brennen
/
lurkers-guide
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues 0 Pull Requests 0 Releases 0 Wiki Activity
The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5
You can not select more than 25 topics Topics must start with a letter or number, can include dashes ('-') and can be up to 35 characters long.
51 Commits
1 Branch
88 MiB
 
 
 
 
Branch: master
Branches Tags
${ item.name }
Create branch ${ searchTerm }
from 'master'
${ noResults }
lurkers-guide/ftp/Guide/027.The-Long-Dark

286 lines
16 KiB
Raw Permalink Blame History

[1][ISMAP]-[2][Home]
### GUIDE ### [3][Background] [4][Synopsis] [5][Credits] [6][Episode
List] [7][Previous] [8][Next]
_Contents:_ [9]Overview - [10]Backplot - [11]Questions - [12]Analysis
- [13]Notes - [14]JMS
_________________________________________________________________
Overview
When a cryonic sleeper is awakened, a deadly, evil force is
unleashed on the station. [15]Anne-Marie Johnson as Mariah Cirrus.
[16]Dwight Schultz as Amis.
Sub-genre: Horror
[17]P5 Rating: [18]7.64
Production number: 205
Original air date: November 30, 1994
Written by Scott Frost
Directed by Mario DiLeo
Watch For:
* An out-of-place cut of Garibaldi searching for Amis
_________________________________________________________________
Backplot
* Earth got jumpgate technology from the Centauri in the mid-22nd
century. Before then, humans were mostly confined to their own
solar system.
* Sometime between the 20th century and the arrival of the Centauri,
signals of _possible_ extraterrestrial and intelligent origin were
detected.
* A small number of explorers volunteered for long-term interstellar
missions, so long-term that they had to be cryogenically frozen
for the duration. These missions were launched until the Centauri
made contact with Earth, eliminating the need for sleeper ships.
At least some of these ships were set to home in on any signals
they might encounter.
* During the war, Garibaldi was a "gropo" ("ground pounder"),
stationed on an outpost or base rather than a ship. He and some of
his companions barely escaped death in a surprise attack by the
Minbari.
* Another outpost was attacked by a vicious creature of some kind,
an insidious beast that affected the minds of the soldiers
stationed there, then killed them one by one, ripping their
internal organs completely out of their bodies.
* The Markab, like the Narn, believe there was a great darkness in
the past, something that was defeated only after a painful
struggle. At least some among them suspect that the darkness is
rising again.
Unanswered Questions
* What was the creature? Was it really one of the Shadows?
* How did it detect and board the Copernicus, which was travelling
at a significant fraction of lightspeed?
* What did it want with people's internal organs?
* Is it really dead? (We suspect so, but without a body....)
* What was the substance hanging off Amis when he was suspended in
midair? Garibaldi makes a face as he tears it off Amis.
* What happened to Amis afterward?
* Garibaldi says to Amis, "You were just about to accuse the
Centauri ambassador of being in league with the devil... which
might not be too far from the truth." Just a meaningless offhand
remark, or does Garibaldi somehow know what Londo is up to?
Analysis
* The fact that the Copernicus was headed for Z'ha'dum indicates
that the Shadows have been gathering their forces for some time,
at least 10 years, leading to the possibility that they've been
meddling in the affairs of the major races before their recent
involvement with Londo.
* Contempt for the Lurkers seems to be pervasive, if not almost
universal. Even Dr. Franklin, normally a level-headed person, was
ready to dismiss a claim made by a Lurker out of hand, and one of
the security officers said, "Damn lurkers, we should space 'em
all."
* No mention was made of any attempt to retrieve the sleeper ships
after first contact with the Centauri. Presumably such a task
would have been easily accomplished. One explanation might be that
the first contact threw Earth into such turmoil that retrieving
frozen astronauts became an insignificant priority. Perhaps an
attempt was made but was unsuccessful; if the Copernicus had
locked onto any signals along the way and changed course, it might
be nearly impossible to track down in the vastness of space.
* The Copernicus timeline seems to be:
1. Before the Centauri contact: Signals of extraterrestrial
origin were detected.
2. 100+ years ago: Sleeper ships were launched on long voyages,
Copernicus among them.
