EpDis: The Ragged Edge

[vacantlook]

Refresher Links:
Lurker's Guide Main Page for The Ragged Edge
Lurker's Guide Extended Synopsis for The Ragged Edge

 

[KoshN]

B+.

 

[vacantlook]

I liked seeing the Drazi homeworld.

 

[RMcD]

This isn't really a serious comment, but it always amazes me that Sheridan reacts the way he does to Franklin's news. Given the meteoric career trajectories of everyone else in the inner circle after the shadow war, it seems like Franklin is entitled to be feeling a short changed at this point (I hope he was getting properly paid for cataloguing those species..). And given Sheridan knew he was leaving himself, I can only assume that at some point he was intending to ask Franklin to come to Minbar.

But there you have it.. If you don't treat your staff right, you shouldn't be surprised when they take up a better offer. If you don't treat Lyta right, you shouldn't be surprised when she takes hostages. And shouldn't Corwin be at least Lieutenant Commander now?

 

[Elipsis]

I'll give it a B. Garibaldi finally blows the arc open proper with his discovery, and thinking back to Season 1... who ever thought we'd make it to the Drazi homeworld?

 

[Galahad]

I'll give it a B. Garibaldi finally blows the arc open proper with his discovery, and thinking back to Season 1... who ever thought we'd make it to the Drazi homeworld?

Especially as Iread somewhere that JMS toyed with the idea of having them die of Drafa instead of the Markabs.

From a character point of view, I'm so glad he kept them in. I do genuinely feelsorrow for the Markab populous however... even if they were fictional.

Although it was established that the civilization died out... do you think any clusters of Markabs survived and managed to get to a point where they got the cure? The ISN news story did say that there were probably small groups out there...but that the civilization had effectiveky been destroyed.

So I wonder what the eventual numbers (if any) were.

 

[Truth_Seeker]

Although it was established that the civilization died out... do you think any clusters of Markabs survived and managed to get to a point where they got the cure? The ISN news story did say that there were probably small groups out there...but that the civilization had effectiveky been destroyed.

I wonder why Byron's people didn't consider moving to the Markab Homeworld.It has the same atmosphere and it should be suitable for humans.Sheridan destroyed their jumpgate in "Matters Of Honour" but they could still go there with an appropriate ship capable of opening it's own jump point.

 

[A_M_Swallow]

I wonder why Byron's people didn't consider moving to the Markab Homeworld.It has the same atmosphere and it should be suitable for humans.Sheridan destroyed their jumpgate in "Matters Of Honour" but they could still go there with an appropriate ship capable of opening it's own jump point.

A Whitestar could open a jump point allowing transport ship through.

Byron was into mysticism rather than deep logical thought.

 

[Ranger1]

A Whitestar could open a jump point allowing transport ship through.

Byron was into mysticism rather than deep logical thought.

byron was just a clueless wanker

 

[Galahad]

I wonder why Byron's people didn't consider moving to the Markab Homeworld.It has the same atmosphere and it should be suitable for humans.Sheridan destroyed their jumpgate in "Matters Of Honour" but they could still go there with an appropriate ship capable of opening it's own jump point.

The Markab homeworld would be ideal because not having a jump gate is an excellent idea for a people who want to be left to their own devices.

However... did the jumpgate's destruction also take out the beacon? This might make it difficult to navigate to the location.

 

[Truth_Seeker]

However... did the jumpgate's destruction also take out the beacon? This might make it difficult to navigate to the location.

Good point.The beacon should be a part of the jumpgate and without it it wouldn't be possible for them to go there except maybe if they use some First Ones technology(a White Star or something else).

 

[Galahad]

Well I'm only guessing, but I see the beacon system as being very similar to our road signs.Some tell you where you are going and which turn to take to navigate to a certain area of space, others tell you you have arrived at the system you want to go to. It must work something like that because we know that there has to be something spaced out communicating with a network (they rigged a similar system with starfuries, to rescue the Cortez).

So with this in mind... with the Markab beacon gone, you'd probably still be able to approximate the system's location from the remaining beacons... but tech stealers without access to an expensive ship with jump engines of it's own... wouldn't be able to do their grave robbing so easily.

