"In the Kingdom from the Blind" discussion

[ruuger]

This is the discussion post for the episode 5x09, "In the Kingdom from the Blind". Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.

Summary:
Byron's telepaths give the Alliance an ultimatum. Londo and G'Kar visit Centauri Prime.

Extra reading:
The article for "In the Kingdom from the Blind" at The Lurker's Guide.

Comments

[alexcat.livejournal.com]

Londo's pet narn! What a wonderful episode for the two of them and again, they seem like an old married couple. I LOVED the way G'Kar taunted the Centauri but I think Londo loved it even more! Londo has spent so much time at B5 that even he is sick of the foppishness of the Centauri and the nefarious intent of most at court.

Byron and his band of morons... the less said the better. Too creepy for comment.

[amatara.livejournal.com]

Whenever I hear someone bewailing the general awfulness that is supposed to be season 5, I just think of all these marvelous, bittersweet Londo and G'Kar moments, and smile to myself like a besotted fool. :) But seriously, I adore the bits and pieces of them scattered across the early 5th season, those last bits of happiness for Londo especially, just before it all becomes ugly. Also how the Regent, in this episode, goes from being mostly comic relief to all-out heartbreaking and creepy - I still think the guy has the weirdest pronunciation (of the word 'Centauri', among other things) ever, but I do love how he acts the hell out of those scenes.

While I don't loathe the telepath arc entirely (I'm not fond of Byron, but I am of Lyta, so I'm usually glad to see more of her, even if I prefer it not to be in tandem with Byron) I'll admit that what happened in this episode was rather, um, of secondary interest to me. ;)

[widsidh.livejournal.com]

I like this episode, with the Centauri/Drakh stoyline starting to gain momentum and some lovely Londo/G'Kar moments, and some great acting from the Regent (or rather from Damian London)

Much as Byron as a person gives me the creeps, I also like the telepath arc. It is a situation where everyone seems to be doing the wrong thing, and it leaves one wondering if there is a right thing at all...

Some disjointed details:
- the Drakh looked better blurred
- I didn' remember the Centauri with a beard!

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

I will admit, I’m not as much a fan of the Drakh plot – they just don’t have the grandeur of the Shadows, and they’re never very interesting in their own right. They seem to get away with far too much without being detecting – it almost feels like they do more covert damage than the Shadows did, and the Shadows didn’t ever get directly involved to the degree the Drakh did…

Plus, there’s a real idiot-plot moment at the start – Sheridan gets intel that there’s seemingly random attacks, apparently intended solely to spread chaos among the minor races… and he doesn’t immediately think “Huh, who does that remind me of?” I don’t know, maybe we’re meant to assume that Sheridan thinks the fleet Delenn took out was all the Drakh had, but you’d think someone in the Alliance would put one and one together.

On the other hand, the Drakh plot does give us an excuse to see more of the Centauri royal court, so they’re not all bad… What amuses me: That there was apparently a conspiracy against Londo that was completely unrelated to the Drakh, and nobody really bats an eyelid.

Over in the Byron plot –I find myself liking the other telepath, the black guy who wants to fight openly, a lot more than I do Byron – and not just because Byron’s a smug jackass. I mean, if you’re blackmailing every government in the galaxy, you may as well bite the bullet and admit you’re not going to win this by playing on people’s sympathies.

One element that I always felt was missing from the Byron arc is the reaction of non-human telepaths – the telepath problem is always treated as purely a human issue. I’m never sure if we’re meant to see it as hypocritical of Delenn to be arguing that the Alliance does owe the telepaths, while presumably making no effort to change the status quo of telepaths on Minbar.

Thing I noticed – the council meeting early in the episode seems to be dealing with the independence of a colony world. I do wonder if this was chosen just as generic political filler, or if it was meant to be highlighting that Sheridan does support self-determination for minority populations in cases like Mars, but when it comes to the telepaths he’s… well, his instinct is to automatically reject it because they’re not being perfectly quiet and peaceful in their demands.

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

I think the main mistake was having the Drakh in "Lines of Communication" so prominently - I'm wondering if that wouldn't have happened if JMS had known he'd get a fifth season. As it is, it's utterly baffling that the ISA can't put the pieces together when they know the Drakh have been raiding civilian shipping - but if we assume the Drakh only appeared in that episode because JMS thought "Hey, probably won't ever get a chance to do the Drakh plot properly...", well, it's still hard to accept, but it's at least plausable.

Re: Order vs. Chaos - the funny thing is, I don't think this is an example of sledgehammer storytelling. The whole point of the Shadow War, after all, was that neither side was in the right, I don't think we're meant to see the ISA as the new Vorlons. (Even if Deconstruction of Falling Stars actually has humanity evolving into encounter-suit wearing energy beings...)

It does work as an interpretation, and work almost perfectly, but I think that's just a sign of JMS's weakness with political storylines - which we've discussed previously. He's very bad at writing democratic or pluralistic societies, he tends to lapse towards wriing Great Men of History who everyone else obeys... but I think we are meant to accept the ISA's rhetoric about many equal voices, even if the Alliance we see is effectively Sheridan and Delenn's family empire. (Hell, the Centauri seem to have more internal dissent...)

Re: Delenn - heh, never thought of that. But you're right, she's the one character we know has deep dark secrets that she doesn't want exposed.