Una poetessa minbari viene attaccata da un violento appartenente ad un gruppo pro-Terra, mentre due giovani Centauri chiedono l'aiuto di Londo per farsi garantire un futuro insieme. Ivanova rincontra una sua vecchia fiamma.
BabylonTrama
- Londo ha tre mogli, tre "grandi sacrifici", tutti matrimoni di interesse.
- Sulla Terra esistono dei movimenti dalla tendenza xenofoba, come l'Home Guard, che non disdegnano di attaccare esponenti delle altre specie.
Domande senza risposta
- Che fine hanno fatto le speciali tute che rendono invisibili indossate dai quattro membri dell'Home Guard arrestati da Garibaldi?
- Chi ha procurato all'Home Guard queste tute speciali? Parte della Forza Terrestre fiancheggia questi estremisti, o si tratta di tecnologia rubata, o altro?
- Perché Kosh sta studiando la storia dei Terrestri?
Note
- Susan Ivanova fa coltivare di nascosto del caffé nella serra idroponica della stazione. La stessa cosa che fa Laurel Takashima in The Gathering (il particolare è presente solo nella "edizione speciale" del Film TV).
- I nomignoli che Londo dà alle sue tre mogli (Pestilenza, Carestia e Morte) sono i nomi di tre dei quattro cavalieri dell'apocalisse. Il quarto cavaliere (Londo stesso?) si chiama Guerra.
- Il simbolo dell'Home Guard impresso sulla fronte di Mayan è la combinazione dei simboli greci che rappresentano il maschio e la femmina: scudo e lancia di Marte per l'uomo, pettine e specchio di Venere per la donna.
- L'attacco preparato dall'Home Guard contro gli ambasciatori è parte di un più vasto piano che ha come obiettivo diversi esponenti alieni sparsi nei territori dell'Alleanza Terrestre.
- Vir si fa passare per l'ambasciatore centauri su Babylon 5 nelle lettere scritte ai cugini.
- Shaal Mayan è una rinomata poetessa minbari, che crea e recita i Tee'la, dei componimenti "che cercano di far riaffiorare vecchie memorie e di creare nuove idee".
- Susan Ivanova era legata sentimentalmente a Malcolm Biggs, ma lo ha lasciato e si è arruolata nella Forza Terrestre otto anni prima degli eventi di questo episodio (quindi nel 2250).
- Gli unici due esseri umani ad avere visto la vera natura di un Vorlon (The Gathering) sono stati trasferiti sulla Terra: il Dottor Kyle (che lavora per il Presidente terrestre) e Lyta Alexander. Entrambi non hanno parlato dell'avvenimento con altri membri dell'equipaggio della stazione prima di essere trasferiti.
- La scena con Kosh che visualizza eventi della storia terrestre ed il successivo colloquio con Sinclair erano stati originariamente previsti per The Parliament of Dreams, ma sono stati spostati in questo episodio poiché il primo sarebbe andato troppo lungo coi tempi.
- Il titolo della puntata è un omaggio all'omonima novella di Mark Twain.
- Nell'intervallo di tempo tra la fine delle riprese e la messa in onda di questo episodio, è stata trasmessa, negli Stati Uniti, una puntata di Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (The Circle) nella quale un alieno viene marchiato in maniera paragonabile a quanto accade a Mayan. La produzione ha quindi seriamente considerato di eliminare in post-produzione il marchio, per evitare polemiche ed accuse di imitare la serie concorrente. In seguito si è deciso di lasciare tutto come da copione, anche in seguito alle richieste in tal senso ricevute da numerosi fan.
Zocalo
- J. Michael Straczynski riguardo al "problema" con Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: "Y'know... it's a funny old world. And sometimes it just astonishes you. About 2 months ago, one of our freelancers turned in a script that has to do with a hate group, in the course of which a guest character, a Minbari, is attacked and has her head branded with the symbol of the group. So you will doubtless understand my astonishment when I turned on DS9 and saw the same thing happen. Unfortunately, we've already shot that episode, it's in the can, so there's nothing we can do about it now. Further, and let me be totally clear about this, there's no way that DS9 could've borrowed the idea from us, or in any way been influence by us, and no way we could've been influenced by them. To get on the air now, they would've had to shoot their episode some time before the writer turned in that draft for our show. And none of us were in any way aware of what was going on there until we saw it the night of the broadcast... and came in the next day with looks of absolute shock. [...] And I guess I just wanted it to be clear when this thing airs that the sequence in our show was in the can and done when the DS9 episode aired".
