(no subject)

[learnedax]

Now that tpau's watching the 4th season of Babylon 5, I am putting together some of what really annoyed me about its plot resolution.

The problems with reducing the Vorlons and the Shadows to squabbling children are twofold: the first is that, as was so often the case throughout the show's run, the writing and acting of individual scenes was far below what it should have been to make JMS's plots work well. Having a brief, stilted dialogue in which million-year-old enemies shuffle around awkwardly and get their motivations reduced to a toddler level is a poor way to wrap up a four-year-long plot. Adding a stereotypical, more-Kirk-than-Kirk cowboy performance by Sheridan enthusiastically rubs salt in the wound. But then, I was never a fan of Smilin' John Sheridan's one-dimensional approach to a complex universe of problems.

The second, and thornier, problem is that it betrays our fundamental understanding of what the Shadows and Vorlons are, with little (and weak) explanation, in contradiction to a moderate amount of corroborating evidence for the picture fairly consistently shown through the first three seasons. It's not a problem of the Vorlons being less than perfectly good, since we've seen that developed since the beginning. (Interestingly, however, we never see any convincing signs that the Shadows have any genuine good to them. It may be a lot easier to muddy your heroes than to brighten your villains, but is the easy way really what we want...?) It's not even that "our" Vorlon is The Good One, while all the others are bad. The major problem is that everything we know about the history of their conflict tells us that the Shadows are not First Ones on an even footing with the Vorlons, but an older race, even less similar to us than First Ones, almost without understandable motivations. (This in contrast to the First Ones that can be, for example, goaded by Ivanova using simple reverse-psychology.) The elder races that band together to fight the Shadows are explicitly peers of the Vorlons, which is strong evidence that these are not two balanced, opposite sides of an ancient experiment. The idea of disparate smaller groups working together against a more powerful, unified, nigh-unstoppable foe runs throughout the series, but is suddenly thrust in a different direction midway through season four.

Ultimately, this looks to me like perhaps the biggest place where JMS had a good idea originally, but wound up mangling it somewhere along the line. He always said there were many plots to the show, but this is in every regard the central one, and I my disappointment with the show's resolution stems in large part from what I see as its mishandling.

Comments

[mpgalvin.livejournal.com]

i was under the impression that this had something to with the "this is your last season, wrap it up fast!" issue.
one blingbling later, and there was suddenly this extra season, which was originally intended to exist but had just been hastily compressed into a few eps.

you object to Johnny nuke-em's tactics? >:D

besides, the real hero is Vir. *wavewave*

[londo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but he could have taken longer than one fifteen-minute scene in Into the Fire (episode 406) to do it. Or, written it better.

I think the elder races-as-children thing could have been done really, really well. As it was... it was mediocre, which is kinda sad. It's ok, I liked 413 and 422 better than 406 anyway.

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, I understand that JMS was working under non-ideal circumstances. I think he could have handled it any number of better ways. Season five is bad, but he had little choice at that point; season four he still had options.

Vir is great, though.

[tpau]

you jsut don't get it. it is ALL about sheriden/delenn scenes. feel the love baby! oh yes and the londo/g'kar relationship (no, not liek that!). and Vir kicking ass.

everything else is jsut filler...

[siderea]

Yes "like that". One of the funniest lines in the series was the passing quip "How long have those two been married." :)

Not many fishes, left in the sea...

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Londo and G'Kar's relationship, in its many permutations, was a large part of what kept me watching the show. Andreas Katsulas is awesome, and the two of them in the elevator is probably the funniest sequence on the show.

[dsrtao]

It's late, so I'll keep this short:

The Vorlons and the Shadows are the only two of the First Ones that are still immature enough to be playing with us babies. When the babies stop
playing the game and announce that they have had enough (after getting a few adults to pay some attention), the V and the S ashamedly go off to the grown-up area of the Universe.

The V and S were playing a game that they shouldn't really have been playing; they're too mature for that now. They got caught, probably paid a
fine, and went away. And, like idiot teenagers, they left quite a few of their toys and experiments and homework behind... hence Crusade.

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Yes, I understand that this is the explanation put forth in Into The Fire. Much of my point above was that I find this explanation weak and inconsistent with the rest of the series.

[jducoeur]

And, like idiot teenagers, they left quite a few of their toys and experiments and homework behind... hence Crusade.

Well, maybe. My strong suspicion is that this was just the surface plot of Crusade. JMS' style is usually that you have no idea what's really going on until at least the second season. (Indeed, he's extremely consistent in his fondness for bait-and-switch plotting.)

So while this was the excuse for Crusade, I'd bet it wasn't the real plot...

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

The resolution of the Shadow conflict was far and away the weakest element of the series. Even into the beginning of season 4, it had potential to be epic. The resolution we were left with felt very much like an abrupt subject change. Yeah, part of that was the uncertainty over season 5, but I'd rather they left that thread open than hand-wave the resolution like that.

[vortexofchaos.livejournal.com]

The resolution of the war was never meant to be the climax. JMS was quite active on the Net when B5 was in production, and he used to respond to comments about the show. On rare occasions, he'd answer questions, but he'd never give spoilers. Here's what the man himself had to say about the episode:

08-Feb-97 21:29:03
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

Thanks. So far the general reaction has been, "But...but...what NOW?"
which is *exactly* the reaction I was hoping for.

Everybody keeps commenting, "This is the sort of episode you have at the
end, not 6 eps into your season." Yep.

We're funny that way....

Go to Google groups and search through the rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.* groups. You'll find a LOT of interesting stuff by JMS there.

The struggle to get a decision for season 5 was a very painful one. There's no question that it really hurt the end of the show.

I like the show, not the creator

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Yes, well, in many works the comments of the creator can shed light on why certain decisions were made... but not in this one. I gave up reading JMS's comments midway through the second season when I realized that he was more interested in misleading enigma than in saying much.

In this case, for instance, he heavily implies (but, and he would make a big point of this if pressed, never states) that it's all a cleverly planned surprise, rather than a rushed change of direction. I am skeptical.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

JMS didn't know, at the beginning of S4, whether he would have a S5 or not. This had relativey small effects early in the season, but got much worse as he became more convinced that this season was all he had. If he'd known ahead of time that he'd have a fifth season, he's said that he might have spent one or two more episodes resolvng the Shadow War arc, but no more. Admittedly, that could have been a big improvement.

For me, the end of the Shadow War was a bit abrupt, but not nearly so annoying as what was happening by the end of the season. Sheridan's reconciliation with Garibaldi over his betrayal was unconvincing in its speed, as was the way in which Sheridan just shrugs off prolonged physical and psychological torture, with no lasting effects. And then capping it off with "let's form a galactic government overnight, with practically no negotiations!"...