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RTTP: Babylon 5
- Thread starter JeffZero
- Start date
Yeah, sometimes I feel like I'm wasting my time because I'm usually just agreeing with what you've written up.
I need to find a different angle, aside from bitching about the music."GROPOS"
Timeless. Classic. Unforgettable. Absolutely incredible. None of these words suit the quality of "GROPOS", yet all of them apply. A string cheese collection of side stories which actually manages to grow cheesier with each passing scene, held together by a surprisingly competent father/son framework. "GROPOS" is bizarre, it's James Cameron's Aliens without the action or even the sci-fi, it's laughable jarhead schlock 101. It revels in it, unknowingly, its Larry DiTillo script chock full o' the kind of lame goofy space show one-liners that give the genre a bad name in some circles. It thinks it's effective -- you can just feel the pulse in Christopher Franke's beats, the rhythm of the war drum, the oomph -- but it's wrong. Like the poor ill-fated souls at the end of the episode, complete with a close-up of Warren "Who?" Keffer himself, it's destined to fail at almost all its emotional plays. It's decisively, aggressively mediocre, and I kind of love it.
General Franklin arrives at the station with 25,000 of his Ground Pounders, the term for infantry we'd previously heard earlier this season. He's gruff, no-nonsense, and he's on a secret mission to launch an attack on a certain world. The world itself is irrelevant; it's probably mentioned again, but it's a very one-off schtick. What's important is that EarthForce has the OK from one faction to help wipe out the other so they can stage a presence in the sector, which is near to the Narn-Centauri battle line. EarthForce is making increasingly militaristic decisions, something Sheridan isn't yet calling out but you can tell he's a bit uncomfortable. Sheridan is also uncomfortable with Franklin's odds; he says the fortress they're targeting is impregnable, and Bronn isn't around to make the obvious low-brow joke.
Not that we'll be deprived of lowered brows at almost any point in this episode. We'll talk about that in a second but first I want to address the stuff here that legitimately works on all levels: Stephen and his father. General Franklin is our good doctor's old man, and both Richard Biggs and guest star Paul Winfield are firing on all cylinders here. Their chemistry is rock-solid; I can buy into their fictional relationship from square one. The interplay is also very savvy and believable, which makes the rest of the episode all the more unusual. The resolution feels earned, because the conflict was appreciable and the stages toward an understanding are very human. Stephen's chat with Susan, which calls back to her own fatherly struggles, is a nice touch. Bravo, Larry.
To very loosely paraphrase a guest character named Sergeant Major Plug, "here's where it all goes to stroking."
The GROPOS are taking up every last inch of spare room on the station, and naturally they're a rowdy bunch. How rowdy? Rowdy enough for not one but two bar fights, including one which I get the impression is designed as some kind of narrative climax/catharsis hybrid but instead it's a comedy. It also gives us the episode's true hero, but I won't spoil that surprise just yet. The GROPOS are also rowdy enough for Warren Keffer to earn a B-Plot, so you know they mean business, because it's literally Keffer. Keffer gets shacked with a couple of GROPO bunkmates, a young dude and a very loud and large dude who never stops trading war stories. In Keffer's B-Plot's first of two scenes, Robert Rusler struggles to convince me he's dissatisfied with the new arrangement, and ends up getting a cigar shoved into his mouth in what I believe is intended to be an endearing scene of rushed bonding. In Keffer's B-Plot's second of two scenes, the very loud and large dude imitates an upset stomach via verbal gesture, goes to the latrine long enough for the young dude to reveal that the very loud and large dude lost a friend in the Mars Rebellion but nowhere near long enough to convince me that he remedied his troubled stomach, and then they all reach for their beers but get interrupted by a recurring angsty GROPO (I've slightly modified his appearance in the above picture to more accurately represent his character) who triggers the comedy bar brawl climax. Which, as I previously mentioned, gives us the episode's true hero. But, also as previously mentioned, I won't spoil that surprise just yet.
By the way, the dialogue is fantastic.
Garibaldi shows some depth in a subplot of his own, and that's the only nice thing I can say about this subplot, is that he shows some depth. After the first bar brawl -- not the comedy, but still unintentionally funny -- he meets a GROPO named Dodger who is instantly infatuated with him. When she introduces herself, she says "they call me Dodger", and she says it with such little conviction in her script, and who can blame her? She quickly shows up to drag Garibaldi away from fellow security guard Lou and straight to his quarters. Well, supposedly dinner was involved, but that's a nonstarter. What she's after is sex, sex, sex, and he gets a little timid by way of reciting his character development over the course of the first 30 episodes, and she mentally checks out because, again, sex. She leaves angrily after explaining that she could die any day and she's got no time for romance. The heart's in the right place with this story, showcasing differences in approach and people who connect physically but operate on separate playing fields, but the abruptness and the straddling and the Daffy Duck poster... it's all too much. In fact, I made you a very special little video to commemorate just how much "too much" truly is.
I may have issues.
The episode's ending is definitive B5. It's a stark reminder that sad, bad things can happen in the coldness of space. General Franklin survives the assault on Planet Wherever, but just about everyone else we've seen is dead. In fact, the only character in more than a single scene who isn't shown sprawled out lifeless is that devilish jerkface. I like to think this is Larry's clever way of telling us why the guy is such a jerkface. Dude's probably some in-depth saga-spinning tragic hero who's watched all his mates kick the curb too many times to give a damn. That's what I like to think. I also think it's very telling that space age CNN parody "ISN" -- more on them in future reviews, you'd best believe it -- glosses over the significant losses. Not necessarily because the reporter isn't interested (although her actress sure ain't interested) but because he's called aside before he can openly discuss how many troops paid the iron price. It's entirely possible I'm reading between too many lines in a mad bid to make sense of a goofy, goofy, goofy episode with a suddenly somber gut punch. Maybe I should dial it down. Maybe I should leave you with the true hero I keep talking up. Maybe you'll see what makes him legendary. Maybe then you'll understand.
