Why did the Drakh emissary look so blurred in S04:E11 “Lines of Communication”? The Next CEO of Stack OverflowAre Minbari stronger than humans?Why was the episode called “Born to the Purple”?When did Dukhat first have contact with the Vorlons?Why did this Babylon-5 character turn against the Vorlons?Why do the Shadows ships look similar after several thousand years, given that technological advancement should have made ships look very different?Why is the Minbari religious caste so good at fighting, given that the warrior caste is supposed to be doing the fighting for all of the Minbari?Why did Sheridan divorce Lochley, given that both look like decent human beings who are not hard to get along?Could the Vorlons be responsible for every race having invented Swedish meatballs?How did Kosh's lessons prepare Sheridan for war with the Shadows?Why does Mr Morden appear to Lennier?

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Why did the Drakh emissary look so blurred in S04:E11 “Lines of Communication”?



The Next CEO of Stack OverflowAre Minbari stronger than humans?Why was the episode called “Born to the Purple”?When did Dukhat first have contact with the Vorlons?Why did this Babylon-5 character turn against the Vorlons?Why do the Shadows ships look similar after several thousand years, given that technological advancement should have made ships look very different?Why is the Minbari religious caste so good at fighting, given that the warrior caste is supposed to be doing the fighting for all of the Minbari?Why did Sheridan divorce Lochley, given that both look like decent human beings who are not hard to get along?Could the Vorlons be responsible for every race having invented Swedish meatballs?How did Kosh's lessons prepare Sheridan for war with the Shadows?Why does Mr Morden appear to Lennier?










11















One thing that has always confused me was why did the Drakh emissary look so blurred in that episode?
Was it any type of cloaking device?










share|improve this question



















  • 1





    I have always interpreted it as a cloaking device of a kind, but I may be mistaken.

    – Klaus Æ. Mogensen
    15 hours ago











  • @Klaus Æ. Mogensen: I think so too; but if it really is a cloacking device, it is a very lousy one. I would like if there is a canon confirmation of any type.

    – Spkit 2000
    15 hours ago
















11















One thing that has always confused me was why did the Drakh emissary look so blurred in that episode?
Was it any type of cloaking device?










share|improve this question



















  • 1





    I have always interpreted it as a cloaking device of a kind, but I may be mistaken.

    – Klaus Æ. Mogensen
    15 hours ago











  • @Klaus Æ. Mogensen: I think so too; but if it really is a cloacking device, it is a very lousy one. I would like if there is a canon confirmation of any type.

    – Spkit 2000
    15 hours ago














11












11








11








One thing that has always confused me was why did the Drakh emissary look so blurred in that episode?
Was it any type of cloaking device?










share|improve this question
















One thing that has always confused me was why did the Drakh emissary look so blurred in that episode?
Was it any type of cloaking device?







babylon-5






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 14 hours ago









Ongo

1,772725




1,772725










asked 16 hours ago









Spkit 2000Spkit 2000

32310




32310







  • 1





    I have always interpreted it as a cloaking device of a kind, but I may be mistaken.

    – Klaus Æ. Mogensen
    15 hours ago











  • @Klaus Æ. Mogensen: I think so too; but if it really is a cloacking device, it is a very lousy one. I would like if there is a canon confirmation of any type.

    – Spkit 2000
    15 hours ago













  • 1





    I have always interpreted it as a cloaking device of a kind, but I may be mistaken.

    – Klaus Æ. Mogensen
    15 hours ago











  • @Klaus Æ. Mogensen: I think so too; but if it really is a cloacking device, it is a very lousy one. I would like if there is a canon confirmation of any type.

    – Spkit 2000
    15 hours ago








1




1





I have always interpreted it as a cloaking device of a kind, but I may be mistaken.

– Klaus Æ. Mogensen
15 hours ago





I have always interpreted it as a cloaking device of a kind, but I may be mistaken.

– Klaus Æ. Mogensen
15 hours ago













@Klaus Æ. Mogensen: I think so too; but if it really is a cloacking device, it is a very lousy one. I would like if there is a canon confirmation of any type.

