Okay I'm back in geek mode! The War Prayer brought us the gal from the Wonder Years and the evil-hate monger- ex of Ivanova's in a duel tale of young love and racism. I enjoyed the episode and once again I was reminded of many people whom I had not thought about for a long time. David gets at least 3 smacks on the arm and a "Hey! I remember that guy, he hated wearing alien masks so they made him a security guard!" or "God I hated that hair style! But I loved the hair and makeup people there was one who..." and so on and so on.
I, of course, cannot write this dissertation-light, if you will, without mentioning the pangs of loss I feel when seeing Richard Biggs and Andreas Katsulas on screen. Richard because he was a friend and a loving husband and Father and I think about his two boys RJ and Hunter and where they are, do they like school?...are they still as beautiful as when I saw them last? I think about Lori and wonder how she coped with the loss of such a magnetic, amazing presence in her life. Richard overcame the handicap of being profoundly deaf in an industry which is difficult enough with all of your senses intact. He was a warm, funny, funny man...always laughing and he had an energy which lit up a room. I miss him dearly while watching these episodes and I have to stop myself from the continuing questioning of God's choices in these matters.
When I mourn Andreas it is because of his talent. His performance as G'Kar was worthy of an Emmy at the very least...too bad Sci Fi was relegated to the "ugly step child" role back in the early 90's, otherwise I cannot see how he and Peter would have been overlooked for award after award for their brilliant performances.
I did not know Andreas as well as I knew Richard, as I have explained before, the aliens were made up in a different make up trailer..one filled with soft, classical music and soothing candles whilst the human trailer was a loud, crazy cacophony of Jerry Doyle shouting political arguments with Bruce, me singing loudly along to 70's hits and begging the hair and makeup people to leave me alone (I preferred to wear as little makeup as possible and loved having a simple ponytail) and any poor guest star trying desperately to focus on learning their lines...fat chance!
I did not have many scenes with the aliens and now that I am watching the show for the first time I see that I am in C and C a lot and with the Commander in most scenes.
As a little inside scoop, the episode with the ex boyfriend (the war prayer) was the impetus for Ivanova's possible bi-sexual nature; After that episode I complained bitterly to JMS about Ivanova having an ex.."she was too busy to be dating!" I told him that I didn't want a string of ex's clouding up the station through out the years and that if he really wanted to make me happy and honor the character he would have Ivanova get together with an alien or a woman! Preferably G'Kar, I told him.....the rest is history :) And how about that Princess Leia-cinnamon bun -date night-hair do?? (pictured above)
Episode 8 (And the Sky full of stars) was VERY dark and I didn't like it as much but I sure recognized a lot of the extras and recalled messing around on set, joking a lot...which seems to be a recurring theme about this show. I keep remembering laughing all the time! If you ask ANY of the actors they will say the same thing: God we had fun!
Posts
