Racing the Night (spoilers)
Gordon & Paige Besse-Rankin
Spoiler space
OK, I got my husband hooked and now he is asking annoying continuity
questions. Here is the one from Racing the Night. As we remember it from A
Call to Arms, the Drahk seeded earth with the plague they had from their
Shadow masters. Only thing was that they had not had time or expertise to
finish adapting it to humans, so the virus has to adapt - which scientists
estimate will take 5 years.
In Racing the Night, the aliens tells us that the Shadows - who invented the
virus after all - sicked the virus on their planet as punishment for not
allowing a Shadow base to be built. Presumably, the Shadows would know how
to manipulate the disease and adapt it for their victims. So why did this
planet have the 5 year wait? The way it was presented, it sounded as if
every species infected gets 5 years.
Not that this little issue in any way detracted from the episode.
Paige
Steve Brinich
No problem. In "A Call To Arms", the Earth experts have come up with
the *theory* that the virus will take 5 years to adapt because the Drakh
didn't pre-adapt it to Earth biology.
Evidently, this theory is wrong -- the disease takes years even when
deployed properly. Until now, Earth has had no reason to believe
otherwise, so it's a natural mistake (and characters making natural
mistakes is perfectly consistent with continuity, though at times
confusing to the audience).
The Shadows presumably found a slow but easily deployed planet-killer
sufficient for some situations, reserving the Death Cloud for worlds that
absolutely positively have to be sterilized overnight.
--
Steve Brinich <ste...@Radix.Net> If the government wants us
http://www.Radix.Net/~steveb to respect the law
89B992BBE67F7B2F64FDF2EA14374C3E it should set a better example
no one of consequence
Steve Brinich <ste...@Radix.Net> wrote:
With the Shadow philosophy, something like this might be seen as helping a
race evolve. Find the cure or die.
--
|Patrick Chester (aka: claypigeon, Sinapus) wol...@io.com |
|"Anything I can do to help?" "Um. Short of dying? No, can't think of a |
| thing." -Morden, Vir. 'Interludes and Examinations' -Babylon 5 |
|Wittier remarks always come to mind just after sending your article.... |
ALFREDGHOM
Spoiler space
OK, I got my husband hooked and now he is asking annoying continuity
questions. Here is the one from Racing the Night. As we remember it from A
Call to Arms, the Drahk seeded earth with the plague they had from their
Shadow masters. Only thing was that they had not had time or expertise to
finish adapting it to humans, so the virus has to adapt - which scientists
estimate will take 5 years.
In Racing the Night, the aliens tells us that the Shadows - who invented the
virus after all - sicked the virus on their planet as punishment for not
allowing a Shadow base to be built. Presumably, the Shadows would know how
to manipulate the disease and adapt it for their victims. So why did this
planet have the 5 year wait? The way it was presented, it sounded as if
every species infected gets 5 years.
>>
Not necessarily. In a previous episode (I forget one), it states specifically
that another species was more susceptible to the virus and had only one year.
Jms at B5
>So why did this
>planet have the 5 year wait? The way it was presented, it sounded as if
>every species infected gets 5 years.
It has to do with the way the disease is designed, which they're still figuring
out. This will become clearer in "Each Night I Dream of Home."
jms
(jms...@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
MarcusCoIe
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>In Racing the Night, the aliens tells us that the Shadows - who
>> invented the virus after all - sicked the virus on their planet
>> as punishment for not allowing a Shadow base to be built. Presumably,
>> the Shadows would know how to manipulate the disease and adapt it for
>> their victims. So why did this planet have the 5 year wait? The
>> way it was presented, it sounded as if every species infected gets
>> 5 years.
I have two other questions to go along with that one.
1) This race was supposedly infected during the Shadow War 1000 years ago. They
were infected because they would not allow the Shadows to build a base on their
world. So the Shadows infect them. Why? Why not wipe them out and take the
planet? Yes they need allies, but if you are one of the First Ones as the
Shadows were, why ask anything? Also along this line of questions, why didn't
the Shadows return in 5 years to see if the race had indeed been wiped out by
the plague?
2) If the Shadows were in the habit of infecting worlds with the plague that
didn't cooperate, and have been doing so since the war 1000 year earlier, why
has no plague victim ever been run into? I know that earth has been quarantined
and that no one is allowed to leave (although it has mentioned people being
shot down for trying).
Is this saying that only Earth, and this other planet are the only ones
infected? Not likely. And is it saying that every race that gets infected will
just morally decide to stay at home and not infect others? Not likely either.