– Spkit 2000
15 hours ago






@Klaus Æ. Mogensen: I think so too; but if it really is a cloacking device, it is a very lousy one. I would like if there is a canon confirmation of any type.

– Spkit 2000
15 hours ago











1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















16














According to this post on the B5TV forums, JMS had the following explanation:




The Drakh emissary is described in the script as a servant of darkness, who causes lights to dim as it nears them as if sucking the life and light out of everything it passes. In the episode, an effect was added in postproduction that turned it into a blurred, indistinct figure. "I had everything darken when he comes near it because I was so burned with the 'Infection' situation and the 'Grey 17' thing," explains Joe Straczynski. "I said, 'I don't want to do another obvious guy in a rubber suit so let's keep this dark and shadowy.' Of course, it was shot nice and bright, and also the paint job on the actual face wasn't what I wanted it to be--it was the wrong color, and it ended up looking like a mask, instead of looking like a breather unit. I thought, 'well, look, these guys worked for the Shadows, they would have some access to Shadow technology, and we know the Shadows can phase in and out of appearance. Why can we not make the logical extension that they have adapted a system which keeps them blurry a little bit?' They really can't be seen clearly and thus, become more ominous and, thus, more frightening to the average passerby."




So, in the original script, there was no blurring effect, only the dimming of lights and so forth. However due to problems with the makeup and other effects, they elected to throw the blurring effect in to help sell the Drakh as a mysterious and alien threat. JMS's post-hoc explanation was that the Drakh were using a Shadow device of some kind, possibly for intimidation purposes (since it doesn't seem to hide them very effectively).



For what it's worth, none of the other episodes that featured Drakh had a similar effect in either B5 or its spinoff Crusade, and it was never conclusively demonstrated that they were even the same species as the "emissary" seen in "Lines of Communciation".






share|improve this answer


















  • 2





    n.b.: "Infection" and "Grey 17 is Missing" were earlier (first- and third-season, respectively) episodes that had been panned for bad creature effects, hence why they felt the Drakh needed to be more impressive.

    – Cadence
    15 hours ago












  • Ok. So the explanation is two fold: In universe, as we already suspected, it is a cloaking device. In reality, it is a way to hide the lacks in the creature effects. About being other species, hasnt the Drakhs have two shapes?

    – Spkit 2000
    15 hours ago












  • There were two distinct versions of the makeup, one from "Lines of Communication" and the other from "The Fall of Centauri Prime" et al.

    – Cadence
    14 hours ago











  • I used to hang out in the B5 usenet newsgroup (both pre and post moderation) during the show's run, and JMS was definitely a master of the post-hoc explanation. I remember he totally sold the captain change as a sad necessity of the story to keep the character from becoming a "Mary Sue", when in reality the actor in question had to leave the show due to mental health issues.

    – T.E.D.
    13 hours ago







  • 1





    I really wish they kept the blur effect when they brought the Drakh back -- it added a level of surreality to them.

    – April
    13 hours ago











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1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes








1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









16














According to this post on the B5TV forums, JMS had the following explanation:




The Drakh emissary is described in the script as a servant of darkness, who causes lights to dim as it nears them as if sucking the life and light out of everything it passes. In the episode, an effect was added in postproduction that turned it into a blurred, indistinct figure. "I had everything darken when he comes near it because I was so burned with the 'Infection' situation and the 'Grey 17' thing," explains Joe Straczynski. "I said, 'I don't want to do another obvious guy in a rubber suit so let's keep this dark and shadowy.' Of course, it was shot nice and bright, and also the paint job on the actual face wasn't what I wanted it to be--it was the wrong color, and it ended up looking like a mask, instead of looking like a breather unit. I thought, 'well, look, these guys worked for the Shadows, they would have some access to Shadow technology, and we know the Shadows can phase in and out of appearance. Why can we not make the logical extension that they have adapted a system which keeps them blurry a little bit?' They really can't be seen clearly and thus, become more ominous and, thus, more frightening to the average passerby."




