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Analysis: Weaving Together the Events of "War Zone" and "Racing the Night"...

Leto II

Regular
Analysis: Weaving Together the Events of \"War Zone\" and \"Racing the Night\"...

Okay, I know that a LOT of you out there are wondering just how the two separate, distinct "beginnings" to Gideon's mission as presented on "Crusade" could intertwine and co-exist. The answer is: They can, and quite interestingly, at that. JMS knew what he was doing when he went back and wrote the _new_ first episode taking place immediately after "B5: A Call to Arms," and there are no real contradictions.

Here is how it all falls together:

1. First, of course, is the Drakh attack upon the Earth and the subsequent commissioning of the _Excalibur_ for the cure-finding mission. During the aftermath, Captain Gideon's _Explorer_-class ship emerges from hyperspace at Earth, a near-mutiny is avoided, and they are ordered to set course for Mars.

2. Upon arriving at Mars, Gideon goes to meet with the Senator there, and is told of the mission and how much they would like for him to be involved as its commander, per Sheridan's recommendation. We then segue to the events transpiring near and on Ceti 4, with the EA destroyer being annihilated and Eilerson's shuttle man being blasted out of the sky.

3. At this juncture, it should become apparent that this is where the sequence taking place on Babylon 5 with Gideon being given the _Excalibur_ and placing the wager with the alien ambasadors occurs. Between the two act-breaks, Gideon goes from Mars to striding onto the bridge of the ship, and is already quite familiar with her; this would, of course, logically necessitate the placement of the scene where he lays eyes on her for the first time in between these two scenes in "War Zone." Some familiarization would have to occur with the ship's systems and whatnot in the interrim period. It seems that a goodly amount of time should be placed between the scene where the captain meets with the Senator and then the crash of the Drakh ship. Also note that--by coincidence or otherwise--we never even see what Gideon's uniform looks like in the flashback sequence, despite the earlier filming of "Racing the Night." Quite fortuitous, that.

4. So now, in command of the _Excalibur_, Captain Gideon orders a course back to Mars from Babylon 5, and meets with Lt. Matheson and Dr. Chambers and Dureena there. The "Racing the Night" scenes also flow seamlessly into continuity here when one watches the scene where Dureena and Gideon are on their way up to the ship: He describes her in intricate detail (the ship, not Dureena), and, of course, she is already quite familiar with her (Dureena and the ship, respectively), when she says something along the lines of, "It'll do."

5. Now, of course, they are en route to the testing range when they pick up the distress signal from he IPX expedition on Ceti 4...and events now proceed normally.

As one can tell, the events of "War Zone" span a slightly longer period of time than is apparent before one views "Racing the Night" for the very first time...or rather, if one caught the series during the original TNT run. So, hopefully this little illustration (so to speak) will assist you in pieceing together the chronology of events in a fairly linear fashion.

Any thoughts? Discuss 'em here!

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[This message has been edited by Leto II (edited April 29, 2001).]
 
Re: Analysis: Weaving Together the Events of \"War Zone\" and \"Racing the Night\"...

Its also funny that Dr Chambers was at the helm of the excalibur in A Call to Arms :)

But i agree that A Call to Arms flows to War Zone and then flows into Racing the Night perfectly. I dont mind War Zone so much if you watch all 3 in a row as they are supposed to be

Capt

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DS9 and B5. Who would have thought 2 of my fav shows would take place on stations in the middle of nowhere :)
 
Re: Analysis: Weaving Together the Events of \"War Zone\" and \"Racing the Night\"...

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by CaptDS9E:
Its also funny that Dr Chambers was at the helm of the excalibur in A Call to Arms :)


<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hey Dr Chambers was not at the helm of the excalibur in A call to Arms , it is however played by the same actress Marjean Holden
smile.gif




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Deviot
Lincbot@yahoo.com.au
 
Re: Analysis: Weaving Together the Events of \"War Zone\" and \"Racing the Night\"...

Your timeline is a good explanation, but still atleast one inconcistency remains:

In WZ Eilerson joins the crew when they meet him at Ceti 4. In RtN Gideon says Eilerson was hired very differently: they told IPX they needed a crack archeologist and linguist, so IPX send them Eilerson. Of course, he could just be making a joke or sth. Yeah, that's it...

vakie

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Re: Analysis: Weaving Together the Events of \"War Zone\" and \"Racing the Night\"...

Sorry but no matter what I hate War Zone and would rather have Racing the Night as the tried and true first ep.

Just my preference, but War Zone is redundant, exposition heavy and a piece of TNT shite.

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Re: Analysis: Weaving Together the Events of \"War Zone\" and \"Racing the Night\"...

no matter anyones opinion of War Zone it was In my opinion the story is not as bad as everyone said it was(but those drach costumes need some serious CGI enhancement) since it explains a lot of things such as the intro, how galen and dureena got involved with gideon on the excalibur and so on. Not to mention some very funny quotes from gideon :)

capt

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DS9 and B5. Who would have thought 2 of my fav shows would take place on stations in the middle of nowhere :)
 
Re: Analysis: Weaving Together the Events of \"War Zone\" and \"Racing the Night\"...

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Leto II:
Also note that--by coincidence or otherwise--we never even see what Gideon's uniform looks like in the flashback sequence, despite the earlier filming of "Racing the Night."<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Watch again. You clearly see a reflection of him wearing a standard blue EF uniform.
 
Re: Analysis: Weaving Together the Events of \"War Zone\" and \"Racing the Night\"...

Ah. OK, then...guess I missed that. Glad for the uniform non-discrepancies, at least.

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Re: Analysis: Weaving Together the Events of \"War Zone\" and \"Racing the Night\"...

I actually missed Warzone this time around (I am SOOOOOOOOOO sad....NOT), but the whole Dureena thing just does not fit with Call to Arms. If she was that instrumental to stopping the planet killer, there is no way Sheridan would have left her in the predicament she was in in Warzone. That to me was one of the most ridiculous aspects of the episode and really showed how TNT was trying to eliminate B5 influences from Crusade. If the series gets revived, and I really hope it does, I hope they scrap Warzone completely. They can fill in backstory of crew meetings in other eps and spend more time with each one then.

SmG

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The Truth IS.....

OUT of fashion.
 
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