#babylon five

As for Jurasik, Londo as hands-down the most complex character in TV sci fi. A bloated and crooked old colonial solider at the beginning, just a rather silly old man blustering about the station. He spends some time as the galaxy’s greatest villain but becomes determined to subvert the catastrophe he is responsible for but importantly, *the show never asks you to think of him as redeemed.* He’s a foul racist, a drunken windbag, and in spite of it all he could still charm any of you rubes into loaning him 50 bucks. Jurasik is a veteran character actor with the exact magical combo of professional experience and above-average talent that allows him to draw real pathos and empathy out of an otherwise-ridiculous character. The Centauri accent as defined by Jurasik is something like Bela Lugosi + Hollywood Russian, and he can use it to make you laugh or cry or curse his name. On at least one occasion, all in the same episode. TV sci fi needs its hams, the medium’s constraints turn all such shows into space operas to at least some degree, and hams are best equipped to get you the most bang for your buck in 40-odd minutes. Straczynski deserves mention. He really is one of those literary mutants like Stephen King or his mentor Harlan Ellison for whom the world “prolific” was made. By the time B5 debuted he had already published 3 novels and written dozens of scripts for television, honing a distinct and recognizable authorial voice along the way. Normally one has to resort to watching a Whedon product to find such a thing in genre TV, but I find JMS to be greatly preferable; he’s far less weird about women, and has charming idiosyncrasies instead of gimmicks that become grating and embarrassing with time. His dialogue tends toward corniness and verbosity, and since he’s both head writer and creator he had few editorial filters to rely on, but we aren’t weighed down with contrived cleverness or insipid displays of genre savvy. Every character doesn’t sound like him talking the way Tarantino’s do, but since JMS wrote most of the episodes you could probably score better than 60% on a quiz covering Movies JMS Enjoys. Search up a list of pre-1960 WW2 films and you’ll be off to a good start. Just don’t forget that Harlan approved of him enough to make him executor of the Ellison estate for a good reason.

I don't really make edits usually so idk but is this anything??

I really love Ms. Kelsey in mind war despite her barely being on screen. She's great. This is also currently the only fanfic on her AO3 tag, which I've personally got to rectify.

Every single day my perception of the b5 wider polycule expands. And everyday I get a little more dedicated to them.

This is all unsettling in ways it shouldn't be.