ruuger: My hand with the nails painted red and black resting on the keyboard of my laptop (Kosh - modsquad)
Ruuger ([personal profile] ruuger) wrote in [community profile] b5_revisited2010-12-13 12:49 pm

"A Tragedy of Telepaths" discussion

This is the discussion post for the episode 5x10, "A Tragedy of Telepaths" . Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.

Summary:
The Drakh continue attacking Alliance ships, and on B5 some of Byron's followers are also resorting to violence. Meanwhile on Centauri prime, Londo and G'kar run into an old friend.

Na'Toth's back and Byron and his telepaths are just one episode away from being out. Thoughs? ;)

Extra reading:
The article for "A Tragedy of Telepaths" at The Lurker's Guide.

[identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com 2010-12-13 11:40 am (UTC)(link)
Hooray for original!Na'Toth being back and getting a proper send-off! I love all the Centauri Prime scenes in this episode, naturally. Both the comedy ("animal magnetism, what can I say?") and the very real horror about Na'Toth's time in prison. Especially and including the fact that she was there now because nobody ever countermanded Cartagia's original order, which is the type of bureaucratic horror that somehow is even worse than intentional sadism.

(BTW, it also makes the whole thing with the Drakh believable that Centauri society, or rather the Royal Court, is trained to look away and not to question.)

Na'Toth is also the rare time we see Londo, post-season 3 and thus post-moral nadir, with a Narn other than G'Kar. It's one of my "what if?" speculations to wonder how he'd have responded if Cartagia had produced Na'Toth, rather than G'Kar, as a "present" in early s4. I think he'd still have tried a secret alliance if only because getting rid of Cartagia was so important, but of course no other Narn but G'Kar, and certainly not Na'Toth, would have believed him.

Telepaths: it must have occured to Byron & Co. that sooner or later, someone would call Psi Corps, but then they never big on the logic and planning anyway. This, btw, is where the change of command comes in handy, because Lochley calling Bester makes sense - she does not have personal negative experience with him, and Sheridan continues to be no help at all in the situation he himself created and dumped on her - while I don't think Ivanova would have ever done it, but then Ivanova was earmarked to have an affair with Byron, so... lucky Susan.

Finally: in my personal canon, Na'Toth gets a seat in the Ka'Ri after her recovery.

[identity profile] alexcat.livejournal.com 2010-12-14 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
Na'Toth and the Centauri bits were outstanding. Lond ando G'kar are brilliant and I love how Londo hides Na'Toth in plain sight. He and G'kar get off some good lines and for some reason, I've always loved the story about the guard in the courtyard guarding nothing.

Bester... bah humbug!

What did Byron and company expect, really? What morons. I can't see Susan EVER loving such an idiot or putting up with all that stupid teep melodrama. Good thing she left.

I think the Shadow allies are more menacing in some ways than the shadows were... They surely give me the creeps.
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[identity profile] 4thofeleven.livejournal.com 2010-12-14 10:52 am (UTC)(link)
Yay Na’toth! I mentioned a while back that one of the reasons I’m still very glad B5 got its fifth season is that it meant Na’toth could get a proper send-off – her departure was very poorly handled, with no explanation for her disappearance until the end of the third season…

Meanwhile, on the station, Lochley discovers a bunch of telepaths are locked in a section of Brown Sector. Apparently, Sheridan must have given the order to let them live there – after that, he probably didn’t give them much thought. Well, these things happen in a monarchy…

I kid – but the ISA is a truly odd political entity, isn’t it? Sheridan and Delenn clearly don’t represent or answer to Earth or Minbar, the non-aligned worlds seem to have joined without fully understanding what expectations the alliance would put on them, and the only force actually loyal to the ISA as an institution is the White Star Fleet – which can be deployed without informing the council. In effect, the Alliance is less a federal state and more an army without a homeland.

The telepath story hasn’t really dragged as much as I remembered – possibly it’s easier to watch when you know when it’s going to end? And Byron does actually get less irritating – though it’s still baffling that anyone would follow him. The wanna-be matyr doesn't really seem to match the guy who'd try and blackmail the galaxy for a homeland...

[identity profile] tea-drinker77.livejournal.com 2010-12-17 07:57 pm (UTC)(link)
I think that watching Susan in a relationship with Byron would have made Season 5 unbearable for me! I can see what they were trying to do with the Byron character, but the actor is so horribly miscast. He just comes across as a creepy cult leader. The telepath story has so many holes in it anyway that they would have needed an incredibly charismatic actor to carry off the role successfully. I think they usually cast really well in B5, but not in this instance!