Observations While Re-Watching the Series

[Lith]

Last month my father decided it was time to finally watch all those DVDs we had sitting around, and we ultra-marathoned the series. Well, my attention span and writing schedule didn't let me watch all of them, but I did watch probably a third of them.

I haven't watched them since Season 5 originally ended, so a long time now. And it was an interesting and not wholly satisfying experience.

In the intervening time, I've studied a lot of writing, among other things. But what surprised me when I watched it, was how many writing devices JMS used that I picked up on. I could tell when there was infodump, I could tell when characters were telling each other things they already knew. I could tell that it was television, in that these people are in charge of an entire city, they don't have the time to be personally involved and investigating everything. I could also tell when the author took over for the characters and stuck things in their mouth, just because it was interesting to him or made some deep point, making all characters sound a little bit like each other.

I was also impressed (or rather, re-impressed) with just how much philosophizing there was in the show. Dang, it's talky!

But for all that, I still think the series is remarkable. JMS's tools as a writer may be more limited than others, but he does more with them.

[icundell]

Recently did similar and, for all its many, many faults and flaws (not least that JMS can't write dialogue to save his life) I still have an utterly irrational fondness for it.

I think in the end what sells it (apart from the core cast routinely knocking it out of the park in the face of the aforementioned JMS dialogue) is that I could, more or less, believe in the political background in a way that I was never able to suspend disbelief for Star Trek (even after it tried to re-invent itself for more cynical times).

Plus, Shadows: Coolest. Spaceships. Ever. So I'm shallow. Deal with it.

Besides:
"I believe that when we leave a place a part of it goes with us and part of us remains. Go anywhere in these halls, when it is quiet and just listen. After a while you will hear the echoes of all of our conversations, every thought and word we've exchanged. Long after we are gone, our voices will linger in these walls for as long as this place remains. But I will admit that the part of me that is going will very much miss the part of you that is staying."

Love it.

[Sire Of Dragons]

I greatly miss this show. I liked it better than any other sci-fi and I never got to see them all.