Seriously though, what the stroking hell was this dude's game plan here?
Timeless. Classic. Unforgettable. Absolutely incredible. None of these words suit the quality of "GROPOS", yet all of them apply. A string cheese collection of side stories which actually manages to grow cheesier with each passing scene, held together by a surprisingly competent father/son framework. "GROPOS" is bizarre, it's James Cameron's Aliens without the action or even the sci-fi, it's laughable jarhead schlock 101. It revels in it, unknowingly, its Larry DiTillo script chock full o' the kind of lame goofy space show one-liners that give the genre a bad name in some circles. It thinks it's effective -- you can just feel the pulse in Christopher Franke's beats, the rhythm of the war drum, the oomph -- but it's wrong. Like the poor ill-fated souls at the end of the episode, complete with a close-up of Warren "Who?" Keffer himself, it's destined to fail at almost all its emotional plays. It's decisively, aggressively mediocre, and I kind of love it.
General Franklin arrives at the station with 25,000 of his Ground Pounders, the term for infantry we'd previously heard earlier this season. He's gruff, no-nonsense, and he's on a secret mission to launch an attack on a certain world. The world itself is irrelevant; it's probably mentioned again, but it's a very one-off schtick. What's important is that EarthForce has the OK from one faction to help wipe out the other so they can stage a presence in the sector, which is near to the Narn-Centauri battle line. EarthForce is making increasingly militaristic decisions, something Sheridan isn't yet calling out but you can tell he's a bit uncomfortable. Sheridan is also uncomfortable with Franklin's odds; he says the fortress they're targeting is impregnable, and Bronn isn't around to make the obvious low-brow joke.
Not that we'll be deprived of lowered brows at almost any point in this episode. We'll talk about that in a second but first I want to address the stuff here that legitimately works on all levels: Stephen and his father. General Franklin is our good doctor's old man, and both Richard Biggs and guest star Paul Winfield are firing on all cylinders here. Their chemistry is rock-solid; I can buy into their fictional relationship from square one. The interplay is also very savvy and believable, which makes the rest of the episode all the more unusual. The resolution feels earned, because the conflict was appreciable and the stages toward an understanding are very human. Stephen's chat with Susan, which calls back to her own fatherly struggles, is a nice touch. Bravo, Larry.
To very loosely paraphrase a guest character named Sergeant Major Plug, "here's where it all goes to stroking."
The GROPOS are taking up every last inch of spare room on the station, and naturally they're a rowdy bunch. How rowdy? Rowdy enough for not one but two bar fights, including one which I get the impression is designed as some kind of narrative climax/catharsis hybrid but instead it's a comedy. It also gives us the episode's true hero, but I won't spoil that surprise just yet. The GROPOS are also rowdy enough for Warren Keffer to earn a B-Plot, so you know they mean business, because it's literally Keffer. Keffer gets shacked with a couple of GROPO bunkmates, a young dude and a very loud and large dude who never stops trading war stories. In Keffer's B-Plot's first of two scenes, Robert Rusler struggles to convince me he's dissatisfied with the new arrangement, and ends up getting a cigar shoved into his mouth in what I believe is intended to be an endearing scene of rushed bonding. In Keffer's B-Plot's second of two scenes, the very loud and large dude imitates an upset stomach via verbal gesture, goes to the latrine long enough for the young dude to reveal that the very loud and large dude lost a friend in the Mars Rebellion but nowhere near long enough to convince me that he remedied his troubled stomach, and then they all reach for their beers but get interrupted by a recurring angsty GROPO (I've slightly modified his appearance in the above picture to more accurately represent his character) who triggers the comedy bar brawl climax. Which, as I previously mentioned, gives us the episode's true hero. But, also as previously mentioned, I won't spoil that surprise just yet.
By the way, the dialogue is fantastic.
Garibaldi shows some depth in a subplot of his own, and that's the only nice thing I can say about this subplot, is that he shows some depth. After the first bar brawl -- not the comedy, but still unintentionally funny -- he meets a GROPO named Dodger who is instantly infatuated with him. When she introduces herself, she says "they call me Dodger", and she says it with such little conviction in her script, and who can blame her? She quickly shows up to drag Garibaldi away from fellow security guard Lou and straight to his quarters. Well, supposedly dinner was involved, but that's a nonstarter. What she's after is sex, sex, sex, and he gets a little timid by way of reciting his character development over the course of the first 30 episodes, and she mentally checks out because, again, sex. She leaves angrily after explaining that she could die any day and she's got no time for romance. The heart's in the right place with this story, showcasing differences in approach and people who connect physically but operate on separate playing fields, but the abruptness and the straddling and the Daffy Duck poster... it's all too much. In fact, I made you a very special little video to commemorate just how much "too much" truly is.
I may have issues.
The episode's ending is definitive B5. It's a stark reminder that sad, bad things can happen in the coldness of space. General Franklin survives the assault on Planet Wherever, but just about everyone else we've seen is dead. In fact, the only character in more than a single scene who isn't shown sprawled out lifeless is that devilish jerkface. I like to think this is Larry's clever way of telling us why the guy is such a jerkface. Dude's probably some in-depth saga-spinning tragic hero who's watched all his mates kick the curb too many times to give a damn. That's what I like to think. I also think it's very telling that space age CNN parody "ISN" -- more on them in future reviews, you'd best believe it -- glosses over the significant losses. Not necessarily because the reporter isn't interested (although her actress sure ain't interested) but because he's called aside before he can openly discuss how many troops paid the iron price. It's entirely possible I'm reading between too many lines in a mad bid to make sense of a goofy, goofy, goofy episode with a suddenly somber gut punch. Maybe I should dial it down. Maybe I should leave you with the true hero I keep talking up. Maybe you'll see what makes him legendary. Maybe then you'll understand.
