Question about G'Kar

[Jay-El]

Out of curiousity, when G'Kar has his eye removed; was it because it was necessary for character development, or did Andreas Katsulas have some kind of eye condition that required he do without the coloured contact lenses?

[glindros]

I often wondered if there was some practical real life reason for that development.

The only two in story reasons I can think of is Lady Morella's () prophesy about saving the eye that can not see. That and I believe the flashbacks of Londo's and G'Kar's final interactions showed G'Kar's eye being covered.

[Jan]

Welcome, Jay-El!

Out of curiousity, when G'Kar has his eye removed; was it because it was necessary for character development, or did Andreas Katsulas have some kind of eye condition that required he do without the coloured contact lenses?

I don't think so. Remember, we'd seen G'Kar wearing the eye patch all the way back to "The Coming of Shadows" so it seems that it was intended for him to lose an eye fairly far back.

Of course it's possible that the timing of having Cartagia have his eye plucked out was necessitated by real events but I think that JMS would probably have commented on that synchronicity in the script books.

Jan

[JoeD80]

There was an interesting note from jms in March 1996:

I often get notes saying, "When are we going to see this happen?" Well, if I were to say, "Okay, you're going to see G'Kar lose his eye in episode 7 of year 4," then it *completely eliminates* any surprise, any tension, any shock value to it. I might as well just not make the episode at that point.

So some people had that surprise eliminated! Not quite episode 7, but pretty close.

[B5_Obsessed]

Well, the Season 4 acceleration explains that.
Wasn't it around 4.4?

[Jan]

Well, the Season 4 acceleration explains that.
Wasn't it around 4.4?

It was indeed. Perhaps there were some stand-alones that got moved out of the way when JMS was told there wouldn't be a season 5.

BTW, just in case anybody needs a set of B5 DVDs, all 5 seasons are advertised at $19.99 each at Best Buy. The movie set is still expensive.

Jan

[Susitcha]

Just watching that episode now. Even when I know where it s going I find angry Garibaldi so frustrating.

[Jay-El]

I guess it makes sense, it does follow continuity. And I've already purchased the B5 thing, and then I started watching season four again and I started wondering why he had a normal human eye for a while.

[JoeD80]

I guess it makes sense, it does follow continuity. And I've already purchased the B5 thing, and then I started watching season four again and I started wondering why he had a normal human eye for a while.

I think his blue eye in the series was a contact also (storywise, it's an ocular implant. Later, he gets a Red one). I believe Andreas' natural eye color was brown.

[raw_bean]

Interesting! I always assumed it was just his natural eye colour. I guess they were going for blue to contrast with the red.

[Jan]

Andreas' eyes were definitely brown. I think they went for the light blue to make it more startling. IIRC, there seems to be a hint of 'mechanical' in the medium close-up we get of it, too.

Jan

[Jonas]

Not to mention the importance of the symbolism...