Just a correction: there is *no* story in the first season of B5
entitled "Five Minutes to Midnight." The first episode for the series is
entitled "Midnight on the Firing Line." Just FYI.

jms

Two quickies: in G'Kar's comments to Lyta, he mentions that they
would have to change the genetic structure of human DNA for his little
idea to work, so there is that aspect to it. As for Sinclair going after
the Minbari assassin...there were several reasons for this. First, this
was personal for him; if the guy *wasn't* caught, he would be blamed for
the death and sent to the Vorlon homeworld. He had something very much
at stake. Second, if you have somebody with shapeshifting technology on
board, the LAST thing you want is to send in a large group. The tracking
of the energy web used for the holographic effect was good, but only
to a certain point. It could say "He's ten feet away," but if there's 5
guys within that range, it'll take you just long enough to react for the
assassin to wipe out the bunch of you before you figure out which one he
is. But if there's only *two* of you, and you hear the shifter is within
10 feet, you know *exactly* who it is and can react accordingly. It
seemed logical. Also, you'd want someone there who you knew VERY well,
in case there were a replacement...because while someone could emulate a
face, they can't replicate memories, and Sinclair or Garibaldi could
quickly figure out if the other was an imposter.

Yes, I probably could've stopped to explain this...but I figured it
was readily apparent, and there was already enough exposition in the
pilot to stun a horse.

jms

Alas, I wish I could say that I'm doing B5 in hopes of pleasing the
maximum number of people at all times. Certainly there would be many
people in town relieved to hear that. But this is something that I'm
doing because this is just the sort of series that I'd like to watch. If
I'm lucky, others will feel the same way. If not...well, them's the
breaks. This show will either be a hit, or it'll go down in the biggest
fireball since Tunguska.

jms