Seriously though, what the stroking hell was this dude's game plan here?
"Babylon Squared"
Just like with "Signs and Portents", this is all mostly setup, promising a lot but making us wait for the inevitable payoff. That said, a lot of it is pretty interesting, both the A-story on Babylon 5 and Delenn's B-story adventures. Normally at this point, I should see the pieces being moved around for the finale but B5's ambition is such that there are pieces clearly being moved around for episodes far beyond that as well.
I remembering LOATHING Zathras back in the early 00s when I first watched this episode but maybe age has tempered my irritation. He's still kinda irritating (all characters who refer to themselves in the third person are) but I don't find myself wanting to punch him anymore. There's a vulnerability to him that is touching beyond his usual obfuscations.
It's just a shame that the low-budget nature of the show is hurting its ability to deliver its ambitions, especially obvious in episodes like this which try harder. The sets look cheap, the visual effects look cheap, the music sounds cheap. Some might consider all of this charming and quaint but I just wish they had Star Trek's cash.
(I'm not as convinced at the episode's occasional attempts at comedy. It doesn't quite feel natural for these characters to behave in this way for some reason.)
"The Quality of Mercy"
While the serialized eps have been notably improving in the back half of the season, it's also good to see that the standalones are also better. This was pretty solid, overall. The A-story with Franklin was at first getting dangerously close to being a "Believers" retread but it looks like he actually learned some things from that episode after all.
I also appreciated how the B-story with the killer dovetailed its way into the A-story (although perhaps inevitably). The implications of that alien machine are unsettling and it is perhaps for the best that the episode chooses not to explore them.
The C-story with Londo and Lennier didn't leave much of an impression on me but we did get to see Centauri penis. Which intriguingly looks just like that freaky alien Londo was afraid of in an earlier ep. I'm guessing this was a practical choice but it amuses me nonetheless.
Star Trek alumni watch: Mark Rolston, I'm assuming typecast in the role of the creepy serial murderer. He played the exact same role in TNG. He also appeared in Enterprise but no one cares about that.
(One complaint. I live with a very painful illness. I didn't buy for a second that Rosen also had one. Lockhart is good in the role but for whatever reason, the illness she's suffering from doesn't really come across, aside from general exhaustion, also caused from the machine's effects.)
Just like with "Signs and Portents", this is all mostly setup, promising a lot but making us wait for the inevitable payoff. That said, a lot of it is pretty interesting, both the A-story on Babylon 5 and Delenn's B-story adventures. Normally at this point, I should see the pieces being moved around for the finale but B5's ambition is such that there are pieces clearly being moved around for episodes far beyond that as well.
I remembering LOATHING Zathras back in the early 00s when I first watched this episode but maybe age has tempered my irritation. He's still kinda irritating (all characters who refer to themselves in the third person are) but I don't find myself wanting to punch him anymore. There's a vulnerability to him that is touching beyond his usual obfuscations.
It's just a shame that the low-budget nature of the show is hurting its ability to deliver its ambitions, especially obvious in episodes like this which try harder. The sets look cheap, the visual effects look cheap, the music sounds cheap. Some might consider all of this charming and quaint but I just wish they had Star Trek's cash.
(I'm not as convinced at the episode's occasional attempts at comedy. It doesn't quite feel natural for these characters to behave in this way for some reason.)
"The Quality of Mercy"
While the serialized eps have been notably improving in the back half of the season, it's also good to see that the standalones are also better. This was pretty solid, overall. The A-story with Franklin was at first getting dangerously close to being a "Believers" retread but it looks like he actually learned some things from that episode after all.
I also appreciated how the B-story with the killer dovetailed its way into the A-story (although perhaps inevitably). The implications of that alien machine are unsettling and it is perhaps for the best that the episode chooses not to explore them.
The C-story with Londo and Lennier didn't leave much of an impression on me but we did get to see Centauri penis. Which intriguingly looks just like that freaky alien Londo was afraid of in an earlier ep. I'm guessing this was a practical choice but it amuses me nonetheless.
Star Trek alumni watch: Mark Rolston, I'm assuming typecast in the role of the creepy serial murderer. He played the exact same role in TNG. He also appeared in Enterprise but no one cares about that.
(One complaint. I live with a very painful illness. I didn't buy for a second that Rosen also had one. Lockhart is good in the role but for whatever reason, the illness she's suffering from doesn't really come across, aside from general exhaustion, also caused from the machine's effects.)
weemadarthur
Member
I'm back from a week of getting behind Jeff, to comment on the next two episodes, which incidentally Jeff already wrote up.
Coming of Shadows was pretty sweet, all things considered. The conspiracies, while obvious, are handled well. Londo starts to consider the future implications of his actions but for some reason still thinks the Centauri place in the universe comes from war instead of trade. G'Kar is cockblocked by Death itself. The too-good-for-this-world emperor leaves it peacefully, a really big surprise. Some scary shadow ships do things. I like this sort of sci fi.
