Text 9097, 59 rader
Skriven 2006-10-09 05:40:47 av Amy Guskin
Ärende: Re: Who won the Shadow War?
===================================
From: Amy Guskin <aisling@fjordstone.com>

>> On Sun, 8 Oct 2006 09:48:58 -0400, Simo Sakari Aaltonen wrote
(in article <1160315338.173674.202840@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com>):

> Vorlonagent wrote:
> 
>> Roddenberry dreamed up Wesley Crusher too, you know.  And altered scripts to
>> give the kid more thunder than anyone besides Roddenberry, even the actor,
>> could stand.  That's not dreaming big.
> 
> Actually I was referring to what you said about how Joe would never
> write a story about a universe where things get transcendentally ideal.
> Gene Roddenberry tried his best to do just that. The important point to
> realise is that the bigger the dream, the harder it is to give form in
> art or in real life. It is far easier to realise a smaller, less
> ambitious dream.  <<

I'm having issues with this discussion.  I don't quite have my thoughts all 
formulated, but I _do_ want to say this: I don't see what JMS did in B5 as 
smaller or less ambitious than what Gene Rodenberry did with Trek.  It's only 
smaller (or maybe "less satisfying" is a better indicator) if your sole 
criteria is "humanity progresses beyond war."

You could look at it like this: the humans in JMS's universe have a rougher 
road to contend with, because in his universe, they _haven't_ eradicated war, 
political squabbling, etc., so for them to act nobly and do great things and 
bring sentient life into a new age is _more_ of a heroic act.  After all, if 
your universe is perfect, with nobody doing anything bad, everyone in 
agreement about matters of spirituality, etc.,then there's not much of an 
opportunity to show the triumph of the Human/Narn/Minbari/etc. spirit.

One wonders why, in the Trek universe, humanity even bothers to go to the 
stars.  If their own world is so perfect, why don't they just stay there and 
revel in their happy perfection?

You could also argue that JMS's universe is a better example for us.  In the 
Trek universe, humanity has already reached some kind of perfection (by your 
standards).  But that's in the show's offscreen past.  We don't know how they 
got there.  JMS shows us people _exactly like ourselves_ (and I don't know 
about you, but _I_ expect that people in 250 years will still be pretty much 
just like people are now).  He shows us how people _exactly like ourselves_ 
stand up for what they believe is right, how they act bravely in the face of 
corruption and evil deeds and rotten politicians, and how they can walk 
through the fire and come out better for having done it.  To my mind, that's 
a much more useful example for this world that we live in _now_.

You talk about how great and noble and _big_ Roddenberry was to show us that 
vision.  But IMHO he took the easy way out -- he just dropped the perfect 
version of humanity out of the sky, fully realized.  I think that "big" would 
have been showing us the way from _here_ to _there_.  It's all too easy to 
just say, okay, humanity no longer has wars, or religions, or poverty, or any 
other problems.  It's much harder to show how we might have come to be on 
that road from the one we're currently traveling.

Amy

--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
 * Origin: *READ ONLY* rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated (3:640/1010)