The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5
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  1. [1][ISMAP]-[2][Home]
  2. ### GUIDE ### [3][Background] [4][Synopsis] [5][Credits] [6][Episode
  3. List] [7][Previous] [8][Next]
  4. _Contents:_ [9]Overview - [10]Backplot - [11]Questions - [12]Analysis
  5. - [13]Notes - [14]JMS
  6. _________________________________________________________________
  7. Overview
  8. Sinclair is kidnapped and interrogated by members of a pro-Earth
  9. group, determined to find out what transpired when the commander
  10. was briefly missing in action during the final battle of the
  11. Earth/Minbari war -- something Sinclair has never been able to
  12. remember. [15]Judson Scott as Knight One. [16]Christopher Neame as
  13. Knight Two. [17]Jim Youngs as Frank Benson. [18]Justin Williams as
  14. Mitchell.
  15. Sub-genre: Suspense
  16. [19]P5 Rating: [20]8.90
  17. Production number: 106
  18. Original air date: March 16, 1994
  19. Written by J. Michael Straczynski
  20. Directed by Janet Greek
  21. Watch For
  22. * A [21]newspaper headline describing some unusual political
  23. machinations.
  24. * Sinclair [22]reacts to something just before his ship is
  25. manipulated.
  26. * A small [23]device is held up in front of Sinclair at one point.
  27. Remember what it looks like; it'll appear again later in the
  28. season.
  29. _________________________________________________________________
  30. Backplot
  31. * In the days before the Earth/Minbari war, Dr. Franklin used to
  32. hitchhike starships, trading his services as ship's doctor in
  33. exchange for free passage to places he'd never been before.
  34. * _Franklin:_ "Towards the end, when things got bad for our side,
  35. those of us involved in xenobiology were told to hand over our
  36. notes to be used in genetic and biological warfare. [...] I took
  37. an oath that all life was sacred. I destroyed my notes, rather
  38. than have them used for killing."
  39. * After his squad was shot down at the Line, Sinclair's ship was
  40. disabled and taken aboard a Minbari cruiser. He was tortured and
  41. examined, and at one point stood unfettered within the circle of
  42. the grey council itself. When they didn't respond to his
  43. questions, Sinclair suddenly walked up to one of them and pulled
  44. back the hood, revealing the face of Delenn. He was then knocked
  45. out again, and some time later returned to his ship with no memory
  46. of the experience.
  47. _(A [24]synopsis of the events at the Line as Sinclair
  48. re-experiences them is available. There is also a separate
  49. [25]Guide page devoted to those events.)_
  50. * _Knight Two:_ "Your ship was off the screens for 24 hours. You
  51. didn't just black out, your ship disappeared!"
  52. _Sinclair:_ "The screens malfunctioned, the hearing proved that."
  53. * This would explain why Sinclair "fell off the merry-go-round"
  54. promotion-wise. Officers who've inexplicably disappeared in the
  55. presence of the enemy tend to hit a glass ceiling even if their
  56. loyalty is officially accepted.
  57. * The Knights may be part of a covert operation within Earth Force
  58. that's trying to find collusion between Earth officials and the
  59. Minbari.
  60. Unanswered Questions
  61. * Franklin asks Delenn, "How were you involved in the war?" She
  62. declines to answer, even though he had just answered the same
  63. question from her. Toward the end of the episode it's revealed
  64. that Delenn did indeed play a significant role in the war, but
  65. little is yet known about what that was. (cf: [26]"Babylon
  66. Squared")
  67. * Sinclair's absence was first realized when Delenn reported that he
  68. didn't show up for a meeting with her in the Council room. What
  69. was that meeting to have been about?
  70. * Delenn said she checked with Ivanova before asked Garibaldi about
  71. Sinclair's absence. Ivanova is willing to page Sinclair about
  72. _everyday_ problems - why wouldn't she call his link when he's
  73. mysteriously long overdue for a diplomatic appointment?
  74. * Later, Delenn asks Ivanova if there's anything she can do to help,
  75. and Ivanova replies that the crew is doing everything possible.
  76. Yet why is she strolling down a corridor with Delenn, rather than
  77. following leads and scouring for new ways to find Sinclair?
  78. * How was Sinclair flawlessly abducted from his quarters?