Then we hit Gropos, and it all falls apart. A bunch of military jargon, babby's first father-son wishful-thinking dialogue, Garibaldi somehow not recognizing his own female counterpart. NuSinclair looks good because he gives the General data on the assault, OldSinclair looks creepy and weird per spec, he has become a prophecy instead of a person - like Sisko having emissary visions. We are pushed to care about a batch of single episode wankers, the problem here being that I FEEL pushed to care, and therefore don't care. Also they are all wankers, so..... Lotta cringe here, with neatly wrapped-up-in-a-bow-within-30-minutes family drama worthy of the Brady Bunch. I can't.
Susan didn't get any funny lines. Where did her snark go?
Coming of Shadows was pretty sweet, all things considered. The conspiracies, while obvious, are handled well. Londo starts to consider the future implications of his actions but for some reason still thinks the Centauri place in the universe comes from war instead of trade. G'Kar is cockblocked by Death itself. The too-good-for-this-world emperor leaves it peacefully, a really big surprise. Some scary shadow ships do things. I like this sort of sci fi.
Then we hit Gropos, and it all falls apart. A bunch of military jargon, babby's first father-son wishful-thinking dialogue, Garibaldi somehow not recognizing his own female counterpart. NuSinclair looks good because he gives the General data on the assault, OldSinclair looks creepy and weird per spec, he has become a prophecy instead of a person - like Sisko having emissary visions. We are pushed to care about a batch of single episode wankers, the problem here being that I FEEL pushed to care, and therefore don't care. Also they are all wankers, so..... Lotta cringe here, with neatly wrapped-up-in-a-bow-within-30-minutes family drama worthy of the Brady Bunch. I can't.
Susan didn't get any funny lines.
Where did her snark go?I watched 1x22-2x02 last night. I'm really tired so I'm not going to make full comments on them but will say that the difference in quality at the beginning of season 2 is notable. The direction is more confident, the music is less jarring and Boxleitner has an immediate charisma that O'Hare never quite managed. Basically, I feel like I actually *want* to watch the show now, as opposed to forcing myself through episodes that were hit and miss.
(The station also feels a little brighter, much like the difference between early TNG and TNG season 3.)
(The station also feels a little brighter, much like the difference between early TNG and TNG season 3.)
Pegasus Actual
Member
Boxleitner is such a cheeseball. I'll take O'Hare's wooden grumbly lead any day over that. As for Franke and his music... it's ok for me. It doesn't really bother me that much during the show. But I don't really like the S3 theme. It's kind of weird that they pretty much use the main Babylon 5 theme for 3 seasons and then have two completely different themes thrown in for S3 and S5. S3 is way over the top and dramatic while lacking in the melody department. I don't get it.
Davey Cakes
Member
I'll admit, when I first watched the show it took some time to get used to Sheridan. As much as Sinclair is a void of charisma, I warmed up to him over the course of S1.
That said, in time I learned to appreciate Sheridan. I think I was 100% sold in Season 3 when he had a dramatic conversation with Kosh.
That said, in time I learned to appreciate Sheridan. I think I was 100% sold in Season 3 when he had a dramatic conversation with Kosh.
"The Geometry of Shadows"
As Jeff points out, it's very difficult to take an episode with technomages seriously. It's such an absurd word and the entire concept is handled with a great deal of cheese. But it's entertaining cheese and everyone involved is committed to it. A goofy Ivanova subplot adds to the feeling of an episode which almost spins out of control. They hold it together, somehow.
As usual with the show, it's the more serious moments that stood out to me, like:
1: Londo continuing to sell his soul and the first appearance of Refa. Watch the various expressions on poor Vir's face.
2: The Garibaldi/Sheridan scene (guest starring a PPG), which is handled with great subtlety.
3: The deeply unsettling final conversation between Elric and Londo, which has some snappy dialogue.
So, maybe not top-grade B5 but I had a reasonably good time watching it.
Star Trek alumni watch: Michael Ansara, taking time off from being Kang.
"A Distant Star"
Well, that was pretty crappy. Perhaps not as bad as some of the season 1 offerings but aside from a healthy explanation of B5's space travel rules, I'm struggling to find anything to recommend here. It just feels... off.
Part of the problem is that Russ Tamblyn fails to inhabit his character with any warmth (or much of anything). And most of the actors around him (his crew) are even worse. This rescue mission was doomed before it started because I didn't care about anyone on board (although I did kinda like Franke's majestic theme for the Cortez).
As for the Franklin B-story, it comes straight out of sitcom land. Broad comedy isn't what this show does best but I'll admit that the scene where Ivanova, Sheridan and Geribaldi swapped food (or tried to) made me smile.
As Jeff points out, it's very difficult to take an episode with technomages seriously. It's such an absurd word and the entire concept is handled with a great deal of cheese. But it's entertaining cheese and everyone involved is committed to it. A goofy Ivanova subplot adds to the feeling of an episode which almost spins out of control. They hold it together, somehow.
As usual with the show, it's the more serious moments that stood out to me, like:
1: Londo continuing to sell his soul and the first appearance of Refa. Watch the various expressions on poor Vir's face.
2: The Garibaldi/Sheridan scene (guest starring a PPG), which is handled with great subtlety.
3: The deeply unsettling final conversation between Elric and Londo, which has some snappy dialogue.
So, maybe not top-grade B5 but I had a reasonably good time watching it.
Star Trek alumni watch: Michael Ansara, taking time off from being Kang.
"A Distant Star"
Well, that was pretty crappy. Perhaps not as bad as some of the season 1 offerings but aside from a healthy explanation of B5's space travel rules, I'm struggling to find anything to recommend here. It just feels... off.
Part of the problem is that Russ Tamblyn fails to inhabit his character with any warmth (or much of anything). And most of the actors around him (his crew) are even worse. This rescue mission was doomed before it started because I didn't care about anyone on board (although I did kinda like Franke's majestic theme for the Cortez).
