The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5
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  1. <!-- TITLE What Ever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi? -->
  2. <h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
  3. <blockquote><cite>
  4. G'Kar tries
  5. to avoid capture by the Centauri while continuing his search. Delenn urges
  6. the Rangers to strike against the Shadows.
  7. </cite>
  8. <a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Alexander,+Wayne">Wayne Alexander</a> as Lorien.
  9. <a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Krimmer,+Wortham">Wortham Krimmer</a> as Emperor Cartagia.
  10. <a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Citrano,+Lenny">Lenny Citrano</a> as Isaac.
  11. <a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+DeLongis,+Anthony">Anthony DeLongis</a> as Harry.
  12. </blockquote>
  13. <pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/068">8.98</a>
  14. Production number: 402
  15. Original air week: November 11, 1996
  16. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000DGBEY/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: January 6, 2004
  17. Written by J. Michael Straczynski
  18. Directed by Kevin Dobson
  19. </pre>
  20. <p>
  21. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000ADJP/thelurkersguidet">An
  22. episodic soundtrack is available.</a>
  23. <p>
  24. <hr size=3>
  25. <h2><a name="BP">Plot Points</a></h2>
  26. <ul>
  27. <li>@@@847699354 Garibaldi's Starfury was found abandoned in space, but
  28. someone from Interplanetary Expeditions
  29. (<a href="004.html">"Infection,"</a>
  30. <a href="066.html">"Z'ha'dum"</a>)
  31. knew where to find it. Garibaldi was captured and is apparently
  32. in the custody of Psi Corps.
  33. <li>@@@847699354 Lorien claims to be the first of the First Ones, and lives
  34. deep within Z'ha'dum. He says the Shadows return to Z'ha'dum because
  35. he's there, and that Kosh knew about his presence when he told Sheridan
  36. to jump.
  37. <li>@@@847907490 G'Kar has been captured by the Centauri. In exchange
  38. for help overthrowing Emperor Cartagia, Londo has promised G'Kar
  39. that the Centauri will withdraw from Narn after Cartagia is gone.
  40. </ul>
  41. <h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
  42. <ul>
  43. <li>@@@847699354 Exactly who captured Garibaldi, and why? The Psi
  44. Corps, or some other group associated with them? How did they
  45. recover him from the inside of a Shadow vessel? Did the Shadows
  46. give him up voluntarily?
  47. <li>@@@847699354 Why did they want to know what he remembered?
  48. <li>@@@847699354 Is Lorien's claim true? Is he a member of a race of
  49. elder beings, or is he somehow the first intelligent lifeform in
  50. the galaxy? What is he, exactly?
  51. <li>@@@848432708 When, and under what circumstances, did Lorien meet Kosh?
  52. <li>@@@847699354 How is Londo planning to use G'Kar to unseat Cartagia?
  53. </ul>
  54. <h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
  55. <ul>
  56. <p>
  57. <li>@@@847907011 If Garibaldi has indeed been captured by the Psi Corps,
  58. why do they need to question him? Presumably they could just pick
  59. whatever information they need out of his mind. Perhaps they're
  60. simply trying to get him to cooperate, on the assumption that if he
  61. cooperates in one area, he'll be more malleable in others.
  62. <p>
  63. @@@848787762 Alternately, perhaps they're making sure he doesn't
  64. remember what happened to him because they've done something to him and
  65. wiped his memory of the event. That would explain the conclusion of the
  66. interrogation scene; they gassed him to transport him elsewhere once
  67. they were satisfied that their memory wipe was solid.
  68. <p>
  69. <li>@@@847907011 Centauri torture is likely to result in the loss of
  70. G'Kar's left eye
  71. (<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows,"</a>
  72. <a href="061.html">"War Without End, Part Two."</a>)
  73. Whether that eye is the subject of Lady Morella's prophecy
  74. (<a href="053.html">"Point of No Return"</a>)
  75. isn't clear; it's certainly plausible that Londo could redeem himself
  76. by halting the torture of G'Kar, but there are other eyes that don't
  77. see (e.g. the Shadows' Eye at Z'ha'dum in
  78. <a href="067.html">"The Hour of the Wolf,"</a>
  79. or the Centauri Eye from
  80. <a href="013.html">"Signs and Portents."</a>)
  81. <p>
  82. <li>@@@865731365 Given Lorien's assessment of his situation,
  83. Sheridan presumably qualifies as "the one who is already
  84. dead" in Morella's prophecy. And, in fact, Londo spares his life 17
  85. years in the future
  86. (<a href="061.html">"War Without End, Part Two."</a>)
  87. Assuming the prophecy is correct and Londo was thus redeemed, obviating
  88. the need for a third chance, what form would that chance have taken?