True, in B5 we never knew about the Shadows, Shadow War, Drakh, or the plague
till they were introduced. But if races were infected 1000 years prior,
wouldn't some of them come to B5 maybe trying to look for help finding a cure?
Daniel W. Johnson
MarcusCoIe <marcu...@aol.com> wrote:
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> 1) This race was supposedly infected during the Shadow War 1000 years ago.
> They were infected because they would not allow the Shadows to build a
> base on their world. So the Shadows infect them. Why? Why not wipe them
> out and take the planet? Yes they need allies, but if you are one of the
> First Ones as the Shadows were, why ask anything?
A) It is the nature of the Shadows to work with minions; setting up shop
on a dead world isn't their style. If it weren't for Lorien, they
probably would have abandoned Z'ha'dum.
B) Nuking the planet from orbit seems to leave it useless to everyone,
including the Shadows.
> Also along this line of questions, why didn't
> the Shadows return in 5 years to see if the race had indeed been wiped out by
> the plague?
A lot can happen in 5 years. We don't know the relative timing of that
infection and their defeat that time around.
> 2) If the Shadows were in the habit of infecting worlds with the plague
> that didn't cooperate, and have been doing so since the war 1000 year
> earlier, why has no plague victim ever been run into? I know that earth
> has been quarantined and that no one is allowed to leave (although it has
> mentioned people being shot down for trying).
> Is this saying that only Earth, and this other planet are the only ones
> infected? Not likely. And is it saying that every race that gets infected will
> just morally decide to stay at home and not infect others? Not likely either.
> True, in B5 we never knew about the Shadows, Shadow War, Drakh, or the plague
> till they were introduced. But if races were infected 1000 years prior,
> wouldn't some of them come to B5 maybe trying to look for help finding a cure?
Maybe Earth was the first infected planet with a real interstellar
presence. (Let's face it, we only have two data points here.)
--
Daniel W. Johnson
pano...@iquest.net
http://members.iquest.net/~panoptes/
039 53 36 N / 086 11 55 W
Curt
Steve Brinich wrote:
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> Gordon & Paige Besse-Rankin wrote:
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> > OK, I got my husband hooked and now he is asking annoying continuity
> > questions. Here is the one from Racing the Night. As we remember it
> > from A Call to Arms, the Drahk seeded earth with the plague they had
> > from their Shadow masters. Only thing was that they had not had
> > time or expertise to finish adapting it to humans, so the virus has
> > to adapt - which scientists estimate will take 5 years.
> >
> > In Racing the Night, the aliens tells us that the Shadows - who
> > invented the virus after all - sicked the virus on their planet
> > as punishment for not allowing a Shadow base to be built. Presumably,
> > the Shadows would know how to manipulate the disease and adapt it for
> > their victims. So why did this planet have the 5 year wait? The
> > way it was presented, it sounded as if every species infected gets
> > 5 years.
> >
I think that even the Shadows would need to make an example out of a
race every now and then. A whole planet dying a slow and painful
death is one hell of an example. Plus they might have been a bit
vengeful.
>
> No problem. In "A Call To Arms", the Earth experts have come up with
> the *theory* that the virus will take 5 years to adapt because the Drakh
> didn't pre-adapt it to Earth biology.
> Evidently, this theory is wrong -- the disease takes years even when
> deployed properly. Until now, Earth has had no reason to believe
> otherwise, so it's a natural mistake (and characters making natural
> mistakes is perfectly consistent with continuity, though at times
> confusing to the audience).
I bet even Max Exposition--ah Eilerson makes a few mistakes along the way. :-)
> The Shadows presumably found a slow but easily deployed planet-killer
> sufficient for some situations, reserving the Death Cloud for worlds that
> absolutely positively have to be sterilized overnight.
Sort of the Federal Express of Genocide.
Patriarch
MarcusCoIe wrote:
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> >In Racing the Night, the aliens tells us that the Shadows - who
> >> invented the virus after all - sicked the virus on their planet
> >> as punishment for not allowing a Shadow base to be built. Presumably,
> >> the Shadows would know how to manipulate the disease and adapt it for
> >> their victims. So why did this planet have the 5 year wait? The
> >> way it was presented, it sounded as if every species infected gets
> >> 5 years.
>
> I have two other questions to go along with that one.
