zaphod79 wrote:
Oh, ffs. Literally on the previous page last month...
NervousPete wrote:
Sorry to hear about Yelchin. He was in some bad movies now and again, but he was always enjoyable - on occasion excellent. Looks like the uncanny 'Live & Long Prosper' Star Trek blessing only applies to the TV show crews.
The flipside of that, of course, is the curve-skewing 'Curse of Babylon 5', where cast members grimly found themselves attending memorial after memorial. Show lead Michael O'Hare, Richard Biggs, Andreas Katsulas, Jeff Conaway, Tim Choate, Robin Sachs - all popped their clogs before the age of 65. Fortunately for Walter Koenig his Trek status insulated him from this curse.
The fuck is it with the Grim Reaper and Babylon 5? Was he denied his autographs at a fan convention, or something?
I'll pass over Jerry Doyle's right-wing political stance, and get straight on to what matters to me. He's been described as the discount Bruce Willis with his similar looks and blue-collar police role in the show, but for me Mr Garibaldi was a rare voice in science fiction. He was the just a normal guy trying to get by, believing not in causes or grand ideals or prophecies, but simply motivated out of his sense of loyalty, justice and friendship. He was a beat-cop dealing with aliens and ambassadors and strange occurrences - and the wonderful thing is that he dealt with it all like a good cop with a healthy amount of independence would. Doyle put in great, solid work in the character's plot-lines - the traumatic event of being shot by his own first officer, failing to stop a major conspiracy and losing his best friend and Captain, before having to learn to trust again... it was such pleasantly chewy character work that made Babylon 5 a joy to watch when I was a teenager, despite the odd hokey script and shonky guest-actor. His relationship with Londo was a highlight. He was the sympathetic ear to the lovable, washed-up party animal of an ambassador in season one. Then, come season two that mix of pity and genuine liking started to shift towards regret and mistrust, and finally a degree of revulsion and even fear.
Jerry Doyle, along with Claudia Christian, Michael Hare and Bruce Boxleitner were the heart of the show and they seemed like family. There was a depth and ease to their friendship that seemed more real to me than the holodeck vacation of the week of Star Trek TNG. He wasn't a great actor, but the role of Garibaldi fitted him like a glove. I still fondly remember that show; it was my favourite show in my teens and the first proper effort at long-form storytelling - despite its many flaws still the best planned out epic story-line in TV history. Just wanted to write a little farewell.