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b5_revisited2015-12-22 10:21 am
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The War Prayer: Recap and Discussion, Season One, Episode Seven
I apologize for being a day late and a few pictures short. If I get a chance I'll add in the pics I snipped for this episode, but here's a start on the discussion at least.
Review:
In this episode we have the foreshadowing (you see what I did there?) of the Earth Civil War, the rise of the Home Guard and residual xenophobia after the Earth-Minbari War.
Mayan is a poet, and an old friend of Delenn’s. She is a Minbari cultural treasure and a traveling ambassador of sorts.
"I create and perform Tee'la," she says: "poem songs that attempt to recall old memories and prompt new ideas.”
Old memories (the recently unsatisfactorily concluded war, the weight of Centauri tradition) and new ideas (Londo’s resolution in favor of Aria and Kiron, Mayan’s keeping the brand and going ahead with her tour, Susan’s repudiation of Malcolm) are the main theme of this episode.
Spoken by the adults in the room:
Such great hatred for such little reason. I find it incomprehensible.
I find many of these people to be more human than those of your kind.
Also, the reason we give up old memories and follow new ideas, one of the great B5 speeches, by Londo. Most of the great speeches are G'Kar's, but Londo gets some in:
“Something my father said. He was old, very old at the time. I went into his room, and he was sitting alone in the dark, crying. So I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "My shoes are too tight, but it doesn't matter, because I have forgotten how to dance." I never understood what that meant until now. My shoes are too tight, and I have forgotten how to dance.”
Another theme is the universality of certain concepts and emotions.
Mayan: Ambassador, you should listen to the girl. We Minbari consider love to be a most potent force for healing. She cares deeply for him. Such feelings can turn the tide when all else fails.
Londo: Oh I see. And if he dies, despite this great power of lo-
Mayan: If he dies, she will suffer enormous grief, but every moment together will make her grief a little less.
Londo: I would expect such logic from a poet. What can a Minbari know about Centauri feeling?
Mayan: Ambassador, I have traveled far and seen much. And what I have seen tells me that all sentient beings are defined by their capacity and need for love.
Londo: And she will learn to live without it!
Mayan: As you did?
The Romeo and Juliet part of the script was contrived but it fit in with the rest of the episode. And gave us a chance to see Londo’s thwarted hopes for his own life. And I think we see the beginning of Delenn’s evolution, perhaps she sees that (some) old memories are holding back herself and her own people and new ideas are needed to fight new wars.
Items from the first draft script by D. C. Fontana (B5 Scriptbooks, Other Voices, Volume 1)
Add-ins:
The whole coffee tree sequence was added in.
The whole Ambassador Vir thing was added in.
The branding of Mayan was added in.
The tight shoes speech was added in.
Changes:
JMS felt DC didn’t have a good Garibaldi voice and re-wrote his dialogue but I liked this part.
Delenn: Are you saying you are afraid of me, Mr. Garibaldi?
Garibaldi: No Ma’am. I just respect the hell out of you is all.
Biggs left Ivanova rather than Ivanova leaving Biggs. That changes things, doesn't it?
Mayan’s speech in MedLab is Delenn’s in the first draft. (Nice scene between Delenn and Londo here. Not sure whether it's better coming from Mayan, although her influence on Delenn is strong in this episode.)
Ivanova is cold and hard and shows no vulnerability, (which is a mistake IMHO).
Lovely scene was cut out between Delenn and Ivanova, with Delenn offering a sympathetic ear. “It is either a loss of love, or a loss of the belief in love.” Hits my Susan/Delenn buttons hard.
Delenn challenges Sinclair about the perps leaving the stations and he tells her to be patient. She gets the hint. I can’t decide if this was better dropped or left in. Delenn is obviously freaked out by Sinclair’s weird behavior and would have challenged him, I think. In the original script the threatened visitor was Minbari, not Abbai. Would that have made a difference? The Abbai, like the Markab, are a client race of the Minbari, so she would have been protective regardless.
Biggs drops his gun when Ivanova gets the drop on him. “Go ahead. But remember I was on the Academy pistol team.” Again, cold, hard Ivanova as DC writes her. But I liked this bit.
WTF? Moments
Fontana calls Narns Narnians in the script. Think of the crossovers!
Vir’s name is Virell in the script. Think of the subtext!
Title Explanation from The Lurker’s Guide
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/warprayer.html
Mark Twain-- The War Prayer (excerpt)
"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.”
Twain apparently dictated it around 1904-05; it was rejected by his publisher, and was found after his death among his unpublished manuscripts. It was first published in 1923 in Albert Bigelow Paine's anthology, Europe and Elsewhere.
The story is in response to a particular war, namely the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902, which Twain opposed.
Signs and Portents:
"All I could see was a shadow. It was a shadow, that is all I know."
G’Kar’s speech on the catwalk (akin to the speech in The Summoning?)
Malcolm Biggs and the Home Guard:trouble in River City
Londo’s respect for tradition and his capacity for regret. He and Delenn really are bookends.
Review:
In this episode we have the foreshadowing (you see what I did there?) of the Earth Civil War, the rise of the Home Guard and residual xenophobia after the Earth-Minbari War.
Mayan is a poet, and an old friend of Delenn’s. She is a Minbari cultural treasure and a traveling ambassador of sorts.
"I create and perform Tee'la," she says: "poem songs that attempt to recall old memories and prompt new ideas.”
Old memories (the recently unsatisfactorily concluded war, the weight of Centauri tradition) and new ideas (Londo’s resolution in favor of Aria and Kiron, Mayan’s keeping the brand and going ahead with her tour, Susan’s repudiation of Malcolm) are the main theme of this episode.
Spoken by the adults in the room:
Such great hatred for such little reason. I find it incomprehensible.
I find many of these people to be more human than those of your kind.
Also, the reason we give up old memories and follow new ideas, one of the great B5 speeches, by Londo. Most of the great speeches are G'Kar's, but Londo gets some in:
“Something my father said. He was old, very old at the time. I went into his room, and he was sitting alone in the dark, crying. So I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "My shoes are too tight, but it doesn't matter, because I have forgotten how to dance." I never understood what that meant until now. My shoes are too tight, and I have forgotten how to dance.”
Another theme is the universality of certain concepts and emotions.
Mayan: Ambassador, you should listen to the girl. We Minbari consider love to be a most potent force for healing. She cares deeply for him. Such feelings can turn the tide when all else fails.
Londo: Oh I see. And if he dies, despite this great power of lo-
Mayan: If he dies, she will suffer enormous grief, but every moment together will make her grief a little less.
Londo: I would expect such logic from a poet. What can a Minbari know about Centauri feeling?
Mayan: Ambassador, I have traveled far and seen much. And what I have seen tells me that all sentient beings are defined by their capacity and need for love.
Londo: And she will learn to live without it!
Mayan: As you did?
The Romeo and Juliet part of the script was contrived but it fit in with the rest of the episode. And gave us a chance to see Londo’s thwarted hopes for his own life. And I think we see the beginning of Delenn’s evolution, perhaps she sees that (some) old memories are holding back herself and her own people and new ideas are needed to fight new wars.
Items from the first draft script by D. C. Fontana (B5 Scriptbooks, Other Voices, Volume 1)
Add-ins:
The whole coffee tree sequence was added in.
The whole Ambassador Vir thing was added in.
The branding of Mayan was added in.
The tight shoes speech was added in.
Changes:
JMS felt DC didn’t have a good Garibaldi voice and re-wrote his dialogue but I liked this part.
Delenn: Are you saying you are afraid of me, Mr. Garibaldi?
Garibaldi: No Ma’am. I just respect the hell out of you is all.
Biggs left Ivanova rather than Ivanova leaving Biggs. That changes things, doesn't it?
Mayan’s speech in MedLab is Delenn’s in the first draft. (Nice scene between Delenn and Londo here. Not sure whether it's better coming from Mayan, although her influence on Delenn is strong in this episode.)
Ivanova is cold and hard and shows no vulnerability, (which is a mistake IMHO).
Lovely scene was cut out between Delenn and Ivanova, with Delenn offering a sympathetic ear. “It is either a loss of love, or a loss of the belief in love.” Hits my Susan/Delenn buttons hard.
Delenn challenges Sinclair about the perps leaving the stations and he tells her to be patient. She gets the hint. I can’t decide if this was better dropped or left in. Delenn is obviously freaked out by Sinclair’s weird behavior and would have challenged him, I think. In the original script the threatened visitor was Minbari, not Abbai. Would that have made a difference? The Abbai, like the Markab, are a client race of the Minbari, so she would have been protective regardless.
Biggs drops his gun when Ivanova gets the drop on him. “Go ahead. But remember I was on the Academy pistol team.” Again, cold, hard Ivanova as DC writes her. But I liked this bit.
WTF? Moments
Fontana calls Narns Narnians in the script. Think of the crossovers!
Vir’s name is Virell in the script. Think of the subtext!
Title Explanation from The Lurker’s Guide
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/warprayer.html
Mark Twain-- The War Prayer (excerpt)
"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.”
Twain apparently dictated it around 1904-05; it was rejected by his publisher, and was found after his death among his unpublished manuscripts. It was first published in 1923 in Albert Bigelow Paine's anthology, Europe and Elsewhere.
The story is in response to a particular war, namely the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902, which Twain opposed.
Signs and Portents:
"All I could see was a shadow. It was a shadow, that is all I know."
G’Kar’s speech on the catwalk (akin to the speech in The Summoning?)
Malcolm Biggs and the Home Guard:trouble in River City
Londo’s respect for tradition and his capacity for regret. He and Delenn really are bookends.
no subject
I never understood why from the start the attackers were assumed to be humans. Certainly, all the other races had their problems and bad apples as well. But it was made to seem as though only the humans have these bad traits and hatred/violence. That's just silly.
TRISTAN ROGERS! I'd forgotten he was in this episode! I think when I first saw this, I screamed out loud. I grew up watching General Hospital when I was a kid. I always adored him!
Here we go again with the, "I left possibly the love of my life for... a job." I can't imagine anyone I've ever met in real life doing such a thing! Maybe I know the wrong people. There's nothing worse in life than being alone.
Poor Susan, always getting her heart broken. I adored her. She was never allowed to be happy, darnit! Her dress and hair when she was on her date with
Robert ScorpioMalcolm were SO gorgeous.I love Londo's speech about the shoes. It always makes me weepy.
This was a bit sappy for my tastes. (Not to mention over-the-head preachy as well.)
But that's okay. I just love watching everyone.