Babylon 5 - The Scripts of JMS

Very interesting so far, especially for those interested in the process of making a TV show.

Volume 1

Interesting. Not some of my favorite episodes, but it's interesting learning the process by which the series came into being.

I started watching the episodes again with mom, so I'm reading the script books as we watch the tapes. It's interesting noticing things that were very subtle before come into new light. More foreshadowing is in these episodes than appears on first viewing. (i.e. How many times did people tell Garibaldi to 'watch his back'?)

Volume 4

Confessions and Lamentations

A warning to James... this is a preachy episode :D

Religion plays a huge role in this story, as guidepost, tradition, and liability. I wanted to hilight the reality that religion has served a great many positive purposes over the centuries, but that at the same time we must accept the fact that on more than one occasion it has worked against humanity's best interests, in the currency of crusades, jihads and intolerance. Science and religion both emanate from the same wellspring, the desire to understand who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. The problem comes when the means of answering those questions is framed in the negative, i.e.: we are who we are because we are not those people over there, the infidels, the unbelievers, the heathens. The moment you do that, you create an atmosphere of us vs. them, of true believers vs. enemies. It is my opinion that very little good comes from that dichotomy. [...] In the interests if fairness, however, it is important to make the point that there is something far worse than religious dogmatism: the kind of political, secular cowardice that restricts scientific inquiry because those in office are afraid of being voted out of office. It's one thing to act out of love of heaven or fear of hell, but to act out of fear of losing votes is indefensible on every conceivable level.

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. All told, I like the script as it is in the book much better than as it came to the screen. This is one of my favorite episodes, but there's one major flaw with the premise in the script. Why, with such a contageous, deadly disease does it last for over a year in the population until the day that Franklin notices it and then suddenly the entire species is wiped out on all of their colonies in a single day??

There are three major changes in the episode from the script to the screen.

The Markab isolation is changed to be self-imposed instead of a command decision

While this takes the ethical responsibility off of our heroes and places it on the shoulders of 'bad religion', parts of the episode just didn't make sense to me until I read the script. (The security search teams trying to find the Markab to put them in the isolation zone, Delenn asking Sheridan if she can enter the isolation sector and him saying 'I can't let you out', etc.)

The plague jumps species

While this helps with the 'no man is an island' sermon at the end, it leaves various logic holes at the end of the episode, i.e. why doesn't the Pak'ma'ra species get wiped out as well? (Or at least have more than just one die of the plague before they can get a new antivirus worked up to generate 'green cells'.)

The second quote I have above from Sheridan is given to Delenn and the ending reworked

Personally, I find Sheridan's speech much more moving than the one that was shortened and given to Delenn, particularly the Dunne quote. I also think it was more moving to end with that than the depressing 'Nothing changes' that now ends the episode. Also, giving the quote to Delenn instead of Sheridan nullifies the growth we see in him from the first quote to the second one. Now it seems like he didn't learn anything at all.

Divided Loyalties

This episode is basically a throw-away episode as far as the grander tale is concerned. It's primarily a mechanic to move one character off the show and another in to take their place. Not a lot of deep philosophy in this episode, but it's interesting to learn the reasons why Talia (Andrea Thompson) left the show. (But from a personal standpoint, bringing the redhead back into the show was better anyways ;)) This episode does, however have one of my favorite Garibaldi moments: when he pretends to be 'triggered' by the code word.

The Long, Twilight Struggle

Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself. John F Kennedy, Inaugural Address

G'KAR No dictator, no invader can hold an imprisoned population by 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 cannot stand. [...] Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.

SHERIDAN What you said in the council... I think it got through to a lot of people. G'KAR Words. Just words. I will believe in them tomorrow. Now.... SHERIDAN You're right. Just words. But good words. And you can go far on that. Empires and governments have been built, and thrown down, by the right words, in the right place, at the right time.

