- @@@856745633 Callenn said the number of Minbari with traces of human
DNA were beyond measure. A rough estimate can be made, however. If
Minbari couples have, on average, two children, and have children at
age fifty (since Minbari have longer lifespans than humans, a longer
delay between generations is plausible) then in a thousand years,
there would be twenty generations of Valen's descendants, the most
recent numbering about 1,000,000. That estimate assumes no
interbreeding among his descendants, and a variation in the number
of children of the first few generations could greatly alter the number.
Still, it's a useful discussion point.
1,000,000 probably works out to a tiny fraction of the Minbari
population, which, it's not unreasonable to assume, is many billions
of people spread across various worlds despite Lennier's claim
("Points of Departure")
that Minbari population has been on the decline for some time.
On the other hand, if Valen's descendants
were markedly more prolific than average Minbari, e.g. with a 30-year
generation time rather than a 50-year one (and both numbers are
pure conjecture!) there'd have been 33 generations, with 8,600,000,000
in the most recent, in which case the term "countless" would easily
apply. Obviously interbreeding, very probable in a population that
size, would reduce the number markedly.
Either way, a substantial percentage of the Minbari population most
likely still has pure Minbari genes. This is supported by Dukhat's
reaction to the triluminary glowing when Delenn touched it; if Valen's
progeny were in fact a large percentage of the population, presumably
previous Grey Council members would have triggered the triluminary.
- @@@857892773 Callenn's horror at the prospect of human DNA mingling
with Minbari genes parallels the newscast in
"The Illusion of Truth,"
which attempted to suggest that Delenn and Sheridan wanted to
introduce Minbari genes into humans. In fact, just the opposite has
occurred.
- @@@857586065 David, Delenn and Sheridan's son
("War Without End, Part Two")
will be a direct descendant of all three of The One.
- @@@877199700 Dukhat's conversation with Delenn is echoed years later
when Lennier arrives on Babylon 5
("The Parliament of Dreams")
and she tells him the same thing Dukhat told her: "I cannot have an
aide who will not look up. You will be forever walking into things."
In
"Rumors, Bargains, and Lies,"
Delenn said she'd been training Lennier as Dukhat trained her.
Delenn eventually succeeded Dukhat as leader of the Minbari, both in
this episode and in
"Babylon Squared,"
though she turned the position down in both cases. Will the parallel
between Lennier and Delenn in her youth continue into the future? Is
Lennier destined to a prominent place in Minbari society?
- @@@865624085 Dukhat said he could override the Council's decision
to avoid contacting the humans. What is the relationship between the
Council and the leader? Do they simply serve as an advisory body,
with the final decisions ultimately made by the leader?
- @@@857586446 Lennier's pledge to Delenn, to be by her side through
fire, storm, darkness, and death, echoes the pledge of the Nine to
the One in the Minbari ceremony in
"The Parliament of Dreams."
- @@@865732097 Delenn feels responsible for the Earth-Minbari War. Her
father committed suicide, heartbroken over the war
("Grey 17 Is Missing.")
Does Delenn thus feel personally responsible for her father's death?
- @@@857335050 Why did Dukhat suspect Delenn was descended from Valen?
With so many descendants, he couldn't have followed Valen's entire
bloodline, even assuming it was all documented. Perhaps he simply
researched the heritage of all the acolytes working with the Grey
Council.
- @@@875586691 Delenn's childhood vision
("Confessions and Lamentations,")
in which a figure appeared to her in a temple and said he wouldn't
allow "any of my little ones" to come to harm there, takes on new
significance now. If the figure was some kind of manifestation of
Valen, "little ones" might have referred to his descendants, and
the vision might have been Delenn's first clue that she was
somehow related to him. If so, the vision was probably a powerful
motivating force for her, perhaps even the source of her belief in
her own destiny.
If Delenn told Dukhat about the vision, or he found out about it
some other way, that might explain his suspicion that she was a
descendant of Valen.
- @@@857335050 Did Dukhat know Valen was part human? Callenn was aware
of it; was it common knowledge among the Grey Council after Sinclair
was interrogated and the triluminary indicated his relation to Valen?
("And the Sky Full of Stars")
- @@@857890134 Do Valen's descendants have distinguishing features?
Perhaps the presence of human DNA explains why a small number of
Minbari men have facial hair, e.g. Dukhat, Draal
("A Voice in the Wilderness")
and Kalain
("Points of Departure.")
- @@@857326883 In
"Soul Hunter,"
the soul hunter recalls that the Minbari made a wall of bodies to stop
Dukhat's soul from being taken. Although soul hunters appeared as the
battle began, no attempt to stop them was shown, and Delenn was
seeminly unaware of them as Dukhat lay dying in her arms. Perhaps the
soul hunter was speaking metaphorically; there were so many Minbari
dead that their ability to sense death didn't lead them to Dukhat in
particular. However, since the soul hunter recognized Delenn years
later, he must have arrived at Dukhat at some point, perhaps after she
ordered the attack on the humans.