- Ancora J. Michael Straczynski: "We're in discussions to see if there's any way we can cut this from the show... the only problem is that the brand stays on throughout the show. If it were just in one shot, we'd cut the shot and find some other way around it. The only way we can lose it now would be if we literally wiped off the brand by going into every frame in which it appears and digitally removing it from the frame... which is a real pain in the butt... but we are considering it. [...] In addition to the notes here, I've received a whole bunch of email notes saying to leave it in, on the grounds that it does happen in real life (or incidents close to it), and how we're handling it is very different. (Some indicated that it can illustrate how the two shows handle their themes in different ways.) So it's a tough call... to change would also mean some re-shooting... but given the responses here, I think it's okay to leave it in place.".
Citazioni
Tempo: n.d.
Delenn: There was a time, Mr. Garibaldi, when one could walk through Green Sector without need of escort.
Sinclair: I assure you, we're doing everything we can to correct that, Ambassador.
Delenn: Then you are required to do better, Commander. Much better.
Tempo: n.d.
Mayan: It is a lesson, one that should not be forgotten.
Tempo: n.d.
Ivanova: You're a vicious man.
Garibaldi: I'm Head of Security. It's in the job description.
Tempo: n.d.
Londo: What am I supposed to do with them?
Sinclair: You're always saying the Centauri are an advanced race. You figure it out.
Tempo: n.d.
Londo (a Kiron ed Aria): Ugly and old, yes? Then their families must be both rich and powerful.
Tempo: n.d.
Londo (a Kiron ed Aria): Love?! What does love have to do with marriage?
Tempo: n.d.
Garibaldi: If the blood matches Mayan's, I'll give you over to the Minbari and let them play dice with your eyeballs.
Roberts: I don't know what's worse: damn aliens or the traitors that suck up to them over their own kind.
Tempo: n.d.
Kosh (a Sinclair): We take no interest in the affairs of others.
Tempo: n.d.
Sinclair: That's quite a viewer. I've never seen anything quite like it before. What is it?
Kosh: Efficient.
Tempo: n.d.
Ivanova (a Sinclair): The Vorlons are very secretive. They don't want anyone to know what they look like, what they breathe or how their biology works. I mean, who knows how much that suit is really necessary and how much is just camouflage to keep us from seeing what's inside?
Tempo: n.d.
Londo (a Vir): Love? Bah. Overrated. Here, look, these are my three wives: Pestilence, Famine and Death. Do you think I married them for their personalities? Their personalities could shatter entire planets! Arranged marriages, every one, but they worked out. They inspired me. Knowing that they were waiting at home for me is what keeps me here, 75 lights years away.
Tempo: n.d.
G'Kar (a Sinclair): So much for Babylon 5's highly vaunted justice.
Tempo: n.d.
Sinclair: I could strangle that damn G'Kar.
Tempo: n.d.
Londo: I would expect such logic from a poet. What can a Minbari know about Centauri feeling?
Mayan: Ambassador, I have travelled far and seen much. And what I have seen tells me that all sentient beings are best defined by their capacity and their need for love.
Londo: And she will learn to live without it.
Mayan: As you did.
Tempo: n.d.
Londo (a Vir): My shoes are too tight and I have forgotten how to dance.
Tempo: n.d.
Sinclair (a Biggs): The only good alien is a dead alien.
Tempo: n.d.
Sinclair (a Biggs): And we won. Not because we outfought them, not because we were luckier than them or stronger than them or smarter than them. We won because the damn Minbari let us win.
Tempo: n.d.
Biggs (a Sinclair): We want to put Earth back at the center of the universe, our universe, get rid of alien influences, get rid of aliens, put Earth first. We must get back to our roots. Let humans be humans.
Tempo: n.d.
Londo (a Kiron ed Aria): Because you are still children, and children should be allowed to dance.
Tempo: n.d.
Delenn: Human ways are often unfathomable, but in time, one learns to live with them.
G'Kar: If one has an exceedingly strong constitution.
Tempo: n.d.
Biggs: I can't believe you did this to me, Susan. What kind of a human are you, to side with them?
Ivanova: I find many of these people to be more human that you and your kind.
Ultima variazione:
Giovedì, 24-Ago-2006 22:16
