Question about the Drakh.........?

[Bens007]

Im new here & am hoping you die-hard B5 fans will know the answer to a question that's been bugging me for years;

Its about the Drakh. The 1st time we see the Drakh is on the whitestar where they make 1st contact with the Mimbari. The Drakh who comes aboard seems to move in a different space/time to us & no-one is able to fully focus on it. I thought this was a great idea for a species. However the next time we see the Drakh & every other time after that they look completely different & move like everyone else does. I wondered if the 1st one we saw was wearing a weird encounter suit or if the B5 producers changed the way they look to make it easier to shoot future episodes.

Thanks

Ben

 

[Bens007]

Something funny regarding this topic;

I posted this topic as written above on a B5 forum only a few moments ago. I read through the other members posts to see what they usually talk about & was suprised to find that they only seemed to talk about a young USA pop group & which band members they fancy the most. Then I saw an album cover for the band & the band name being B5!
So ive registered with a USA boy-band fan club & asked its members why the Drakh looked dfferent when they 1st encountered the Mimbari on the Whitestar!

I laughed out loud when i realised my mistake!

 

[Elric]

Hi

Welcome to B5TV.com IIRC, JMS did not like the look of the Drakh makeup so they basically tried to blur it to disguise how bad it looked. I guess it became too expensive to do this with all the Drakh later on so they just put up with the way they looked (although the newer look was much better so it didn't need to be blurred).

I think as well that the Drakh with more facial features were meant to be nore of a leader type, whilst the others were the soldiers etc. Well, that's how I like to think of it anyway

 

[KoshN]

In "Lines of Communication" that Drakh was the Drakh Emissary (a diplomat/spy?), and the blurring effect was used there and only there. I couldn't find any mention by JMS on rastb5m or jmsnews where he said he did not like the look and added the blurring effect to make it look better. Personally, I liked the blurring effect. Also notice that he seemed to have an interference effect on the Whitestar's power systems (e.g. lighting) as he walks through the ship. Could have been a watered down version of Shadow Sentient phasing effects. Maybe the Drakh just couldn't get it quite right (Turn the phasing either fully on or off.), or they did it part way (not entirely visible or invisible) to intimidate/impress the Minbari.

Elsewhere in B5 and Crusade, we see two other kinds of Drakh, the leader (e.g. Shiv'kala on Centauri Prime, the Drakh captain in Crusade's "War Zone" and "Each Night I Dream of Home"), and the Drakh footsoldiers in "War Zone" (bone white skeletal masks with glowing red eyes).

In fact, if you do a search on rastb5m or jmsnews, for "Drakh", you don't find much at all (only 3 posts), and none mention him disliking the Drakh Emissary's look.

 

[Jade Jaguar]

In "Lines of Communication" that Drakh was the Drakh Emissary (a diplomat/spy?), and the blurring effect was used there and only there. I couldn't find any mention by JMS on rastb5m or jmsnews where he said he did not like the look and added the blurring effect to make it look better. Personally, I liked the blurring effect. Also notice that he seemed to have an interference effect on the Whitestar's power systems (e.g. lighting) as he walks through the ship. Could have been a watered down version of Shadow Sentient phasing effects. Maybe the Drakh just couldn't get it quite right (Turn the phasing either fully on or off.), or they did it part way (not entirely visible or invisible) to intimidate/impress the Minbari.
.

I know I have read here more than once that the blurring was done because JMS was unhappy with the look of the costume, but I have no links to offer.

I too liked the blurring effect, and was disappointed when it was not continued. I also thought of the Shadows' phasing effect. I assumed that the Drakh were phasing in enough to be visible, but not tangible, and therefore vulnerable. Obviously, they did want to be seen, unlike the Shadows.

 

[KoshN]

I know I have read here more than once that the blurring was done because JMS was unhappy with the look of the costume, but I have no links to offer.

Maybe someone should ask JMS on rastb5m. People had to have gotten the idea that he didn't like the costume from somewhere. Maybe he said it at a con.

 

[vacantlook]

I join you two in liking the blurring effect. I was quite disappointed to never see it again.

 

[Jan]

In fact, if you do a search on rastb5m or jmsnews, for "Drakh", you don't find much at all (only 3 posts), and none mention him disliking the Drakh Emissary's look.

Found it in the Killick Fourth Season guide:

"The Drakh emissary is described in the script as a servant of darkness, who causes lights to dim as it nears them as if sucking the life and light out of everything it passes. In the episode, an effect was added in postproduction that turned it into a blurred, indisticnt figure. "I had everything darken when he comes near it because I was so burned with the 'Infection' situation and the 'Grey 17' thing. " explains Joe Straczynski. "I said, 'I don't want to do another obvious guy in a rubber suit so let's keep this dark and shadowy.' Of course, it was shot nice and bright, and walso the paint job on the actual face wasn't what I wanted it to be--it was the wrong color, and it ended up looking like amask, instead of looking like a breather unit. I thought, 'well, look, thse guys worked for the Shadows, they would have some access to Shadow technology, and we know the Shadows can phase in and out of appearance. Why can we not make the logical extension that they have adaped a system which keeps them blurry a little bit?' They really can't be seen clearly and thus, become more ominous and, thus, more frightening to the average passerby."

Jan

 

[KoshN]

Thanks, Jan. To me, the Drakh Emissary costume+ effect worked. It most definitely didn't look like a guy in a rubber suit.

 

[vacantlook]

Pointedly, the skullfaces looked more like guys in rubber suits in Crusade when they didn't have the blur effect used.

 

[KoshN]

Pointedly, the skullfaces looked more like guys in rubber suits in Crusade when they didn't have the blur effect used.

Yes, but those were 100% CGI*, with bone white skullmasks and BIG glowing red eyes, not a guy in a costume. The Drakh Emissary's face was not bone white (IIRC, it was greenish-grey.), and the eyes although BIG, were dark, not glowing red.

Man, I wish we could redo CRUSADE, and make it all right, fixing these annoying problems.


OOPS!!! Forgot about the Drakh footsoldiers IN the ship. The white skullface guys weren't ALL CGI.

 

[vacantlook]

Yeah, I didn't think all of them were CGI, though some were obviously so. Either way, the "Lines of Communication" "emissary" was far better than any of the Crusade ones, and I liked the "emissary" better than the actual Drakh. For me, the actual Drakh were just another actor in a face mask, but the emissary, specifically because of the blurring effect, were cool and new and not something I expected.

 

[KoshN]

Yeah, I didn't think all of them were CGI, though some were obviously so.

At first I only remembered the ones from War Zone that:

• Shot down Jensen when he stupidly did a tight turn in the atmospheric shuttle right over top of the Drakh with those shoulder mounted beam weapons.
• Trace saw in the binoculars.
• Gideon's Thunderbolt Starfuries blew away walking along the cliff face and not even getting off a shot at the Starfuries.

Either way, the "Lines of Communication" "emissary" was far better than any of the Crusade ones, and I liked the "emissary" better than the actual Drakh. For me, the actual Drakh were just another actor in a face mask, but the emissary, specifically because of the blurring effect, were cool and new and not something I expected.

The blurring effect was cool.