  89. <p>
  90. <li>@@@847699354 Why is Lorien so interested in what happens to Sheridan?
  91. He said Sheridan was "the only one to make it this far." Was he
  92. referring to the physical descent down the chasm, or some more
  93. spiritual journey?
  94. <p>
  95. <li>@@@848360087 Lorien said neither Kosh nor Sheridan wanted to die.
  96. Assuming he was able to resurrect Sheridan, is Kosh also still alive?
  97. If so, what did Kosh find to live for?
  98. <p>
  99. <li>@@@847913276 Lorien said he had been waiting for someone to talk to.
  100. He also said, several times, that Sheridan was trapped between life and
  101. death, between seconds. Given that he was there with Sheridan, and
  102. that Kosh knew about Lorien's presence, it's plausible that Lorien, not
  103. Justin, is in fact "the
  104. man in between" from Sheridan's Kosh-induced dream
  105. (<a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night."</a>)
  106. If so, what will he do now that he's found Sheridan?
  107. <p>
  108. <li>@@@847699354 Lorien, if that's who the formless being in Sheridan's
  109. dream is, asked both the Vorlon and the Shadow questions. Why are
  110. those questions significant to him? He said that there was no good
  111. answer to "Who are you," implying perhaps that the search for an
  112. answer is what matters.
  113. <p>
  114. Did the Shadows and the Vorlons get those questions from Lorien?
  115. Lorien claims to have met Kosh (who, oddly, he knew by name, which
  116. would seem to contradict the new Kosh's statement that "we are all
  117. Kosh") so presumably he has also met the Shadows. Perhaps each race
  118. latched onto one of the two questions, adopting it as its own.
  119. <p>
  120. <li>@@@848344773 Later, however, Lorien asked Sheridan <em>three</em>
  121. questions: who he was, why he was, and what he wanted. The middle
  122. question is new. If the Vorlons and the Shadows are supposed to
  123. ask the first and last questions, is there supposed to be another
  124. group asking the second? (See
  125. <a href="#JS.question">jms speaks</a>)
  126. <p>
  127. <li>@@@848612588 One person did ask all three questions once: Sinclair,
  128. when he was captured during the Battle of the Line
  129. (<a href="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars."</a>)
  130. <p>
  131. <li>@@@850550166 Kosh may have implied the presence of a third question in
  132. <a href="009.html">"Deathwalker"</a>
  133. when he told Talia, "Understanding is a three-edged sword."
  134. <p>
  135. <li>@@@854122542 Lorien echoed another statement of Sinclair's, also from
  136. <a href="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars."</a>
  137. Sinclair said of his wingman Mitchell, "I tried to warn you, but
  138. you wouldn't listen... you never listened." Lorien said the same
  139. of the Shadows and Vorlons, or so it seemed, though he didn't provide
  140. any more context or explanation.
  141. <p>
  142. Vir made a similar comment to G'Kar in
  143. <a href="043.html">"Comes the Inquisitor:"</a>
  144. "I wish... there was something that I could do. I tried telling them,
  145. but they wouldn't listen. They never listen..."
  146. <p>
  147. <li>@@@867026668 In
  148. <a href="004.html">"Infection,"</a>
  149. Garibaldi observed to Sinclair that people look for things to die for,
  150. because it's easier than finding something to live for. Lorien echoed
  151. that sentiment at the end of this episode.
  152. <p>
  153. <li>@@@847699354 Lorien said he hated to see his children fighting. Does
  154. that imply he doesn't approve of Sheridan's war against the Shadows?
  155. For that matter, does it mean he doesn't approve of the Vorlons and
  156. the Shadows fighting? If so, can he do anything about it?
  157. <p>
  158. <li>@@@847699354 Can Lorien leave Z'ha'dum? Perhaps the planet is part
  159. of him, or he's bound to it in some way; in that case, Delenn's plan
  160. to attack Z'ha'dum could prove disastrous, assuming the Vorlons are
  161. as interested in Lorien as the Shadows are.