  79. * How did Knight One get Benson's body off the station? (see [27]jms
  80. Speaks)
  81. * Who were the Knights working for?
  82. * Why wasn't telepathy used for the interrogation? It would have
  83. been no less legal than what the Knights did, and a telepath would
  84. probably have had better skills at dredging up old memories. The
  85. whole power source problem (which ultimately sunk the Knights'
  86. plan) could have been avoided - only the stimulation technology
  87. need have been brought on board.
  88. * Is Sinclair really a Minbari plant?
  89. * Why was Delenn's superior on the station?
  90. * _What is it that the Minbari don't want Sinclair to remember about
  91. his experience on the Line???_
  92. Analysis
  93. * _Sinclair:_ "Everyone lies, Michael. The innocent lie because they
  94. don't want to be blamed for something they didn't do, and the
  95. guilty lie because they don't have any other choice."
  96. This is extra reason to think twice before taking anything said in
  97. this episode at face value. Nor should one assume that a lie
  98. covers up wrongdoing.
  99. * Earth Force was researching the use of genetic and biological
  100. warfare against the Minbari. These are offensive, not defensive
  101. methods, effective only on planets. They must have been planning a
  102. desperation ground strike of some kind. (cf: [28]"Soul Hunter")
  103. * After he punches Knight Two in VR, Sinclair looks at his hand,
  104. making a fist and releasing it. Scenes of him in the cybernet
  105. chair after that show him clenching his fist in real life as well,
  106. in unison with continued fist-clenching in VR. Sinclair is
  107. rediscovering, slowly, how to get his brain to control his body.
  108. The pain of the remembered zap in the council chambers is later
  109. enough to propel him all the way back, if groggily.
  110. * While looking for Sinclair's body outside, station forces discover
  111. the body of Benson floating outside Red Sector. Garibaldi visually
  112. identifies him (other Security folks had not been able to), and
  113. says, "Whoever killed him couldn't have carried the body very far
  114. without being noticed." He may be wrong in this conclusion -
  115. Knight One could have dumped it into a nondescript cart and gone a
  116. long way, for example.
  117. * _Garibaldi:_ "If they dumped the body out of an airlock, the
  118. station's gravity wouldn't let it get far." This is true _only_ if
  119. the body was dumped out of a no- or low-velocity airlock. Perhaps
  120. Garibaldi's assertion is correct because there aren't any
  121. high-velocity airlocks on the station other than the Cobra Bays.
  122. * _Knight Two:_ "Look at Earth: Alien civilization. Alien migration.
  123. Aliens buying up real estate by the square mile. What they
  124. couldn't take by force, they corrupted! Inch by inch!"
  125. This sounds very much like Homeguard propaganda - perhaps there is
  126. a connection. (cf: [29]"War Prayer")
  127. * Delenn exhibits ignorance of the powers of Earth telepaths -
  128. Ivanova had to explain to her that Talia, a P5, was not capable of
  129. a search-and-recover mission.
  130. * Ivanova's only contribution to the search effort was to track all
  131. ships that left Babylon 5 in the previous 8 hours, which turned
  132. out to be wasted effort. This and several [30]Unanswered Questions
  133. suggest she may have been working with the Knights.
  134. * _Delenn:_ "It's me, commander."
  135. _Sinclair:_ "I know - I know you. I know who you are."
  136. _Delenn:_ "I'm your friend, commander. Ambassador Delenn. _Your
  137. friend._"
  138. _Sinclair:_ "NO! I know you. I know you." [Knight One prepares to
  139. fire, Sinclair shoots him down]
  140. _Delenn:_ "Welcome home."
  141. [Sinclair collapses]
  142. By his emphatic denial above, it should be clear to Delenn that
  143. Sinclair is remembering _something_ about [31]his discovery of her
  144. at the Line. He later denies remembering anything, but she must
  145. wonder if he's lying. (If the [32]Analysis in the Line Guide page
  146. is correct, however, she should be _certain_ he is lying.)
  147. * Knight Two apparently remembered nothing about himself after
  148. Sinclair's destructive escape fried his memory. However, the word
  149. "Commander" brings him up short, and he remembers Sinclair's name,
  150. saying "There's something in my head. It says: 'Maybe you're still
  151. inside. Maybe we're both still inside.'" His phrasing there
  152. indicates that this is not his own current thought, but a thought
  153. that survived his brain damage. So, what did Knight Two, in full
  154. possession of his faculties, mean by that suspicion? The most
  155. obvious answer is "inside the simulation," but this is a very weak
  156. explanation, and goes nowhere.
