Not a deity – an angel. The difference (and this was actually a deliberate part of the Vorlon Interference idea) was that the Vorlons were never the big cheese in the smaller races’ religion. Always the second banana. So Kosh was an angel to humans, rather than Moses, Jesus or the equivalent in any of our other religions. Kosh was G’Lan to the Narns, not G’Quan. Kosh was Vallera to the Minbari, not Valen (in fact when we first see Valen introduced to the Minbari in War Without End, Part Two, we see him as a Minbari with Vorlon “sidekicks”). Same with the Drazi: Droshalla was a big wheel, but not the biggest.
Remember what Lennier said at the end of War Without End, Part Two: “If they were to find Babylon 4 with a human aboard, they would never have accepted it.”
To which Marcus reacts: “Dear G-d . . . a Minbari not born of Minbari!”
The Vorlons worked the same way. ‘Let them follow one of their own race; we’ll still have our influence.’ They just did not touch the Centauri. Londo would have no racial memory of a Vorlon angelic figure working alongside the Centauri pantheon, and since Kosh sure as hell would not allow him or anyone else to see his true form, Londo saw nothing.
And as an aside, in Fall of Night (the episode we’re talking about), I don’t really think it was Sheridan’s misconception of Babylon 5’s gravity being able to save him. I think it was more of a: “Hmm, if I stay here, I die now. If I jump, I get to live twenty seconds longer. I jump.” Same sort of thing happened at Z’Ha’Dum.
There were a variety of different ships in the B5 universe. Just off the top of my head the Earth Alliance had such ships of the line as the Nova Dreadnought, The Hyperion Heavy Cruiser, and the Omega Destroyer. Unlike ships from other shows these required support from bases and other ships to function properly.
Fighter support was also present. Instead of having the large ships move like fighters they have fighters that move like fighters. Heck, they even had different fighters. They had Starfuries, Thunderbolts, and later on they introduced the Badger long range fighter. Heck, they even had fighter planes that were used in planetary defense.
And each of the other races had their own ships as well. In certain other sci-fi shows the aliens have maybe one or two designs that they use for every friggin ship. But every race from the Shadows to the Narn had different ships and some fighters.
That’s one of the things that made it seem more realistic. I had a sense that there was an entire universe outside of the Earth Alliance Military. There were corporations, religious groups, as well as independent political organizations.
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And other characters that weren’t alien actually had religious beliefs. Ivanova was a Jew and in at least two episodes was in contact with a rabbi. In one episode Franklin said he belonged to some religion that believed in one God that created all intelligent beings. It was nice to see some religious beliefs that weren’t introduced in one episode as a plot device and then ignored in future episodes.
As stated in the B5 security manual, every race has a version of swedish meatballs. The vorlons have one that is a sentinent being. I forget the name of it though.
And let’s not forget everyone’s favorite dish (well, except the Pakmarah) - SPOO!
If you don’t have it, get “The Babylon Files,” both volumes. It’s basically The Nitpicker’s Guide to Babylon 5, and is fabulous (more consolidated info than the Lurker’s Guide, which the book does include information from). In it they have a 3-page explanation of spoo, its history, how it’s farmed, etc.
All that whacking and sighing, sighing and whacking - it’s enough to drive a spoo farmer insane. And it has!
Hey, I think only the Centari and Narn like that stuff. And they can’t even agree on when it is best to consume the stuff. I remember that episode with the maintenance men. One of them decided to buy some spoo for lunch and said something like “I can’t believe they pay 15 credits an ounce for this stuff.”
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Alas there aren’t many good places to purchase books in my area. I also have the Babylon 5 Wars ship combat game but I don’t know anybody here who plays it or any other strategy game. <sigh> I’ll just stay home and play with EA and Minbari ships and relive the Battle of the Line.
Peter David is quite possibly one of the most entertaining people alive. If he wasn’t such a good writer of SF, he could easily make a living as a stand-up comic. I and 200 other people at a comic-book convention were in stitches listening to his reading (and performing) of his hilarious short-story about a droid with The Force.
I think that all the conflict and hatred between the Centauri and the Narn goes back to the fact that one race likes their Spoo raw and the other likes it cooked.
Escargot, sushi and other such foods are considered by and large exquisite delicacies, yet I can’t stand them. Perhaps his palate was more akin to simpler foods.
I suppose. Though I’ve had escargot, enjoy sushi, and have eaten cow tongue sandwiches I can’t say I’ve met many other people who have. The other guy didn’t even want to trade his bologna sandwich for the spoo.
So anyway, what was everyone’s favorite season? Mine was the 4th season when they finished the EA civil war. That was pretty darn sweet.
I’m so proud! They are hopelessly hooked. You would hardly believe the fury my mother feels at Sci-Fi deciding not to run any B5 from Wednesday until Monday. I’m pretty irritated, too, but I KNOW what happens next. She doesn’t. Heh heh heh.
I don’t know anybody else to hook. I DO know one person who missed most of the fifth season. I think I’m going to surprise him with a pile of tapes. I mean, if he hasn’t seen “Sleeping in Light” he hasn’t LIVED…
I did! I knew it was a weeper going into it, but I was surprised at how it sort of…built up. I was actually sobbing over the end credits. I have NEVER cried like that over any movie or TV show or book or anything else. I’m trying to convince Mom to wait to watch it until I can be there. I want to see if it does the same thing to her! And I want to have somebody’s shoulder to cry on. sniffle
Oh, and KarlGrenze, it’s the series finale. It was actually filmed (taped?) at the end of the fourth season, since they didn’t know if there was going to be another season.
I consider myself to be a B5 geek but it is a rare thing for me to memorize the name of any episode. I mean I remember “The Rock Cried Out No Hiding Place” where Lord Refa got the spoo kicked out of him by those Narns. But that’s the only one off the top of my head.
Well, I’ll admit I did get a little choked up when Picard finally joined the senior staff for their weekly poker game, but when Lorien came for Sheridan… man, I just wept.
