Tolkien Quoted in Babylon 5

Derek Broughton wrote:
> Öjevind got me rewatching season 4, and a great example of the Tolkien
> quoting shows up in the episode "Into the Fire" (I think - it might have
> been the one before: "The Long Night").
>
> Lorien (the first of the First Ones) and Ivanova are searching for the other
> First Ones, and discussing his immortality. Lorien says something to the
> effect that our mortality (and the consequences of it) is probably our
> greatest gift. Very much like Eru's gift to Men.
>
> I was travelling a lot when B5 originally aired and missed quite a few
> episodes. How on earth did Lyta get gills (and I didn't even realize they
> were gills until my wife explained - I was wondering (a) what the scars
> were on her neck, and why they weren't always apparent; and (b) how come
> she didn't need to wear her mask in the Vorlon's quarters?

Towards the end of season 2 Lyta returns to B5 to reveal that there is a
traitor on the station (which turns out to be Talia). At the end of the
episode Lyta leaves the station with the intention of entering Vorlon
space. She returns early in season 3, having successfully made contact
with the Vorlons, and she becomes Kosh's attache. Steven gives her a
medical on her return, and discovers that various minor problems that
her body previously exhibited had completely disappeared, so that she is
in perfect health. It later becomes clear that the Vorlon's modified her
to improve her telepathic abilities, and clearly also made physiological
improvements, one of which was her gills which allows her to breath the
Vorlon atmosphere. I was never entirely clear why they were necessary,
unless it was that Kosh could not pass through the respirator, and
needed a clear path from Lyta to his encounter suite.

Jamie
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>> How on earth did Lyta get gills

It occurs to me that the correct answer was that she didn't (get them on
Earth, that is - bad choice of words!).

Thanks Jamie.
--
derek
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Derek Broughton wrote:
>>> How on earth did Lyta get gills
>
> It occurs to me that the correct answer was that she didn't (get them on
> Earth, that is - bad choice of words!).
>
> Thanks Jamie.

No problem

Jamie: officially geeky
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Derek Broughton wrote:
> Öjevind got me rewatching season 4, and a great example of the Tolkien
> quoting shows up in the episode "Into the Fire" (I think - it might have
> been the one before: "The Long Night").

Actually, that particular scene was scripted and shot for one and then
moved to the other because one episode was running long and the other
was running short.

> Lorien (the first of the First Ones) and Ivanova are searching for the other
> First Ones, and discussing his immortality. Lorien says something to the
> effect that our mortality (and the consequences of it) is probably our
> greatest gift. Very much like Eru's gift to Men.

> I was travelling a lot when B5 originally aired and missed quite a few
> episodes. How on earth did Lyta get gills (and I didn't even realize they
> were gills until my wife explained - I was wondering (a) what the scars
> were on her neck, and why they weren't always apparent; and (b) how come
> she didn't need to wear her mask in the Vorlon's quarters?

In "Passing Through Gethsemane" (episode 3.4) she returns to B5 aboard
Ambassador Kosh's ship, and explains that she has visited the Vorlon
homeworld (the first human known to have done so). We first see the
gills in that episode.

--
John W. Kennedy
"You can, if you wish, class all science-fiction together; but it is
about as perceptive as classing the works of Ballantyne, Conrad and W.
W. Jacobs together as the 'sea-story' and then criticizing _that_."
-- C. S. Lewis. "An Experiment in Criticism"
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