Babylon 5 vs. Deep Space Nine-"Infection" vs. "Nagus"
B5 S1 E4 Infection (18 Feb 94) v DS9 S1E11 Nagus (21 Mar 93)
-Ikarrian infections recalls in various ways the Star Trek: Next Generation antagonists the Borg, the role of evil AI in the original Trek (“Return of the Archons” [1967] & “Ultimate Computer” [1968] are 2 of the most prominent), the Phalanx in X-Men comics (they’re first big story Phalanx Covenant came out a few months after this episode, the Black Panther antagonist Klaw (debuted 1966), & the Terminator (1st 2 films came out in 1984 & 1991)
-DC Comics published an 11-issue B5 comic series (1994-95). The first arc, Price of Peace, was published in a trade paperback, & we will probably cover it on the show between S1 & 2 of B5. The second arc, Shadows Past & Present, explores the backstory of how Garibaldi & Sinclair meet. It isn’t good, folks. In 1998 DC republished a 3-issue B5 mini called In Valen’s Name, which takes place in B5 S4, we might cover that. DC’s interest in B5 comics may have stemmed from its long swath of publishing Trek comics (1984-96)
-David McCallum was one of the leads of the excellent English series Sapphire & Steel (1979-82). The other 2 charismatic characters from Sapphire & Steel, beside the leads, were Lead & Silver. The finale of Sapphire & Steel influenced Twin Peaks Season 3: The Return (2017)
-Mark Fisher, one of our great theorists & horror media critics, writes about Sapphire & Steel in his Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures (2014), although his posthumous The Weird & the Eerie (2017) is also relevant.
-The leather aesthetic was big in the first X-Men film trilogy (2000-6) & Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run (2001-4)
-Quark’s reception of a petitioner is an homage to the opening scene of The Godfather (1972)
-Ironic given his portrayal of a capitalist patriarch, Wallace Shawn is also a socialist playwright & his monologue play The Fever (1990) is a particularly harsh presentation. The podcast Proles of the Round Table has an excellent version of the play.
-Scenes of learning to read in primary or secondary languages or awakening to the power of the written word are an important trope of Afro-American literature, for example in Frederick Douglass & Richard Wright autobiographies Octavia Butler Dawn (1987) sf novel
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