beccastareyes (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beccastareyes) wrote2009-01-17 11:50 pm
beccastareyes) wrote2009-01-17 11:50 pm
Entry tags:
Today and Babylon 5!
I had a nice day today. I got a free lunch since I went out to Applebee's and their kitchen was just swamped, so I sat there for a long time (reading, mostly). Both my waiter and his manager came over to talk to me, and the manager was the one who said my lunch was on the house... I wasn't even going to say anything, since I didn't have anywhere I had to be. Plus, I took about half my sandwich and some fries home, which, in my mind, means that I am turning into my mother*.
(Okay, so I left a tip, since it wasn't my waiter's fault that the kitchen was backed up.)
* My mother does this at restaurants. She'll get a sandwich, eat half, take the other half home, and give about half of her fries to my brother. She also orders muffins on the side of breakfast food, or cornbread at Boston Market, and it comes home in a bag.
Anyway, after dinner I ended up watching the pilot of Babylon 5 for a Livejournal rewatch. Not bad, but there were some things I wondered.
Okay, so maybe I have some problems with how the Vorlons acted. Okay, maybe it could be assumed they were prepared to believe that Captain Sinclair was unlikely to be the one who assaulted Ambassador Kosh, due to who Sinclair really is (and if anyone knows this, the Vorlons do). Or maybe the Vorlons are weird. (Well, okay, the Vorlons are weird, but I'm assuming that their motivations can be understood.)
So, the Vorlons show up to take Sinclair (and presumably Dr. Kyle and Lyta, as witnesses) away. Takashima broadcasts Garibaldi and Sinclair's attempt to bring down the real criminal. The Vorlons see Sinclair confront someone in a changling net that shifts through the smuggler, the tech guy, Sinclair and Lyta before it breaks and the Minbari underneath tells Sinclair something that has nothing to do with why someone would want to kill Kosh, before blowing himself up. Aside from what they know about Sinclair, why would the Vorlons believe that the Minbari story as more plausible that the story that Sinclair had did it, and the changeling net was a fakeout by Earth. Sure, later, they could get the security footage showing 'Lyta' trying to kill Kosh again, then running into Lyta in the hall. But right now they are about ready to shoot at things.
Even after things calm down, one would think they'd want to take everything (the ruins of the transport, the station's records, Sinclair, Lyta, Dr. Kyle, etc.) back anyway, just to be sure that the story checks out. And to make sure that this doesn't come back to bite them in the butts*. I mean, they're the effing Vorlons. They can do things like that. I guess they can confer and conclude that 'yeah, he's probably innocent, so no need to cart humans back home' and tell the guys in the field to deliver the message.
* Or alien equivalent.
Also, sometime in Season 3 Kosh told... I think Sheridan... that being seen outside of his encounter suit by other beings was a strain. I wonder if Dr. Kyle accidentally made things a bit worse. It also shows that whatever thingee makes humans see what they see when they look at Kosh works even when Kosh is unconscious and near-dead. (And that Dr. Kyle is pretty unflappable.)
I also had some nitpicks about the plot. Okay, so you want to poison a Vorlon. One problem is that they walk around in suits designed to be sealed, so you need an agent that can get through it. Second problem -- you can't play with a suit to see what will penetrate the suit without leaving an obvious burn mark -- I mean, I'd assume that any breech of the suit would have been noticed Right Away as the atmosphere leaked out. Third problem... in a universe where you can't even count on all life to be carbon based (See, Sinclair's tour of the alien sector to Lyta*), can you really be sure that any chemical is toxic to a race who all you really know about them is what air they breathe? Okay, something like hydrofluoric acid would probably be pretty unfriendly to most life, but that tends to be obvious since it leaves holes in things. On the other hand, it would probably burn through Kosh's encounter suit.
* Did anyone else get the impression with all the windows in the alien quarter that it was like he was showing her the zoo? Not a good vibe there. Yes, yes, JMS, I get that you want to use some of the pilot budget to remind us that there's Lots of Aliens when it might not be as easy to do so later on. Still... keep them in the halls.
For that matter, either there's extensive training in Earthforce on 'comparative xenoanatomy in an emergency', or Dr. Kyle deserves an effing medal (or both). Because he's given an alien about whom he knows nothing about their anatomy before he cracks the suit, and not only is he able to stabilize him and keep him alive, but he's able to synthesize an antidote to a rare poison.