  157. * Knight Two's last experience would have been watching Sinclair's
  158. recollection of his Grey Council experience, _including_ his
  159. discovery of Delenn (whom Knight Two may not have recognized).
  160. * See also the [33]Guide page devoted to Sinclair's recollection of
  161. the events on the Line.
  162. Notes
  163. *
  164. Universe Today Headlines:
  165. + _Sports:_ Zero-G Tennis Results Inside
  166. + _Is There Something Living in Hyperspace?_
  167. + _Homeguard Leader Convicted:_ Jacob Lester Found Guilty In
  168. Attack on Minbari Embassy
  169. + _Narns settle Raghesh 3 Controversy_
  170. + _EA President Promises Balanced Budget by 2260_
  171. + _Psi Corps in Election Tangle:_ Did Psi-Corps Violate its
  172. Charter by Endorsing Vice-President? _(see [34]jms Speaks)_
  173. + _San Diego Still Considered Too Radioactive for Occupancy:_
  174. A new study published by Earthforce Nuclear Regulatory Office
  175. declares San Diego, struck by the American States first act
  176. of nuclear terrorism over 100 years ago, still uninhabitable
  177. for the next 300 years.
  178. + _SPECIAL SECTION: Pros & Cons of Interspecies Mating_
  179. + _Copyright Trial Continues in Bookzap Flap:_ Books Downloaded
  180. Directly into Brain: Who Owns Them?
  181. + _Is There Something Living in Hyperspace?_ _(a repeat)_
  182. + _New Binary Star Discovered_
  183. + _Inside: Universe Today: Babylon 5 Edition:_
  184. o Classified 5-70
  185. o Crossword 60
  186. o Editorial/Opinion 10-11A
  187. o Lotteries 11C
  188. o Horoscope 8A
  189. o HoloComics 9E
  190. * The text of all the articles are instructions for the "Babylon 5
  191. Equation Editor," which looks like genuine documentation after a
  192. search and replace has been performed from the product's name to
  193. "Babylon 5."
  194. * _Source for Universe Today information: "Cinefantastique," April
  195. 1994, p. 35_
  196. * Dr. Franklin now has baseline medical readings for a healthy adult
  197. Minbari.
  198. * Casino regulations for officers: no gambling on duty, off-duty
  199. gambling is limited to 50 credits per week.
  200. * Garibaldi has security access to Sinclair's quarters.
  201. * _Jeffrey David Sinclair_
  202. _2218:_ Born on Mars Colony May 3rd.
  203. _2237:_ Enlisted in Earth Force Defense.
  204. _2240:_ Promoted to Fighter Pilot.
  205. _2241:_ Promoted to Squad Leader (!)
  206. * Sinclair's ancestors have been fighter pilots for many
  207. generations.
  208. * _Knight Two:_ "If I fail, more will come after me, until the job
  209. is finished."
  210. * _Sinclair:_ (to Mitchell) "I tried to warn you, but you wouldn't
  211. listen. You never listen."
  212. * Payoff money was deposited to Benson's account at 0300, presumably
  213. soon after he delivered a big power supply to the Knights. At 0700
  214. Sinclair "went missing" - presumably this was when Delenn was
  215. supposed to meet with him in the Council room (see [35]Unanswered
  216. Questions).
  217. jms speaks
  218. * Absolutely unlike anything ever produced before for television.
  219. Directorially, and in terms of the visual effects, the CGI, the
  220. performances, right across the board, it's a stunner. And just...I
  221. can't convey this enough...different. It just takes TV SF and
  222. yanks it to a whole other level of complexity.
  223. * As for a production report...things are going swimmingly. Today we
  224. started getting dailies on our first day of shooting on "And the
  225. Sky Full of Stars," which deals with the Battle of the Line. This
  226. is not going to look like your conventional episode of television.
  227. We've brought in equipment that you don't normally see on a
  228. television set, certain kinds of cranes and lenses and lighting
  229. packages that will give this particular episode a very strange,
  230. almost surreal look. It's quite remarkable.
  231. And Ron's pushing the envelope on the CGI...compositing some live
  232. action stuff with CGI that'll blow your TV out.
