To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive

So! Doctor visit accomplished, though thanks to insurance snafus it took much longer than necessary. *pines for universal health care* I am now armed against tetanus for another ten years, have interesting silver-based burn cream to keep out germs, and have been pronounced infection-free. Hurrah.

In celebration, some thoughts on B5.

There All the Honor Lies
I feel like I should like this episode more than I do. The subplot about the gift shop is pretty hilarious, yeah, but the main plot does very little for me. It feels a bit like Peter David is running around yelling joyfully that he gets to write about a species full of Klingon/Vulcan hybrids--a warrior race that got logic.

One thing I did like was the Londo/Vir subplot. Oh, Vir. Sometimes I think you might be my favorite character after Ivanova. It's nice that Londo works his power-mongering magic for Vir, although I think it wasn't entirely altruistic; Vir, presumably, reminds Londo of why he's sold his soul to get the Centauri back in the galactic limelight, and he wants that reminder to stick around to shore him up when he loses faith that he's doing the right thing. (Ironically, of course, Vir would like nothing better than to convince him he's doing exactly the wrong thing...)

I still don't get the significance of "one moment of perfect beauty." It also strikes me that they would've done better to let us imagine it, rather than show it and have it be inevitably disappointing.

I only noticed this because I just watched "Infection" for beyond_the_rim: Ashan (the Minbari witness) mentions Santayana's aphorism about those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Ivanova quotes it, with attribution, in the earlier episode. Seems apropos for the series.

One last thing: really, what does Sheridan have against the bear? I love the bear! I would totally buy one if they were for sale! Poor bear. :(

And Now for a Word
All right, burning question: how old is Ivanova? Her file in "Eyes" says she was born in August of 2230, which would make her 27 when the show starts in 2258. In this episode, she says she finished OTC "ten years ago"--2249--which would have made her 18/19 when she got out, depending on the actual graduation date. If "OTC" is supposed to be a descendant of the British Army's, where you do your training and get your university degree at the same time, then presumably she should have been another year or possibly two years older when she got out. But hey, she's pretty awesome; I'd buy her being ahead by a year. However, in In the Beginning, which to the best of my understanding is set somewhere in 2245/6, Ganya tells her she's supposed to be at the university. Unless she's bright enough to be going to university at fifteen, something's not quite right here.

This is partially complicated by the fact that I still have no idea exactly how long the Earth-Minbar War lasted. Hmmm.

I like the format of this one, even though Cynthia Torqueman is a jerk. (She makes Delenn cry! I mean, yes, Delenn's change, and her whole attitude toward the humans--"Look at all the trouble I went to! You should be grateful!"--is kind of patronizing, but still, that was mean.) The documentary format allowed us to get quite a bit of background on the political environment of the galaxy and of Earth in particular. It essentially confirms my supposition that the balance of power goes, roughly, Vorlons-->Minbari-->Centauri-->Humans-->Narn-->Various non-aligned worlds, although I'm not sure that this structure holds up over the next couple of years. We also get more evidence of how heavily the Minbar-Earth War still hangs over over the humans, and there's some fairly explicit connections made between it and the current militarization and isolationism.

Speaking of the galactic balance of power, Londo's assertion that the Centauri "civilized" the "primitive" Narn made me wonder if JMS had the colonial relationship between Britain and Ireland in the back of his mind when he thought up this relationship. If you read nineteenth century prose on the topic, you'll frequently run into those terms. (I guess he probably had any number of colonial relationships in mind--I'm sure you can find those terms in many places--but I know the most about the Irish one, so it jumps immediately to mind.)

ISN is incredibly biased even this early, isn't it? From the very beginning, they're all "OMG Mars terrorism against the Earth-loyal majority!", which, as I recall, we find out later isn't quite true. They also exhibited a certain Shadowy cast to their language at the end--"growth only comes through pain and struggle." Hmmm.

Delenn's bit of "Yay humans and their community-building skillz!" at the end irked me, as the HUMANS R SPESHUL nods generally do, but eh. Whatever.

Finally:
Sheridan: "The last thing the Centauri want is a war on two fronts."
Me: "No, they want one on TWELVE fronts." (cf "Ceremonies of Light and Dark")