3. 12+ years ago: Copernicus detects signals from the Minbari CP
in an obscure system and homes in on them. (Presumably the
signals stop, and Copernicus doesn't revive the crew.)
4. About 12 years ago: Amis has his encounter with the creature.
The EarthForce listening post is essentially destroyed by it.
Amis is kept alive. For some reason the creature does not
interfere when he is rescued.
5. Less than 12 years ago: Copernicus passes through the system.
The creature boards, changes course, and kills Mariah's
husband before settling into the "life tube" with her.
6. 4+ years ago: Copernicus detects signals from the region of
space where the Babylon stations are under construction. In
keeping with its underlying directive to seek out such
signals, the vessel changes course.
7. A year or less ago: Copernicus begins decelerating, and
apparently uses up all its remaining fuel to do so. At some
point it begins transmitting a greeting signal.
8. Now: Copernicus arrives, unpowered and without even any
thruster fuel remaining (it's tumbling when first spotted).
* 10% of the air supply aboard Copernicus was lost when the creature
boarded, presumably vented into space. This implies that for some
reason the creature came in through the door (there was no
airlock) or penetrated the hull physically to gain entry. This is
only odd because Amis insists that it could pass through walls.
* Why wasn't Copernicus detected earlier? There could be a few
reasons. First, the ship apparently used up all of its hydrogen
fuel and all of its thruster fuel on approach to B5. This leaves
unanswered the question of what it was doing for power afterward,
but apparently it had enough to keep transmitting its greeting
message and keep internal systems going. But tumbling, it may have
been unable to keep a high gain antenna pointed in-system. Add to
this the fact that nobody was listening for it (Ivanova says it's
on an unusual frequency) and it becomes fairly reasonable that it
came all the way insystem without being detected.
* How fast and far did Copernicus travel? This one is more
difficult. The minimum answer is 25 LY and .25C. The distance
between the Sol System and B5 seems to be about 25 light years,
and this is the minimum distance Copernicus had to cover. To cover
25 LY in 100+ years, Copernicus had to travel at 1/4 C (on
average). Typical predictions for nuclear engines driving ships to
low-reletivistic speeds say that it takes between 10 and 40 tons
of reaction mass/fuel per ton of dry weight to accelerate a ship
to low-C (1/10C to 1/4C more or less) and decelerate it again. So
either the ship we saw was the core of a much larger ship and all
the empty tanks were ejected, or it's made of very lightweight
materials, or both.
* 100 years seems like a reasonable time for a slower-than-light
interstellar journey, yet Mariah was surprised to learn that much
time had passed. Her reaction could just be due to the
disorientation she was probably experiencing, or perhaps the
mission was planned to be less than 100 years long due to
limitations of the cryogenic units or some other shipboard system.
* The name Amis seems to be a pun, as in something is amiss with
Amis. The name Amis is pronounced the same as "Amos," the name of
an Old Testament prophet. Prophets like Amos spent lots of time
warning folks about dire and immediate events, much like what Amis
did in the Zoccalo.
Notes
* Writer Scott Frost was also on the writing staff of [19]Twin
Peaks, a show whose atmosphere was often similar to that of this
episode.
* When Garibaldi is in the Zocalo, the Drazi sitting next to him is
not wearing a colored sash. Since the ritual combat in [20]"The
Geometry of Shadows" was supposed to last 1.2 earth years,
shouldn't he have been wearing a purple sash, per Ivanova's
solution to the problem? A possible explanation is that once she
did what she did, the combat was over on Babylon 5 and sashes were
no longer required.
* A possible reference to Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to
the Galaxy" takes place as Amis leaves his cell. With a towel
around his neck, he claims, "I've got everything a man needs."
* Franklin administers a drug to a catatonic patient called
DeValera. Eammon DeValera was an Irish politician and poet, with a
real gift for rabble-rousing.
jms speaks
* To follow up on your (Dianne's) other point...yes, from time to
time, as we push ourselves to the limit, we're going to crash and
burn. That's part of the risk if you really want to try and do
something different. We push the envelope...and sometimes get a
papercut. I had, for instance, MUCH more in mind for the EFX in
the final confrontation in "The Long Dark." But we were, alas,
about this > < much ahead of the technology to pull off what I
wanted.
* The shadows have their servants, which are being recalled to their
places of power. That was one of their lower-level types.
