143 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
143 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
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<blockquote><cite>
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Garibaldi's past catches up to him, with some disastrous consequences.
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He's blamed by some for an accident
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aboard B5, which leads to hitting the bottle again after a
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prolonged abstinence.
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</cite>
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Elaine Thomas as Lianna Kemmer.
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Tom Donaldson as Cutter.
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</blockquote>
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Originally titled "A Knife in the Shadows"
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<pre>
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Sub-genre: Intrigue
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<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/011">7.65</a>
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Production number: 111
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Original air date: May 4, 1994
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Written by Mark Scott Zicree
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Directed by Jim Johnston
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</pre>
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<p>
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<hr>
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<p>
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<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
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<ul>
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<li> Garibaldi was a shuttle pilot on Mars before coming to Babylon 5.
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</ul>
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<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
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<ul>
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<li> Who was the assassin working for? Who wants Santiago dead?
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</ul>
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<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
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<ul>
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<li> Ivanova's reluctance to stop the countdown is suspicious. Perhaps
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she had some reason to want the launch to take place; perhaps she
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even knew what was going to happen if it did.
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<li> Everyone from his past considers Garibaldi a no-good drunk. Why
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did Sinclair give him a second chance? (Addressed in comic series,
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<a href="/lurk/comic/005.html">"Shadows Past and Present."</a>)
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</ul>
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<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
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<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
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<ul>
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<li> We're already doing it, and have done it. We've already begun
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integrating "virtual sets" in with real ones. As an example...in the
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next-to-last shot in "Survivors," someone is entering a ship in the
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docking bay. The only real object in that room, aside from the actor,
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is a ladder. Everything else is CGI...but you can't tell.
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<p>
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<li> In "Survivors," we attempted a cgi/composite shot out the window, which
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looks pretty spiffy, actually. It's in the teaser. We may do this in
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future.
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<p>
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<li> The *reason* we had Garibaldi go through all the hoops he went through
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before finally falling into the bottle is because simply having Liana
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show up and depress Garibaldi isn't, frankly, sufficient motivation.
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I don't buy it. We wanted to strip away everything he had, and leave
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him with only *himself*. So we took away his job, his reputation, his
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money, his home, neutralized his friends wherever possible...it was
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deliberate and systematic to peel him down to the bare essentials, to
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just Garibaldi. Take him all the way down before taking him back up
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again. Because it's more dramatically interesting. It's more logical
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that it would take something this major to drive him back into the
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bottle after staying sober all this time. I'm sorry, I don't accept
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your suggestion that Liana's "anger and accusations" would "drive him
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over the edge as he deals with his guilt." He's BEEN dealing with his
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guilt, and her showing up wouldn't be enough to drive him back into
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the bottle again. I'm sorry, but as a producer or a story editor, I
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wouldn't buy that from a writer as being sufficient motivation.
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Particularly not a character who's as strong and as bull-headed as
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Garibaldi.
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<p>
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<li> What do I know about alcoholics, to portray them? Well, aside from
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a degree in clinical psychology, and some internship work in the area,
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I come from a family with alcoholism going back at least four
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generations, and I'm talking *heavy duty*. I am, in fact, the first
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male Straczynski in my branch of this particular stunted tree NOT to
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have this problem.
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<p>
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I have had far, far, far more experience with this area than I care
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to recite...and from that perspective, I have no problem with
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Garibaldi's portrayal.
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<p>
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<li> Cutter went after Garibaldi only because that's who the dying worker
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named as being responsible for the bomb. (He didn't know he was dying,
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and wanted to throw blame; and even if he did know, what better than
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to nail the guy who'd hassled him before?) Cutter only took advantage
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of the situation.
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<p>
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Luis Santiago is playing it both ways, allowing more trade and certain
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kinds of immigration, while preserving earth *culture*; this isn't the
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same thing as a trade embargo.
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<p>
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<li> The name of General Netter was stuck in as a tweak to Doug, it's a
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tuckerism (for those who know the term). We've done it a bit here
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and there; I kinda started shutting the process down after a while,
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since it was getting carried away. I don't want it to be obtrusive.
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<p>
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<li> I think Kemmer's name was inspired by the actor's name from the
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Space Patrol series....
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<p>
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<li> The Drazi are a very violent, ill-tempered species; they were the ones
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who first showed up in "Deathwalker" in a Sunhawk to threaten the
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station; they beat up the guy in "The War Prayer;" they show up here
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in "Survivors;" there's an episode about a form of martial arts among
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the aliens that has a Drazi going at it...if there's a fight around,
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you can often find a Drazi at the center of it or at least nearby.
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<p>
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<li> I think you're taking what I said to the extreme; I didn't say [the
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Drazi] were bloodthirsty savages, only that they had a predilection
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toward violence, and were generally very cranky. And not all great
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thinkers have to sit around in elizabethan garb, delicate flowers
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watching the skies rotate. Aggressive people can be good thinkers;
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it needn't be one or the other.
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<p>
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<li> ...the end of "Survivors," where Kemmer enters her ship...in reality
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there is only a ladder there. The ship, the walls, the door she
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enters, all that is CGI/virtual set.
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</ul>
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