Zocalo: Spoiler-free Discussion of “Strange Relations”

“How many wives has he got?” Did you see this revelation coming? Did it make sense? How are things going for our wayfaring telepaths? What do you think of Byron now? Aisle or window seat? Let’s talk about everything but the spoilers…

5 thoughts on “Zocalo: Spoiler-free Discussion of “Strange Relations””

  1. A good episode for the secondary characters, with Lochley and Lyta getting lots of screen time and doing interesting things.

    My favourite Lochley line: “For the record, gentlemen, you are now five seconds away from a court-martial, so make the best of them.”

    Best line for Lyta? (Or different lines for Lochley?)

  2. Damn you for mentioning Queensrÿche with the emopaths. Now I can’t unsee it, being a fan of old Queensrÿche and knowing all their old music videos. Obviously the telepath gene is good for your hair, as also the Babylon Podcast noticed way back when.

  3. Who to turn to when you want to turn? I must contact my favourite podcast. I just finished the 3rd Technomage novel (having consumed Shadow Within and To Dream In The City Of Sorrows and the first 2 Technomages). Wow, I have NEVER read “tv tie-in” novels. The closest I’ve come were Doctor Who tv novelizations in the 80s before they syndicated the Pertwee/Troughton era material. Anyway, that’s off point.

    My point is that I have such a deep appreciation for what B5 set out to do – the novel for television. And I feel that JMS blended the political drama and archetypal human intrigue of “I, Claudius” with the mystical/epic “Lord Of The Rings” for this fine show. What we see on TV, however, isn’t always the best rendering of the source material.

    And, having consumed the TV series, and been somewhat let down (I stress “somewhat”) by season 5, I decided to “fill in” some of the blanks with the novels that are said to be mostly “canon”. Hence, the Cavelos and Drennan books.

    Please, I beg of any B5 fan who likes literature and reading, go and grab these books. I actually preferred reading them to watching the show in some ways. They made me cry, they made me scared, excited, and I definitely punched the air at certain points.

    I suppose there are certain critiques that the technomage novels pull ad “ender’s game/ender’s shadow” by showing the same events of B5 from an expanded POV, but I quite loved that. For me it was what War Without End/Babylon Squared did.

    At any rate, since there are not that many people around me who might be intrigued, I thought I would kvell here.

    If you love Babylon 5, and want more, but not just unrelated stand alone stories, check out these books. They don’t feel like “The continuing adventures…” they feel like essential plots from within the narrative that enrich the experience of this series.

    cheers and happy new year.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *