Babylon 5

I have been having fun copying old Babylon 5 topics and have just finished the ones were garibaldi returns to drinking.

Here is my question, how did this ever happen? I understand why Garibaldi would hot the bottle again, lack of self esteem, feeling like a jerk for betraying Sheridan, feeling anger because he can't strangle Bester ect... But how do Sheridan, Delenn, and Franklin miss this?

OK, Garibaldi is back to being permently canky, he is screwing up his job in a bad way and no one says anything until he walks into a meeting smelling like a bar?

ARRRHGGGGGGHHHHHH

Well, they were all kinda busy...

Garibaldi is one of my favorite characters, a hero with feet of clay.

I never cared for Sinclair or Sheridan, both were rather wooden (a comment on the actors? Of course, they both could do a better job at it than I could! However, wotz a chowderhead? http://www.hostboard.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Looks like I'm coming in on the tail end of Sheridan's "scan-ability". Bester scanned him, but did he get anything? Sheridan noticed it...could he detect a scan before? During his interrogation, they didn't want to scan him. Why not? It would be detected? I don't think so. Someone like Bester could scan him, and not leave a trace. I'll offer that they tried to scan him, found that they couldn't, and went on to other means. Why couldn't they get information from him with a scan? He's dead. Died on Z'ha'dum. Helped out by Lorien. That, plus having had a Vorlon in him left some residual effects. I think Sheridan's personality managed to continue to exist, but I belive he had some of his own "tweaks" (akin to a Vorlon-enhanced Lyta). Next con anyone goes to with JMS, ask during a panel session.</p>

As for losing a leader, it's a question of timing. Lose him/her a couple of days or more before, and you have a problem. If they're broken or not, you have to assume they've been broken. Less than that, you go ahead with the general plan, as the information that may have been gathered can't be effectively put into play by the opposition. There's not enough time. </p>

As for your idea, Prof, concerning Garibaldi and booze, it was always a monkey on his back wanting to take a drink. Faced with the job Bester did on his mind, followed by the knowledge that he was blocked from killing Bester (later on), the monkey won. When he quit again, I'm pretty sure he stayed off the booze. I don't recall reading or seeing anything about him falling off the wagon ever again. I don't know for sure, but I believe Lyta fixed him up as far as the Asimov-lock Bester used, and that probably helped a lot. I know the lock was removed, as he was last seen driving a stake through Bester's heart at Besters grave.</p></font>

PC, you sort of make my point. Normandy was incredibly complex. Months of preparation was involved down to tiny details. If Eisenhower had been captured, the day before, of course, Normandy wouldn't have happened, but neither would have anything else. The Allies would not have just done something else the next day. They would have had to start the whole process over. That's *if* the field commanders even got the word to stop the operation. They might not have and would be anbushed and slaughtered when they landed.

rantarn, exactly. Meaning that the info that they could have gotten from Sheridan would have been owrthless. Since we know that people can tell when some one has been scanned and how long ago it was (Think Mind War. Bester and his co-worker scan Talia looking for fresh prints from Ironheart), scanning Sheridan for information is a bad idea. 1) the info will be useless, the plans would be tossed upon his capture 2) since telepaths could be used to find out he was scanned, his public confession for propaganda sake would be useless. So they don't try and scan him.

Wizzard, I understand why Garibaldi hit the bottle again. What I don't get is how his friends could not see it coming, did not see it when it first happened (his erratic behavior and poor job performance), or if they did why they didn't intervene sooner then they did.

Shadowjack, a chowderhead is someone who does something really stupid. I tend to refer to Sheridan as Senior Chowderhead because he pulls so mnay dumb stunts that he some how survives. For example, leaving your job as head of the Resistence in order to go save your father when you get the info from someone you know you can no longer trust, is a Chowderhead move. Going to Za'hadum with your formaly deceased wife who has mysteriously returned from the dead and is allied with your arch enemies, is a chowderhead move. The list goes on

Public confessions don't work. Even if there are no outward appearances of violence, every public confession that I have ever seen, you see a vacantness in the person's eyes. A sign of being broken by mental or physical abuse.

The only people who would have believed a public confession would have believed it whether or not he was scanned. Whether or not he had marks on his face.

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Prof, I think the reason for his friends not stepping in was partially due to Garibaldi being Garibaldi, and their not wanting a confrontation. No confrontation with him is ever a calm, soothing experience. The other part is human nature...friends tend to let things go a bit hoping it will correct itself before they have to act.</p></font><font size="-4">

[This message has been edited by Wizz (edited January 22, 2001).]

Sheridan's going to Z'ha'dum- I'm not sure that was a Chowderhead move.

He said he knew that Anna was not the Anna he knew. He told Delenn that his going might change the future since his not going had resulted in the undesirable future he had seen earlier.

I'm curious to know if there was anything else he could have done?d

Thanks, AsIs, that's succinctly what I was trying to say about breaking someone. Guess I didn't make myself clear. And I tend to accept Wizzard's explanation of why he wasn't scanned: they couldn't. Otherwise there's no reason not to.

Now, onto last Friday's ep. Crash, you always like to call Sheridan "chowderhead" for letting the Garibaldi situation go when it's obvious his wetware is screwed up. Well, there's Delenn telling John to let it go, Garibaldin has to find his own way. Is she a chowderhead too?