Ninja_Squirrel
Regular
Good explanation, Joe. It makes sense that we don't have three legs, our eyes in our knees, our nose on our butt, our mouth on our shoulder, arms coming out the front and back instead of the sides, etc.
Think about how many animal forms on Earth are similar. Wolves, bears, giraffes, cats, elephants, mice, and frogs are all very different in the way they live, get food, eat food, raise their young, etc., but they all have four legs, most have tails, all have two eyes (sometimes upfront, sometimes off to the sides, but always two for depth perception), and all but the frogs have two ears.
Birds come in all different sizes, but there are none that have both arms and legs, just two legs. Almost all birds have the ability to fly, and those that do fly, fly in mostly the same way--wings. There are no "helicopter" birds.
Also, it's not just Humans who are upright, with two arms, two forward eyes, and opposable thumbs. All primates are like that, and they vary in plenty of ways too.
My point is, certain designs just *make sense*.
Also, about the only way you could get non-Human "actors" to play non-Human characters is to use Muppets (even CGI Jar Jar Binks had a human stand-in). Pilot and Rygel make interesting, articulate, believable, and "non-cute" characters on Farscape thanks to Muppets. Because of the low B5 budget, however, I'm sure JMS couldn't enlist the help of Jim Hensen folks even if he had wanted to. I think JMS and the B5 make-up artists did just great with what they had to work with.
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Not many fishes left in the sea. Not many fishes, just Londo and me.
[This message has been edited by Ninja_Squirrel (edited September 02, 2001).]
Think about how many animal forms on Earth are similar. Wolves, bears, giraffes, cats, elephants, mice, and frogs are all very different in the way they live, get food, eat food, raise their young, etc., but they all have four legs, most have tails, all have two eyes (sometimes upfront, sometimes off to the sides, but always two for depth perception), and all but the frogs have two ears.
Birds come in all different sizes, but there are none that have both arms and legs, just two legs. Almost all birds have the ability to fly, and those that do fly, fly in mostly the same way--wings. There are no "helicopter" birds.
Also, it's not just Humans who are upright, with two arms, two forward eyes, and opposable thumbs. All primates are like that, and they vary in plenty of ways too.
My point is, certain designs just *make sense*.
Also, about the only way you could get non-Human "actors" to play non-Human characters is to use Muppets (even CGI Jar Jar Binks had a human stand-in). Pilot and Rygel make interesting, articulate, believable, and "non-cute" characters on Farscape thanks to Muppets. Because of the low B5 budget, however, I'm sure JMS couldn't enlist the help of Jim Hensen folks even if he had wanted to. I think JMS and the B5 make-up artists did just great with what they had to work with.
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Not many fishes left in the sea. Not many fishes, just Londo and me.
[This message has been edited by Ninja_Squirrel (edited September 02, 2001).]