ATTN JMS: Christology in WWE (WWE and Bsquared spoilers)

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: ATTN JMS: Christology in WWE (WWE and Bsquared spoilers)
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
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s  1: Sep 27, 1996: Alan C Burnstine <alanb at zipnet.net>
*  2: Sep 29, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

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From: Alan C Burnstine <alanb at zipnet.net>
Lines: 76

SPOILER SPACE (RE: WWEII AND BAB SQUARED)
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Since I'm a *huge* fan of your fabulous creation, I will be kind and not
dwell upon the fact that it is obvious from the discrepencies between
"Babylon Squared" and "War Without End" that Sinclair *was* originally
intended to be the one and only ONE, before O'Hare was written out as 
lead actor ..... so, setting that aside, I do have a serious question
for you, JMS:

Once that decision was made and you had to rework things concerning The
One, is The One, like everything else in Minbari religion, devised
around threes -- that is to say, a Trinity -- because Sinclair/Valen
established this, and as a student of the Jesuits, could not but help to
be at least subliminally influenced by Trinitarian concepts, OR is it
that JMS, being an American, and as such, despite his own religious
beliefs or disbeliefs, is surrounded by a predominantly Christological
society, consequently drew upon this idea from his own subconcious?
In other words, is it an accident of the *real* world that there is so
much similarity between the Christian Trinity and the Minbari concept of
The One, or was it something you came up with intentionally after
reasoning that since Sinclair was a student of Christianity it would
make sense for him to transfer some of that religion over when shaping
Minbari belief?

Incidentally, I applaud your integrating the very *idea* of religions
into the show -- I think it is part of what makes it so very real and
complex -- as you pointed out very early on on the Net, human beings
have always had religions and religious beliefs and it is completely
illogical to think that in a few hundred years that would suddenly
change!  Likewise, I also really appreciate your attempt with Talia and
Susan to engage the whole issue of bi- or homo- or hetero- sexuality --
another "taboo" topic for television.  I think the fact that these two
issues are the ones which set people off flaming like crazy on the old
unmoderated group just emphasizes how elemental they are to humanity --
if we make it to the 23rd century, people will *still* be flaming about
this stuff then.  So thank you for having the nerve to bring this all to
television -- I know it has sparked many interesting conversations among
myself and my other B5 viewer friends. (Will Susan be wrestling with her
sexuality in future episodes as well or is this thread over?)

Finally, a last request -- if you decide to reply to my question, could
you please e-mail it to me -- my computer access is very limited and I'm
afraid if you just post a reply I'll never see it.  Thanks and Kudos on
the Hugo!            
                                       Laura M. Appelbaum
                                       alanb at zipnet.net





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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 24

I'd built the notion of threes into Minbari society starting back in the
very first season, so that predates Michael's participation (or lack
thereof) in the show.  The grey council is 9 (3x3), there are 3 castes,
and so on, all of which was introduced in year one.  So leaving that
aside....

Christianity somewhat co-opted the notion of mythic or religious threes,
as it co-opted the winter Solstice and other pagan or
not-originally-christian notions.  (I've always considered early
christianity -- through about the 12th century -- something of a
theological packrat...that which it could not obliterate or replace it
simply absorbed, renamed, retitled and reissued under a new cover.)

The number 3 has been central to many belief systems, back to early Egypt.
 It is also the formation of the most stable sort of geometrical figure; a
three-sided triangle is extremely stable.  The importance of 3 is pretty
much cross-cultural, so it seemed a good bet.


 jms




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