Author Archives: evilrooster

Bab5: This is Just to Say

Posted on May 11, 2011 by evilrooster

I have not forgotten the rewatch that I promised here and which you were probably giving up on as abandoned. forgive me I had house guests so entertaining and so analog. – o0o – I need to watch the episode … Continue reading →

Posted in Babylon 5 | 9 Comments

Allochthonia: Taboos

Posted on May 1, 2011 by evilrooster

How do you talk about what you can’t talk about? How do you explain, or even refer to, something you’re not supposed to know? How do you ask someone else not to discuss such a thing? What do you do … Continue reading →

Posted in Allochthonia | 47 Comments

Allochthonia: Languages

Posted on April 17, 2011 by evilrooster

Lennier: And in my eleventy-fifth year in the temple, I began to study the 97 dialects and subtongues of our homeworld. And I discovered something truly amazing. Londo: Yes? Lennier: Yes. The same word, n!kai, appears in every Minbari dialect … Continue reading →

Posted in Allochthonia | 51 Comments

Babylon 5: The Quality of Mercy

Posted on April 15, 2011 by evilrooster

Mal: But it ain’t all buttons and charts, little albatross. You know what the first rule of flying is? Well, I suppose you do, since you already know what I’m about to say. River: I do. But I like to … Continue reading →

Posted in Babylon 5 | 8 Comments

CSS not working

Posted on April 12, 2011 by evilrooster

Technical thing: for some reason, all of my CSS changes, which include a lot of formatting improvements and comment numbering, have stopped working in both Firefox (3.x and 4) and Safari. They still work fine in Chrome. I haven’t checked … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog | 8 Comments

De Nieuwe Batavia: Watchfulness & Distraction

Posted on April 8, 2011 by evilrooster

I’m walking the perimeter, checking for an air leak. I know it’s here, I just don’t know where it is. We use a very old-fashioned way to locate leaks. Whenever we get a flag that the air mixture is off … Continue reading →

Posted in De Nieuwe Batavia | 29 Comments

De Nieuwe Batavia

Posted on April 7, 2011 by evilrooster

“Space…the final frontier.” I’ve been a Trekkie since I was four. I grew up believing these words the way kids believe nursery rhymes: unthinkingly. Grown up now, thinking about it, I know that it’s not Roddenberry’s fault. He didn’t invent … Continue reading →

Posted in De Nieuwe Batavia, Worldbuilding | 16 Comments

Babylon 5: Babylon Squared

Posted on April 6, 2011 by evilrooster

Never believe in a meritocracy in which no one is funny-looking. —Teresa Nielsen Hayden In the last episode, we brushed up against one of the persistent themes of the series: vocation. Draal was called to the Machine, both by Varn’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Babylon 5 | 24 Comments

Allochthonia: Numen, Faith, Religion, and Lack Thereof

Posted on April 1, 2011 by evilrooster

One of the persistent topics of discussion in the Babylon 5 threads has been annoyance about the depiction of religion in the alien societies of the series. The consensus is that Bab 5 isn’t unique: religion and faith are frequently … Continue reading →

Posted in Allochthonia | 148 Comments

Allochthonia

Posted on April 1, 2011 by evilrooster

Being an expat (as I have been for most of my adult life) is a profound and repeated experience of otherness. It’s a constant rediscovery that people can do things, and structure their societies, in entirely unexpected ways. And they … Continue reading →

Posted in Allochthonia, Worldbuilding | 25 Comments