As for the Franklin B-story, it comes straight out of sitcom land. Broad comedy isn't what this show does best but I'll admit that the scene where Ivanova, Sheridan and Geribaldi swapped food (or tried to) made me smile.
Today's double helping comes through mobile texting, where it's harder to gauge the size of images and thumbs develop blisters if left to the rambling of the mind. Hopefully I'll still do them justice!
"All Alone in the Night"
What if you woke up and you'd been abducted by grey aliens? What if you weren't even Fox Mulder? What if you weren't Fox Mulder and this wasn't even the somewhat underrated one-season 90s wonder Dark Skies? I had a childhood crush on the lead chick in that show. Anyway, let's say you awoke on a ship piloted by grey aliens with a penchant for abducting people and you then parroted one aspect and one aspect only of 80s cult hit Enemy Mine, specifically the part where you and your new otherworldly friend beat each other with pipes before working together. Let's say you're John Sheridan and your writer really wants you to go on a painful little sidequest before coming home to -- rather suddenly -- one of the most important scenes in the first two seasons. Let's say the year is 2259 and the name of the place is Babylon 5.
"All Alone in the Night" sees John Sheridan eager to log some flight hours so he doesn't lose his bonus pay, which is very much JMS staring into the camera winking preemptively at everyone who would inevitably complain that the commanding officer is in a Starfury. He's accompanied by two nameless dudes and a hotshot baseball-loving kid named Ramirez. We know Ramirez loves baseball because he's given a pre-flight introductory scene where he makes a baseball-related bet with Dr. Franklin. Ramirez soon limps home from a fatal dose of radiation, the nameless companions are dead, and our captain is captured. It's easy to feel for Franklin, who hates this loss of life and laments the fact that he'll never be able to pay up that 30 credits he wagered, and it isn't too big a stretch to feel for Ramirez, either. Sure, we don't really know him from Adam, but in the aftermath of the alien attack, he regained consciousness, realized he was already dead, and used the last of his time to warn the station that Sheridan is a prisoner.
Sheridan wakes up covered in plastic wrap with a knife zeroing in on him. One could be forgiven for wondering if the man has become a turkey. He's cut on the cheek, then let loose to fight a low-level fellow prisoner in the ship's starting zone. His only reward for winning is survival; the alien is not so well-treated. Soon, he's face-to-face with a Narn, and they'll team up to fail at lifting a door. Eventually, that burgeoning bond will see them safely off the ship just before it blows. All the other prisoners are spaced. I'll be honest; this story is, for the most part, weak. If you've seen Star Trek: Enterprise, you can think of this as largely aiming to meet the "Archer is imprisoned at least twice per season" quota. They're both Johns, even. Except there's something important tucked away. Something with a lot of lip liner.
Kosh communicates with Sheridan while he's caught, and for some reason -- hmm! -- Ivanova is involved. "You have always been here," Kosh says. When Sheridan is returned to B5, Kosh will say it again. In 2009, during my initial adult rewatch, I had just come into the possession of a cat. This cat has a knack for laying places in such a fashion as to trick all onlookers into believing she has always been there. Having just seen this episode, I began to remark that "cat has always been here." To this day, I say these words to this cat. That's your JeffZero life lesson for the week. Amazing, I know.
Delenn has a story this episode, too. Delenn's story is, in a word, better. She's been summoned to see the rest of the Grey Council, proving that grey is the color of the hour. There's a wonderful little scene before she departs in which Lennier swears himself to her and refuses to let her go alone. I have to confess, it strikes me that the show could have done a better job building Lennier up to this point. I know from past experience that from this point on there will be a good deal of content revolving around his dedication to the woman, but his early appearances are not as frequently tied to her as I'd expected. As such, the friend I mentioned in the OP who is making his way through the show for the first time was a bit thrown by this scene, and wonders if perhaps Lennier is a spy. I think he's thrown that question by the wayside by now (he's just seen "The Long Twilight Struggle" for reference) but I can sort of see where he was coming from. Nevertheless, it's a good scene, and it's endearing. Delenn relents, allowing him to tag along.
Once she's made it to the Grey Council, Delenn is summarily stripped of her position and only just barely allowed to maintain her role as ambassador on B5. She's mocked for her new appearance, scorned for taking matters into her own hands, and trivialized for her belief that prophecy must he tended-to rather than merely attended. She owns this; she accepts it. What she cannot accept is the appointment of Neroon of the warrior caste as her replacement. This position breaks the balance of the three castes within the Council, giving the warriors an edge. Neroon, who when last we'd seen him was telling Sinclair that a trust between humans and Minbari may not be impossible, has suddenly become an antagonist in Delenn's eyes.
It's a good plot, but it still isn't the ultimate winner here. For once both Sheridan and Delenn have completed their separate pieces, Sheridan resumes leadership over the rest of the episode, meeting with General Hague to discuss a sensitive matter. Hague, who had been waiting for Sheridan's return from capture, asks for a status report. Sheridan drops the bombshell (to us viewers, that is) that he's essentially been spying on the command staff in order to assess their trustworthiness. His real mission here, which he remarks has already taken six months, has been to get the pulse of the situation. Earth is going through significant changes, and Hague believes Santiago's death was not an accident. After Hague leaves, Sheridan calls Ivanova, Garibaldi, and Franklin to his quarters. It is there that he reveals his suspicions and asks the team to risk criminal charges in a bid to uncover the truth. They agree, and we've learned more than enough about each of them that the agreement feels meaningful and earned. It's easily the best couple of scenes in the episode, and it advances the show's growing level of intrigue. Babylon 5 has taken the first step away from the blind orders the folks back home have been spinning.