  233. It's going *well*.
  234. * Spent a very, very, very long day today in editing...not out of
  235. any problems, but because of the *astonishing* amount of detail
  236. we're putting into "And the Sky Full of Stars." Leaving out all
  237. the live- action shots, there are 25 CGI shots in one and a half
  238. minutes in one sequence alone. (By way of comparison, there were
  239. 55 or so in the full two hour pilot for B5.) So we go frame by
  240. frame, making sure that everything meshes properly, through some
  241. pretty intense gistics. You'll understand when you see it.
  242. I've never seen the like of this particular episode before. It's a
  243. real gem.
  244. * On returns... Garibaldi's aide: yes. Knights: yes, but not
  245. identified as such.
  246. * Lurkers is indeed a net reference.
  247. * Psi Corps, as a government-regulated agency, is prohibited from
  248. endorsing candidates or taking a political stance.
  249. * I would *never* pull a "he wakes up and it was all a dream" on the
  250. series. I hate that kind of story.
  251. * It has *always* been my sense that the body was slipped out an
  252. access airlock in the zero-g cargo area. Every other access --
  253. like the boarding area and standard cargo area -- is under close
  254. security to prevent this kind of thing, or the influx of
  255. contraband. There's really nowhere to GO from the zero-g section,
  256. so it's a little looser. As for how he got the body there...there
  257. is an answer, and a reason, and if you look at this episode again
  258. after the season is over, even the nitpickers who brought it up
  259. will be able to figure it out. I didn't address it in the issue
  260. because I didn't think anyone would make a federal case out of
  261. this, and for other reasons that will in time become apparent.
  262. Several other nits picked at this episode will *also* be clarified
  263. by season's end. It's not easy to sit quietly, knowing the answer,
  264. and being unable to tell it, but that's simply what I have to do
  265. for the time being.
  266. * Psi Cops are *authorized* to carry firearms. The Knights had an in
  267. with Security, and by virtue of high government contacts, got
  268. their stuff on board. Those seem to me not requiring much
  269. explanation.
  270. * I can't believe this "explain how the guns get aboard" discussion
  271. is still going on. This isn't the Enterprise, to use the cited
  272. example, which is a *military vessel*, and only the occasional
  273. rare civilian gets on board. There are a QUARTER MILLION PEOPLE on
  274. board at any given moment. (People = humans and aliens.) Not
  275. staying there, but in a state of flux. Going and coming. Anywhere
  276. from 50 to 100 ships per day dock at B5. Thousands upon thousands
  277. of boxes, crates, cargo loads, pallets, you name it. If you
  278. stopped and inspected every single box that came through, the
  279. system would grind to a halt. So you do the best you can, you
  280. catch whatever you can, scan as much as possible, and accept that
  281. some stuff is bound to slip through.
  282. Further, this is the kind of explanation that has nothing to do
  283. with a story, only with someone's need to have something explained
  284. to them. I think the time is spent better elsewhere.
  285. * Yes, that is a triluminary on the grey council staff in "Sky."
  286. (cf. [36]"Babylon Squared")
  287. * Bear in mind, though, that Sinclair really had no reason to doubt
  288. what he remembered happening on the Line until the Minbari
  289. assassin uttered those seven fateful words. As for others...there
  290. have been suspicions, but more broadbased...and we'll deal with
  291. those a bit here and there.
  292. * Also, check the readout on Sinclair's screen as he's trying to
  293. engage the enemy. You'll see "negative lock" popping up. One
  294. problem in fighting the Minbari vessels is that they have a kind
  295. of stealth tech that makes it very hard for our weapons to lock
  296. on.
  297. * Bill Mitchell from "Sky" is a reference to General Billy Mitchell
  298. . . .
  299. * Yeah, it was an off-the-cuff reference to Billy Mitchell . . .
  300. (Didn't really mean that much; just thought it wuz cool.)
  301. * Re: "Sky"...my theory is to *never* assume prior knowledge of the
  302. background info that goes into an episode. If you never saw the
  303. pilot, you will miss *nothing* going into "Sky" (though it'd be
  304. nice because of one quickie flashback to know where that came
  305. from). I don't think anyone will have a hard time following that
  306. one.
  307. * This was one segment of the battle; there were others going on in
  308. other areas as well. It's said that no one ever *saw* the Battle
  309. of the Bulge; each saw a small part of it. Same here.
