A bit of a bottle show, “A View from the Gallery” is. And yet, Chip, Shannon and Erika found a few things here that are markers toward the rest of Season 5. What about you?
A bit of a bottle show, “A View from the Gallery” is. And yet, Chip, Shannon and Erika found a few things here that are markers toward the rest of Season 5. What about you?
Byron’s meeting with Bo is the high point of this for me.
You see, part of the problem with S5.1 is the everyday-ness of telepaths: through many exhaustive appearances the magic fantastic of their abilities is enslaved and subjugated to the wishes of plot. (Who would have though Bester would be unwelcome?!) In the place of telepaths-as-telepaths they are defined large by their abilities as outcasts, and as victims.
Voord99 has posted an alternate reading of the plot, examining telepath-as-story and Byron-as-storyteller and you really should read it.
Voord’s theory is an interesting part of the whole problem with interpreting the S5 teep arc. My own reading is closer to the surface: the undisguised perma-metaphor of teeps as immigrants. It will get uglier later but as of this episode they are surrounded by friends living mostly rent-free.
I recall SecretsOfTheSoul were teeps-as-immigrants is largely at the fore and it’s a poor episode. I suspect part of the problem is JMS’s usually on-the-nose political observations do not stand well when it comes to examining the plight of the immigrant. The theme is stranded in the area of magic fantasy, when it should be blending in (social) scientific realism.
For completionists, the aliens who attacked B5 in View from the Gallery appear again in the unofficial B5 novel “Baptism of Fire” by Claudia Christian. In this novel, they are ex Shadow minions like the Drakh, and likewise now looking for something else to do.
Hugh, that is most interesting, especially as Claudia was not in this episode, so it sort of suggests that she kept up with, or was apprised of this plot point. On another note, I have been unable to find this novel anywhere. I assume it must be deeply out of print. I’ve just started reading the (canon) B5 novels, and although Claudia’s is not considered canon by JMS, I would like to read her rendition as well. I think she would have a good grasp of the characters.
OH, and as much as the Teep storyline in S5 is not my fave, the scenes with Bo and Byron are very moving and really a high point of the episode.