Bash wrote:


Delurk mode on
Damn, I loved that show.


Yeah, that was the first science fiction show I really ever got hooked
on, to the point where I had to catch it every week (and still the only
one for that matter.) I've got a two-foot wide Shadow Battlecrab model
sitting around eight feet from me as I write this. Magnificent spaceship
designs on that show.

Part of the attraction for me was the
interplay between G'Kar and Londo. One of the most poignant and best
acted parts for me was the towards the end of the second series when
the Narn had surrendered after being "bombed back to the stone age".

G'Kar on learning of the Narn surrender and that he was no longer
classed as an ambassador stated:-

"No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by the
force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than
the need for freedom. Against that power governments, and tyrants, and
armies can not stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will
teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be
free"


Yeah, the mass driver attack was pretty terrifying. You start out liking
Londo, then realize that he is a terribly flawed individual who will do
great harm due to his flaws. G'Kar on the other hand seemed anything but
trustworthy at the beginning, and turned out to have the makings of a
superbly courageous and upstanding individual in him. In Star Trek
everyone's characters stayed fairly static.
The Tomalak character on STTNG was a continuation of an idea they had
from the original series, a enemy captain that keeps getting run into by
the Enterprise. Although in never fully panned out in either series, in
TOS this was supposed to be Captain Koloth from "The Trouble With
Tribbles", a Klingon whose greatest joy would have been getting on
Captain Kirk's nerves, and whom Kirk would be glad to return the favor to.
It's a pity neither of JMS's other series panned out as well as B5, it
was so nice to have a different universe out there than the Star Trek
one where aliens really looked and behaved in an alien manner, and
instead of everything working out for the best at the end of each
episode it sometimes went right down the tubes- just like in real life.
In Star Trek you'd have some terrible war about to start that everyone's
heroic actions would prevent; in B5 everybody would do everything they
could to try to stop something horrible from occurring, and it would
happen nonetheless, sometimes made even worse by their actions..
I still wouldn't trust anyone who offers your race half the galaxy with
the boundary between your part and theirs being illustrated by a wall of
flame. Little things like that should clue you in that they may not be
on the up-and-up. :-)

Pat