At The Midpoint (Spoilers for everything)

[b5jms-owner at cs.columbia.edu]

Subject: At The Midpoint (Spoilers for everything)
 No.   DATE           FROM
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+  1: Apr  7, 1996: abergman at minerva.cis.yale.edu (Aaron Bergman)
*  2: Apr  7, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

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From: abergman at minerva.cis.yale.edu (Aaron Bergman)
Lines: 84

ObSpoilerWarning for all episodes:

























Well, enough people out there have already commented on how great the
episode was, etc., so I thought I'd make a few more esoteric comments.

First, some nice touches I liked in the episode. I realize that the grey
council has always had their heads covered, but it was very apropos in
this episode. Delenn's speach before the grey council reminded me a bit of
American isolationism pre-WWII. This is interesting taking into account
that one of the cruisers was named the Churchill. Somehow I don't think
that was coincedental. I really liked the ISN scene. I don't know why, but
it seemed very right. Other comments: Sheridan's secession speech was
good, although I don't see the need for the holographic projection. Ah
well, why not show off the special effects? They certainly did enough of
that this episode. There were some nice humanistic touches that really
added to the episode.

An interesting side-point. Remember how, at the beginning, this was a
mystery--all the speculation around And the Sky Full of Stars. While some
of the episodes weren't bad and some were even very good (ATSFOS, S&P eg),
atleast for me, it was the puzzles that kept me interested--the aura of
mystery withing the show. Why did the Minbari surrender? What is special
about Sinclair? Who are the Vorlons?

There are still plenty of mysteries around, I guess, but now we have a
story. If the first season was the beginning, we're in the meat of the
novel right now. Action is occurring, and people are moving. JMS has done
a superb job of setting the elements in place and now the gears are
starting to turn. The shadows have began to incite battle throughout
space, and now, more than the mystery, it is the story that is happening.
The story is making me want to tune in next week. And while I love mystery
and trying to figure out why the Minbari surrendered was cool and all
that, this is the mark of the show's, well, I suppose I can call it
greatness by now. JMS is telling us a story. Not just your run of the mill
sit-com story, or even something a little larger like the various dramas.
This is a real story, almost an epic of sort. There are themes and JMS is
trying to say something here. I think it's interesting to think about what
that is. There is the nightwatch thread and the entire action vs.
non-action, isolationism vs. globalism, but there's more. There's the
theme of sacrifice, both for a good and perhaps a bad cause. The narns ran
headlong into the fight, and while they certainly had an effect, they
died, sometimes without even getting off a shot. G'Kar has had his
revalation about sacrifice, possibly of all the Narns. But look at the
source. Kosh is not being set up as pure good, whatever that is, and no
matter how I look at it, I don't see how the sacrifice of all the Narns,
however noble it might be, as necessarily a good thing. Sacrifices have to
be chosen wisely and sometimes it is easier to sacrifice yourself than to
do the hard thing and survive. Kosh and his motives are really
interesting. What will he do to win and what is his relation to the
shadows.

It's all this stuff that I think really makes the show. The mystery
certainly helps, but the puzzles are no longer my main reason for
watching.

Aaron
-- 
Aaron Bergman -- abergman at minerva.cis.yale.edu
<http://minerva.cis.yale.edu/~abergman/abergman.html>
Fuck. The Communications Bill was signed. Shit.

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 41

"It's all this stuff that I think really makes the show. The mystery
certainly helps, but the puzzles are no longer my main reason for
watching."

Aaron: exactly.  This was something I said a lot around the first part of
the second season, that this really *isn't* a mystery novel, in any
conventional sense, no more so than any novel whose ending is yet to be
revealed.

You picked up on exactly the themes that are present in the show, with
some more to come shortly.  Personal sacrifice for a cause -- perhaps a
good cause, perhaps not, depending on how wisely we make our decisions --
is probably the dominant theme at this point in the story.  

It's worth mentioning that this story was initially conceived in the midst
of the Me Generation, the decade of "I've got mine, jack, screw you all." 
Since then the culture has gotten increasingly factionalized, groups of
Me's pulling and tugging at the fabric not only of the country, bvut of
the planet itself.  The idea of personal sacrifice, of personal service to
a cause, seems to have become...passe.  Old fashioned.  Silly.

We have an obligation to one another, responsibilities and trusts.  That
does not mean we must be pigeons, that we must be exploited.  But it does
mean that we should look out for one another when and as much as we can;
and that we have a personal responsibility for our behavior; and that our
behavior has consequences of a very real and profound nature.  We are not
powerless.  We have tremendous potential for good or ill.  How we choose
to use that power is up to us; but first we must choose to use it.  We're
told every day, "You can't change the world."

But the world is changing every day.  Only question is...who's doing it? 
You or somebody else?  Will you choose to lead, or be led by others?

(Y'know, there are moments I look at the preceding paragraphs, and I
realize that it wa said more succinctly, and better, and more movingly in
"Lost Horizon," with this simple sentence: "Be *kind* to one another.")


 jms


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