"Lines of Communication" discussion
Jul. 12th, 2010 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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This is the discussion post for the episode 4X11 "Lines of Communication". Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.
Summary:
Marcus and Franklin try to convince the Martian resistance leaders to join Sheridan's cause. Delenn investigates mysterious attacks against Minbari allies
Extra reading:
The article for "Lines of Communication" at The Lurker's Guide.
Summary:
Marcus and Franklin try to convince the Martian resistance leaders to join Sheridan's cause. Delenn investigates mysterious attacks against Minbari allies
Extra reading:
The article for "Lines of Communication" at The Lurker's Guide.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-12 06:45 am (UTC)This episode kicks off the Minbari civil war mini arc, and I know it mostly came about because of Mira Furlan and Yugoslawia, but it feels like it's planned, because the caste conflicts have been set up since s1, and there really should be consequences to Delenn breaking up the Grey Council. Which now there are. Incidentally, the first time I watched I was expecting Ferell (spelling?) to have a Keeper, but I'm glad he didn't; that he joined up with the Drakh voluntarily, thinking to use them against the Warrior Caste, makes the whole thing more shades of grey than just his "The Warrior Caste went beserk" news would have done.
Speaking of the Drakh: am I ever glad that blurry effect was abandoned later, it's a headache to watch. Though I suppose this might not have been an actual Drakh but simply an "emissary" from another race.
Stephen and Marcus on Mars: continue to be entertaining. I'm not feeling any great chemistry between Franklin and Number One, but there isn't anti-chemistry, either, plus she's convincing enough as the tough resistance leader she's supposed to be, and that's the main thing. I had forgotten we actually hear about Earth resistance in addition to Mars resistance here, i.e. that it exists (and is apparantly led by a guy named Donavan). Bombing civilians: ethically I entirely agree with Franklin, storytelling wise I have to give the advantage to DS9 here because the fact that the Bajoran resistance did kill civilians (both Cardassians and fellow Bajorans) on occasion in addition to all the military Cardassian personnel is an important and realistic plot point and something Kira has to deal with later. The division "freedom fighter = someone who only ever kills the guilty oppressors with weapons in their hands" and "terrorist = bastard who bombs innocent civilians" is something that I suspect rarely if ever was practiced as neatly through human history. All of which isn't a complaint, btw: it's entirely in character (and laudable) for Franklin to use the weight he has via Sheridan to make the resistance draw a line here.
Sheridan gets an idea: the scenes with him and Ivanova remind me that their friendship is one of the few and successful m/f (without UST ever entering the picture) friendships on tv, and I really, really enjoy watching it this time around.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-12 09:23 am (UTC)You heard that the blurry effect was introduced because they tried to get the actor to do weird alien motions and it just looked stupid? My personal fanon is that it's because Drakh don't react well to the proximity of Vorlon or Vorlon-influence tech.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-12 09:28 am (UTC)Weird alien motions: shame they didn't hire Chiana from Farscape, because the actress is great with just that.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-13 01:56 pm (UTC)So true. That's actually one of my long-standing pet peeves wrt TV relationships, that you never see a man and woman just be friends with nothing else getting in the way. Actually, it was nice in general to see a character like Ivanova mostly defined by her own character and not a string of hook-ups with the other men in the cast, as is par for the course with most other shows. I know I've read complaints about the way JMS writes romance, but give me telegraphed couples and overblown dialogue - and a greater emphasis on platonic, strong professional relationships - over shipper baiting and do-si-so partner switching any day.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-13 06:49 pm (UTC)Quite true. Her relationship with Talia and Marcus' crush on her aren't what she's about, they're simply part of her life, and not the one which gets the most screentime.
JMS and romance:
well, he outdid himself with the epic Londo/G'KarI'm okay with his writing in this regard for the most part. His weaknesses as a writer to me are in other areas. And he's really good with friendships and complicated in-between-relationships.no subject
Date: 2010-07-13 07:23 pm (UTC)I was pretty happy with JMS's writing with the other couples, too. I mean, I was a handful of episodes into season two and thought, "John and Delenn are pretty. I like them together. Too bad that'll never happen," so you can imagine how exciting the last couple months were for me. But he definitely doesn't write "TV romances," which is pretty refreshing.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-12 02:42 pm (UTC)I liked the Delenn battles scenes and I had forgotten how creepy the Drakh were. I think the special effect makes them even creepier too. It sure didn't take Delenn long to figure out where they came from either, did it? I did like how she blew the Mothership up! Go Delenn. We saw a bit of the rage that began the Minbari/Earth War there too.
I like John's idea for a freedom broadcast. It reminds me of the Radio Free America ads on TV when I was a kid.
Mars...I could find nmo reason that Number One should take Stephen to her bed. i saw no chemistry. Nothing... I do find that we see that perhaps one mans freedom fighter is another man's terroist in this... it's not always black and white and innocent people die in a fight such as this. Still, I have no feeling for the mars colonists... and I never really do.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-13 11:07 am (UTC)The Drakh itself, though – I kinda wish they’d kept the bluring effect. The Shadows were cloaked all the time, the Shadow servant in “The Long Dark” was invisible, I kind of feel the Drakh should have always been at least slightly concealed as well.
Incidentally, I always assumed for some reason that ‘Drakh’ was a description, not a species name – that all the Shadow’s servant races were ‘Drakh’, and that the raiders here weren’t necessarily the same species as the reptilian Drakh on Centauri Prime. Not sure if there’s anything anywhere to support that.
Bit of symmetry between the plots – Sheridan complains about how there’s no reliable news out of Earth any more, while Delenn has no idea of what’s happening on Minbar either. Of course, it’s been mentioned before that Minbar even in the best of times lacked a free press…
Nice that Forell isn’t being controlled by the Drakh, he’s just made a bad choice of allies.
I had also forgotten that there were mentions of an Earth resistance here alongside the Mars resistance. Interesting that it’s the Earth resistance guy who’s in favour of bombing civilian targets – one does start to wonder what Earth’s like at this point.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-13 03:58 pm (UTC)