Babylon 5 For the First Time - Not a Star Trek Podcast
★★★★

A strong start, needs more diversity in viewpoints

Two TNG+ Trek fans look at B5 through a Trek lens, placing it in the proper context for the time of its creation. I have only listened to the first 2 eps, and I like both presenters. They are going in with few TV preconceptions, and do a good job articulating their impressions about the execution, writing, and subtext in B5. In the Midnight on the Firing line episode, the cultural homogeneity, political naïveté, and lack of education of the hosts comes through in the discussion about how cultures are assimilated and homogenized. While they mention G’kar’s genocidal threat against the Centauri, they never mention genocide as one of the reasons that cultures on Earth are lost. Delenn’s speech about “where it ends” about who gets Ragesh 3 is poignant because the actress, Mira Furlan, is from the former Yugolavia, where such scores were being settled as this show was being aired. It might be helpful for them to recruit some diverse guests, maybe from B5 fandom, FemFreq, All the Asians on Star Trek, or Women at Warp, to fill in those gaps.

May 30, 2022 by Papposilenus on Apple Podcasts


Babylon 5 For the First Time - Not a Star Trek Podcast