>
> 1) This race was supposedly infected during the Shadow War 1000 years ago. They
> were infected because they would not allow the Shadows to build a base on their
> world. So the Shadows infect them. Why? Why not wipe them out and take the
> planet? Yes they need allies, but if you are one of the First Ones as the
> Shadows were, why ask anything? Also along this line of questions, why didn't
> the Shadows return in 5 years to see if the race had indeed been wiped out by
> the plague?
>
> 2) If the Shadows were in the habit of infecting worlds with the plague that
> didn't cooperate, and have been doing so since the war 1000 year earlier, why
> has no plague victim ever been run into? I know that earth has been quarantined
> and that no one is allowed to leave (although it has mentioned people being
> shot down for trying).
> Is this saying that only Earth, and this other planet are the only ones
> infected? Not likely. And is it saying that every race that gets infected will
> just morally decide to stay at home and not infect others? Not likely either.
> True, in B5 we never knew about the Shadows, Shadow War, Drakh, or the plague
> till they were introduced. But if races were infected 1000 years prior,
> wouldn't some of them come to B5 maybe trying to look for help finding a cure?
For the points above, take a look at no one of consequences's post and mine
following up Pelzo's. I think that it's possible the shadow's would release the
virus both to punish, and help a race(in their own twisted way).
But the last point is a good one. It makes you wonder why the Shadows didn't use
the plague in Shadow War. I mean, if they did odds are you'd hear about it. In
all the attacks featured in b5, they never show the Shadow's using the plague.
Which doesn't mean it's a mistake on Joe's part. I can think of two reasons.
A)The Shadow's only use the virus in special circumstances, or B) They stopped
using it long ago for some reason, and the Drakh were just using an old stockpile
of it.
Ron Hunsinger
[ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ]
[ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ]
MarcusCoIe wrote:
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> 2) If the Shadows were in the habit of infecting worlds with the plague that
> didn't cooperate, and have been doing so since the war 1000 year earlier,
> why has no plague victim ever been run into? I know that earth has been
> quarantined and that no one is allowed to leave (although it has mentioned
> people being shot down for trying).
>
> Is this saying that only Earth, and this other planet are the only ones
> infected? Not likely. And is it saying that every race that gets infected will
> just morally decide to stay at home and not infect others? Not likely either.
Back up a bit, to the show's premise. The Excalibur's mission is to go out
and find the cure. Not invent it. Not develop a cure from basic research.
(Presumable, that's a parallel effort at home.) Their mission is to FIND a
cure, by searching old civilizations and unknown races.
If there's to be any chance of them doing that, it must be that some race,
somewhere, did find a cure. It goes without saying that they did that after
being infected by the Shadows themselves. (Otherwise, why bother?)
What would the Shadows have done in response to that development? Probably
something nasty by way of punishment, but in the meantime they would have
had to stop using the plague. What good is a weapon for which the defense
is known?
Or maybe no one found the cure, but someone came close. The danger in
overusing germ warfare is the same as the danger in indiscriminant use of
antibiotics. Use either one too much, and pretty soon the "other side"
develops an immunity. The Shadows would no sooner use the plague
indiscriminantly than modern doctors want to use penicillin
indiscriminantly. Too much risk that it'll stop being effective.
Wait 1000 years. Along come the Drakh, trying to kill Earth with the Shadow
Death Cloud. They fail, but they still have this weapon that the Shadows
themselves used only sparingly. The Drakh also want to use it sparingly,
for the same reasons, but they know that, even if a cure was known 1000
years ago, it has been forgotten. It's safe to use the plague again, as
long as they don't use it too often.
If the other races (Minbari, Centauri, Narn, etc.) have any sense, they've
managed to obtain samples of the Drakh plague from Earth, and are
conducting their own research into finding a cure. Not so much to help
Earth (although there could be huge prestige, political, and economic
profit in doing so) as to protect themselves should the plague escape
Earth. That research cannot be successful (for plot reasons), but it must
be going on. There were probably many races working on it 1000 years ago,
too, so maybe after all the ones that found the cure were not themselves
infected.
-Ron Hunsinger
ALFREDGHOM
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I have two other questions to go along with that one.
1) This race was supposedly infected during the Shadow War 1000 years ago. They
were infected because they would not allow the Shadows to build a base on their
world. So the Shadows infect them. Why? Why not wipe them out and take the
planet? >>
Maybe to make an example of them.
<<2) If the Shadows were in the habit of infecting worlds with the plague that
didn't cooperate, and have been doing so since the war 1000 year earlier, why
has no plague victim ever been run into?>>
The Shadows have been dormant waiting for 1000 years. Only until the Icarus,
Anna Sheridan's ship, arrived did the Shadows starting moving again.