  310. Reality is, no matter how big we would've made it, more would've
  311. been wanted. (If anything, it seems that the more we show, the
  312. more is wanted.) But all things considered, best to have folks
  313. wanting more than wanting less....
  314. (And remember, we're managing to do all this with roughly *half*
  315. of TNG's budget. Give us their budget, and I'll show you ALL of
  316. the Battle of the Line, and the ENTIRE Earth/Minbari War, PLUS all
  317. their home worlds.)
  318. Nonetheless, as we go deeper into the season, the CGI/action
  319. sequences do get bigger and more detailed in many places. In
  320. "Signs and Portents" (formerly "Raiding Party"), you'll see three
  321. pretty good sized squadrons of ships engaged in a very fast-paced
  322. battle that goes on for most of an act and a half, as opposed to
  323. just a few scenes in "Sky." Big battles weren't really the *point*
  324. in "Sky," it was more about his REACTIONS and his personal fate.
  325. There were a number of action/battle shots we had on hand, but
  326. decided not to use because we didn't want to dilute the *point* of
  327. the scene.
  328. And as stated elsewhere...yes, you'll be seeing the Minbari war
  329. cruiser(s) again.
  330. * Actually, as you'll see in "Sky," sometimes the Good Guys *do* get
  331. their ships hit; sometimes they blow up and kill the person (as
  332. you will see), and sometimes they do damage without destroying the
  333. ship, in which case there is an eject mechanism that separates the
  334. cockpit part from the rest of the fighter, which contains the
  335. volatile reactors.
  336. So in those circumstances, a flight suit is a *very* good idea....
  337. * We actually had a lot more shots we could've used to prolong the
  338. sequence, but felt we *really* had to get to Sinclair, and go into
  339. his point of view more. Also we step-printed the CGI to give it a
  340. more dream-like appearance, since we're seeing this from inside
  341. Sinclair's memory, and he wasn't really able to *see* all this,
  342. particularly stuff happening around and behind him, this is more
  343. his *sense* of the events of that time. The sections we didn't
  344. step-print were those where he was RIGHT THERE, to make a subtle
  345. distinction.
  346. * What? Who, me? Near as I remember, the Question was, "What
  347. happened at the Battle of the Line?" Answer: Sinclair was taken
  348. aboard the Minbari cruiser, tortured, interrogated, mind-wiped and
  349. shoved back into his ship.
  350. The Question *now* is, "WHY was Sinclair taken aboard the Minbari
  351. cruiser, tortured, interrogated, mind-wiped and shoved back into
  352. his ship?"
  353. That question was not asked heretofore...so how could it be still
  354. unanswered?
  355. * A number of people have commented that they weren't much surprised
  356. by Sinclair being taken aboard, because on the nets -- and this
  357. has ONLY taken place on the nets -- this speculation has been
  358. bandied about for some time. We now have ten zillion speculations
  359. on the reason *why*. I will not comment on them one way or another
  360. (though I suppose I could point, without making the real
  361. comparison between types of typists, to the idea that an infinte
  362. number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of keyboards would
  363. eventually produce Hamlet simply by chance combination; sooner or
  364. later, something close to the reality might be stumbled upon...and
  365. let me ask a simple question: what purpose does that serve? It
  366. only lessens the enjoyment of those who would simply like to enjoy
  367. what happens WHEN it happens).
  368. Any good detective knows that you can't really begin to speculate
  369. about motive until you have all the information right at hand. At
  370. this point there is information you don't have...and absent that,
  371. any guesses will either be wrong, or close enough to hinder the
  372. fun but still essentially incorrect. It's like trying to guess the
  373. contents of a box without knowing the size of the box...it could
  374. be a marble, it could be an elephant or a pre-fabricated house.
  375. All I'm suggesting is that you consider not trying to come up with
  376. every possible angle, and let the show progress on its own. Right
  377. now everybody seems to be scrambling to make sure every even
  378. remotely feasible possibility is covered, and there an infinite
  379. number. As an organized activity, this will in time only prove
  380. frustrating. By the end of the season, as with being near the end
  381. of a movie, you'll have enough info on hand to start making some
  382. educated guesses. To do so now is to begin the proess of calling
  383. out possible endings during the first five minutes of a
  384. movie...you'll miss the important things, and annoy the people
  385. sitting behind you.
