I’ve been very much enjoying reading your comments, everyone; thanks so much for your interest and support. According to my stats, there are currently about 1,100 unique visitors who read this blog.
There seems to be a bit of confusion about what I consider a spoiler…that’s my fault, since I do tend to ask a ton of questions throughout my reports, so I thought I’d clarify here.
Consider this blog as my virtual living room, where I’m sitting on the couch watching B5 episodes on our television set. You’re all welcome to join me if you’re interested (here, have some popcorn), but I’d very much appreciate you keeping in mind that I’m watching this series for the first time.
So suppose I turn to you after an episode and say, “Oh! I bet Londo’s a Vulcan.”
Here are examples of responses I’m hoping to avoid (even if not all are actual spoilers):
- “Yes, you’re right! Londo IS a Vulcan.”
- “Hm, interesting theory about Londo. You’re a good guesser. (wink)”
- “Heh, you’ll find out next episode!”
- “Oh, fascinating guess. I’m not going to say why, but just remember what you said when you start watching next season.”
I also appreciate the offer of speculation/theories from newsgroup archives etc. when the series was first being aired, but I think I’d rather wait for that sort of thing until my second viewing of the series (and I can already tell that I’ll want to watch the series more than once.)
If I was watching the series back when it was being aired for the first time, I’d be avoiding the message boards as well.
Info I -am- especially interested in finding out and always appreciate:
- “Did you notice William Shatner’s cameo halfway through the episode?”
- “Did you recognize Delenn as the actress who played Rousseau in Lost?”
- “The Londo bit with The Hokey Pokey spawned a fannish bumper sticker ‘What if the Hokey Pokey is really what it is all about’.”
Having said all that, however, I’m NOT going to throw a fit if I accidentally come across spoilers, and I don’t want flamewars starting if someone inadvertently posts a spoiler.
It’s my fault for not watching the series when it first came out, after all, and I’ve had more than ample time to watch it since then.
However, I’m going to do what I can to avoid spoilers in this blog, and greatly appreciate your interest and support meanwhile. Going back to the living room analogy…it’s much more fun for me to watch the series WITH friends than by myself. Even if one of my friends accidentally lets a spoiler slip every once in a while. 
If you have further questions about what I would/wouldn’t consider a spoilers, feel free to post below.
[For those who comment below: As the title of my blog indicates, I'm watching B5 for the very first time so PLEASE refrain from posting plot/character spoilers about upcoming episodes (even hints), or including links to pages with spoilers (unless you warn readers that they contain spoilers). Thanks so much! - Debbie]
10 comments ↓
Rosebud was his Starfury.
The guy who played the Psi Corp member, Mr. Grey, in “Eyes” is Jeffrey Combs. He played Weyoun in Star Trek Deep Space Nine (the Vorta, 2nd in command of the Dominion forces in the Alpha Quadrant).
Dave: I don’t get the full reference, but I can imagine.
Erasure: Thanks, I didn’t know that!
Jeffrey Combs was also an Andorian on Enterprise. And I think he was the annoying/creepy detective in The Frighteners (which, if you haven’t seen it, is great pre-LOTR Peter Jackson).
“Rosebud was his sled” is the canonical spoiler — if you don’t know which movie it’s from, I’m not telling! So Dave is just being silly up there
And the Starfury is the standard Earthforce space fighter
And Jeffrey Combs also played Brunt, the Ferengi who kept hounding Quark. And probably about seventeen other roles as well. Busy chap.
I’m curious about the “William Shatner’s cameo” example. Did you just throw that in to confuse us, or was there one in season one of B5 that I missed?
She’s just giving an example. The Shat never appeared in B5.
JMS always had this attitude about “spoilers” - particularly ones in-story, or flash forwards to the future:
People would sometimes complain about how he’d let slip inside an episode, in one way or another, how the Babylon 5 story would end, but his counter was that maybe they knew (or thought they knew) what the end was, but they still didn’t know how or why. He always enjoyed the exercise of laying all his cards on the table, and then still managing to surprise the audience.
That being said, there’s in-story spoilers and out-of-story spoilers , and I understand entirely the difference, so don’t worry.
Jeffrey Combs also plays a recurring character in “The 4400″, with Summer Glau (formerly Firefly, now Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles).
Terence said,
“People would sometimes complain about how he’d let slip inside an episode, in one way or another, how the Babylon 5 story would end, but his counter was that maybe they knew (or thought they knew) what the end was, but they still didn’t know how or why. He always enjoyed the exercise of laying all his cards on the table, and then still managing to surprise the audience.”
I agree B5 did that really brilliantly- some of the best moments on the show are the breath-catching moments where suddenly mysterious things make sense or when your perceptions get tipped on their end. At present I find “Lost” is doing that in fascinating, intriguing and maddening ways, as well. And again, as with B5, some people are complaining about it bitterly, but I think it really does work well. I just hope “Lost” ends up coming together in as satisfying a way as B5 did.
Debbie, I notice you’re using the Greek mirror for the Lurker’s guide. Those pages are not up to date, and many of them have been taken down. The link should properly go to http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html which is the original and most up-to-date site. Just FYI.