So, in the original script, there was no blurring effect, only the dimming of lights and so forth. However due to problems with the makeup and other effects, they elected to throw the blurring effect in to help sell the Drakh as a mysterious and alien threat. JMS's post-hoc explanation was that the Drakh were using a Shadow device of some kind, possibly for intimidation purposes (since it doesn't seem to hide them very effectively).



For what it's worth, none of the other episodes that featured Drakh had a similar effect in either B5 or its spinoff Crusade, and it was never conclusively demonstrated that they were even the same species as the "emissary" seen in "Lines of Communciation".






share|improve this answer


















  • 2





    n.b.: "Infection" and "Grey 17 is Missing" were earlier (first- and third-season, respectively) episodes that had been panned for bad creature effects, hence why they felt the Drakh needed to be more impressive.

    – Cadence
    15 hours ago












  • Ok. So the explanation is two fold: In universe, as we already suspected, it is a cloaking device. In reality, it is a way to hide the lacks in the creature effects. About being other species, hasnt the Drakhs have two shapes?

    – Spkit 2000
    15 hours ago












  • There were two distinct versions of the makeup, one from "Lines of Communication" and the other from "The Fall of Centauri Prime" et al.

    – Cadence
    14 hours ago











  • I used to hang out in the B5 usenet newsgroup (both pre and post moderation) during the show's run, and JMS was definitely a master of the post-hoc explanation. I remember he totally sold the captain change as a sad necessity of the story to keep the character from becoming a "Mary Sue", when in reality the actor in question had to leave the show due to mental health issues.

    – T.E.D.
    13 hours ago







  • 1





    I really wish they kept the blur effect when they brought the Drakh back -- it added a level of surreality to them.

    – April
    13 hours ago















16














According to this post on the B5TV forums, JMS had the following explanation:




The Drakh emissary is described in the script as a servant of darkness, who causes lights to dim as it nears them as if sucking the life and light out of everything it passes. In the episode, an effect was added in postproduction that turned it into a blurred, indistinct figure. "I had everything darken when he comes near it because I was so burned with the 'Infection' situation and the 'Grey 17' thing," explains Joe Straczynski. "I said, 'I don't want to do another obvious guy in a rubber suit so let's keep this dark and shadowy.' Of course, it was shot nice and bright, and also the paint job on the actual face wasn't what I wanted it to be--it was the wrong color, and it ended up looking like a mask, instead of looking like a breather unit. I thought, 'well, look, these guys worked for the Shadows, they would have some access to Shadow technology, and we know the Shadows can phase in and out of appearance. Why can we not make the logical extension that they have adapted a system which keeps them blurry a little bit?' They really can't be seen clearly and thus, become more ominous and, thus, more frightening to the average passerby."




So, in the original script, there was no blurring effect, only the dimming of lights and so forth. However due to problems with the makeup and other effects, they elected to throw the blurring effect in to help sell the Drakh as a mysterious and alien threat. JMS's post-hoc explanation was that the Drakh were using a Shadow device of some kind, possibly for intimidation purposes (since it doesn't seem to hide them very effectively).



For what it's worth, none of the other episodes that featured Drakh had a similar effect in either B5 or its spinoff Crusade, and it was never conclusively demonstrated that they were even the same species as the "emissary" seen in "Lines of Communciation".






share|improve this answer


















  • 2





    n.b.: "Infection" and "Grey 17 is Missing" were earlier (first- and third-season, respectively) episodes that had been panned for bad creature effects, hence why they felt the Drakh needed to be more impressive.

    – Cadence
    15 hours ago












  • Ok. So the explanation is two fold: In universe, as we already suspected, it is a cloaking device. In reality, it is a way to hide the lacks in the creature effects. About being other species, hasnt the Drakhs have two shapes?

    – Spkit 2000
    15 hours ago












  • There were two distinct versions of the makeup, one from "Lines of Communication" and the other from "The Fall of Centauri Prime" et al.

