Guide Page: "The War Prayer" (original) (raw)

Y'know...it's a funny old world. And sometimes it just astonishes you.

About 2 months ago, one of our freelancers turned in a script that has to do with a hate group, in the course of which a guest character -- a Minbari -- is attacked and has her head branded with the symbol of the group.

So you will doubtless understand my astonishment when I turned on DS9 and saw the same thing happen.

Unfortunately, we've already shot that episode, it's in the can, so ther nothing we can do about it now. Further -- and let me be totally clear about this -- there's no way that DS9 could've borrowed the idea from us, or in any way been influence by us, and no way we could've been influenced by them. To get on the air now, they would've had to shoot their episode some time before the writer turned in that draft for our show. And none of us were in any way aware of what was going on there until we saw it the night of the broadcast...and came in the next day with looks of absolute shock.

These things do happen...and when you're dealing with similar general areas -- humans vs. aliens, or one alien group vs. another alien group -- then something like this becomes inevitable. And given the foreheads on Ferengi, and the foreheads on Minbari, the obviousness of that target becomes clear. Still, it's amazing when it happens. And I guess I just wanted it to be clear when this thing airs that the sequence in our show was in the can and done when the DS9 episode aired.

The points made above are essentially correct; the brand goes on in the very top of the show, in the teaser, and stay on throughout the episode...and part of the story is dealing with this, and what it means. An offer is made to remove it, but the victim decides *not* to have it removed, because there are lessons in these things...and it becomes almost a badge of defiance.

In addition to the notes here, I've received a whole bunch of email notes saying to leave it in, on the grounds that it *does* happen in real life (or incidents close to it), and how we're handling it *is* very different. (Some indicated that it can illustrate how the two hows handle their themes in different ways.) So it's a tough call ...to change would also mean some re-shooting...but given the responses here, I think it's okay to leave it in place.

File this one away the next time someone asks, "What sort of ways has the BBS discussion actually affected Babylon 5?"