 

[Estelyn]

I hope, after all this time, that no one minds if I get back to the actual subject of this thread! The main plot element of this episode *had* to go wrong - here we go again, Garibaldi's drinking and trying to hide and deny it. He fails his task, except for that button, and I agree, it's not the kind of conclusive evidence the Alliance needs. Of course, the question is - would he have been able to succeed against the enemy on the Drazi homeworld if he had stayed sober? We'll never know...

I do feel sorry for Sheridan and Delenn at this point - leading the Alliance is a nightmare.

As always, it's pure fun to hear the Londo/G'Kar dialogues. Their bickering is so delightful! It's also fun to see G'Kar's dismayed reaction over his status as a religious icon. Ah, and it's nice to see Ta'Lon again.

I suppose you could chalk Sheridan's rather negative reaction to Franklin's promotion up to the stress he's under and to the feeling of isolation that losing another friend would mean. It's a nice touch to have Dr. Kyle named as his predecessor instead of some nameless character.

The general feeling of the episode is rather depressing, but still, it's a good one.

 

[Lennier's Tears]

I don't have much to say about this one ... Again, I find it hard to watch the Garibaldi relapsing scenes, especially here, where everything goes disastrously wrong all around him.

I agree that the Imperial Guard button seems like flimsy evidence, especially since it comes just after all this other planted evidence, but I suppose that combined with the knowledge that there is a leak up high, one could reasonably conclude that it is indeed probably the Centauri who are responsible. Best to keep Londo out of the loop while they investigate further.

G'Kar as a religious icon is pretty entertaining, and I always enjoy seeing Ta'Lon.

I don't mean to be overly nitpick-ey, but I have some serious questions about Franklin's job offer. I can't be sure, but it looks as though he didn't interview for that position, it was just .. offered to him by the person currently occupying it. Obviously 23rd century Babylon 5 universe Earth isn't anything like 21st century real world Earth, but that seems like a really weird way to run a high level organization. I feel like they should at least pretend to interview a bunch of people and THEN offer the job to the person they wanted all along

 

[Jan]

I
I don't mean to be overly nitpick-ey, but I have some serious questions about Franklin's job offer. I can't be sure, but it looks as though he didn't interview for that position, it was just .. offered to him by the person currently occupying it. Obviously 23rd century Babylon 5 universe Earth isn't anything like 21st century real world Earth, but that seems like a really weird way to run a high level organization. I feel like they should at least pretend to interview a bunch of people and THEN offer the job to the person they wanted all along

Maybe they did - it was back on Earth, after all. Any interview with Franklin would have been via BabCom. And the person leaving is Dr. Kyle, who'd been Franklin's predecessor on the Station. I'm sure his recommendation meant a lot. When it comes to Xenobiology, it would be hard to find anybody more qualified than Franklin, that's for sure. Plus we know from when Franklin arrived in "Soul Hunter" that he was already acquainted with Kyle. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd consulted with each other from time to time.

Jan

 

[Lennier's Tears]

It is indeed entirely possible that all the interviewing and stuff took place "off camera", and that Dr. Franklin has been thinking about this for a long long time, without it being mentioned on the show. It also seems quite plausible that he would get the job if he applied for it, as he seems to have the right qualifications. It's just the way it was phrased that I took issue with "He asked me to take over for him" makes it sound like Dr. Kyle singlehandedly took care of arranging for his own replacement. A retiring person isn't typically on the search committee that seeks to fill their position .. not here and now, anyway. Maybe in the B5 universe that's a common thing.

You could also easily assume that by "he asked me to take over for him", what Dr. Franklin really means is that Dr. Kyle called him a while back to tell him he was retiring and to encourage him to apply for the position, but all that detail didn't fit into the script so well Yea, I'm just being overly nitpick-ey.

 

[Talvitar]

As always, it's pure fun to hear the Londo/G'Kar dialogues. Their bickering is so delightful! It's also fun to see G'Kar's dismayed reaction over his status as a religious icon. Ah, and it's nice to see Ta'Lon again.

I suppose you could chalk Sheridan's rather negative reaction to Franklin's promotion up to the stress he's under and to the feeling of isolation that losing another friend would mean.

Yes to all the above.