"Born to the Purple" discussion [spoilers]

[ruuger]

This is the discussion post for the episode 1X03, "Born to the Purple". 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 "Born to the Purple" at Lurker's Guide.

Comments

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

- I find there’s not a lot to say about these early episodes, other than “Man, this is kinda depressing when you know how it’s all going to end up.”

- There’s a lot of great little jokes here – I like G’kar glancing back to check out the human dancer in the first scene.

- It always vaguely bugs me when a major character in an episode is a one-off alien species. B5 doesn’t have a lot of aliens of the week, so it stands out far more when one appears – they don’t feel like they belong. It doesn’t ruin the episode, but I’d really have preferred it if Trakis had been a Drazi or a Markab or something – or if his species had appeared in the background in other episodes.

- Wait a second; is the guy in the Zocalo buying the noseless alien woman flowers the same guy that tried to pick up Ko’dath in the club? Guess someone’s got an alien fetish…

- Just how much is Trakis paying n’grath that he thinks merely doubling it will be enough to make up for the damage caused by attacking the station commander and the Centauri ambassador? I guess he thinks if he’s getting the data to blackmail any Centauri house, he can afford high expenses in acquiring them… I can’t imagine mind-probes, cloaked microphones or tazer gloves come cheap either.

- I’m always amused that one of the thugs sent after Londo and Sinclair is wearing sunglasses. On a space station. In a dark corridor. You just *know* he’s convinced he’s the coolest guy on the station – and everyone else wonders how the hell he can see… I bet he made up that “Gun One” codename himself, and uses it at every opportunity.

- Are Centauri slaves mentioned anywhere else? I’ve always wondered how common it is; common enough that it’s apparently not a big deal than a non-Centauri would have one, it seems.

[aris-tgd.livejournal.com]

- It always vaguely bugs me when a major character in an episode is a one-off alien species. B5 doesn’t have a lot of aliens of the week, so it stands out far more when one appears – they don’t feel like they belong. It doesn’t ruin the episode, but I’d really have preferred it if Trakis had been a Drazi or a Markab or something – or if his species had appeared in the background in other episodes.

One of the things I like about Season 1, actually, is that we have less common aliens in the background--it seems like we only had the main races in the later seasons. I think that Trakis is supposed to be the same species as the family in "Believers." Hold on! *grabs the B5 Monster Manual--err, the Larry DiTillo Guide to B5 Aliens* .. .Hm, no, okay, they're just the same race as the alien fighter in TKO. Apparently, Trakis is a Golian, and those three are Onteen. I get the sense from this that Larry DiTillo was the one who was pushing a lot of the odder aliens and alien worldbuilding, and when he had a reduced role in the show as JMS took on more writing responsibilities, the aliens got streamlined.

[aris-tgd.livejournal.com]

- Wait a second; is the guy in the Zocalo buying the noseless alien woman flowers the same guy that tried to pick up Ko’dath in the club? Guess someone’s got an alien fetish…

And not to keep picking on your comment, here, but apparently that guy is played by Chuck Norris' son. (The things you learn...)

[lordbleys.livejournal.com]

"- It always vaguely bugs me when a major character in an episode is a one-off alien species. B5 doesn’t have a lot of aliens of the week, so it stands out far more when one appears – they don’t feel like they belong. It doesn’t ruin the episode, but I’d really have preferred it if Trakis had been a Drazi or a Markab or something – or if his species had appeared in the background in other episodes."


Since he's a one off "not as important race" political dealings with the Centari won't factor in. If he was drazzi, I'm sure he'd be connected to Something, Somehow that could factor in another political dealing. This way, he's just a jackass who owns a slave and can be a mean SOB and not cause "an incident".