* Shadow servent. Soldier of darkness. Not a shadow, but a good,
close friend of same.
* RE: Londo looking "more wicked," we're doing some very small,
subtle things to his appearance, his wardrobe, pulling him into a
darker range of fabrics. (Honest to god, you wouldn't believe how
careful and detailed we are in setting this stuff up.) He'll even
be getting a new, slightly darker coat, straighter lines, closer
in style to Refa's, before the season's out. It's really
interesting when you know where you're going....
* _What was the race of that ambassador?_
I believe that was a Markab.
* Tom: the quibble you raise is one of the points I'm trying to
make. You say someone from 1890 would go crazy. I vehemently don't
agree. Go back and read letters from the 1890s. Heck, go read
letters from 1776; the language, the emotions, they're all very
much the same. The chrome of technology has changed, some social
styles and attitudes have changed, but people still go through
school (usually), get married, raise kids, hold jobs, and look to
a better future one day.
Mariah was also a scientist, sent forth expecting and prepared to
see new things; this isn't the same thing as an average person
just plucked out of time.
I think people -- Americans in particular -- over-emphasize how
much things change with time, in large measure because in a
country that's only 200+ years old, we *really* don't understand
what time IS here. The Romans who left grafitti all over parts of
England are only one step removed from the South Central taggers
of today....
* Re: Ivanova and Sheridan going into the Cortez upon it being
pulled into B5...this was an Earth vessel, remember, stating it's
on a mission of peace, with a cryogenic suspension chamber in use.
There was zero perceived danger. Also, if I were the captain of a
naval vessel today, and I came across an intact sailing vessel
that went missing in the 1890s, you'd have to hold a gun at my
head to KEEP me out of that ship. People are, by nature,
curious...and this would be a fascinating puzzle to solve.
_(Editor's note: the Cortez was the ship in "A Distant Star." JMS
meant the Copernicus.)_
* A couple of thoughts on Sheridan, btw...triggered by messages I've
seen or had alluded to in which he's gigged for smiling too much,
unlike Sinclair...just checked back in some of my archives, and
for the first four or five episodes, the number one complaint
about Sinclair was that he either smiled or smirked too much....
Meanwhile, just a little something for the folks on-line to
contemplate...remember the first rule of Babylon 5: nobody is what
they appear. Not entirely, anyway. There's always something going
on, something that somebody's not telling. Some folks are making
the error of looking at Sheridan -- as they looked at Sinclair, or
Londo, or Vir, or G'Kar -- and thinking "this is all that he is."
Except, of course, that they weren't and he's not. I would not
create a character that is just what you're seeing.
Aside from that, and this is a separate issue...there are really
two ways to deepen a character and give him a dark side. One is to
do something to him *before* you meet him, which he's still
recovering from (Sinclair). The other is to meet him, and THEN
drop him down a well. In a way, Londo is illustrative of the
latter; you get to know him, and he's funny, colorful...and then
you start to move him.
So suffice to say that Sheridan is going to end up getting more
and more conflicts, and getting booted to the head, and as someone
noted above, caught in the conflict between being a good officer
and being a patriot...which can sometimes be the same, and
sometimes VERY different things.
[26][Next]
[27]Last update: August 8, 1997
References
1. file://localhost/cgi-bin/imagemap/titlebar
2. LYNXIMGMAP:file://localhost/lurk/maps/maps.html#titlebar
3. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/background/027.shtml
4. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/synops/027.html
5. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/credits/027.html
6. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/episodes.php
7. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/026.html
8. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/028.html
9. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/027.html#OV
10. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/027.html#BP
11. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/027.html#UQ
12. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/027.html#AN
13. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/027.html#NO
14. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/027.html#JS
15. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Johnson,+Anne-Marie
16. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Schultz,+Dwight
17. file://localhost/lurk/p5/intro.html
18. file://localhost/lurk/p5/027
19. http://pogo.wright.edu/TwinPeaks/TPHome.html
20. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/025.html
21. file://localhost/lurk/lurker.html
22. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/027.html#TOP
23. file://localhost/cgi-bin/uncgi/lgmail
24. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/episodes.php
25. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/026.html
26. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/028.html
27. file://localhost/lurk/lastmod.html