EpDis: Day Of The Dead

[vacantlook]

Refresher Links:
Lurker's Guide Main Page for Day Of The Dead
Lurker's Guide Extended Synopsis for Day Of The Dead

[MMarin]

Day of the Dead is one of the rare episodes from the fifth season that I actually love. Sure, I might have wanted to see some different people facing the ghosts from the past (like for instance Sheridan instead of Lennier) but as it is the episode is still so full of tense atmosphere that it deserves an A.

[AnlaShokGrey]

My biggest gripe with the episode is the absurd notion that G'Kar, at that point in his character's arc, would be reticent -- frightened, even! -- to face the spiritual unknown. Bah, humbug!

[Ranger1]

i can buy G'Kar's fear, but what i always wondered was why was Garibaldi visited by dodger, sure if he wasn't with lise then it could be the ghost of a missed opportunity, but i don't buy her as the ghost of missed opportunities in general. though Morden visiting Ranger Lennier was genius, because it is testament to his reasons for joining the honoured ranks of the anla'shak, he joined to try and escape his fate as an also ran in Delenn's life and as a result tried to kill Sheridan, whether or not he went back is unimportant, it gets an A all the way, the only episode in the Byron string to get one from me.

[KoshN]

i can buy G'Kar's fear, but what i always wondered was why was Garibaldi visited by dodger, sure if he wasn't with lise then it could be the ghost of a missed opportunity, but i don't buy her as the ghost of missed opportunities in general.

I get the feeling that Dodger wanted to see Garibaldi, i.e. that the impetus for that visit was from Dodger's end of things.

[GKarsEye]

I get the feeling that Dodger wanted to see Garibaldi, i.e. that the impetus for that visit was from Dodger's end of things.

I can't imagine (assuming a dead spirit can even exist and want to and is able to visit a living person) that she'd so very much want to hang out with some guy she met once who just didn't want to fuck her. Besides, the theme of the episode was that the people were visited by those who they needed to see.

I guess Garibaldi needed Dodger as someone who could offer him a bit of companionship that wasn't burdened with judgement and expectations. As much as Lise and Franklin and everybody around him cares about him, it's conditional and accompanied with demands: don't drink, do your job, etc. Dodger just wants to hang out and have a little fun. That's a nice feeling.

[KoshN]

My biggest gripe with the episode is the absurd notion that G'Kar, at that point in his character's arc, would be reticent -- frightened, even! -- to face the spiritual unknown. Bah, humbug!

Eh, G'Kar was probably reacting based upon what he'd heard as a child, about the Brakiri Day of the Dead. Also, there are probably a few people in G'Kar's pre-enlightenment past, that he'd rather avoid. A bit of reflexive apprehension is understandable, even for 2262 G'Kar.

[Joseph DeMartino]

My biggest gripe with the episode is the absurd notion that G'Kar, at that point in his character's arc, would be reticent -- frightened, even! -- to face the spiritual unknown. Bah, humbug!

I took G'Kar's reaction to be more like Gandalf's rejection of the Ring. The Barkiri are messing around with powerful forces that they little understand (as far as G'Kar can tell) and which have tremendous potential for evil. I think he wants to stay away from it all precisely because at this point in his spiritual journey (where his wisdom has already made him the wong kind of religious figure) he fears that he might be able to tap into that power himself and he has no idea if he would control it or it him. There's also the question of lying or false spirits. If he meets G'Quon will it be the real one, a fake or some figment of his own imagination and ego dressed up as G'Quon to tell G'Kar what he wants to hear. And how will his followers react? No one will believe him if he says he has no vistor, they'll just keep badgering him until he tells them. And how much worse will things get for him if word gets out that G'Quon personally visited G'Kar from the Great Beyond.

I think there are all sorts of reasons besides cowardice that G'Kar might fear the very notion of what is about to happen and not only avoid it himself, but counsel Lochley against allowing it and others from participating.

A lot of people I know of widely varying spiritual beliefs avoid things like Ouija boards on the purely prudential grounds that if you believe in spirits you don't want to open an unctrolled door to whoever might be wandering around out there. It isn't so much fear as humility that suggests there might be things in the universe that we can't handle and are better left un-messed-with. G'Kar's attitude towards the Dead is not unlike his attitude towards the Walkers at Sigma 927.

Regards,

Joe

[Shaal Mayan]

I just love this episode from season five there are very few that get an AAA .As for G'kar's reaction towards the dead was very realistic in that even G'kar is afraid or doesn't want to open a pandora's box if you will in the realm of something unknown.And maybe best left untouched.

[puzzle]

It was a good episode, and a definite speculation starter.

I only found it unrealistic that nobody external (a third party, a curious bystander) showed up to record, measure, watch, reverse-engineer and analyse the event.

If it's a major Brakiri festival, and produces majorly unexplainable effects, I'm sure someone curious, or just hungry for technology, would have shown up and tried, by all peaceful means, to record, bug and log everything.

You can obviously tell that if I knew the background, I would try to.

However, I recognize that from a storytelling perspective, telling of the experiences of an oveteched analyst determined to solve the puzzle, might be dry and not so interesting, compared to direct subjective experiences of our favourite characters.