3 thoughts on “Earhart’s: “By Any Means Necessary” Spoiler Space”
Just to praise something about this episode, since I don’t have the sense that you are going to say terribly nice things about it: casting a woman as the union leader is B5 doing well in an area where it falls down more often than it should.
When it comes to the principals, the show does a fairly good job (I think) by the standards of the time: Delenn, Ivanova, Talia, Lyta, Lochley, Na’Toth are all interesting and differentiated female characters.
But guest cast has a tendency to default to male actors. Especially aliens, and here the Minbari really stand out. Unless I’m misremembering, after Delenn’s poet friend in S1, there isn’t a single female Minbari other than a brief appearance in S4 – and those Minbari women are seamstresses! (Maybe also a telepath at some point?) This despite the fact that everything we learn about Minbari society suggests that we should see plenty of prominent women in non-stereotypically female roles.
Meanwhile, an exception is that we do meet plenty of female Centauri, which speaks for itself (alas)….
I noted that too, Voord. Connally is a strong character and fairly well-acted. On the other hand, I felt that Delvientos came close to being a stereotype, rather than being a fully developed, blue-collar worker who just happened to be Hispanic.
I liked this episode, mainly (and perhaps surprisingly) on the strength of O’Hare’s performance. He conveys quite effectively Sinclair being pulled in too many directions at once, and reaching his wits’ end.
Currently we’re living under threat of a mass transit labor strike here in the Philadelphia area. Wish we had Sincalir to settle things for us!
Love the podcast, but do we *really* have to keep harping on how “Babylon 5” isn’t “Star Trek”? Twice in the first seven minutes! I think we’ve got it by this point; and I think most fans are probably okay with letting each franchise be itself. If there is really some salient point to be made by comparing and contrasting the two, then go for it; but if it’s just another instance of “You’d never see Starfleet having to deal with that,” can we just stipulate that as a given and move on? 🙂
That aside, I did enjoy your discussion, as ever. You even made a good case for Delvientos having more subtlety as a character than I initially gave him credit for. (Although I do think the writers making him use the word “cojones” smacks a little bit of tokenism — “See, he’s a future Hispanic!” — but maybe I am being too sensitive.)
PS. Please to report our potential transit strike in Philly was averted – no Rush Act needed!
Just to praise something about this episode, since I don’t have the sense that you are going to say terribly nice things about it: casting a woman as the union leader is B5 doing well in an area where it falls down more often than it should.
When it comes to the principals, the show does a fairly good job (I think) by the standards of the time: Delenn, Ivanova, Talia, Lyta, Lochley, Na’Toth are all interesting and differentiated female characters.
But guest cast has a tendency to default to male actors. Especially aliens, and here the Minbari really stand out. Unless I’m misremembering, after Delenn’s poet friend in S1, there isn’t a single female Minbari other than a brief appearance in S4 – and those Minbari women are seamstresses! (Maybe also a telepath at some point?) This despite the fact that everything we learn about Minbari society suggests that we should see plenty of prominent women in non-stereotypically female roles.
Meanwhile, an exception is that we do meet plenty of female Centauri, which speaks for itself (alas)….
I noted that too, Voord. Connally is a strong character and fairly well-acted. On the other hand, I felt that Delvientos came close to being a stereotype, rather than being a fully developed, blue-collar worker who just happened to be Hispanic.
I liked this episode, mainly (and perhaps surprisingly) on the strength of O’Hare’s performance. He conveys quite effectively Sinclair being pulled in too many directions at once, and reaching his wits’ end.
Currently we’re living under threat of a mass transit labor strike here in the Philadelphia area. Wish we had Sincalir to settle things for us!
Love the podcast, but do we *really* have to keep harping on how “Babylon 5” isn’t “Star Trek”? Twice in the first seven minutes! I think we’ve got it by this point; and I think most fans are probably okay with letting each franchise be itself. If there is really some salient point to be made by comparing and contrasting the two, then go for it; but if it’s just another instance of “You’d never see Starfleet having to deal with that,” can we just stipulate that as a given and move on? 🙂
That aside, I did enjoy your discussion, as ever. You even made a good case for Delvientos having more subtlety as a character than I initially gave him credit for. (Although I do think the writers making him use the word “cojones” smacks a little bit of tokenism — “See, he’s a future Hispanic!” — but maybe I am being too sensitive.)
PS. Please to report our potential transit strike in Philly was averted – no Rush Act needed!