- @@@857889258 Zack's discomfort with his new uniform mirrors his
discomfort with the Earthforce uniform in
"Voices of Authority."
- @@@857325791 G'Kar is wearing rags around his eye in the flashforward
in
"War Without End, Part Two."
Where was his eye? Destroyed or discarded, or simply recharging or
sending him images from somewhere else?
- @@@857325791 Ivanova is likely still the leader of half the Drazi
on Babylon 5. She wore the green leader's sash to the party.
Presumably the fact that all the formerly green Drazi are now wearing
purple
("The Geometry of Shadows")
didn't cause any problems.
- @@@857554603 Did Dukhat come out the way you imagined him?
Yeah, that's pretty close to how
I saw him in my head. Definitely a bigger than life fellow.
- @@@857685549 When I introduce a new character, I just kinda see a
sense of the character in my head, an outline...if you take off your
glasses, and you're nearsighted, that will give you some sense of it.
When an actor comes in and hits it, the character goes into sharp focus.
- @@@850297586 Will Delenn appear in flashbacks with her pre-chrysalis
appearance?
Yes, Mira got into the original year-one makeup. It's
funny...when I walked out onto the set, and saw her in that prosthetic,
the first words that came out of my mouth were, "It's *you*! I haven't
seen you in almost three years, how've you been?"
I don't think Mira quite knew what to make of me.
- @@@855996679 Actually, though the tougher Delenn is in flashbacks in 2
weeks [referring to this episode], the foreground/contemporary story
has her very tough, and very
smart. Basically, the next mini-arc sequence focuses a LOT on
Delenn...she has many facets, and while part of that is the
relationship, there's steel there as well, and we're going to explore
that. As she at one point comments to Sheridan, "I appreciate that you
have come to care for what I have become... but never forget who I am,
or what I can do."
After this arc of hers, nobody's ever going to make that
mistake.
- @@@857376321 How could Dukhat override the Grey Council, if he was
simply a member?
There's the One, and the Nine...when Dukhat was alive, there
were 9 grey council members and him as the head of it, making ten.
(Look at the picture and count the number of people.) 1 and 9.
Valen called together the Grey Council, formed the first one;
until then the castes had been in constant competition. He wanted to
operate outside of that a bit, so he made sure he was not one of the
Nine. That tradition has continued.
- @@@857547292 But when he introduced Delenn, there was an empty
spotlight.
No, if you keep watching Dukhat comes in, followed by Delenn,
through the opening (the empty spot) and then another Minbari comes in
to fill that spot.
(Sudden thought...I have to check to see if we *used* that shot
or if it was just in dailies...but if you count the Minbari there at
the end of the scene, you'll find the count is correct.)
- @@@857328008 Calenn was not Delenn's brother; the grey councilor speaks
of brothers in the generic sense.
Draal, in his first appearance, also had a small beard.
- @@@857554509 Other Minbari have had facial hair; including Draal
v1.0 and Kalain in "Points of Departure." It's certainly not common,
though.
- @@@857547292 Who were the other ships at the battle?
Those were Soul Hunters, who in the first season we learned
showed up to attempt to grab Dukhat's soul...they were prevented from
successfully boarding the ship by the Minbari, who threw up a wall of
bodies to stop them (which is why there were few around with Delenn and
Dukhat; Soul Hunters are a pretty advanced sort, the terror of Minbari,
and it took a lot to stop them). After Dukhat died, Delenn went down
and joined in, confronting them about this.
- @@@857554776 Others in the Council died, as was noted when the one
says, "Our brothers?" "Dead," Delenn says. So there were others.
- @@@864693044 Won't Sheridan be upset when he finds out Delenn
ordered the war?
"Listen, honey, while you were out I went to the store and I
bought some new candles, you know how we're always running out, and
Lennier took the cat in to be cleaned, and oh, did I mention I was
directly responsible for the deaths of two hundred and fifty thousand
of your best friends and fellow officers? Pass the sugar."
She'll never tell him.
Because it's over...what would be the point, except to ruin what
they have now.
- @@@864693194 The reality is...in war, one does what one does.
Afterward, as we heal, we try to forget what we did, and what they did.
He killed as many Minbari as he could; she was on the Grey Council that
directed the war. One doesn't go into it.
- @@@857889979 Why didn't Sinclair leave Dukhat a message warning
him about meeting the humans?
He could have left Dukhat a message...but tampering in the
future is VERY chancy business, and could even make things worse, for
all we know.
- @@@857889418 Did the triluminary sense Sinclair?
Yeah, we showed it glowing when Sinclair was catpured. Since
it happened with Valen, they assumed it was because he had a Minbari
soul, maybe Valen reborn.
