Yeah, the whole thing feels more mature and original than the original sum of its parts. It's likely that a lot of this is not just because of having to tapdance around editorial messing, but also because JMS matured as a writer while he worked on it. Either way, the results are wonderful.
tripped over the occasional Byron.
ALAS. (Apparently he also played a Minbari - I noticed the actor's name in the credits for "In the Beginning" as well.)
And ties in to your earlier point that all of these people are adults, even the younger characters like Vir or Lennier [...]. They are already on trajectories.
Yes, that! I am going to have to remember this for future writing purposes - it's not like I've never done this, but thinking about it very specifically as a character arc from one mature trajectory to another is really useful, especially in thinking about using older characters in traditional reinvention narratives (discover superpowers, portal fantasy, etc).
Lennier went straight from contemplative statistics to witnessing a dude cheat at cards with his junk. I'm sorry, I will never be over the fact that I watched that scene on primetime TV
Never over that! And never over the fact that it's one of the most vivid things I remembered about the show after 30 years, either. I still can't believe some of the things they got away with on the show when it came to Centauri sexual apparatus. In fact I think I may need to go rewatch the scene in "Sic Transit Vir" with Vir explaining Centauri sex to Susan. ("Once you get to five ...")
no subject
tripped over the occasional Byron.
ALAS. (Apparently he also played a Minbari - I noticed the actor's name in the credits for "In the Beginning" as well.)
And ties in to your earlier point that all of these people are adults, even the younger characters like Vir or Lennier [...]. They are already on trajectories.
Yes, that! I am going to have to remember this for future writing purposes - it's not like I've never done this, but thinking about it very specifically as a character arc from one mature trajectory to another is really useful, especially in thinking about using older characters in traditional reinvention narratives (discover superpowers, portal fantasy, etc).
Lennier went straight from contemplative statistics to witnessing a dude cheat at cards with his junk. I'm sorry, I will never be over the fact that I watched that scene on primetime TV
Never over that! And never over the fact that it's one of the most vivid things I remembered about the show after 30 years, either. I still can't believe some of the things they got away with on the show when it came to Centauri sexual apparatus. In fact I think I may need to go rewatch the scene in "Sic Transit Vir" with Vir explaining Centauri sex to Susan. ("Once you get to five ...")