Also, having commanders named Jeffrey Sinclair and John Sheridan makes typing a bitch. You have no idea how many times I had to catch myself before I hit the 'h' key.
(Okay, so I left a tip, since it wasn't my waiter's fault that the kitchen was backed up.)
* My mother does this at restaurants. She'll get a sandwich, eat half, take the other half home, and give about half of her fries to my brother. She also orders muffins on the side of breakfast food, or cornbread at Boston Market, and it comes home in a bag.
Anyway, after dinner I ended up watching the pilot of Babylon 5 for a Livejournal rewatch. Not bad, but there were some things I wondered.
Okay, so maybe I have some problems with how the Vorlons acted. Okay, maybe it could be assumed they were prepared to believe that Captain Sinclair was unlikely to be the one who assaulted Ambassador Kosh, due to who Sinclair really is (and if anyone knows this, the Vorlons do). Or maybe the Vorlons are weird. (Well, okay, the Vorlons are weird, but I'm assuming that their motivations can be understood.)
So, the Vorlons show up to take Sinclair (and presumably Dr. Kyle and Lyta, as witnesses) away. Takashima broadcasts Garibaldi and Sinclair's attempt to bring down the real criminal. The Vorlons see Sinclair confront someone in a changling net that shifts through the smuggler, the tech guy, Sinclair and Lyta before it breaks and the Minbari underneath tells Sinclair something that has nothing to do with why someone would want to kill Kosh, before blowing himself up. Aside from what they know about Sinclair, why would the Vorlons believe that the Minbari story as more plausible that the story that Sinclair had did it, and the changeling net was a fakeout by Earth. Sure, later, they could get the security footage showing 'Lyta' trying to kill Kosh again, then running into Lyta in the hall. But right now they are about ready to shoot at things.
Even after things calm down, one would think they'd want to take everything (the ruins of the transport, the station's records, Sinclair, Lyta, Dr. Kyle, etc.) back anyway, just to be sure that the story checks out. And to make sure that this doesn't come back to bite them in the butts*. I mean, they're the effing Vorlons. They can do things like that. I guess they can confer and conclude that 'yeah, he's probably innocent, so no need to cart humans back home' and tell the guys in the field to deliver the message.
* Or alien equivalent.
Also, sometime in Season 3 Kosh told... I think Sheridan... that being seen outside of his encounter suit by other beings was a strain. I wonder if Dr. Kyle accidentally made things a bit worse. It also shows that whatever thingee makes humans see what they see when they look at Kosh works even when Kosh is unconscious and near-dead. (And that Dr. Kyle is pretty unflappable.)
I also had some nitpicks about the plot. Okay, so you want to poison a Vorlon. One problem is that they walk around in suits designed to be sealed, so you need an agent that can get through it. Second problem -- you can't play with a suit to see what will penetrate the suit without leaving an obvious burn mark -- I mean, I'd assume that any breech of the suit would have been noticed Right Away as the atmosphere leaked out. Third problem... in a universe where you can't even count on all life to be carbon based (See, Sinclair's tour of the alien sector to Lyta*), can you really be sure that any chemical is toxic to a race who all you really know about them is what air they breathe? Okay, something like hydrofluoric acid would probably be pretty unfriendly to most life, but that tends to be obvious since it leaves holes in things. On the other hand, it would probably burn through Kosh's encounter suit.
* Did anyone else get the impression with all the windows in the alien quarter that it was like he was showing her the zoo? Not a good vibe there. Yes, yes, JMS, I get that you want to use some of the pilot budget to remind us that there's Lots of Aliens when it might not be as easy to do so later on. Still... keep them in the halls.
For that matter, either there's extensive training in Earthforce on 'comparative xenoanatomy in an emergency', or Dr. Kyle deserves an effing medal (or both). Because he's given an alien about whom he knows nothing about their anatomy before he cracks the suit, and not only is he able to stabilize him and keep him alive, but he's able to synthesize an antidote to a rare poison.
Also, having commanders named Jeffrey Sinclair and John Sheridan makes typing a bitch. You have no idea how many times I had to catch myself before I hit the 'h' key.