JMS on CompuServe (Mar 07, 1998) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
bbarrett at johndelenn.com
bbarrett at johndelenn.com
Sat Mar 7 16:08:28 EST 1998
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[ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
Sb: #22714-#<Secrets of the Soul>
Sb: #22957-Rebo & Zooty
Sb: #22868-Episode resuffle
Sb: #22871-#<SotS> Soul of Secrets
Sb: #22970-#<Secrets of the Soul>
#: 22714 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
04-Mar-98 20:09:14
Sb: <Secrets of the Soul>
Fm: DAN T. DAVIS
Joe,
Two questions about tonights episode (really one about next week).
1) The preview for next week showed scenes from "Day of the Dead". Has that
show been moved up to March 11?
2) The Hyach (sp?) killed off the Hyach-Do. Big secret, hard to forgive. How
does this relate to how the Centauri did the same thing to the race that
developed in parallel with them? The Centauri seem proud of the fact that
they did the same thing as the Hyach. ("What did the last
(parallel-Centauri-race) say as he died? ---- AUUUUGHHH!")
Is there any relationship? Or did the fact the Hyach kept it secret while the
Centauri did not make a difference?
Thanks for any info,
Dan
#: 22741 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
05-Mar-98 01:54:10
Sb: #22714-#<Secrets of the Soul>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Yes, Neil's episode is up next...and as for the Xon, the difference is
that the Centauri main-line clashed with the Xon when both were primitive and
fighting for food, resources, that sort of thing, similar to our Neanderthal -
Cro Magnon struggle, whereas the Hyach did it when they were more advanced,
and it wasn't a struggle, more of a program of extermination.
jms
[ Summary: "When is the famous (uh Infamous) 'Rebo & Zooty' episode set
to air?" ]
#: 22998 S2/Bab 5: General
06-Mar-98 13:11:05
Sb: #22957-Rebo & Zooty
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
It's next week.
jms
#: 22868 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
05-Mar-98 16:27:09
Sb: Episode resuffle
Fm: DARRAN WILLIAMS
Joe,
I was just curious as to why Day of the Dead has been moved forward to March
11th?
Darran..
#: 22999 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
06-Mar-98 13:11:06
Sb: #22868-Episode resuffle
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
We felt it wise to adjust the airing order so we could ramp up the
following episodes prior to the NBA delay without having any interruption in
the tone of the episodes (i.e., 2 tense, 1 funny, 2 tense vs 1 funny and 4
tense in a row).
jms
#: 22871 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
05-Mar-98 16:42:11
Sb: <SotS> Soul of Secrets
Fm: REBECCA ESCHLIMAN
jms -
"Secrets of the Soul" was, for me, was haunting, long after the phosphor-dots
dimmed. The seemingly straighforward opening of a laboratory in which secrets
are revealed, supposedly to the benefit of the secret-holders, was bracketed
with the end revelation of a laboratory in which secrets were created, again,
supposedly to the benefit of secret-holders. Linking those two scenes leads
me to wonder if Franklin may be in danger of Vorlonic hubris in eps yet to
come.
One of the things I'm enjoying about the ratchet-up initial phase of S5 is
becoming more acquainted with some of the "bit players" of the old League of
Non-Aligned Worlds. In addition to the Hyach story of the current ep, there
seems to be a Pakh'mara undercurrent building in season 5 -- the generalized
Minbari disdain previously, and the Pakh'mara in their own words (and
projectile vomiting <g>) in SotS. I had a weird frisson when the Pakh'mara
used the seemingly same translation device as the Drakh -- I can't remember a
Pahk'mara "talking" before, but that may be just a faulty memory.
But the thing that remained with me after images from SotS chased around in
the brain was that this was a kind of Olympic Games of Thanatos and Eros.
* The Pakh'mara's whole nutrition depends on Thanatos.
