12 thoughts on “Zocalo: Spoiler-free Discussion of “The Geometry of Shadows””
In the first 3 viewings or so this was always a favourite – the Green vs Purple was so silly it was awesome. Now it feels a bit TOO silly – maybe I’m just getting old and cranky 😉
I still love it. For me, it starts as “so silly it’s awesome,” but then goes suddenly through silly/awesome to horrifying (but still funny, in a gallows humor sort of way) when the conflict turns exterminationist.
It’s not subtle about what it’s saying. (B5 likes its clear declarative messages.) But it’s got the central virtue of B5 for me, which is thematic coherence: Green/Purple both sends up and reflects the deadly seriousness with which the show handles Minbari/Human and Narn/Centauri conflicts.
Plus, it’s a good instance of how S2 exploits Claudia Christian’s abilities at doing comedy more than S1 does.
Listened to the podcast last night. Straight to hell awesome as ever people.
Erika or Shannon, so sorry I’m not very good at delineting voices it seems, who-ever felt uncomfortable with the Drazi story, you brought up a great point on the burka. It made my head pop! Great thought.The Drazi story is hilarious, but then we have the scene where a group of them are face down cold on the deck; Ivanova’s meddlings are not excused. Seen through the prism of Trek non-interference thingy, our characters are morally ambiguous, and I’d argue the Trek prism kind of lets those good guys-do bad away with it, where B5 delves into it.
I can’t so much comment on the burka as I’ve never been in that environment, but I’m from Northern Ireland were two main rival factions attach warrior value to flags. it’s a piece of b.s. cloth. The rest of us are caught in the middle, trying to get about our day and steer clear of tormentors on the street and survive ex-paramilitaries in government (from both sides) I’d love to take their flags off, douse them in some liquid and use them to slap the lot of them! It IS just a £2 cloth, and not worth ruining communities over.
If you need a sealant for the comedy strand…. Surviving poor mental health over our annual riot season, (July, visitors), was made possible in no small part by a very talented network of comedians whose anti-sectarian FB page became a viral media hit. Northern Ireland: We’re not just Titanic and Game of Thrones!
I love Michael Ansara’s technomage! He plays what’s really a pretty thin role on paper perfectly – really breathes life into it. That plot is far more interesting than the Drazi one. I appreciate what the Drazi plot is going for — showing us how stupid our conflicts are; we’re all the same; etc. — but it’s really rather too “bonk bonk on the head,” as the guys over at the Mission Log podcast like to say.
Oh, I meant to ask: Does the “passing of the Technomages” remind anyone else of the passing of the elves from Middle-earth? Knowing that JMS was influenced by JRRT, I suspect it is supposed to. Maybe everyone knew that already, but it struck me as kinda cool.
I remember watching this first time through back when it aired, and we all noticed the direction straight away, as Steven did – the camera movements in particular were very new. Previously we all looked forward to Janet Greek episodes, this one added Mike Vejar to the list!
I realize I’m a little late commenting on this, but…
I wonder if JMS was making commentary on the state of politics being like a team sport where you always support “your” team, regardless of what they do, because the other team is the “enemy”.
Even if your team is actively working against your interests, that doesn’t seem to be enough to get people to switch sides. From an outsider perspective, which team you’re on can appear randomly determined because the policies, actions and followers of a party don’t always line up.
In the first 3 viewings or so this was always a favourite – the Green vs Purple was so silly it was awesome. Now it feels a bit TOO silly – maybe I’m just getting old and cranky 😉
I still love it. For me, it starts as “so silly it’s awesome,” but then goes suddenly through silly/awesome to horrifying (but still funny, in a gallows humor sort of way) when the conflict turns exterminationist.
It’s not subtle about what it’s saying. (B5 likes its clear declarative messages.) But it’s got the central virtue of B5 for me, which is thematic coherence: Green/Purple both sends up and reflects the deadly seriousness with which the show handles Minbari/Human and Narn/Centauri conflicts.
Plus, it’s a good instance of how S2 exploits Claudia Christian’s abilities at doing comedy more than S1 does.
I understand that there are two factions, but what is their point of contention? Where do they disagree with each other? 😀
Listened to the podcast last night. Straight to hell awesome as ever people.
Erika or Shannon, so sorry I’m not very good at delineting voices it seems, who-ever felt uncomfortable with the Drazi story, you brought up a great point on the burka. It made my head pop! Great thought.The Drazi story is hilarious, but then we have the scene where a group of them are face down cold on the deck; Ivanova’s meddlings are not excused. Seen through the prism of Trek non-interference thingy, our characters are morally ambiguous, and I’d argue the Trek prism kind of lets those good guys-do bad away with it, where B5 delves into it.
I can’t so much comment on the burka as I’ve never been in that environment, but I’m from Northern Ireland were two main rival factions attach warrior value to flags. it’s a piece of b.s. cloth. The rest of us are caught in the middle, trying to get about our day and steer clear of tormentors on the street and survive ex-paramilitaries in government (from both sides) I’d love to take their flags off, douse them in some liquid and use them to slap the lot of them! It IS just a £2 cloth, and not worth ruining communities over.
If you need a sealant for the comedy strand…. Surviving poor mental health over our annual riot season, (July, visitors), was made possible in no small part by a very talented network of comedians whose anti-sectarian FB page became a viral media hit. Northern Ireland: We’re not just Titanic and Game of Thrones!
Hey, was that an appearance by the Narn Bat Squad(tm) in the episode description?
For the new viewers, the NBS was a running joke on the Usenet RASTB5 group which started with this post by JMS: http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-17876 )
Interesting!
Well that’s pretty funny considering…certain…spoilery things. Gotta run!!!
I love Michael Ansara’s technomage! He plays what’s really a pretty thin role on paper perfectly – really breathes life into it. That plot is far more interesting than the Drazi one. I appreciate what the Drazi plot is going for — showing us how stupid our conflicts are; we’re all the same; etc. — but it’s really rather too “bonk bonk on the head,” as the guys over at the Mission Log podcast like to say.
I love Mission Log!!!
Oh, I meant to ask: Does the “passing of the Technomages” remind anyone else of the passing of the elves from Middle-earth? Knowing that JMS was influenced by JRRT, I suspect it is supposed to. Maybe everyone knew that already, but it struck me as kinda cool.
I remember watching this first time through back when it aired, and we all noticed the direction straight away, as Steven did – the camera movements in particular were very new. Previously we all looked forward to Janet Greek episodes, this one added Mike Vejar to the list!
I realize I’m a little late commenting on this, but…
I wonder if JMS was making commentary on the state of politics being like a team sport where you always support “your” team, regardless of what they do, because the other team is the “enemy”.
Even if your team is actively working against your interests, that doesn’t seem to be enough to get people to switch sides. From an outsider perspective, which team you’re on can appear randomly determined because the policies, actions and followers of a party don’t always line up.