  386. I'm not saying stop; I'm just saying...relax, a little, I guess,
  387. and simply be aware that you *cannot* scatter-shot this thing
  388. without having access to all the information. It's like trying to
  389. guess the beginnings of World War One without knowing *any* of the
  390. background of the countries involved. Suffice to say that the
  391. reason would not be simplistic, or cliched, or *easily deduced*.
  392. One thing I learned in two years on "Murder, She Wrote" was to
  393. come up with a fairly complex mystery, something that can't be
  394. easily solved going in, but which makes perfect sense after you
  395. have all the facts and know which clues were the real ones, and
  396. which were simply red herrings.
  397. Just a thought....
  398. * We'd initially offered Walter [Koenig] the role of Knight Two in
  399. "Sky," but when his health prohibited using him, we went to
  400. Patrick McGoohan, who loved the script, wanted to do it, but was
  401. going to be out of the country at the time of shooting. We then
  402. shifted Walter to "Mind War."
  403. * Thanks. I love Patrick's work. Problem is he's *very* fussy on the
  404. roles he takes. (And justifiably so.) He has to be sold on the
  405. script or there's no deal. We'd sent him a copy of "And the Sky
  406. Full of Stars," which would have had him as the main interrogator,
  407. Knight Two...and he liked it, and was prepared to do it...when we
  408. checked our respective calendars and discovered that he was going
  409. to be out of the country when we were scheduled to shoot.
  410. We hope to get him at some later time. He's just terrific.
  411. * The CGI scenes were deliberately step-printed to give the shots a
  412. more dreamlike look.
  413. * The CGI won't look as good in slow motion because we step-printed
  414. them deliberately, in order to give them a more dream-like
  415. appearance. For us, this wasn't about the ships, it was about one
  416. of the men in the ship, which is why we kept him in sharp focus,
  417. and went to step- printing whenever we went outside (and since
  418. we're seeing this from his memory, clearly he wouldn't actually
  419. have *seen* most ofthis, it's his *sense* of what happened).
  420. You'll get plenty of clear CGI in "Signs and Portents," airing in
  421. May.
  422. * Actually, there's a second shot in which you can see a body being
  423. thrown out; it's between Mitchell and Sinclair being hit. Remember
  424. that the body is strapped in in an angular fashion, and look for
  425. it as it blows (as I recall) from left to right. It's there.
  426. * This weekend, I was at the Space Frontier Foundation to receive an
  427. award for Babylon 5 for Best Vision of the Future, part of which
  428. was its recognition of our *deliberate efforts* to get things
  429. right. Zero-G maneuvering, civilian use of space, a working
  430. O'Neill station, on and on, all the stuff you think happens by
  431. "coincidence." And which has not generally HAPPENED on TV before.
  432. In attendence were the Delta Clipper team of engineers, astronaut
  433. Pete Conrad, leading researchers with NASA, JPL,
  434. McDonnell-Douglas, you name it.
  435. And one of the people there, who had been with SDI and the Space
  436. Program for 12 years, currently a top-level NASA consultant,
  437. pulled me aside and said that after seeing the line about the
  438. gravity not letting the body get very far . . . he said he sat
  439. down to do the math required to come up with the actual MASS of
  440. B5, starting with the 2.5 million tons of actual structure, plus
  441. likely vegetation, quarters, occupants, ships docked inside...and
  442. when you add it all up, it came to about the same mass as a fairly
  443. small moon...and IT WOULD BE ENOUGH TO KEEP THE BODY FROM -- AS
  444. STATED IN THE SCRIPT -- GETTING VERY FAR.
  445. The body would drift from the station a bit, get pulled back, hit
  446. the hull, bounce, drift a bit, and be pulled back. Or go into a
  447. slow elliptical orbit. (He mentioned that in the history of the
  448. Apollo program, little bits of debris that would flake off the
  449. outside of the ship would remain in proximity to the ship, just on
  450. the basis of ITS mass and gravity, and it's not very big.)
  451. A couple of other high-level engineers backed him up, and said
  452. that it was quite reasonable.
  453. * The 2.5 million tons of spinning *metal* refers only to that part,
  454. the metal casing. It doesn't include the furniture, the
  455. structures, the Garden, the 250,000 humans and aliens...so the
  456. total mass of the thing is MUCH greater than the 2.5 megatons.