"Acts of Sacrifice"
"Acts of Sacrifice" is pretty good. It pushes the Narn/Centauri War forward through characterizing the respective ambassadors, which is precisely the sort of thing B5 fans rant about. The series is written politically in a believable and real-world applicable fashion, and a lot of that comes from these two characters. Here, Londo is up to his eyeballs in favor requests from countless Centauri who had barely even recognized his presence on the station until his career began to take a sharp upturn. He commiserates over this, hoping to bring his "good and dear friend" Michael Garibaldi to drinks with him. But Garibaldi is keeping his distance from him lately, irritated by Londo's actions. This may not seem important, but the actors sell it well, and it reveals a great deal about Londo's psyche at this point. What's more, there's a powerful resolution at the end of the episode, but more on that later.
G'Kar is arguably the star of "Acts of Sacrifice", running from Sheridan to Delenn in hopes of securing military aid in the war his people are losing. Earth can't help, a man peculiarly surrounded by household fans tells Sheridan via comm, and Delenn raises an excellent point in similar refusal: namely, that the Narn's recent actions prior to the war tell her if Minbari assisted them now, the Centauri would need help in just a few years. After all, G'Kar himself had made it well-known not so long ago he'd rather live in a universe completely devoid of Centauri. This is what makes G'Kar so fascinating already. He knows, and has to own, the fact that Delenn is right. His people's suffering has returned, but his desire for revenge is so strong that were positions reversed, were shadowy fortunes reversed, he would revel in it. Yet he is a man of conscience nevertheless somehow, and it pains him to recognize the truth in Delenn's words. It's all so very well put-together. It's also a considerable degree more interesting than his plot in the first season.
But that's not where G'Kar's story ends today. Rather, it's only one piece of it. G'Kar has meetings with other Narn, many of whom seek bloodshed for the fallen Narn on the front lines of the war. G'Kar is put into the unenviable place of needing to mediate that dangerous compulsion despite obviously sharing the sentiment to a point. A Centauri ends up dead thanks to the uproar, enraging Sheridan enough that G'Kar has no choice but to intervene. He will ultimately need to take on the most insatiable of the Narns head-to-head, physically, in a rather alien (although surprisingly passably-choreographed) duel. Na'Toth tags along, too, but her newer actress lacks the zesty zeal of the original, sounding oddly meek in her appeal to let him take her with him. It's disappointing but hardly significant, much like her role itself. G'Kar successfully manages to unite the Narns to his point of view, and when Sheridan and Delenn call him to Sheridan's office, he's giddy at the prospect that recent events have compelled them to see reason and send military support. But that is not why they've called him. They've devised a plan to help smuggle out Narn refugees through Franklin's little underground telepath railroad -- nice continuity! -- and they thought he'd be happier. He feigns it. No doubt on some level he is grateful that Narn lives will be saved, but happy? No. In G'Kar's mind, it will only postpone inevitable destruction. In G'Kar's mind, he has lost.
But that's not why you're here, is it?
Let me tell you something. When I google-searched "Babylon 5 Acts of Sacrifice", this B-Plot took over the search results. And not the part where the alien leader Susan is assigned to negotiate with grandstands at Franklin about how evolution should be served so he must avoid treating those who are not human. Nor the part where the alien leader explains to Susan the importance of determining whether a race is inferior before opening his own mouth to let his words be heard rather than rely upon an interpreter. Not even the part where the decision is made to open up relations with humanity because we disregard homeless people so we must be wise beyond our years. No, my friends. Google, like many of the rest of us with any level of attraction to women, is particularly enthusiastic about the utterly ridiculous string of post-mission scenes in which the alien leader reveals that he simply must have sex with Susan Ivanova lest the union be left incomplete.
Franklin finds this hysterical enough that his advice is to throw a paper bag over the man and "take one for B5." He's left aghast when Susan decides he's right; I'm pretty sure he's also bewildered and mildly disappointed, wondering if scoring with her could be in his own ballpark now. I'm being crass here, but I definitely saw it on his face. If it wasn't scripted, then I can tell you the late Richard Biggs was surely curious. Susan thus invites the alien to her quarters. I should take this opportunity to note that before this, uh, climactic sequence, the man literally stole her lingerie. Yes, we are in fact dealing with a stereotypical sleazy old dude anime pervert stereotype, right here on Babylon 5. I'd feign speechlessness, but this isn't what floors me. What floors me is Susan's solution. I need to be real with you here. Susan clucks, dances terribly in circles around the old horndog, imitates the hip hop genre, rhymes about one-night stands, and then delivers the most over-the-top fake orgasm noise I have ever heard on television. And I have seen all 62 episodes of Game of Thrones and counting. I couldn't believe what was happening here. The year isn't 2259, it's 1995, and right here on famed network PTEN, Claudia Christian is wailing. I mean, she is wailing. In the interest of equality, I will say that no matter who JMS had doing this, I'd be equally floored. Imagine if it were Michael O'Hare. Hell, what if it were Kosh's voice actor? I'd tell you to imagine Andreas Katsulas, but he came close enough to it in one of those dastardly first-season plots, anyway. Yet there is a certain personal investment in my seeing Claudia Christian here specifically. And I will. Leave it. At. That.
Pretend I'm at a Starbucks sipping a pumpkin spice latte, because when it comes to the conclusion of Susan Ivanova's B-Plot, ladies and gentlemen, I literally can't even.
But we'll end things on that Londo and Garibaldi scene I mentioned earlier. At the closing of the episode, Garibaldi finally makes it for that drink Londo so desperately wanted. "It is good to have friends, yes?" Londo asks. "Even if only for a little while?" Garibaldi nods. "Even if only for a little while." Remember never to click on spoiler tags if this is your first time through the journey.
