Sunday, June 10, 2007

BYBS: Babylon 5

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Another BYBS about a good thing in my life that's fairly mundane: the TV show Babylon 5! This was a quirky bit of programming that ran from around 1993 to 1998 about a space station called Babylon 5. There were a lot of cool things about the show, but one of the aspects I loved was how they would address social issues couched in a different form.

This particular posting is about an episode called "Infection" that concerns some berserk gizmo that a bunch of Martians programmed to defend their world from invaders. The interesting bit is that the standard the guardians used to figure out who was an alien was so extreme that members of their own race were judged to be impure.

In true sci-fi form, the machines stop the invaders and then go on and wipe out the native population as well: after all, they're not "pure" enough.

There's a speech (more of a bit of dialog as one character is being chased around the station by one of the berserk gizmos):

They killed anything that was different. Alien. But we're all aliens to one another.

Flawed, impure, different!

Too tall, too short, too dark, too light! Imperfect!

B5 was not the first show to do this sort of thing; plenty of shows were made and continue to be made with this sort of plot. Furthermore, they had issues with incredibly fake looking props, some hokey acting, etc. For whatever reason, however, B5 managed to carry it off a lot better than the other shows of its time.

So if you're looking for something to watch for a few hours and don't want to feel like you've completely wasted your time, give B5 a try. As they say: "we've always been here." :-)

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8 comments:

Blue Panther said...

Sounds like a great show. I have never seen it but will make sure to see it whenever I get my chance.

Happy BYB Sunday and have a great week ahead.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for reminding me of Babylon 5 - it has been ages.

Happy BYB Sunday.

CyberCelt said...

I remember that show!

I expect the ability to criticize and find fault with "others" will be with us if we are alive in 3030.

Whatever said...

Blue: one of the cool things about the show was that it had a continuing arc --- it was actually going somewhere instead of things being "reset" at the end of every episode.

msdemmie: where have you been all my life?! :-)

cybercelt: That's another thing I liked about it --- the people in the show had their flaws and problems (Sinclair's deathwish, Girabaldi and his alcohol problems, etc.)

My favorite episode was "The Sky was Full of Stars." I thought Sinclair was a much more interesting character than Sheridan. Of course my favorite character was Kosh :-D

Unknown said...

i'm not a science fic movie fan somehow (usually find it boring for some unknown reason)

only exceptions i think would be the aliens series, star wars and actually babylon 5 =)

the flawed character & social issues touched was an interesting touch but not too uncommon in media

JHS said...

I remember that show but never watched it.

Hope you are having a wonderful Sunday . . . stopped by to say Happy Father's Day and let you know I have a Guest Author whose writing you will find intriguing and thought-provoking, so come on by!

SandyCarlson said...

You kicked up some memories and got me to think again about that one. Thanks!

SandyCarlson said...

Happy BYB Sunday!