ruuger: My hand with the nails painted red and black resting on the keyboard of my laptop (Default)
Ruuger ([personal profile] ruuger) wrote in [community profile] b5_revisited2009-02-08 05:55 pm

"Born to the Purple" discussion [spoilers]

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.
wychwood: Ivanova in dress uniform (B5 - Ivanova grey)

[personal profile] wychwood 2009-02-10 11:44 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd forgotten the Ivanova sub-plot in this. For the tiny amount of screentime she gets, Christian does an amazing amount with her material (those reaction shots to her dad just killed me).

But, of course, this one's really all about Londo. It's an amazing set-up for what comes later - and I love his relationship with Adira. He's such a fascinatingly complex character, and I love that his weaknesses and the things that make him likeable are so close together - his romantic streak being, as [livejournal.com profile] selenak says, a large part of the way Morden hooks him later on.

What I really didn't remember was how cracked-out the bad guys were in this! First the bar guy who doesn't recognise either the station commander *or* the ambassador who'd been hanging out in his bar all the time? What? And then n'grath apparently quite happy to go along with Trakis' insane LET'S KILL ALL THE IMPORTANT PEOPLE BECAUSE THAT'S NOT GOING TO HAVE ANY LONG-TERM REPERCUSSIONS strategy... really, what? Mostly I don't care, though, because the rest of the plot is so good. This is the show up and running, right here.

[identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com 2009-02-11 06:13 am (UTC)(link)
Oh yes, the bad guys really were... something. Though the not-recognizing-the-station-commander thing is a bit more believable than not recognizing the regular customer; presumably Sinclair doesn't go to the Dark Star otherwise and doesn't make broadcasts on the BabCom - that's what he has Ivanova for *g*. Otoh, in Crusade we get the episode where Lochley makes a bet with Gideon that she'll be recognized without her uniform on the station anyway, wherever they go, and she is, which might be JMS acknowledging this bit of the plot was, err, less than credible. *g*

Ivanova's subplot: also reminds me that this is when she loses the last of her biological family, with her brother gone since the Earth/Minbari war, and we know about her mother. And how fiercely private she is; later in the show she might have shared her father's illness with someone - Garibaldi, Franklin, Talia (if we're talking late s2 before Divided Loyalties), or even Delenn. But not at this point.
wychwood: Dief loves RayV (due South - RayV and Dief)

[personal profile] wychwood 2009-02-11 02:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Though the not-recognizing-the-station-commander thing is a bit more believable than not recognizing the regular customer; presumably Sinclair doesn't go to the Dark Star otherwise

Slightly more! But we know he was in there with G'Kar and Londo only, what, two days earlier? And Londo must have been in there all the time. Craziness, anyway. *g*

That's very true about Ivanova - she's very alone here, more so than even after Marcus' death. It's funny - she's never terribly open to people, but in comparison with how she is a couple of years later, she seems desperately closed in on herself. (Though the speech from her father was hilariously As-You-Know-Bob... exposition is hard!)

[identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com 2009-02-11 02:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Exposition is. The funny thing is, JMS swings it far better in Centauri scenes. I mean, Midnight on the Firing Line has Londo give Sinclair the all important information about his death dream and it doesn't feel forced, and in Born to the Purple, Londo and Adira convey information about a society they both come from which still doesn't feel redundant (presumably because when Adira says "I am Centauri; your title pleases me", it comes across as half-teasing, half serious and conveys something about the relatioship as well.

...and then we have Lorien in season 4. Who could be called Walking Exposition. *cringes*
ext_20885: (Default)

[identity profile] 4thofeleven.livejournal.com 2009-02-12 02:48 am (UTC)(link)
What struck me as even odder was that it's *Londo* who wears a hood to conceal his identity, not Sinclair. Surely the bar guy's going to be a lot less suspicious of Londo, regular customer and good-natured drunk, coming in to see the dancers than the station commander?

And I'm standing by my theory that n'grath is the ambassador for his people - the guy has to have diplomatic immunity or something to think he can get away with the stuff he pulls...

[identity profile] lordbleys.livejournal.com 2009-02-13 01:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I think a lot of the "What?" moments that don't make sense in this, can be attributed to this being "Season 1" of an untested SCIFI series and producers/executives are Expecting to see certain chestnuts in their SCIFI. JMS had to set his stage before he could get serious with the series, as I'm sure he was leaned on a lot for certain script elements. One can't write a huge epic without earning your board room lumps first.


And well, maybe JMS had to get some cliches out of his keyboard before he could get the real Meaty stories out.