    – Cadence
    14 hours ago











  • I used to hang out in the B5 usenet newsgroup (both pre and post moderation) during the show's run, and JMS was definitely a master of the post-hoc explanation. I remember he totally sold the captain change as a sad necessity of the story to keep the character from becoming a "Mary Sue", when in reality the actor in question had to leave the show due to mental health issues.

    – T.E.D.
    13 hours ago







  • 1





    I really wish they kept the blur effect when they brought the Drakh back -- it added a level of surreality to them.

    – April
    13 hours ago













16












16








16







According to this post on the B5TV forums, JMS had the following explanation:




The Drakh emissary is described in the script as a servant of darkness, who causes lights to dim as it nears them as if sucking the life and light out of everything it passes. In the episode, an effect was added in postproduction that turned it into a blurred, indistinct figure. "I had everything darken when he comes near it because I was so burned with the 'Infection' situation and the 'Grey 17' thing," explains Joe Straczynski. "I said, 'I don't want to do another obvious guy in a rubber suit so let's keep this dark and shadowy.' Of course, it was shot nice and bright, and also the paint job on the actual face wasn't what I wanted it to be--it was the wrong color, and it ended up looking like a mask, instead of looking like a breather unit. I thought, 'well, look, these guys worked for the Shadows, they would have some access to Shadow technology, and we know the Shadows can phase in and out of appearance. Why can we not make the logical extension that they have adapted a system which keeps them blurry a little bit?' They really can't be seen clearly and thus, become more ominous and, thus, more frightening to the average passerby."




So, in the original script, there was no blurring effect, only the dimming of lights and so forth. However due to problems with the makeup and other effects, they elected to throw the blurring effect in to help sell the Drakh as a mysterious and alien threat. JMS's post-hoc explanation was that the Drakh were using a Shadow device of some kind, possibly for intimidation purposes (since it doesn't seem to hide them very effectively).



For what it's worth, none of the other episodes that featured Drakh had a similar effect in either B5 or its spinoff Crusade, and it was never conclusively demonstrated that they were even the same species as the "emissary" seen in "Lines of Communciation".






share|improve this answer













According to this post on the B5TV forums, JMS had the following explanation:




The Drakh emissary is described in the script as a servant of darkness, who causes lights to dim as it nears them as if sucking the life and light out of everything it passes. In the episode, an effect was added in postproduction that turned it into a blurred, indistinct figure. "I had everything darken when he comes near it because I was so burned with the 'Infection' situation and the 'Grey 17' thing," explains Joe Straczynski. "I said, 'I don't want to do another obvious guy in a rubber suit so let's keep this dark and shadowy.' Of course, it was shot nice and bright, and also the paint job on the actual face wasn't what I wanted it to be--it was the wrong color, and it ended up looking like a mask, instead of looking like a breather unit. I thought, 'well, look, these guys worked for the Shadows, they would have some access to Shadow technology, and we know the Shadows can phase in and out of appearance. Why can we not make the logical extension that they have adapted a system which keeps them blurry a little bit?' They really can't be seen clearly and thus, become more ominous and, thus, more frightening to the average passerby."




So, in the original script, there was no blurring effect, only the dimming of lights and so forth. However due to problems with the makeup and other effects, they elected to throw the blurring effect in to help sell the Drakh as a mysterious and alien threat. JMS's post-hoc explanation was that the Drakh were using a Shadow device of some kind, possibly for intimidation purposes (since it doesn't seem to hide them very effectively).



For what it's worth, none of the other episodes that featured Drakh had a similar effect in either B5 or its spinoff Crusade, and it was never conclusively demonstrated that they were even the same species as the "emissary" seen in "Lines of Communciation".







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered 15 hours ago









CadenceCadence

4,26911326




4,26911326







  • 2





    n.b.: "Infection" and "Grey 17 is Missing" were earlier (first- and third-season, respectively) episodes that had been panned for bad creature effects, hence why they felt the Drakh needed to be more impressive.

    – Cadence
    15 hours ago












  • Ok. So the explanation is two fold: In universe, as we already suspected, it is a cloaking device. In reality, it is a way to hide the lacks in the creature effects. About being other species, hasnt the Drakhs have two shapes?

