Common Sense, Anyone? ("Memory of War" spoilers)

[B5JMS Poster]

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From: John Schilling <schillin at spock.usc.edu>
Date: 14 Aug 1999 21:11:04 -0600
Lines: 97


One of the things I have always admired about _Babylon 5_ is the
relative scarcity of the Idiot Plot, compared with the rest of
the TV sf genre.  And so I have kindly overlooked the most of
the few that slipped in despite, one presumes, the best efforts
of the creators to avoid such.

But this one is too egregious, and too persistent, to let by.


Spoilers for "The Memory of War" follow:





























OK, folks.  When the crew of a spaceship (of necessity equipped with
space suits impermeable to anything bigger than a helium atom) embarked
on a quest to seek information relevant to incredibly sophisticated
alien biological warfare technologies, land on a world whose inhabitants
appear to have been exterminated by an incredibly sophisticated alien
biological warfare technology, and walk about in the open without even
a simple filter mask, much less one of the aforementioned space suits,
they are engaged in supreme idiocy.

Doing so *repeatedly*, merely indicates that these people are quite simply
too stupid to live, and that the human gene pool will be vastly improved
by their deaths and those of anyone foolish enough to depend on them.


I suppose if it never impacts the plot, it could be excused as dramatic
license.  It's not easy to act through a mask all the time, and perhaps
the current cast is not up to the standards set by Andreas Katsulas and 
Caitlin Brown, to name a few. 

But now we get a story where the key dramatic crisis is based on the
failure of anyone involved to consider taking the most elementary
precautions against the very threat they are actively *seeking*.
Not only that, but the backstory which establishes the setting as
an Incredibly Dangerous and Mysterious World From Whence Noone Ever
Returns, assumes that absolutely *everyone* who has ever visited 
said world in the past was equally stupid.

And the prize our heroes win for resolving the crisis, the scientific
breakthrough that makes it all worthwhile, is the ability to infect
one's self with a reprogrammed alien biological warfare agent of
incredible sophistication - trust us, it's perfectly safe - in order
to avoid the indignity of wearing a filter mask for a couple of days.


This is an idiot plot, pure and simple.


Which is a pity, as there was a lot of good stuff in the episode.  Most
of the buildup, for example, before the silliness of the underlying
premise was revealed.  Galen's role throughout.  And Dureena, and even
the throwaway concept of using expendable remote probes before landing.
The makings of a superb story, with one big undigestable lump of gross
idiocy at the center of it all.

Sigh.


--
*John Schilling                    * "Anything worth doing,         *
*Member:AIAA,NRA,ACLU,SAS,LP       *  is worth doing for money"     *
*Chief Scientist & General Partner *    -13th Rule of Acquisition   *
*White Elephant Research, LLC      * "There is no substitute        *
*schillin at spock.usc.edu            *  for success"                  *
*661-951-9107 or 661-275-6795      *    -58th Rule of Acquisition   *




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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 15 Aug 1999 01:13:57 -0600
Lines: 51

































>And the prize our heroes win for resolving the crisis, the scientific
>breakthrough that makes it all worthwhile, is the ability to infect
>one's self with a reprogrammed alien biological warfare agent of
>incredible sophistication - trust us, it's perfectly safe - in order
>to avoid the indignity of wearing a filter mask for a couple of days.
>
>
>This is an idiot plot, pure and simple.

Funny...the microbiology experts at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who vetted
the script thought it would be a) a useful thing indeed, and b) extremely
useful as a template in attempting to understand how the Drakh virus works.


 jms

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