  162. <p>
  163. <li>@@@847907011 Lorien said the Shadows think they return to Z'ha'dum to
  164. show him respect, but that they don't understand any more. What don't
  165. they understand? Why did they originally start returning to Z'ha'dum,
  166. and why don't they understand now what they did long ago?
  167. </ul>
  168. <h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
  169. <ul>
  170. <li>@@@847907490 The lighting at the end of the prison cell scene is
  171. symbolic; as soon as Londo agrees to free Narn, the cell door opens
  172. and G'Kar is bathed in white light, his life's goal finally within
  173. reach.
  174. <li>@@@848345720 The passage of time on Z'ha'dum, or at least in Sheridan's
  175. condition, is similar to the effect of a black hole at the event
  176. horizon: time slows down to a standstill from the point of view
  177. of an outside observer.
  178. <li>@@@870367756 As originally broadcast, Franklin cites the date as January
  179. 8 in his opening monologue, and says it's been 14 days since Sheridan
  180. disappeared. In the second US broadcast of the episode
  181. Franklin's opening monologue was fixed
  182. to say it was 9 days since both Sheridan and Garibaldi disappeared.
  183. (See
  184. <a href="#JS.days">jms speaks</a>)
  185. However, the UK broadcast, and possibly others, used the original
  186. incorrect date.
  187. <li>@@@905790308 The engine part G'Kar handed to the man in the bar
  188. is an overthruster prop from "Buckaroo Banzai."
  189. </ul>
  190. <h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
  191. <ul>
  192. <li>@@@846744605 I just got a copy of the ad that's going to run in TV
  193. Guide for "Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?" in two weeks. It's a
  194. great ad, well composed, well done, but it's also a major spoiler for
  195. something you will NOT want spoiled. So avoid the ad if possible.
  196. <p>
  197. <li>@@@847907011 The script was easy to write story-wise, I think it
  198. only took me a few days (in general, the faster the write, the better
  199. the script, when it comes to something like this...writing in white
  200. heat is best), but *very* difficult from an emotional standpoint. I
  201. was just about as wasted after writing it as you were after seeing
  202. it. There's a lot of stuff in there that's difficult or painful to
  203. touch, and you can only hope that it comes out okay. I'm happy it
  204. did.
  205. <p>
  206. <li>@@@848311051 <em>Sheridan's fall was like Gandalf's in "The Lord of
  207. the Rings," or like the descent into the underworld in Dante's
  208. "Inferno."</em><br>
  209. I've mentioned elsewhere that I was going more for
  210. the roots of this. Though the Dante thread you mention is closest in
  211. many ways (again, you dig into archetypes you end up with similar
  212. structures, that's the nature of the beast), it was Orpheus going into
  213. the underworld for his wife, and losing her, that was in the back of my
  214. head when I was blocking out that part of the story. (You can also
  215. toss in Christ's temptation by the devil, and descent into the
  216. wilderness, if you want.)
  217. <p>
  218. This will probably get me in trouble, but...on the one hand, I
  219. am always delighted and impressed with the breadth and depth of
  220. analyses and thought of the larger group of SF fans, and the
  221. insightfulness with which they apply those perceptions.
  222. <p>
  223. On the flip side of this discussion...for a certain percentage
  224. of them, that breadth and depth is only or primarily within SF and
  225. mainstream fantasy. The wellspring of material from which to draw when
  226. making comparisons is not often as broad as it should be in classical
  227. literature, mythology, medieval studies, and so on. They see a drop
  228. into a chasm, they think "Oh, Gandalf." Not understanding that the root
  229. of this goes back way, way, way further...to Orpheus and his kindred
  230. spirits.
  231. <p>
  232. I was copied a note from someone on another newsgroup who
  233. insisted that everything in the show had an elvish/Tolkein base,
  234. including and *especially* the names of everyone, citing the Agamemnon
  235. as meaning something or other in LoTR elvish. The symbol is RIGHT
  236. THERE, in the name, Agamemnon, and the whole unfortunate history of
  237. that character and his wife, and the Cassandra character (which is at
  238. the center of G'Kar's character)...and yet she says, "No, no, it's all
  239. a clue, it means this thing over here."
  240. <p>
  241. My background is as an SF fan myself, so I offer the above
  242. without stereotype or pejorative intent. But as well as reading SF, I
  243. spent most of my early adult life reading from classical sources.
  244. Goethe's FAUST informs Londo in many ways, as well as the history of
  245. early Rome, and Hegelian notions on the role of conflict, and the
  246. divine role of the emperor. You're talking to someone who read
  247. Plotinus' The Aenneads just for kicks, and whose favorite character was
  248. Zeno and his paradoxes. You want to talk Plato's perfect forms? The
  249. Socratic method of teaching? Greek tragic structure as embodied in
  250. Oedipus? The overall work of Sophocles? The Bible? I've read that
  251. one cover to cover twice...anyone else in the room who's done that,
  252. raise your hands and tell me you didn't fall asleep halfway through
  253. Numbers and Deuteronomy, the two most boring books in the whole darned
  254. thing.
  255. <p>
  256. There was a period in my life -- from around 1976 through 1981
  257. -- when I devoured everything I could in these areas. Mythology.
  258. Existentialism. Zen. 18th century literature. I took part time jobs in
  259. libraries so I could get access to the widest possible range of books,
  260. especially new ones in areas that interested me. A lot of the details
  261. have washed away over the years, but the cumulative *sense* of that
  262. remains. I can still remember how excited I was when a brand new
  263. translation of the Inferno, the Purgatario and the Paradisio came out
  264. (from Penguin, I think), putting it all back into the proper lyric
  265. form, and I devoured them, one day each, then read them all again using
  266. the footnotes and marginalia.
  267. <p>
  268. All that time, I never knew I was preparing myself to write this
  269. show, because it could *only* be done with a generalist background,
  270. knowing a little about a lot of areas...just enough to get into
  271. trouble, ususally, but still the grounding is there.
  272. <p>
  273. Funny thing...about two, three weeks ago, I got an email from a
  274. woman who is a professor of medieval studies at a major university, who
  275. said she'd been nudged into watching the show by her graduate students,
  276. and is now a big fan of the show. She said that as she watched, she
  277. "clicked" constantly on the sources from medieval and classical
  278. literature, mythology, and other deep well sources, and was pleased to
  279. see them being used in a contermporary or futuristic venue.
  280. <p>
  281. Anyway, it's what I've always said about this show...you see the
  282. paradigm with which you are most familiar. Sometimes that's great,
  283. and sometimes it's a curse.
  284. <p>
  285. <li>@@@851242973 But the thing is, I wasn't *thinking* of LoTR...I was
  286. thinking of Orpheus going into the underworld, of the classical notion
  287. of descending into hell to find oneself or something else...it just
  288. bugs me when someone assumes that they know what was in my head at a
  289. time when I wrote something, and then take that as a given and start
  290. making me explain it or acting as if this is true, when it ain't.
  291. <p>
  292. <li>@@@843865104 Larry DiTillio made the point, while on the
  293. show, that some SF
  294. fans reared on ST expect everyone to talk like English earls, very
  295. proper. We go for vernacular every time. I like the rough edges, the
  296. hesitations, the stumbles. In editing 402 the other day, there's
  297. several takes to choose from in a particular scene, but I picked the
  298. one where the actor slightly stumbled over the line, because it was at
  299. the heat of the moment, and in that kind of situation, we all get
  300. flustered. It made it feel more real.
  301. <p>
  302. Slang and idiom have been with us forever, and always will be.
  303. Now, on the other hand, I don't go full-tilt bozo with it, by peppering
  304. the dialogue with lots of techtalk and futureslang because I think it
  305. becomes intrusive. So we try to find a balance. Some people don't like
  306. it, and like their SF to all sound the same. That's fine. Tastes
  307. vary.
  308. <p>
  309. Also, I use some dialogue styles that lean toward the
  310. theatrical, what you'd see on the stage, or hear in a radio drama.
  311. Other times I'm right in the gutter. You use different tools for
  312. different jobs. My influences are from Rod Serling and Charles
  313. Beaumont and Norman Corwin and Ray Bradbury, so you're going to hear
  314. those colors from time to time, and because you don't hear a lot of
  315. that particular style in TV these days, some people think it's
  316. bad...no, it's just a different approach to dialogue.
  317. <p>
  318. Look at Harold Pinter, then look at Christopher Fry, then look
  319. at Joe Orton. Between just those three you've got three very stylized,
  320. consistent approaches to dialogue, not like the other two at all, and
  321. between them more diversity than in a hundred TV shows. In theater,
  322. which is where I cut my teeth, it's *okay* to have dialogue that's
  323. somewhat stylized, or a bit more formal, a bit more literate, or
  324. whatever. In TeeVee it's all gotta be the same. To which I say...why?