- @@@864692860 Dukhat was not descended from Valen; yes, the Grey Council
now knows who Sinclair was; and general knowledge of what happened
would certainly have an upsetting effect on Minbari society, so they
will continue to keep it indefinitely back-roomed....
- @@@859454397 Some Minbari on the Grey Council think that Sinclair opened
up the "soul door," for lack of a better term, and Delenn's actions can
be seen as a kind of back-fire, closing the door again. Ain't
necessarily what's true, but what they believe.
And yes, they would've had Delenn remain childless, but would be
allowed to marry a Minbari. And, again, it's a matter of marrying a
non-Minbari with or WITHOUT kids...it's a very inflammatory sort of
thing from a cultural perspective.
- @@@857376321 Did Delenn's human DNA allow her to undergo the
transformation? Will this be important in the future?
Yeah, the human DNA definitely helped...and overall, this isn't
so much the arc as the overall story and history. It's filling out the
world.
- @@@857547292 Is it a coincidence that Delenn's family name is
Russian for "peace?"
Yeah, there's that, and it nicely intersects with the fact that
Delenn is portrayed by MIRa Furlan. It's kind of a bank shot.
- @@@857554225 Mir is her family; you are generally born into a caste
unless you at some point decide that the calling of your heart is
elsewhere, at which point you enter training for that other caste (with
the permission of your caste leaders) until such time as it's finalized
that that's what you want, at which time you're assigned to a clan
within that caste. If you choose to stay in the caste you're born
into, you automatically are in your familiy's clan.
- @@@865731956 Lennier is religious caste; and all members of a given
clan belong to one caste.
There are, for instance, no religious caste members of the Star
Riders (military caste) clan.
This seems to be contradicted by
"There All the Honor Lies,"
in which Levell, a warrior, was a member of Lennier's clan.
- @@@857554509 How does the dreaming know whose memories to probe?
Is it whoever drinks the drug first?
I think the order or dominance of the drug is probably
determined by the contents of the script....
- @@@856981247 "My question is, since we can see that the ship's engine
is running, why aren't all of the objects in the hold laying against
the bulkhead as a result of the ship's movement? Aside from that, it
was a pretty neat effects shot."
Because it's accurate; it's the same reason you don't see everything
slammed up against the back wall of the shuttle even though it's
circling the earth at thousands of miles per hour.
Ed. note: This is wrong; that effect does occur on the shuttle
when its maneuvering thrusters fire, which is why shuttle crews lock
everything down during maneuvers. See
Notes.
- @@@857325171 The ship with Marcus and Franklin *wasn't* spinning...
hence, no gravity.
- @@@857327683 Coproducer George Johnsen
Re: your comment that the Hyperion was more likely a re-used computer
model. All of the models used in the show are stored "nameless" with a
link to the naming/numbering file that has to be activated to add the
name to the ship to avoid this kind of problem. (Instigated when it
happened on an earlier episode). The ship in the picture is the
Hyperion 'cuz Joe wanted it that way.
- @@@857554509 There was the Prometheus, which was there; and others,
including the Amundsen. The one you saw, which looks a bit like the
Aggy but without the rotating section, is another, smaller class of
destroyer also seen, I believe, in [Severed] "Dreams."
- @@@874689595 How did the Earth ships hit the Minbari ships, if
human targeting systems can't lock on? Why weren't Franklin and
Marcus floating?
They targeted visually, it was close enough to do so.
A hit with full guns of a major destroyer and accompanying
ships will kill damn near any single ship that does not have some kind
of defensive screen going (fighers or counter-lasers or missiles or the
like).
The fightes were launched in main while on approach.
Franklin and Marcus *were* strapped in, which if you look more
closely you can see.
- @@@857889979 In your comments on
"War Without End, Part Two,"
you said Valen had no children. Is your message right, or is the
episode?
What airs is considered canon; in 15 years, nobody's gonna be
hauling these messages around. But the show will still be on the air.
If it airs, it's canon.
And in another one of those posts, I did mention that on just a
couple of small occasions, I have fibbed when asked major story arc
questions to protect future storylines from being deflated....
- @@@862818943 If you check the archives, when people said, "But what
about the relationship between Sinclair and Delenn we see?" (and this
is back a long time ago), I said that there is a relationship there,
yes, but it isn't what you think it is. Now we see what it was.
- @@@859316095 Minbari society doesn't seem to have been affected
much by the loss of the Grey Council.
The problems caused by the breakup of the Grey Council
will form a major part of the story arc about mid-season.
- @@@860558543 Was the song Jason Carter's idea?
The song was in the script; Jason then had to learn it.
- @@@865288657 What was involved in using the song in the end
credits?
Nothing, really...we just grabbed one of the audio bits from the
day's filming and dropped it in.