* The Hyach's suppression of the Hyach-Do was a "Thanatopian " reaction to
Eros between the two lines, ironically introducing Thanatos into the remaining
line (which lead, for me, to a weird echo to the whole Human/Minbari dynamics
-- the soul of the Minbaris' current response to the Valen-secret is that it
would induce a similar horrific reaction within contemporary Minbari).
Kirrin's question to Franklin, "would you die for us?," extends Thanatos as a
retribution.
* Byron is, at the opening, a force of Eros in the guise of Thanatos.
Lyta (whose identification with Byron is signalled by her black costume and
hair freed from restraint) is drawn to the Eros that Byron promises. Zach
sees only the Thanatos-potential (fuelled by Lyta-Eros, to be sure). Byron,
in his confrontation with the Downbelow disaffected, deflects Thanatos with
the confusion of unexpectedly-applied Eros.
*Lyta, on the other hand, is, unwillingly, a force of Thanatos decked out in
Eros as for a Venetian Carnival. As a "Brightly-Colored, Fast-Moving Object"
she draws Byron with Eros, and is drawn to him by the Eros (in a number of its
guises), but winds up infecting him with her own Thanatos. I found startling
irony in her saying (and believing) that she would follow him into hell with a
smile on her face, but the reality is that she introduced him to the hell in
which she may actually follow him. Byron's whole "coppersmith" tale may have
been parable from word go -- she sees him as shaping her into a new form --
but *she* seems to be the one who shapes the "Thanatopian" telepath future by
revealing to Byron, through Erotic immediacy (and I found the unusual
frankness of the scene more an indication of its shock to the telepath colony
as a possible push-the-envelope, "let's see what we can get away with on
cable" ploy), the telepath-as-tools-of-the-"gods" origins. (But I was also
left wondering whether Byron's extremely strong reaction to Lyta's revelation
might not have been aggravated by some possible previous experience as a
Psi-Corps experimental subject.)
The inevitable unconnected observations:
The Hyach's "you may forgive us for what our ancestors did" did have a
contemporary resonance.
The animus of the Downbelow mundanes foreshadowed (intentionally?) the online
viewers' animus towards the telepath colony.
One of the thorny Eros/Thanatos areas is the possibly fearsome prospect of the
death of individuality in a telepath community (Lyta's "They're here, e.g.).
Byron's teeps seem to gain great comfort from it (and Lyta seems to yearn for
it), but there are questions left on the table as to whether this Thanatos of
the individual is ultimately an Eros for the group. The apparent transparency
of the physical walls during the erotic scene was certainly echoed by the
transparency of the mental boundaries during same, but the results I find
ominous (and foreshadowed by the "Burn, Baby, Burn" earlier group-mind-effort
of the telepaths without Byron's moderating Eros-influence).
The absence of Sheridan and Delenn in the ep made me realize, by contrast,
that their story is the triumph of Eros over some fairly overwhelming
Thanatos-influences of their pasts.
And, as a weird sidelight to this maundering -- the Vorlon fetal laboratory
was the *only* dressed set when I was part of the licensee tour late last
September, and the Byron-Lyta love-scene was the *only* filming going on that
day. So, the meaning of the only dressed set we saw, and the subjects and
import of filming (Robin Atkin Downes and Pat Tallman were, quite rightly, not
subjected to a herd of outsiders) remained a secret of the Babylon 5 soul for
several months.
-rje-
The best thing we can do is to make wherever we're lost in look as much like
home as we can. -- Christopher Fry
#: 23000 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
06-Mar-98 13:11:06
Sb: #22871-#<SotS> Soul of Secrets
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Good stuff, as always...btw, the pak'ma'ra used a translator before in
"Legacies."
jms
[ Summary: "Who was broadcasting Lyta's memories while she was making
love to Byron?" ]
#: 23001 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
06-Mar-98 13:11:06
Sb: #22970-#<Secrets of the Soul>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
It was everything being stimulated, and coming to the surface, mainly
from her, but echoing off him.
jms
[END]
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