  325. <p>
  326. (I've also made the mental assumption of a return to a new
  327. formality in 2260, since styles go in and out of fashion. People use
  328. the word Mr. and Ms. more often, there's a more formal stance with
  329. people you often get when a culture comes out of a major war, as we did
  330. after WW2.)
  331. <p>
  332. But dialogue tastes are utterly individual; what works for one
  333. may not and likely will not work for someone else. And that's okay.
  334. That's as it should be. As long as the totality works.
  335. <p>
  336. <li>@@@848344884 "I watched _What Ever Happened to Mr Garibaldi_ last
  337. night and was struck by the scene where Mr. G was being questioned by
  338. the disembodied voice. That scene was very similar to the style of
  339. another one of my favorite shows _Homicide: Life on the Streets_. I'm
  340. just wondering if that was an intentional nod to that show."
  341. <p>
  342. This is kind of embarrassing, but...see, I don't watch much TV
  343. anymore. I don't have time. I think I've seen maybe two episodes of
  344. Homicide, total. So we were in with the editor to do our producer's
  345. cut of 402, and I was trying to describe what I wanted...jarring,
  346. disorienting cuts, don't worry if it matches, use conflicting takes or
  347. overlaps of takes...and finally the editor said, "Oh, you mean the
  348. Homicide look." And it'd been so long that I asked them to explain to
  349. me what that meant, and John got into it, me with him, and ended up
  350. with what we've got. I've got to start watching TV again, beyond
  351. X-Files, 60 Minutes and Simpsons. (Well, I've added Millennium, so
  352. that helps.)
  353. <p>
  354. <li>@@@848389230 Actually, the Garibaldi intercuts like that were something
  355. that I came up with in the editing room, and John Copeland and I
  356. thereafter assembled it, with the editor.
  357. <p>
  358. <li>@@@864607391 This one's a favorite of mine as well. On the
  359. Garibaldi scene, it was shot fairly conventionally, but as we got into
  360. editing, I said, "Let's do something we don't normally do, let's try a
  361. visual approach that's not usually part of SF shows." So we put that
  362. sequence together. Again, my feeling is, break your format once in a
  363. while or get stuck in a rut. Take chances. The worst that'll happen
  364. is that you'll fail.
  365. <p>
  366. It's a lovely episode.
  367. <p>
  368. <li>@@@864607391 <em>Is the director the same Kevin Dobson who was on
  369. "Kojak?"</em><br>
  370. No, this Kevin is an Australian director.
  371. <p>
  372. <li>@@@864607391 <em>About the voiceover recap at the top of the
  373. episode</em><br>
  374. I figured, since this year was much more serial than in the
  375. past, you kinda *had* to put little recaps at the top...also, it gives
  376. it a different, narrative feel, which I kinda like.
  377. <p>
  378. <li>@@@848360273 <em><a name="JS.days">Franklin said it was 14 days</a>
  379. since Sheridan's death
  380. and 9 days since Garibaldi's disappearance, but the two happened
  381. at the same time.</em><br>
  382. This is a case where jms screwed up.
  383. <p>
  384. Originally, the script read, "It's now 14 days since Captain Sheridan
  385. left for Z'ha'dum and was presumed killed. Nine days since Mr.
  386. Garibaldi disappeared while on patrol."
  387. <p>
  388. I went to edit the first sentence to make it active rather than passive
  389. syntax. In handwriting on the page (after the first draft, the typists
  390. take revisions and implement them), I meant to write, "It is now 9 days
  391. since Captain Sheridan was presumed killed at Z'ha'dum." I either
  392. missed changing the days, or the typist didn't put it in (it happens),
  393. and that draft of the script is long gone. But without knowing which,
  394. I'll just take the rap for it.
  395. <p>
  396. <li>@@@848607080 I'm considering revoicing it...we just didn't catch it until
  397. it was gone.
  398. <p>
  399. <li>@@@850298170 "In WHTMG, Marcus is talking to G'Kar about his friends
  400. and says he's had "Damn few of them, and most of them are dead." My
  401. instant reaction was "That can't be an allusion to Return to Zork." Can
  402. it?"
