Babylon 5 - The Scripts of JMS
Very interesting so far, especially for those interested in the process of making a TV show.
Volume 4
Confessions and Lamentations
- SHERIDAN
They're not your own people.
- DELENN
I didn't know that similarity was required for the exercise of compassion.
- SHERIDAN
In the last seven days we've learned that an entire race can judge itself to death. That fear and silence can be as deadly as the plague that spawned it. We've learned that there is no such thing as someone else's problem, that in the end, we are all connected. (beat) A human writer, John Dunne, wrote 1: "No man is an island, entire of itself. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee." If we can remember that lesson, then all this might not have been in vain, and their deaths will have meaning.
This is an interesting episode in that JMS (an atheist) paints not only the negative side of religion, but the positive side at the same time. Even his final speach is mostly taken from a minister.
So a warning to James... this is a preachy episode :D
The two quotes above basically sum it up.