The administration of this podcast has determined that the cute and fluffy kittens currently atop our webpage will remain until we have had adequate recovery time from this cute and fluffy episode. Let us discuss the fate of the Markab without spoiling future episodes.
Once upon a time, I commented that, in contrast with our hosts, I find Believers completely unaffecting.
*This* is what Believers was trying to do.
This, like Believers, is held up as an ‘anti-trek’ example. I swear the first few times I watched it I found it really moving. These days with shows like Game Of Thrones and The Walking Dead killing off main characters all the time – perhaps this has desensitised me. I still appreciate it though.
And you must remember, that GoT and other shows, that are not nice to the main characters, are only running in cable tv, where FCC rules don’t strike. B5 was running in normal wireless tv in syndication. That’s much more brave to put such an episode into it then making it for GoT.
In Germany in the major shows you will never see a kid die, when it’s more than a number, even when it’s only a side character. They had one time a dead child for example on “Traumschiff”… and the production company got so bad comments on it, since then no dead kids on the ship anymore.
The only country, that has no problem with gory scenes with children, is Japan in it’s animes.
Re: Stephen’s comment about children in DW…. All I could think was while bad things don’t happen in Doctor Who (or Star Trek for that matter), Torchwood: Children of Earth just about makes B5 look pro-children.
Relating to the actual episode, everytime I see Dr. Franklin rushing to the quarantine zone with the vaccine and then they find everyone’s dead I contrast it with Star Trek. Even in a dark Trek episode they would’ve saved a few folks. It’s so tough to think about what that must’ve been like for Delenn and Lennier to watch everyone else die- that’s about as dark as a story can get.
Muppet therapy. Definitely. But not the current reboot. They somehow managed to make the muppets bleak and depressing. Classic muppets.