This episode is rather pivotal for the series. If I were to choose 10 episodes that defined the series, this would be one of them. It was one of three episodes from this season (yes, three) that were nominated for a Hugo award for Best Dramatic Presentation 1. However, JMS declined on this episode and one other one so that The Coming of Shadows wouldn't be competing with other episodes in B5. (The Coming of Shadows won the award of course. As an interesting note, it beat 12 Monkeys, which is one of my favorite movies. It also beat Apollo 13 and Toy Story, but personally I don't really think they're Hugo material, even though I own both of them and think they're good movies.)

It's a pity that last bit of dialog between Sheridan and G'Kar was left out of the final epipsode, I rather like it. The lines Sheridan got at the end of the act about drawing a line against the darkness are a good replacement, however. I think it's one of the more quoted monologues in the series. I think the bit about the right words, in the right place, at the right time would have been a nice tie-in wih the following episode when Sebastian echoes almost those exact words to Sheridan.

This episode has some of the best acting in the series between G'Kar and Londo. It's kind of sad watching it right now since Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar) died last month. He was part of the reason I started watching the show. (Commander Tomalak was one of my favorite villains in ST:TNG) However, the amount of growth G'Kar goes through in B5 and the range that Katsulas brough to the role truly impressed me more than any other character.

It was interesting to read why the Great Machine never really featured heavily in the series. It seems logical that here they have this huge resource that they would try to use it a lot. But alas, after having recast the actor already and trying to explain the different look, then the new actor become unavailable, the storyline was changed. It would be interesting to see how different the story would have been if the Machine had been more prominent.

Comes the Inquisitor

LENNIER If you do the right things for the wrong reasons, the work becomes corrupted, impure, and ultimately self-destructive. To face the darkness and survive, your heart must be pure, your thoughts calm, your purpose clear. Ambassador Kosh wishes confirmation that the right people are in the right place at the right time.	SEBASTIAN Who are you? What a sad thing you are, unable to answer even such a simple question without falling back on references and genealogies and what other people call you. Have you nothing of your own? Nothing to stand on that is not provided, defined, delineated, stamped, sanctioned, numbered and approved by others? How can you be expected to fight for someone else when you haven't the fairest idea who you are?
SEBASTIAN You would trade your life for his? I thought you had a destiny. Is that destiny not worth one life? DELENN If I fall, another will take my place. And another. And another. SEBASTIAN But your great cause -- DELENN This is my cause! Life! One life, or a billion, they are all the same.	SEBASTIAN Anyone can throw away his life to save a world... or a dozen worlds, knowing his name will be remembered and revered, that past sins will be atoned for. Armies are made up of millions of these... willing to lay down their lives for god, for country, for planet.... (beat) How do you tell the chosen ones? "No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother." Not for millions. Not for glory, not for fame. For one person. In the dark. Where noone will even know, or see. [...] But when the darkness comes, know this: you are the right people, in the right place, at the right time.
Of course, bear in mind that there *is* no correct answer to Sebastian's question... [Who are you?] because no matter what answer you give, the question will be repeated. It's a process, not a goal, designed to tear down the artifices we construct around ourselves until we're left facing ourselves, not our roles. At some point the "answer," such as it is, must transcend language. Sebastian represents all the sane voices, all the voices of reason and sensibility that tell us that we must be insane if we believe that we are special, that we have a destiny. More than the voices of anger or opposition or criticism, for an artist of any sort, the most lethal voice is the quiet voice of reason that makes us forget who we are and what we can do, that lulls us to sleep and keeps us safe, since to follow our dreams as we intend can lead only to disappointment. However well intentioned, that voice is the enemy and always will be.

This is one of (if not THE) my favorite episodes in the series.

OK, I was intending to primarily comment on the script book, but I have to make one comment on the production of this episode... The lighting crew did a fantastic job here. Particularly the inquisition scenes. (The episode got an emmy nomination for Outstanding Cinematography - Series [1]) Wayne Alexander's acting is brilliant as Sebastian.

... and about being the right person at the right time, I'll leave with this:

He who seizes the right moment, is the right man.
                            Johann Wolfgang von Goethe