ALT.SF4M

  B5 5/31

   • j********o@***.com
     01/06/1997 00:00:000 UTC

     Not so bad, but annoying. The enemy comander is a nasty, snarly kind of

     guy who probably has bad breath. The trecherous Exec on Sheridan's pal

     ("Mac")'s ship is sneaky. Can't decent people come to diametrically

     opposite conclusions? War is Hell: all soldiers kill, and their

     justifications for killing are personal and occupy an unmarked
     continuum.

     I want to see _Sheridan_ kill thousands of civilians because he feels
     it's

     necessary. I want to see him do it and be correct in his premise and
     also

     see when he's wrong in his premise and the deaths were needless. All I

     ask for is some sophistication and a recognition of the tragedy of war

     (they had elements of this a long time ago). Not every episode needs to

     be ambiguous, but war is messy and inefficient.

     Here's how I'd have done this episode: the rebels attack, and Mac
     refuses

     Sheridan's plea with a promise to force Clarke to obey the election laws

     and step down at the end of his lawful term, adding a dire warning about

     the impossibility of restoring democracy to a barracks government like

     that Sheridan would have to impose to defeat Clarke. "When there's

     trouble, how will you resist using these pretty ships of yours again?

     What is Clarke wins the vote? After the plebiscite, how long before the

     next 'State of Emergency?' How can you make the people think you're

     legitimate with all these aliens behind you?" Once Mac's ship is
     slagged,

     the commander of the Hercules offers to have his whole fleet join the

     rebels in exchange for amnesty for his crew's war crimes. Sheridan is

     forced to accede (the writers would never do this: the honestly think

     that self-righteousness can overcome anything) and discovers that his
     new

     ally is indeed an unctious opportunist with no loyalty to anything, who

     pronouces that it's the old timers, the decent officers, who will be
     most

     loyal to the president, and the slime like him will be only too happy to

     join the winning side! The British Ranger guy then finds out that the

     Rangers may have been smuggling arms (under his orders) aboard some of
     the

     ships: not enough to really justify their destruction, maybe... The

     Ranger keeps this bit of information to himself.

     The other obvious complaint is that, with these ships, which can take on

     Shadow ships, Earth doesn't stand a chance: why even bring Starfuries?

     Send ten Whitestars and they'de defeat the fleet as fast as they could

     travel! They established that Earth never discovered how to get a target

     lock on a Mimbari ship, so that alone would have made the victory

     effortless.

     At least it's not in repeat mode, yet!

     Gorno

     p.s. - got a CD ROM drive for my PC finally. Getting somewhat addicted
     to

     this Trek game I treated myself to: haven't played a computer game in

     ages; this sort makes you think oddly about daily life, though, as if
     you

     can just do things over if you screw them up. I've got the soundtrack

     buzzing in my head!

       • g*****o@****.net
         02/06/1997 00:00:000 UTC

         JohnGorno (j********o@***.com) wrote:

         : The other obvious complaint is that, with these ships, which can
         take on

         : Shadow ships, Earth doesn't stand a chance: why even bring
         Starfuries?

         : Send ten Whitestars and they'de defeat the fleet as fast as they
         could

         : travel! They established that Earth never discovered how to get a
         target

         : lock on a Mimbari ship, so that alone would have made the victory

         : effortless.

         Hell, the Mimbari already defeated the Earth's space Navy once
         before

         without any effort, they should do it again. Ten Whitestars should
         clean

         up Earth's wimpy space fleet. But I got a feeling that the writers
         have

         made the Whitestars a lot weaker lately. A small fleet of Whitestars
         were

         nearly destroyed when they made first contact with the Legacy race
         which

         the Shadows left behind. Great manuver when they came back from
         running

         away from the new race and kicked their tails. I liked how they
         overshot

         the alien's jumpship and OJed it.

         --Glen