"All Alone in the Night"
What if you woke up and you'd been abducted by grey aliens? What if you weren't even Fox Mulder? What if you weren't Fox Mulder and this wasn't even the somewhat underrated one-season 90s wonder Dark Skies? I had a childhood crush on the lead chick in that show. Anyway, let's say you awoke on a ship piloted by grey aliens with a penchant for abducting people and you then parroted one aspect and one aspect only of 80s cult hit Enemy Mine, specifically the part where you and your new otherworldly friend beat each other with pipes before working together. Let's say you're John Sheridan and your writer really wants you to go on a painful little sidequest before coming home to -- rather suddenly -- one of the most important scenes in the first two seasons. Let's say the year is 2259 and the name of the place is Babylon 5.
"All Alone in the Night" sees John Sheridan eager to log some flight hours so he doesn't lose his bonus pay, which is very much JMS staring into the camera winking preemptively at everyone who would inevitably complain that the commanding officer is in a Starfury. He's accompanied by two nameless dudes and a hotshot baseball-loving kid named Ramirez. We know Ramirez loves baseball because he's given a pre-flight introductory scene where he makes a baseball-related bet with Dr. Franklin. Ramirez soon limps home from a fatal dose of radiation, the nameless companions are dead, and our captain is captured. It's easy to feel for Franklin, who hates this loss of life and laments the fact that he'll never be able to pay up that 30 credits he wagered, and it isn't too big a stretch to feel for Ramirez, either. Sure, we don't really know him from Adam, but in the aftermath of the alien attack, he regained consciousness, realized he was already dead, and used the last of his time to warn the station that Sheridan is a prisoner.
Sheridan wakes up covered in plastic wrap with a knife zeroing in on him. One could be forgiven for wondering if the man has become a turkey. He's cut on the cheek, then let loose to fight a low-level fellow prisoner in the ship's starting zone. His only reward for winning is survival; the alien is not so well-treated. Soon, he's face-to-face with a Narn, and they'll team up to fail at lifting a door. Eventually, that burgeoning bond will see them safely off the ship just before it blows. All the other prisoners are spaced. I'll be honest; this story is, for the most part, weak. If you've seen Star Trek: Enterprise, you can think of this as largely aiming to meet the "Archer is imprisoned at least twice per season" quota. They're both Johns, even. Except there's something important tucked away. Something with a lot of lip liner.
Kosh communicates with Sheridan while he's caught, and for some reason -- hmm! -- Ivanova is involved. "You have always been here," Kosh says. When Sheridan is returned to B5, Kosh will say it again. In 2009, during my initial adult rewatch, I had just come into the possession of a cat. This cat has a knack for laying places in such a fashion as to trick all onlookers into believing she has always been there. Having just seen this episode, I began to remark that "cat has always been here." To this day, I say these words to this cat. That's your JeffZero life lesson for the week. Amazing, I know.
Delenn has a story this episode, too. Delenn's story is, in a word, better. She's been summoned to see the rest of the Grey Council, proving that grey is the color of the hour. There's a wonderful little scene before she departs in which Lennier swears himself to her and refuses to let her go alone. I have to confess, it strikes me that the show could have done a better job building Lennier up to this point. I know from past experience that from this point on there will be a good deal of content revolving around his dedication to the woman, but his early appearances are not as frequently tied to her as I'd expected. As such, the friend I mentioned in the OP who is making his way through the show for the first time was a bit thrown by this scene, and wonders if perhaps Lennier is a spy. I think he's thrown that question by the wayside by now (he's just seen "The Long Twilight Struggle" for reference) but I can sort of see where he was coming from. Nevertheless, it's a good scene, and it's endearing. Delenn relents, allowing him to tag along.
Once she's made it to the Grey Council, Delenn is summarily stripped of her position and only just barely allowed to maintain her role as ambassador on B5. She's mocked for her new appearance, scorned for taking matters into her own hands, and trivialized for her belief that prophecy must he tended-to rather than merely attended. She owns this; she accepts it. What she cannot accept is the appointment of Neroon of the warrior caste as her replacement. This position breaks the balance of the three castes within the Council, giving the warriors an edge. Neroon, who when last we'd seen him was telling Sinclair that a trust between humans and Minbari may not be impossible, has suddenly become an antagonist in Delenn's eyes.
It's a good plot, but it still isn't the ultimate winner here. For once both Sheridan and Delenn have completed their separate pieces, Sheridan resumes leadership over the rest of the episode, meeting with General Hague to discuss a sensitive matter. Hague, who had been waiting for Sheridan's return from capture, asks for a status report. Sheridan drops the bombshell (to us viewers, that is) that he's essentially been spying on the command staff in order to assess their trustworthiness. His real mission here, which he remarks has already taken six months, has been to get the pulse of the situation. Earth is going through significant changes, and Hague believes Santiago's death was not an accident. After Hague leaves, Sheridan calls Ivanova, Garibaldi, and Franklin to his quarters. It is there that he reveals his suspicions and asks the team to risk criminal charges in a bid to uncover the truth. They agree, and we've learned more than enough about each of them that the agreement feels meaningful and earned. It's easily the best couple of scenes in the episode, and it advances the show's growing level of intrigue. Babylon 5 has taken the first step away from the blind orders the folks back home have been spinning.
