J. Michael Straczynski

It starts with slow, unintended weight loss....

I thought the clown car was a tad excessive and, to be perfectly frank, a bit too on-the-nose....

Not as much as it fucking used to.

From the grave, you are forgiven. Go forth, and sin no more.

The first time I saw this pop up in my feed, a quote followed by my birth year, I checked my pulse three times to make sure I hadn't missed a rather essential announcement.

Hey John, I read the review (for which my thanks) and the memoir. Sorry you endured so much pain. For what it's worth, Harlan never badmouthed you to me, and I'm glad a reconciliation could finally happen. The echoes of our past can take us in terrible directions, I'm glad you found your way back.

No, if anything it could be considered a nod to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. But the story came from Harlan bugging me for four years, "How come you always focus on just the officers? What about the people working down below, just doing their jobs, what do they think? C'mon, man!"

We are not powerless. We have tremendous potential for good or ill. How we choose to use that power is up to us;. . .We’re told every day, “You can’t change the world.” But the world is changing every day. Only question is … who’s doing it? You or somebody else?”

— J. Michael Straczynski (1954)

Warners wasn't really paying attention by that point.

Fair.

Well, of course not, the rest moved beyond the rim.

A whole lot of these. No one knows why. No one is meant to.

Not really cassandraic...I like to think of myself as cassandralicious....

Babylon 5: In Memory of Andreas Katsulas YouTube video by ZTeamProductions

Someone, in one of these social media apps brought up the greatness of J Michael Straczynski. Early User of internet communications with the fans of his work. This speech is outstanding and gives me hope when i am feeling low. And With Fuhrer Donald j Trump still in power,… youtu.be/h2UQ2l9NPIg?...

The Exercise of Vital Powers YouTube video by Solipskeptic

I agree completely with every point. Straczynski read history and it meant he could write insightful scenes like this: youtu.be/BpQ0H-26DW0?...

That being said, a few of the other comments here raised in me the thought: some people stay in college way too long.

And the same goes for you. I've stuck around for this because so many of the arguments/assertions were clearly well considered. That I don't necessarily agree with them is not saying they are without merit or thought. You showed both.

Knock it off, you know the rules.

But if the mission is to deliver vaccines to prevent hundreds of deaths and you ditch those vaccines, what purpose is there in the mission?

Thank you, and by the by, I've enjoyed your corner of this back-and-forthing. Honest disagreement honestly rendered is a rare quality these days.

I can counter: because there was an emergency going on, hundreds of lives were at stake, and they weren't focused on the idea of anyone stowing away on a ship to a death planet. Stories aren't about why *didn't* someone do something, it's about what people did under given circumstances.

Nothing was said to indicate they did have that technology, or it would've been mentioned. But if it had, that would bump into your complaint that it already explained too much. No robotics are known to exist in this story-universe, so we can safely assume it doesn't. If you say it does, prove it.

Except you are because you are faulting the story for presenting ideas (or failing to present ideas) that you deem important. Hence, the burden is on you to show how it could have been done differently. If you can't, if all that was done is all that can be done, it negates some part of the issue.

That would work.

Since there were no means of robotic transfer, if what you suggest was implemented then the hundreds of people on the colony die.

Ah, but who gets to decide that? And what happens when it gets aimed at a story you think *is* worth telling?

I always saw it as being about moral anguish, and how trying every possible thing to fight the cold math of space travel sometimes doesn't work out. You could set the story on the Titanic in freezing water and have a much similar situation. X-degrees x Y time in the water.

I'm simply saying, you are suggesting the story should have dealt with the questions you think are important, that the story is flawed without them, so the logical next step is for you to act on your position and demonstrate where and how that could have been done in 12 already crammed pages.

Fair.

The story is about character, the math is the methodology behind those character moments. The textbook definition of SF, especially then, is "the affect of technology on humans." If you remove the mathematics and the weight from the story, there is no story, it's just two folks talking in the ship.