  403. <p>
  404. Y'know, if I were to read this group as an outsider, I'd think that
  405. this jms person was incapable of coming up with a single line on his
  406. own.
  407. <p>
  408. NO, it wasn't a Zork reference, for chrissakes. Can we possibly get
  409. any more obscure here? I don't even know what this REFERS to. Marcus
  410. came from a mining colony. The shadows struck, and killed everyone
  411. there. Hence, the line above.
  412. <p>
  413. There was some goofing around with SF references early on in the show;
  414. this got out of hand, and it stopped. I don't sit here, thinking,
  415. "Oh, goody, I can make a reference to The Day The Earth Stood Still
  416. here," or some other show. I write what is appropriate for the
  417. character to say. Period.
  418. <p>
  419. I'm sorry if I'm a bit cranky in answering this, but jesus christ,
  420. people, give it a rest and stop looking for references that don't
  421. exist. There are only so many permutations in the english language,
  422. and something has got to echo somewhere for everyone...but that ain't
  423. the source. "Oh, look, he use the word THE in this episode, he must
  424. be nodding at "The Ipcriss Files" or "THEM" just leaving off the M to
  425. throw us off."
  426. <p>
  427. Your point of reference is your point of reference, it's nothing to do
  428. with me. It's like a Rorscharch test, you see what you're familiar
  429. with.
  430. <p>
  431. <p>
  432. As a writer, you work your brains out trying to come up with
  433. something, and you try your damndest to make it original, and fresh,
  434. and interesting...do you have any idea how infuriating, how maddening,
  435. how bottomlin *insulting* it is to have 10,000 people parsing every
  436. sentence and saying, "Oh, here, did you take this from that? Is this
  437. a reference to this over here?"
  438. <p>
  439. NO, IT'S NOT.
  440. <p>
  441. I allowed a little of that in the first season or so, often in scripts
  442. by other people, on a couple of occasions by myself, but that's the
  443. end of it, because everyone decided that the show was one big easter
  444. egg hunt. Fanfic is full of this stuff, which is perhaps why everyone
  445. keeps looking for it here.
  446. <p>
  447. If it's an absolutely blantant, and extremely recognizeable line, like
  448. the Tolkein reference in year two's "Geometry," then yeah...but some
  449. of this is getting so obscure and ridiculous that it's starting to
  450. make me crazy.
  451. <p>
  452. Can we *please* declare a moratorium on this for a while?
  453. <p>
  454. <li>@@@848469520 <em>About the final scene with Sheridan remembering
  455. Delenn</em><br>
  456. During the music spotting session, where I indicate where music comes in
  457. and goes out, my main note to Chris on that final sequence was, "Break
  458. our heart."
  459. <p>
  460. He did.
  461. <p>
  462. <li>@@@848469520 <em>About the shot of Sheridan as he sees the pit</em><br>
  463. "Was this scene redone for WHtMG? I'd have to compare, but I think I
  464. would've noticed that hopeful smile at the end of Z. It would've been
  465. just a -little- out of place, under the circumstances."
  466. <p>
  467. It's *exactly* the same footage, frame for frame. Only your perspective
  468. has changed.
  469. <p>
  470. Sort of like Shroedinger's TV show.
  471. <p>
  472. <li>@@@848310677 <em>About Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas</em><br>
  473. Yeah, those two are terrific. You know you can write *anything*
  474. for them, and they can play it. Just terrific stuff.
  475. <p>
  476. <li>@@@848389230 <em>Who thought up the cat sound when G'Kar extended
  477. the pike?</em><br>
  478. The cat was my idea. Cats are endless sources of humor.
  479. <p>
  480. <li>@@@848346518 <em>Ivanova wasn't in this episode. Was she supposed to
  481. be the one cleaning out Sheridan's quarters?</em><br>
  482. No, those scenes were always written with Franklin in mind. There was a
  483. brief scene with Ivanova originally in the ep, but it was snipped for
  484. time.<br>
  485. <em>The scene was inserted into the next episode.</em>
  486. <p>
  487. <li>@@@848607080 <em>Londo is very careful with his wording around
  488. Cartagia.</em><br>
  489. Which is why Cartagia likes Londo...he stands up to Cartagia,
  490. but does so in such a way that Cartagia can't touch him...doesn't give
  491. him any excuse or way in. He's got nowhere to go...and in a way, he
  492. admires and respects that.