    – Spkit 2000
    15 hours ago












  • There were two distinct versions of the makeup, one from "Lines of Communication" and the other from "The Fall of Centauri Prime" et al.

    – Cadence
    14 hours ago











  • I used to hang out in the B5 usenet newsgroup (both pre and post moderation) during the show's run, and JMS was definitely a master of the post-hoc explanation. I remember he totally sold the captain change as a sad necessity of the story to keep the character from becoming a "Mary Sue", when in reality the actor in question had to leave the show due to mental health issues.

    – T.E.D.
    13 hours ago







  • 1





    I really wish they kept the blur effect when they brought the Drakh back -- it added a level of surreality to them.

    – April
    13 hours ago












  • 2





    n.b.: "Infection" and "Grey 17 is Missing" were earlier (first- and third-season, respectively) episodes that had been panned for bad creature effects, hence why they felt the Drakh needed to be more impressive.

    – Cadence
    15 hours ago












  • Ok. So the explanation is two fold: In universe, as we already suspected, it is a cloaking device. In reality, it is a way to hide the lacks in the creature effects. About being other species, hasnt the Drakhs have two shapes?

    – Spkit 2000
    15 hours ago












  • There were two distinct versions of the makeup, one from "Lines of Communication" and the other from "The Fall of Centauri Prime" et al.

    – Cadence
    14 hours ago











  • I used to hang out in the B5 usenet newsgroup (both pre and post moderation) during the show's run, and JMS was definitely a master of the post-hoc explanation. I remember he totally sold the captain change as a sad necessity of the story to keep the character from becoming a "Mary Sue", when in reality the actor in question had to leave the show due to mental health issues.

    – T.E.D.
    13 hours ago







  • 1





    I really wish they kept the blur effect when they brought the Drakh back -- it added a level of surreality to them.

    – April
    13 hours ago







2




2





n.b.: "Infection" and "Grey 17 is Missing" were earlier (first- and third-season, respectively) episodes that had been panned for bad creature effects, hence why they felt the Drakh needed to be more impressive.

– Cadence
15 hours ago






n.b.: "Infection" and "Grey 17 is Missing" were earlier (first- and third-season, respectively) episodes that had been panned for bad creature effects, hence why they felt the Drakh needed to be more impressive.

– Cadence
15 hours ago














Ok. So the explanation is two fold: In universe, as we already suspected, it is a cloaking device. In reality, it is a way to hide the lacks in the creature effects. About being other species, hasnt the Drakhs have two shapes?

– Spkit 2000
15 hours ago






Ok. So the explanation is two fold: In universe, as we already suspected, it is a cloaking device. In reality, it is a way to hide the lacks in the creature effects. About being other species, hasnt the Drakhs have two shapes?

– Spkit 2000
15 hours ago














There were two distinct versions of the makeup, one from "Lines of Communication" and the other from "The Fall of Centauri Prime" et al.

– Cadence
14 hours ago





There were two distinct versions of the makeup, one from "Lines of Communication" and the other from "The Fall of Centauri Prime" et al.

– Cadence
14 hours ago













I used to hang out in the B5 usenet newsgroup (both pre and post moderation) during the show's run, and JMS was definitely a master of the post-hoc explanation. I remember he totally sold the captain change as a sad necessity of the story to keep the character from becoming a "Mary Sue", when in reality the actor in question had to leave the show due to mental health issues.

– T.E.D.
13 hours ago






I used to hang out in the B5 usenet newsgroup (both pre and post moderation) during the show's run, and JMS was definitely a master of the post-hoc explanation. I remember he totally sold the captain change as a sad necessity of the story to keep the character from becoming a "Mary Sue", when in reality the actor in question had to leave the show due to mental health issues.

– T.E.D.
13 hours ago





1




1





I really wish they kept the blur effect when they brought the Drakh back -- it added a level of surreality to them.

– April
13 hours ago





I really wish they kept the blur effect when they brought the Drakh back -- it added a level of surreality to them.

– April
13 hours ago

















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