MovieChat Forums > Babylon 5 (1993) Discussion > Shots At Star Trek

Shots At Star Trek

posted 8 years ago by Jetfire1959
5 replies | jump to latest

In the original run, I didn't spot them.

"Acts Of Sacrifice" takes a shot at the Prime Directive.
"There All The Honor Lies" takes a shot at Trek Merchandising.

The louder paranormal "debunkers" argue,the more terrified they are it's all true.

[–] alpha128 8 years ago

"There All The Honor Lies" takes a shot at Trek Merchandising. - Jetfire1959

Yes, that one was rather blatant. JMS had this to say about it at the time:

So after I'd read Peter's script, and decided to go with it, he asked about Ivanova's line, "This isn't some kind of Deep Space franchise, this place is ABOUT something."

"Are you really going to use that?" he asked.

"Absolutely," I said. "It's fall-down funny."

Long pause. "You people really ARE dangerous over there, aren't you?"
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/036.html#JS

But on the other hand, in "Point of No Return", the part of Lady Morella was played by Majel Barrett. So the widow of Emperor Turhan was played by the widow of Star Trek (1966) creator Gene Roddenberry, and Lady Morella's dialogue about the greatness of her late husband was intended to apply to the real world as well.

Was Morella's speech about greatness intended as a tribute to Gene Roddenberry?
There's probably a fair amount there that could apply to Gene, yes... http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/053.html#JS

[–] Jetfire1959 8 years ago

Wow. I should turn in my landing party equipment. I've been a Trekker since the 60's. I had forgotten that Majel played that part. I'm ashamed to say I had no clue it was a tribute to Gene.

OT (a bit)I met her at a con I was working in the 90's. We had a brief but pleasant talk about the animated series.

The louder paranormal "debunkers" argue,the more terrified they are it's all true.

[–] alpha128 8 years ago

Wow. I should turn in my landing party equipment. I've been a Trekker since the 60's. I had forgotten that Majel played that part. I'm ashamed to say I had no clue it was a tribute to Gene. - Jetfire1959

That was the beauty of JMS' script - it was designed to work on multiple levels. As he wrote at the time:

If a word comes out of a character's mouth, it's usually mine. The bit about greatness was one of them; had a number of different subtexts going on behind it. - JMS

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/053.html#JS

[–] kerryedavis 8 years ago

I'm not sure how you could miss that. To me at least, she seemed very similar to her Lwaxana Troi character from TNG and DS9.

[–] Jetfire1959 8 years ago

I didn't say I missed it. I said I had forgotten. Until recently, I had not seen any B5 reruns at all. I only saw the ep once during its initial broadcast..

The louder paranormal "debunkers" argue,the more terrified they are it's all true.