable to the outside world; coming from that background, it’s understandable that Delenn is really uncomfortable being challenged in such a public forum… but that doesn’t really make it a particularly virtuous position, and I would hope the intended message was not that reporters should stick to vacuous questions about how pretty the cities on Minbar are.

Looking at the main plot, it’s interesting to notice that on the one hand, the Earth government is trying to spin the EA as a major powerful force – the senator claiming that their military is now powerful enough to hold of the Minbari, the reporter ‘correcting’ Sheridan that Earth didn’t lose the war – but on the other hand, their actions seem if anything reminiscent of the first season Centauri government. Sending a warship to blockade someone else’s outpost to ensure they don’t stop you using it as effectively a military supply depot is a fairly strong action, and not only does Earth seem to take the Centauri actions in stride, within a couple of days a senator is on TV discussing whether or not Earth really needs that outpost in the first place…

Now granted, as Sheridan said, the Earth Alliance really isn’t in a position to take on the Centauri, but it’s interesting to note just how much of a paper tiger the Earth Alliance seems to be. One has to assume the Shadows feel a little ripped off that they went the effort to assist a species that seems quite content to hide away on its own homeworld and avoid any hint of trouble…
Minor notes:

- Hey, it’s the flying camera robots from “The Gathering”! Man, I love seeing those things. I like to imagine they’re friends with the little mouse robots on the Death Star in Star Wars.

- ‘Growth only comes through pain and struggle’? Speaking of the Shadows…

[kathrid.livejournal.com]

In addition to my replies above I thought I'd input about the journalistic qualities shown.

Overall, this show is surprisingly unbiased against B5. Although there are obvious signs - if you know what to look for - of the Clarkists pressuring ISN into being more pro-Clark, there are plenty of pro-B5 voices shown throughout.

The overall effect is of a journalist attempting to remain as objective as possible when being pushed into a Clarkist position. She is mostly fair, but makes sure she puts the boot in good and hard when she feels she has to make a Clarkist point. It's worth noting that most of those occasions - the Delenn interview, the Mars comments being the notable ones - are those when Clark's views agree with the majority Earth view. Anger against the Minbari and the Marsies are well documented in Season 1. She probably feels that it's not breaking her integrity to represent those commonly held views, where pushing Clarks more controversial ideas would.