It’s been probably a decade since I’ve seen the episode, but I think the idea was that you couldn’t open up the torso. So, drawing blood from the arm is fine, poking a hole in the torso means instant zombiehood.
-Joe
i’m sure it was cutting into the flesh (not just the torso) - as food animals are cut not the chosen. I will watch it again tonight and check.
Whoa there!
While I agree that there is some suggestion that souls do exist in the B5 universe, I don’t recall the triluminary ever proving this. That thing was set to react to Sinclair’s DNA. When did we see it used in a way that wasn’t related to that?
I’ll bite.
What proof is there that souls exist in B5? Transferable minds, I guess, but souls? It’s been awhile since I’ve seen it.
I’d just like to remind people that the OP is still not finished watching the entire series, when you’re considering what stuff to put in spoiler boxes.
“Day of the Dead”
Not to mention “Sleeping In Light”
Mahaloth:
[spoiler]
The episode “Soul Hunter”.
We actually see Minbari (and other) souls on screen.
And I think the Triluminary reacts to both souls and DNA. Or the “DNA” thing was just a human interpretation of the events. When Delinn finally explains the "Hole in Sinclair’s mind, she talks about how Minbar is being “diminished”: their most exceptional warriors, thinkers, artists weren’t being reborn in Minbari bodies–the Trilume showed where the souls were going.
Clearly, given the “Soul Hunter” episode where we see souls and given what Delinn knows and says about Minbari souls, the Trilume has to be measuring stuff other than Valen’s DNA. [/spoiler]
I can’t believe you didn’t mention “Soul Hunter” (Season one, not spoilering the stupid name)
and of course
River of Souls, which kind of sucked
-Joe
I thought “Soul Hunter” was kinda obvious. 
The quote the mother gave was ‘The chosen of god may not be punctured’ so even a blood test would be forbidden
Well, what do you expect from a soap opera actor? He was hamming it up every time he was on screen. Unfortunate about his early death, though.
As for the existence of souls in the B5 universe, I sort of remember JMS writing that it was left a little bit ambiguous. Even in “Soul Hunter”, it was clear that the characters involved believed in the existence of souls and that “something” was happening in the process, but JMS always left that little bit of wiggle room for doubt. Even in “Day of the Dead” or “Sleeping in Light”, there was always room left for alternate explanations.
What about the fifth season episode where Lyta scanned the dying ranger? That doesn’t strike me as terribly ambiguous.
You have to wonder how many zombifications happen on their world just by accident…
Quoth ultrafilter:
That didn’t seem to me to be qualitatively any different from the long tunnel and white light people often report from near-death experiences.
I’m not sure I see any other explanation for the S5 episodes silenus mentioned, though. At a bare minimum, I think we’re forced to conclude that Vorlons have (or possibly are) souls.
To be fair, I could hit you in the nose a couple times and you’d bleed plenty without being “punctured”. 
Yeah, sewing has to be up there with nuclear velociraptor wrangling on the list of deadly activities.
-Joe
Interesting point. One can imagine a fairly unpleasant society on their homeworld, actually. Perhaps there’s some sort of caste system, with a hereditary class of folks consigned to work likely to create occasional skin punctures - they’d have a bad lot in life, since the ruling classes would believe them not just to be inferior, but genuinely soullless. Fine basis for a particularly nasty regime.
There is a great Poul Anderson short story, which deals with a group of humans who have managed to capture a few members of the galaxy’s dominant race, who have vast psi powers but refuse to explain to “lesser races” the secrets of their abilities.
In the end,
[spoiler]one of the aliens commits suicide, and his soul, freed of his body, is able to alert his fellow aliens telapathically. One of the human captors asks the aliens why they kept this ability a big secret; why didn’t they tell everyone that they had proof positive that there is life after death, and that everyone has immortal souls?
The alien answers,
“You don’t.”
[/spoiler]
According to a comment from JMS on the Lurker’s Guide:
“The area that cannot be opened is the chest area, primarily; a nick or cut or scratch really doesn’t count; it’s puncturing to the body cavity wherein the soul is housed.”
Must be where I read it a bajillion years ago. Still, sewing..be careful!
-Joe
I’ve been watching the “recommended” episodes from Season 1, and I have to say that I’m underwhelmed. I get the impresion that not only are these essential to understandimng the later seasons, but they’re the best this series has to offer.
If that’s the case, it’s going to take a real leap pf faith to believe that the rest of this series is worth watching. I don’t have a problem with the effects – I know things have advanced since then, but I still get a thrill watching Metropolis. It’s the by-the-numbers writing, the ideas, and the acting. Nothing in this entices me in with the concepts or dialogue or my Sense of Wonder. So far, it’s a slog. I’d hate to see how bad it would be if I watched the bad episodes.
Pepper Mill, also a big SF fan, now refuses to even watch any more episodes. She’s given up on the series altogether.
So, for someone who’s only seen several of the Season One episodes, does this really pick up in the second season. I mean, does it get demonstrably better and more involving?