  457. Also, the body was shoved out of the area around the cargo bay,
  458. non-rotating, which would also cut down on the momentum (as
  459. opposed to shoving out out of the rotating part, where it would
  460. speed away at 1g).
  461. * Yes, it was always my assumption that the body was dumped out
  462. through the zero-g section, since that has more traffic with cargo
  463. loaders and unloaders and less security than the
  464. passenger-oriented bays and airlocks.
  465. * There is a security problem on B5, yes. And we hope to deal with
  466. it at some point. It's inevitable, really; 250,000 residents, huge
  467. crates being moved in and out every day, people going and
  468. coming... they try to confiscate what they can, but a lot slips
  469. through.
  470. * The second shot to Knight One is a gut-shot, and the security
  471. guard is shot through the chest.
  472. Bear in mind, also, that some of this may be expected by folks
  473. here on the nets because of the ongoing conversations, speculation
  474. and the bits of info I drop here; but for 99.9% of the rest of the
  475. nation, this IS new info. And even with the nets, I suspect that
  476. there are some surprises here....
  477. * _'Universe Today' Headline_
  478. I lived in San Diego from 1974-1981, and it's actually a great
  479. place, so I'm inclined to tweak it once in a while, just for
  480. funsies....
  481. * The wisp of smoke is a wisp of smoke, nothing more important than
  482. that. If something living in hyperspace bothers you...good, it
  483. should. The Psi Corps article is in frame for a reason. Yes, we
  484. sometimes put additional or important information in the
  485. background, but I don't think we can be fair and assume that
  486. everyone sees it, so if you don't see it in one place, it's stated
  487. out loud later on...the background stuff is to give the alert
  488. viewer a fighting chance to guess some stuff BEFORE it happens;
  489. when stuff DOES finally happen, all the required information is
  490. supplied at that time.
  491. * Correct, Gregory. One of the things we learned from the pilot was
  492. that we shoved too much information at people too fast. So I
  493. deliberately held back a lot of arc stuff in the beginning of the
  494. series, allowing people to move gradually into the B5 universe,
  495. learn more about it, and THEN start whapping them with the arc. It
  496. isn't until "Mind War" and "Sky" that we really begin cranking the
  497. arc.
  498. _________________________________________________________________
  499. Originally compiled by Matthew Ryan _matt@uhs.uchicago.edu_
  500. [42][Next]
  501. [43]Last update: August 8, 1997
  502. References
  503. 1. file://localhost/cgi-bin/imagemap/titlebar
  504. 2. LYNXIMGMAP:file://localhost/lurk/maps/maps.html#titlebar
  505. 3. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/background/008.shtml
  506. 4. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/synops/008.html
  507. 5. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/credits/008.html
  508. 6. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/episodes.php
  509. 7. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/007.html
  510. 8. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/009.html
  511. 9. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.html#OV
  512. 10. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.html#BP
  513. 11. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.html#UQ
  514. 12. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.html#AN
  515. 13. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.html#NO
  516. 14. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.html#JS
  517. 15. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Scott,+Judson
  518. 16. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Neame,+Christopher
  519. 17. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Youngs,+Jim
  520. 18. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Williams,+Justin
  521. 19. file://localhost/lurk/p5/intro.html
  522. 20. file://localhost/lurk/p5/008
  523. 21. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.html#NO:1
  524. 22. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.line.synop.html#manip
  525. 23. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.line.synop.html#exam
  526. 24. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.line.synop.html
  527. 25. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.line.page.html
  528. 26. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/020.html
  529. 27. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.html#JS:a
  530. 28. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/002.html
  531. 29. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/007.html
  532. 30. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.html#UQ:3
  533. 31. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.line.synop.html#GC:2
  534. 32. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.line.page.html#AN:5
  535. 33. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.line.page.html
  536. 34. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.html#JS
  537. 35. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.html#UQ:3
  538. 36. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/020.html
  539. 37. file://localhost/lurk/lurker.html
  540. 38. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/008.html#TOP
  541. 39. file://localhost/cgi-bin/uncgi/lgmail
  542. 40. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/episodes.php
  543. 41. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/007.html
  544. 42. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/009.html
  545. 43. file://localhost/lurk/lastmod.html