Recap and Discussion: 1 X 05-Parliament of Dreams

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

Season One, Episode 5
Parliament of Dreams

In which we meet many soon-to-be-familiar faces, party hearty with the Centauri, learn about death blossoms and the Assassin's Guild, eat red fruit and pig's heads and get EVEN MORE previews of coming attractions.

So many fishies, left in the sea. So many fishies, but no one for me! I'm thinking of thinking of hooking a love...soon after supper is done.

One story is All About Narn Revenge.

Narns who wear glasses and kill people. And sleepy Narns dreaming of human girls. And Narns who love their job.



One story is all about Centauri Gods.

Val-too! I wanted to find a Last Supper reference but failed.



Li and Morgoth and Venzen, oh my! Count the tentacles!
And has anyone ever seen Susan/Londo fic? Cause they are cute!

    

One story is all about Minbari.

I confess. I volunteered for this one cause it introduces LENNIER, who used to be my main man and whose innocent wisdom still gives me a pang.



‘I cannot have an aide who cannot look up. You will be forever walking into things.’

'Understanding is not required. Only obediance.' My poor lamb.

One story is about doomed love. And Tennyson. And rebirth and red fruit.



And then there's some commentary about religion.



Here are some points and questions (before the signs and portents).

The party scene where Vir gleefully tells of his people's genocide of the Xon race is disturbing to me. You?
I never got the Londo/G'Kar subtext my first (few) watch thrus. But really, Sinclair is almost pushing it here. 'I didn't think Londo was his type.'
Are Delenn and Sinclair hitched in her mind?
What do you think the aliens thought of the humans not having a dominant belief system? Quaint? Immature?

Signs and Portents:

Tu'Pari: 'Cry out!'
G'Kar: 'I would die before giving you the satisfaction.'

Delenn: 'Will you follow me into fire, into storm, into darkness, into death?' Also:
'And so it begins.'

Catherine brings flarn to Sinclair. *boggles* I'm beginning to think flarn is a Minbari aphrodisiac...You all knew that already, didn't you?

Lastly, deleted scenes from the scriptbooks:

In one, Sinclair invites Kosh to the demonstration of beliefs. Kosh tells him ‘We have no rituals. We have no interest in the rituals of others.’ Kosh is watching scenes from Earth on a viewer. He tells Sinclair he is 'studying'.

In another, Sinclair and Ivanova watch the Drazi set off fireworks outside the station; the fireworks symbolize ‘life force energy pulses, uniting the galaxy and the individual in perfect peace, love and harmony.' I'm pretty sure the Drazi believe in the Force.
They also comment on the attack on Kosh and how it shouldn't have worked, what is under that encounter suit, and how Dr. Kyle and Lyta Alexander are the only ones with inside information on the Vorlon and how they were both transferred back to Earth after the incident.

Comments

[seldonp38.livejournal.com]

I don't know why, but this episode has always been a favorite of mine.

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

There's lots of stuff about aliens, quotable quotes, tons of humor (Na'Toth's 'It is not my place to speculate about how anything gets into your bed'), Sinclair in casual clothes (love that sweater), sex, and some of JMS' patented discourse on religion(s). What's not to like?

Death Blossom should be a code name. Or an endearment. Something.

"Everybody's cute!"

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

"I don't care if you're the Easter Bunny. You're not bringing this (big knife) into the station."

Ha! I love that Garibaldi is so "politically incorrect".

ACK! G'Kar and that pig's head! I guess I'd blocked that out from memory.

It becomes more and more poignant for me to hear Michael O'Hare's voice in the opening credits. I've never liked monotone voices. David Duchovny from the X-Files has a similar sort of voice. But in both cases, they grew on me. It's just sad knowing O'Hare is gone, and remembering the real life struggles he was enduring at that time.

Oh, Drunken!Londo, you are such an obnoxious (but cute!) thing.

Aw, my beloved Lennier! I adored him so!

Sinclair & Catherine - I've never understood relationships like this on TV/movies. No one's stopping you from being together but you! If you wanted to be together, you would. If not, you wouldn't. It really is that simple. So why are they acting like this is something outside of them both? Like they're just helpless victims to whatever happens? Bizarre.

End ceremony - I didn't pick up on this the first time around, but they had every belief system under the sun, even some obscure ones I've never heard of, but no Protestant tradition Christian?

Also, that worked in terms of the context of the episode. But in reality, common sense tells you that ALL of these belief systems cannot be true. They teach contradictory things!

Re: "Everybody's cute!"

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

Sinclair and Catherine: I think what stops them is that they're never at the same place in the relationship at the same time. One wants to settle down, the other wants to travel around. Then vice versa. They never gel into a couple but there is huge attraction that prevents them from giving up on each other. Star-crossed is what they are.

I'm not sure about the lack of Christians...there were apparently 250 people in line, most actual practitioners of the religion they had come to represent. We didn't hear all the names (at least I didn't). But Michael O'Hare memorized them all (impressive!)

I like what JMS said about humanity's common belief:

"As to the interpretation of the final tag scene...my thought was that it's a way of saying, "Our dominant belief is that ALL beliefs are respected."

RE: Re: "Everybody's cute!"

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

They never gel into a couple


They're sleeping together. That's about as together as you can get! It's the usual nonsense of people wanting to sleep together with no commitment.

"As to the interpretation of the final tag scene...my thought was that it's a way of saying, "Our dominant belief is that ALL beliefs are respected."

That's cute for fiction, but that's all it is. There were some belief systems that had things like child sacrifice. There's one belief still in practice (at least one, that I know of) that was started by a child rapist. Such things do not merit respect. Nor do all belief systems practice respect for others, as we can see even now, by the jihadists slaughtering all around the world!

So yeah, it's just a fiction. Too bad so many people actually think it's applicable in real life!

[alexcat.livejournal.com]

Are Delenn and Sinclair hitched in her mind?

Delenn seemed connected to Sinclair in such a cosmic way,,, as if it were fated that perhaps they were hitched in some fashion.

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

Well, originally it was planned that they got together and produced a child that Was Important. I think she was planning for that with the red fruit hook-up ceremony. All went to the wayside with the actor's illness and replacement. I like Sinclair's fate as it turned out in the series better.

I have always adored JMS for planning an out for any actor leaving the series. It leaves so many byways to explore