Watched an episode from Season 1 of Babylon 5 last night: Believers
The blurb was simple - Doctor Franklin is faced with a patient who will die if not treated - but the treatment is refused by the parents on religious grounds.
Easy to see that such a basic plot set-up could end up nothing better than bash Jehovah's Witnesses.
The great thing about Babylon 5 is that it refused to treat such a storyline in such a contemptuously simple manner.
Instead, we are presented the extremes of science and faith, and shown that both are valid viewpoints to hold - and that to choose one or another is a matter of personal preference.
As Sinclair points out to Doctor Franklin, though he disagrees with the decision, faith gives life meaning, and to take that away makes for a hollow cure.
The characters play out their motives, it's obvious that either viewpoint will lead to tragedy.
To me, the way the story played out shows why Babylon 5 was such a great series (when it was great, at least): the fact that they wouldn't smother the viewer with American idealism (as Star Trek evangelises), but instead allows complex subjects to be treated as complex subjects.
There's real care to keep characters real and have them push stories, rather than have characters as slaves to a plotline.
Babylon 5 touches a lot of deep issues that Star Trek cannot begin to deal with - Babylon 5 is space for grown-ups, after they've grown out of Star Trek.
2 wicked c.
The blurb was simple - Doctor Franklin is faced with a patient who will die if not treated - but the treatment is refused by the parents on religious grounds.
Easy to see that such a basic plot set-up could end up nothing better than bash Jehovah's Witnesses.
The great thing about Babylon 5 is that it refused to treat such a storyline in such a contemptuously simple manner.
Instead, we are presented the extremes of science and faith, and shown that both are valid viewpoints to hold - and that to choose one or another is a matter of personal preference.
As Sinclair points out to Doctor Franklin, though he disagrees with the decision, faith gives life meaning, and to take that away makes for a hollow cure.
The characters play out their motives, it's obvious that either viewpoint will lead to tragedy.
To me, the way the story played out shows why Babylon 5 was such a great series (when it was great, at least): the fact that they wouldn't smother the viewer with American idealism (as Star Trek evangelises), but instead allows complex subjects to be treated as complex subjects.
There's real care to keep characters real and have them push stories, rather than have characters as slaves to a plotline.
Babylon 5 touches a lot of deep issues that Star Trek cannot begin to deal with - Babylon 5 is space for grown-ups, after they've grown out of Star Trek.
2 wicked c.
