It's funny how when someone points out a factual error the offender calls it "nit-picking." If they point out errors they're standing up for the truth. The issue is not that Ms. Cavelos includes details of a story that don't occur in the television episode. That's all fine; that's to be expected in a novel. The problem is correlating Sheridan's words when he gives permission for the technomage vessel to depart, starts twirling the flower and what happens the next instant (p. 318). In the book the very next event is the explosion of the Ondavi. In the television episode, the next event after "permission granted" and flower twirling is Sheridan's repeating Elric's ditty and watching a freighter with technomages moving into the jump gate. Moreover, the movement of the camera from the point of Sheridan's giving permission to viewing the departing ship does not allow the extra time Ms. Cavelos wants the reader to infer into the story. Now, if she had said that the Ondavi departure clearance and explosion all occurred before the C&C scene in the television episode and Sheridan was fond of twirling flowers, then there might be a plausible explanation. But, she doesn't offer that solution, which means we are left to try to fit a series of actions that could take perhaps an hour or more for HAZMAT teams to clear debris and certify the safety of navigation into a few seconds. Sorry, it just doesn't work. Sheridan would not treat a ship explosion as something trivial because he believed only a few technomages were on it and the whole C&C scene would likely have gone differently. If Cavelos had included Sheridan's speech she would have had to resolve that continuity problem.
QMCO5
QMCO5