  493. <p>
  494. <li>@@@850299355 I will, on *rare* occasions, address a note or correction
  495. directly to an actor while we're shooting, but in general I give any
  496. notes to the director on the set, who passes them on to the actor.
  497. There really can't be a multiplicity of voices talking to actors on the
  498. set...it can become confusing, and they can get contradictory
  499. directions. They can get skittish and lose concentration.
  500. <p>
  501. One occasion where I *did* do this recently...in the scene
  502. where Londo explains to Cartagia why he shouldn't be killed for being
  503. late, the director had Londo playing that scene submissive and nervous
  504. in rehearsals, didn't understand that the whole point of the exercise
  505. was Londo standing up to Cartagia, but doing so in a very sly way, not
  506. giving him any room to maneuver. Cartagia likes Londo because there's
  507. intelligence and steel, in a very manipulative fashion..."you think the
  508. same way I do," Cartagia says. So before we shot the scene, I pulled
  509. Peter aside and gave him the correction, and that's how we shot it.
  510. <p>
  511. But, again, those incidents are fairly rare.
  512. <p>
  513. <li>@@@850299471 <em>Do actors ever ask you for clarification?</em><br>
  514. That, yes...very often, while the actor is prepping, they'll
  515. come by my office, or at lunch ask about a particular passage, for
  516. clarification on my part, as opposed to an adjustment on their
  517. performance.
  518. <p>
  519. <li>@@@848607080 <em>Wasn't Londo afraid G'Kar's cell was bugged?</em><br>
  520. I figured Londo would've bribed the guards to shut down the
  521. bugs. Also, there's reason to bug a political figure's quarters...but a
  522. cell in which there is just one person, who in theory has no allies
  523. with whom to conspire...that would likely have a low priority.
  524. <p>
  525. <li>@@@848310677 Female is an irrelevant concept to the vorlons.
  526. <p>
  527. <li>@@@850550307 I think Lorien is beyond concepts of male and female as they
  528. pertain to the Vorlons...that's our perception of them, not his.
  529. <P>
  530. <li>@@@848311051 <em>How long can bits of Vorlon consciousness
  531. survive?</em><br>
  532. They can't survive for long on their own.
  533. <p>
  534. <li>@@@850298282 <em>What did the Vorlons tell Lyta about their
  535. intentions?</em><br>
  536. Only that they'd still respect her in the morning.
  537. <p>
  538. <li>@@@848311423 <em>Was there a reason the Psi-Cop had the same build as
  539. Bester and wore an opaque mask?</em><br>
  540. Who would do a thing like that?
  541. <p>
  542. <li>@@@848786247 <em>Did the interrogation scene actually happen, or is it
  543. an implanted memory?</em><br>
  544. No, that scene happened in reality.
  545. <p>
  546. <li>@@@848346604 <em>About Sheridan and G'Kar</em><br>
  547. "They are being made to choose between life and death, action and
  548. inaction, hope and despair. They are in the position of having to
  549. either lose faith, or keep it."
  550. <p>
  551. Yup. Got it in one....
  552. <p>
  553. <li>@@@848389230 <em>Is Lorien God?</em><br>
  554. The first sentient being. He ain't god in any sense of the
  555. word. That he's still puzzling out this "word/thought" business shows
  556. that, even after all this time, he's still trying to suss things
  557. out....
  558. <p>
  559. <li>@@@848472561 <em>The first being, or the last survivor of his
  560. race?</em><br>
  561. First, as far as he knows. To quote from a later episode, "So
  562. we left, and found no others like us."
  563. <p>
  564. <li>@@@848786174 He'll discuss his origins at considerable length in
  565. about 3 or 4 more episodes.
  566. <p>
  567. <li>@@@850298839 Well, technically speaking, I suppose you could say that the
  568. Vorlons and Shadows are second ones, since Lorien's people came first,
  569. about which you'll hear more in the next batch of eps.
  570. <p>
  571. <li>@@@851907233 <em>Was Lorien waiting for Sheridan in particular?</em><br>
  572. He was waiting for whoever would be first to get that far.
  573. <p>
  574. <li>@@@884020583 <em>About the questions</em><br>
  575. "Why are you here?" asked by Lorien, is #3. The balance point between
  576. the two.
  577. <p>
  578. There's a fourth question coming, though.
  579. </ul>