Racing the Night (Spoilers included, and some for The Path of

[B5JMS Poster]

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: lessxtreme at aol.com (LessXTreme)
Date: 5 Aug 1999 18:21:53 -0600
Lines: 70

Spoilers...don't look if ya don't wanna....



























Well, I just finished watching Racing the Night, and I liked it quite a
bit...it would've worked fine as a first episode, I think, except for a few
bits. I was glad to finally see a good space battle in this show. =) Not that
that's all I'm watching for, of course, but it's good eye candy every so often.
=) Anyway, the story was well done and well paced, but I kept thinking of it as
the first episode. As it is, there are a few conflicts in its current
placing-Gideon describing Max as having been chosen by IPX to give to them,
Gideon having to make it clear that he knows what he's doing with the main
guns, etc, etc. That stuff was easy enough to overlook, since there was nothing
that could be done about it. Two things do actually work better with this
placing, I think. One: Galen and Dureena. Their relationship has been explored
somewhat in the previous episodes, and has been developed. Here, it's simply
Dureena popping up and saying "Teach me! Teach me!" At this point, it seems a
little better to accept. They've reached a level of trust, one where Galen is
seriously considering teaching her. I'm glad that had time to develop before I
saw it. Two: the Apocalypse Box. If I'd seen this as it is in the first
episode, I would've simply looked at it and said, "What? Huh? Wtf?" In the
current placing, we got to know its enigmatic name, see Gideon receiving it,
but didn't know what it did. Now we see what it is and what he's using it for.
The idea that the box lies sometimes, which we were told back in The Path of
Sorrows, also adds flavor to that scene. It still weirds me out, though. Why
did Gideon ever accept it as collateral? Never accept anything from anyone that
has the words death, destruction, doom, or apocalypse in its name, especially
when the owner laughs joyfully when he gets rid of it. Oh well...at least I
know who to play poker with when I want to bet my Ring of Doom....=)

One thing keeps bugging me, though-what's with the Shadows? Do they just like
screwing with people? They destroyed the Cerberus (and NOT the Technomage
fleet, surprisingly enough), destroyed the...Xandarians?' colony ship, and here
didn't force a people to accept a base, but instead just poisoned them all.
Only here do I like their involvement with this series (though I would have
disliked this highly suspicious situation being in the first episode). What
they did points out some very interesting points. First, a question-what was
different about that world? The Shadows forced the Narn to accept a base, why
didn't they force these people? As for the second...good news. Somewhere, there
is definitely a cure. Otherwise, the Shadows wouldn't be using nuclear missile
planetkillers now, but would still be using their plague. Good to know, ain't
it?

Anyway, a very good episode. I hope the rest of the pre-interference episodes
are as good...::crossing fingers::..=)


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 8 Aug 1999 15:43:42 -0600
Lines: 18

>As it is, there are a few conflicts in its current
>placing-Gideon describing Max as having been chosen by IPX to give to them,

Actually, my thought there was that that's what Gideon would *always* tell him,
because the last thing in the world he'd ever do is tell Max that he WANTED him
on board.  He'd be totally insufferable.

Our captain lies from time to time.  Same as the box.  

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com




-***
-*** B5JMS SUBSCRIBERS: Replies to messages go to the list maintainer,
-*** <b5jms-owner at cs.columbia.edu>.  If you want to reply elsewhere, adjust
-*** the "To" field.  See http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~ezk/b5jms/ for all
-*** other information about this list.