h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Babylon 5 Characters: G'Kar - A87870234
Author: Bluebottle - U43530

One of science-fiction's greatest double-acts is that of Londo and G'Kar.
An entry on Londo was edited back in 2001 – 15 years later it is surely time for the other half of the story?

This is a Flea Market Rescue of:
Entry: A988987 - Babylon-5 - G'Kar
Author: U45152 – TowelMaster

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No comments?

I am afraid this is one series I never got into, but I'll read it through even though I can't check the content for accuracy!

>>After a century the Narn successfully rose up against the Centauri, whose Imperial Republic was on the decline, driving them off world. The Narn then established themselves as one of the strongest races in the galaxy while the Centauri's influence waned. Despite this, the resentment caused by a century of slavery has left the Narn with an unquenchable thirst for revenge on the Centauri.<<
That paragraph belongs in the intro, not under "G'Kar: Early Life" - move it to the last para of the intro, then remove the last para of the intro that is there now: (Perhaps the character that evolved the most over the series was G'Kar...) to the "G'Kar: Early Life" section.

Nitpicks:

story-arcs = story arcs

the Galaxy's spacefaring races = galaxy's

space-station = space station

home-planet = home planet

Babylon 5 = should be in italics all the way through

sixty days = 60 days

Hopefully a Babylon 5 fan will come along to review this soon!

GB

Not a Bablyon 5 fan - I never seen it.

seemingly frequently underhandedly

Reword this. You could use "often" instead of frequently.

the gouging-out of his eye

1. remove the hyphen
2. this suggests he only ever had one eye (like Leela in Futurama) and it was gouged out. It should "one of his eyes".

After seeing his father whipped and hung -->
After seeing his father whipped and hanged

"hanged" is the past tense when the meaning is "executed by hanging".

There live representatives -- this is very clumsy. Reword it.

in feature-length pilot episode 'The Gathering' -->
in the feature-length pilot episode 'The Gathering'

a powerful, evil race thought destroyed a thousand years earlier is secretly preparing for war and seeking agents.
-- this is all very well, but two sentences later you have:

Mr Morden is the human agent for the Shadows, an evil race of First Ones believed to have been defeated a thousand years earlier who now seek to cause chaos and war.

Reword one or both of these to prevent the duplication.

who will unfurl fury -- unfurl is the wrong word here. It means to open up a sail, and is the wrong metaphor for fury. Perhaps "unleash"?

both strangling the life out of the other -- I think this would be clearer as:
each strangling the life out of the other

and, the Centauri under Lord Refa bombard the Narn homeworld
-- remove the comma
-- Consider splitting up the sentence.

Though arrested for the attack on Mollari, imprisoned for sixty days he spends his time -->
Though arrested for the attack on Mollari and imprisoned for sixty days, he spends his time

Yet G'Kar is rescued... - split this sentence up

break his yolk --> break his yoke

bursts out into laughter --> bursts into laughter

Thanks both of you for your comments – changes have been made, sentences edited or moved as requested. Gnomon – if you watch one 20th Century US science fiction series that isn't 'Star Trek', make it 'Babylon 5'. It was heavily inspired by 'The Lord of the Rings' and also to a lesser extent 'Forbidden Planet' (you can enjoy looking out for the references) and, although the first series is a bit of a slow-burner as the characters are introduced, once the story arc gets going it is an amazing ride.

I'm still a little uncertain as to whether 'Babylon 5' should be in italics all the way through. Of course, every reference to 'Babylon 5' the television programme should be italicised, yet what about references to the place? Names of spaceships should definitely be italicised, yet Babylon 5 isn't a spaceship, it is an artificially created city (not that any city is particularly natural) that is located in space. By keeping only references to the television show in italics, it is easy to differentiate which is which.

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In the Deep Space Nine entry A6671531, the TV series name is italicised but the name of the space station is not.

Not something I've ever seen, either - I might look out for it, but it sounds grim in comparison with Star Trek...

"spilling a hot bowl" - bowl of what?

The tenses are mixed in the last paragraph of the Narn section - presumably should be in past tense like the others.

Is there some sort of dot in the GuideML after the Representative of the People header? It looks odd in Pliny...

"hidden behind encounter suits"

Behind or inside?

Very powerful ending...

Overall I found 'Babylon 5' joyous. It did get dark and the heroes were up against incredible odds that made you wonder how they would survive – and not every character did – but their sacrifices were valiant. The nuanced characters defied the odds against an enemy that really felt like a threat. If you're watching 'Star Trek' and you see a Klingon ship you just feel 'oo look, it's a Klingon ship'. With Babylon 5, when a Shadow ship appears, you really feel it – just like you did in early Next Gen episodes when the Borg appeared. Yet without experiencing the overwhelming threat you can't enjoy the jubilant triumph.

The closest in the 'Star Trek' universe would be the last couple of series of DS9, where they were fighting against the Dominion. 'Babylon 5' has that sort of feel to it – only 'Babylon 5' did it first and better. It took a while to find its feet in the first series, but once it got going B5 was one incredible ride, and a television series you really can enjoy over and over again, as small details in series one are picked up and pay off in series five.

I could sing the praises of B5 all day – but before I do so I'll confirm that I've made changes as you suggested.

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Yes, after posting, I did think about the Dominion, as that was much darker Star Trek. I've only seen a couple of episodes of DS9 and never really got into it, so it would be interesting to see what I make of B5...

It does sound impressive how it was constructed as such a long timeline and was able to follow through with the story without encountering unresolved cliffhangers at any point

Well, you can't quite go as far as to say absolutely no unresolved cliffhangers as there were a few cast changes that J Michael Straczynski hadn't planned (the few cast changes from the pilot to the first series don't count).

The change of captain from Sinclair to Sheridan for the start of series 2 was remarkably well handled and made complete sense (although by a huge co-incidence Sinclair's girlfriend in the pilot, Catherine Sakai his recurring fiancée in series 1 and Anna Sheridan, Sheridan's first wife, all have the same job of space exploration).

One of the biggest changes was with regards the character of Ivanova. She had been intended to be a major part of series 5 and have a relationship with the character of Byron, but she did not return for the last series. This meant that all the hints about her being a latent telepath never really paid off. The actress who played Talia Winters, her hinted-at romantic interest, didn't return after series 2; the way that had been paved for Talia's redemption early in series 1 sadly wasn't used.

The other big change was that the show was made and broadcast by PTEN, a television network co-owned by Warner Bros that was collapsing as Warner Bros wanted to replace it with the WB, a network they had greater control over. J Michael Straczynski anticipated that series 4 was going to be the last series and so crammed two years' worth of plot into the year (resolving the main Shadow War and Earth War plots), only for TNT to pick up the rights to a fifth series of Babylon 5 - in which the crew feel the legacy of victory with the Centauri-Drazi War, the Drakh War and early stage of the Telepath War. TNT then commissioned a spin-off series, 'Crusade', and then promptly cancelled it before it really got going.

Yet on the whole, it really was a remarkable achievement in television.

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The cancellation of 'Crusade' had possibly the silliest reason since 'Police Squad' was cancelled because 'viewers had to watch it'. TNT discovered that viewers who watched 'Crusade' didn't watch any other TNT programmes, and their regular TNT audience didn't watch 'Crusade'. So though they were getting quite good viewing figures they decided they weren't the right viewing figures.

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Ah, I didn't realise B5 was under threat of cancellation at some points, but great that they managed to keep it going almost as planned

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Well Done Towel Master!
TM was one of the first h2g2ers I ever met, you know.

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