Tim Keene
>Gordon & Paige Besse-Rankin wrote:
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>> OK, I got my husband hooked and now he is asking annoying continuity
>> questions. Here is the one from Racing the Night. As we remember it
>> from A Call to Arms, the Drahk seeded earth with the plague they had
>> from their Shadow masters. Only thing was that they had not had
>> time or expertise to finish adapting it to humans, so the virus has
>> to adapt - which scientists estimate will take 5 years.
(SNIP)
>
> No problem. In "A Call To Arms", the Earth experts have come up with
>the *theory* that the virus will take 5 years to adapt because the Drakh
>didn't pre-adapt it to Earth biology.
> Evidently, this theory is wrong -- the disease takes years even when
>deployed properly. Until now, Earth has had no reason to believe
>otherwise, so it's a natural mistake (and characters making natural
>mistakes is perfectly consistent with continuity, though at times
>confusing to the audience).
> The Shadows presumably found a slow but easily deployed planet-killer
>sufficient for some situations, reserving the Death Cloud for worlds that
>absolutely positively have to be sterilized overnight.
The way I see it, it fits into the modus operandi of the Shadows.
They weren't about killing everyone, but sowing the seeds of chaos.
What creates more chaos than infecting a population with a plague and
watching them attempt to find a cure. You see the results from the
aliens who have been infected and no longer care how much death they
cause, just so they can find a cure.
###################
The Dharkwalker
Any scientific breakthrough involving Scots and sheep is bound to have dire consequences.
John W. Kennedy
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> >In Racing the Night, the aliens tells us that the Shadows - who
> >> invented the virus after all - sicked the virus on their planet
> >> as punishment for not allowing a Shadow base to be built. Presumably,
> >> the Shadows would know how to manipulate the disease and adapt it for
> >> their victims. So why did this planet have the 5 year wait? The
> >> way it was presented, it sounded as if every species infected gets
> >> 5 years.
>
>
> 1) This race was supposedly infected during the Shadow War 1000 years ago. They
> were infected because they would not allow the Shadows to build a base on their
> world. So the Shadows infect them. Why? Why not wipe them out and take the
> planet?
We don't know enough. Maybe they wanted a native support system, so
that the planet was useless to them either way. Maybe they had the
plague in hand and no planet killers around. Maybe they wanted the
planet to be usable in the future.
> Also along this line of questions, why didn't
> the Shadows return in 5 years to see if the race had indeed been wiped out by
> the plague?
Maybe Valen had cleaned their clocks by then.
> 2) If the Shadows were in the habit of infecting worlds with the plague that
> didn't cooperate, and have been doing so since the war 1000 year earlier, why
> has no plague victim ever been run into?
We don't know how often they did it, and we don't know how often it was
resisted with any degree of success at all. I decided to erase the rest
of this paragraph because it might be a Story Idea.
--
-John W. Kennedy
-rri...@ibm.net
Compact is becoming contract
Man only earns and pays. -- Charles Williams
ash...@flatirons.org
hns...@sirius.com (Ron Hunsinger) wrote:
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> MarcusCoIe wrote:
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plague that
> > didn't cooperate, and have been doing so since the war 1000 year
earlier,
*snip*
The Vorlons can't be bad (for plot reasons). The First Ones can't
consider war to be little more than a game of philosophy (for plot
reasons). Kosh can't die. You can't take an unassuming, lovable telepath
and make her the equivalent of the H-Bomb. You can't kill the love
interest of the station's second-in-command by giving her a sleeper
personality. Heck, you aren't allowed to kill off any major
characters. And you certianly can't end the Great War in the middle of
the fourth season, and the Earth War by the end of the fourth season.
Well, apparently, you can, and JMS did. With amazing success.
JMS has a very long and proud history of doing everything that you know
can't be done in a television show. I expect that the plot of Crusade
will (or is it would have... so sad) twist(ed) in most interesting ways.
It might not be that the research is sucessful, but rather that a cure
is discovered in an alltogether different way that causes all sorts of
interesting twists and turns in the plot. Very few people acctually
believed or even suspected that the Great Wars could be games -battles
of philosophy- until it smacked 'em in the face, and became crystal
clear. I suspect developments of a similar nature in Crusade.
My hope is that JMS continues to tell great stories as he has been
doing for five wonderful years.
Regards,
--Ashvin Mysore (ash...@flatirons.org)
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