Text 17008, 73 rader
Skriven 2007-08-10 15:25:16 av Shabaz (3485.babylon5)
  Kommentar till text 16998 av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated (3475.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: ATTN JMS: How did you come up with Lochley's story?
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On Aug 10, 2:11 pm, Gregory Weston <u...@splook.com> wrote:
> In article <1186428953.545514.186...@e9g2000prf.googlegroups.com>,
>
> I've had trouble with the underlying question since it popped up in 'Is
> there any reasonable way to interpret "Over Here" without accpeting the
> existence of god, devil and divine miracles?'.
>
> Given all the things we've been asked to accept as possible over the
> years of Babylon 5 content, it seems only a small stretch to add into
> that universe an ancient race that is capable of hitching a ride in the
> brains of lesser, but still technological, creatures and occasionally
> exerting its will. You'd probably end up assuming that those beings are
> the origin of much human mythology without having to accept that they
> manifest true divinity. After that, the athiests and the theists are
> just arguing about terminology.

Yeah. If we take the definition of what supernatural is, it's that
which isn't part of the natural world. But over the years the B5
universe has told us at least some of the things the demon did were
possible in the natural world. To do a quick summation:

1) Inhabiting another person. We've seen the Vorlons do this on
multiple occasions, without it ever being implied that it is
supernatural in nature. Probably beyond the understanding of the
natural world of most of the non-First Ones, but not necessarily
outside of the natural world.

2) We see him overhearing Lochley and the Priest. This is very
explicitly possible and to some extent understood in the B5 universe;
it's telepathy. It's with physical barriers in between and without a
direct line of sight, so it would have to be a pretty strong telepath,
but the act of reading minds has been established. And Kosh managed to
get a telepathic link going with various people despite such barriers,
including Sheridan when Kosh was dying, so it's possible.

3) The big fire thing. Could've been a really powerful telepathically
induced vision, though it also showed up on station sensors and the
exterior shot implied it was visible from space. Which would mean the
vision would have to reach a lot of people. Could be a proper energy
discharge by an energy being, maybe.

4) The DNA-less blood. This would imply some really tight control on
the sub-cellular level,  but it still seems to fall in the natural
world. I could see some of the descriptions of Ironheart's abilities
implying that he could pull of such a feat, and some of the energy
beings like the Vorlons might be able to pull it off.

I think the biggest thing we need to remember is the source of most of
the religious context the story has. It was from a clearly
manipulative being exploiting the faith of two people. In some senses
his behavior being a mirror of those of the Vorlon, and their
exploiting of genuine faith by adopting religious personas.

If it is a proper Demon, servant of Lucifer, fallen angel of God, what
we saw was still a manifestation of it that doesn't necessarily force
you to accept the supernatural realm. It explicitly keeps open the
door for those that do accept the supernatural as real to put it in
that context, but B5's natural world seems to already incorporate
various things that make it so that this story isn't explainable only
by an appeal to the supernatural. And on the other hand, even if you
do completely place it in the natural world, the religious
interpretation doesn't become completely invalid either, it's indeed
then just a difference in terminology. It could be that it is an alien
entity, and that it also is a demon, which as a being from another
world with great powers fall under both definitions.

I'm actually curious if we'll see them again. Mostly because of that
one line about them remembering Lochley. Which with any other show
would seem like a throwaway line, but hey, this is Babylon 5.

-Shabaz
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