ATTN JMS: Z'HA'DUM - SPOILERS

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: ATTN JMS: Z'HA'DUM - SPOILERS
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
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s  1: Sep 22, 1996: Ali and Dave Hopkins <fn62 at dial.pipex.com>
*  2: Sep 23, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

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From: Ali and Dave Hopkins <fn62 at dial.pipex.com>
Lines: 111

I give full permission for this to be reproduced, by whomever and 
wherever....



Spoiler space.....









Spoiler space..........










Spoiler space........







I guess you are going to get a lot of reaction from this side of the 
pond, but I wanted to give my two pennorth...

To begin; this one is well up there with Severed Dreams, CTI and Sky 
Full of Stars, and maybe even beats them, which takes some doing. 
That is, it is emotionally intense, beatifully directed and has some of 
the best acting on TV I have ever seen. The writing goes without 
saying.... :) :) 

I think I read somewhere that you wanted Bruce as Sheridan 
because he was known for light drama, and you knew he could do far 
more. Oh boy, were you ever right. It's difficult to pick on any one 
scene, but if I had to I'd pick two, just to be awkward! The expression 
on his face of shock mingled with a kind of horror when he first 
realises just  *who* has walked in to his quarters is tied in my mind, 
with the look of - distaste? terror? - don't know what to call it - in the 
final showdown with Anna. 

Mira Furlan was terrific. I keep running out of superlatives. The scene 
 where she watches Sheridan's final message is going to replay in 
my head for a very long time. The sheer emotional resonance of that 
image, after the corresponding scene in Revelations, was very clever 
and enormously moving. This time, he got the chance to say 
goodbye..... and goodbye to Garibaldi as well. Poor Ivanova, tho'! 
Hell of a way to get a promotion. 

I would count myself in the 2/3rds who don't agree with the Shadow 
motives, which now make a kind of ghastly sense. Ghastly, in the 
way that listening to Goebbels' speeches has a kind of hypnotic 
attraction, until you realise exactly what is being said. Survival of the 
fittest and the weak go to the wall and what does it matter if a few non 
human races die along the way. My father fought in a war against that 
kind of monstrosity; my uncle's family died in the death  camps of 
those who inflicted it. You are making us look at our history again. I 
hope that we can learn from it.

And , besides, it's a specious argument. Conflict does not of itself 
imply growth or evolution; there were as many technologies which 
came as spin offs from Nasa as from the major wars this century or 
in any other. And, if the weakest are destroyed, we could be 
destroying the strongest; Stephen Hawking can't exactly defend 
himself. I prefer the John Donne model - "each is a part of the whole". 

I suspect you are going to get a few posts about the Vorlon motives 
and actions too, from those who object to the humanities having a 
parent figure. I hope that at some point in our evolution we won't need 
them, but based on the current track record, I don't think we've got 
there yet. Or, maybe, that's the third age, when we finally *do* take 
responsibility for our own destiny? (And I apologise if that's undue 
speculation.) 

I hope that this makes some kind of sense, bearing in mind that I am 
still shell shocked, and thanks for another superb episode. Now, what 
do I do till November, please?


Ali







Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow

                       Life is very long                       







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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 32

below....



















Yes, you're right, and the first one to pick up on that aspect, that with
Anna, he never had the chance to say goodbye.  Finally, here...he did,
with Delenn.  Also, the look on his face as he turns to her at the
parapet...you feel every inch of his loss, being trapped, the end of the
road.  He did a great job.


 jms




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