"Acts of Sacrifice"
"Acts of Sacrifice" is pretty good. It pushes the Narn/Centauri War forward through characterizing the respective ambassadors, which is precisely the sort of thing B5 fans rant about. The series is written politically in a believable and real-world applicable fashion, and a lot of that comes from these two characters. Here, Londo is up to his eyeballs in favor requests from countless Centauri who had barely even recognized his presence on the station until his career began to take a sharp upturn. He commiserates over this, hoping to bring his "good and dear friend" Michael Garibaldi to drinks with him. But Garibaldi is keeping his distance from him lately, irritated by Londo's actions. This may not seem important, but the actors sell it well, and it reveals a great deal about Londo's psyche at this point. What's more, there's a powerful resolution at the end of the episode, but more on that later.
G'Kar is arguably the star of "Acts of Sacrifice", running from Sheridan to Delenn in hopes of securing military aid in the war his people are losing. Earth can't help, a man peculiarly surrounded by household fans tells Sheridan via comm, and Delenn raises an excellent point in similar refusal: namely, that the Narn's recent actions prior to the war tell her if Minbari assisted them now, the Centauri would need help in just a few years. After all, G'Kar himself had made it well-known not so long ago he'd rather live in a universe completely devoid of Centauri. This is what makes G'Kar so fascinating already. He knows, and has to own, the fact that Delenn is right. His people's suffering has returned, but his desire for revenge is so strong that were positions reversed, were shadowy fortunes reversed, he would revel in it. Yet he is a man of conscience nevertheless somehow, and it pains him to recognize the truth in Delenn's words. It's all so very well put-together. It's also a considerable degree more interesting than his plot in the first season.
But that's not where G'Kar's story ends today. Rather, it's only one piece of it. G'Kar has meetings with other Narn, many of whom seek bloodshed for the fallen Narn on the front lines of the war. G'Kar is put into the unenviable place of needing to mediate that dangerous compulsion despite obviously sharing the sentiment to a point. A Centauri ends up dead thanks to the uproar, enraging Sheridan enough that G'Kar has no choice but to intervene. He will ultimately need to take on the most insatiable of the Narns head-to-head, physically, in a rather alien (although surprisingly passably-choreographed) duel. Na'Toth tags along, too, but her newer actress lacks the zesty zeal of the original, sounding oddly meek in her appeal to let him take her with him. It's disappointing but hardly significant, much like her role itself. G'Kar successfully manages to unite the Narns to his point of view, and when Sheridan and Delenn call him to Sheridan's office, he's giddy at the prospect that recent events have compelled them to see reason and send military support. But that is not why they've called him. They've devised a plan to help smuggle out Narn refugees through Franklin's little underground telepath railroad -- nice continuity! -- and they thought he'd be happier. He feigns it. No doubt on some level he is grateful that Narn lives will be saved, but happy? No. In G'Kar's mind, it will only postpone inevitable destruction. In G'Kar's mind, he has lost.
But that's not why you're here, is it?
Let me tell you something. When I google-searched "Babylon 5 Acts of Sacrifice", this B-Plot took over the search results. And not the part where the alien leader Susan is assigned to negotiate with grandstands at Franklin about how evolution should be served so he must avoid treating those who are not human. Nor the part where the alien leader explains to Susan the importance of determining whether a race is inferior before opening his own mouth to let his words be heard rather than rely upon an interpreter. Not even the part where the decision is made to open up relations with humanity because we disregard homeless people so we must be wise beyond our years. No, my friends. Google, like many of the rest of us with any level of attraction to women, is particularly enthusiastic about the utterly ridiculous string of post-mission scenes in which the alien leader reveals that he simply must have sex with Susan Ivanova lest the union be left incomplete.
Franklin finds this hysterical enough that his advice is to throw a paper bag over the man and "take one for B5." He's left aghast when Susan decides he's right; I'm pretty sure he's also bewildered and mildly disappointed, wondering if scoring with her could be in his own ballpark now. I'm being crass here, but I definitely saw it on his face. If it wasn't scripted, then I can tell you the late Richard Biggs was surely curious. Susan thus invites the alien to her quarters. I should take this opportunity to note that before this, uh, climactic sequence, the man literally stole her lingerie. Yes, we are in fact dealing with a stereotypical sleazy old dude anime pervert stereotype, right here on Babylon 5. I'd feign speechlessness, but this isn't what floors me. What floors me is Susan's solution. I need to be real with you here. Susan clucks, dances terribly in circles around the old horndog, imitates the hip hop genre, rhymes about one-night stands, and then delivers the most over-the-top fake orgasm noise I have ever heard on television. And I have seen all 62 episodes of Game of Thrones and counting. I couldn't believe what was happening here. The year isn't 2259, it's 1995, and right here on famed network PTEN, Claudia Christian is wailing. I mean, she is wailing. In the interest of equality, I will say that no matter who JMS had doing this, I'd be equally floored. Imagine if it were Michael O'Hare. Hell, what if it were Kosh's voice actor? I'd tell you to imagine Andreas Katsulas, but he came close enough to it in one of those dastardly first-season plots, anyway. Yet there is a certain personal investment in my seeing Claudia Christian here specifically. And I will. Leave it. At. That.
Pretend I'm at a Starbucks sipping a pumpkin spice latte, because when it comes to the conclusion of Susan Ivanova's B-Plot, ladies and gentlemen, I literally can't even.
But we'll end things on that Londo and Garibaldi scene I mentioned earlier. At the closing of the episode, Garibaldi finally makes it for that drink Londo so desperately wanted. "It is good to have friends, yes?" Londo asks. "Even if only for a little while?" Garibaldi nods. "Even if only for a little while." Remember never to click on spoiler tags if this is your first time through the journey.
Considering the fates of both these characters, this is a scene that will haunt me for the rest of the week.
"Babylon Squared"
Just like with "Signs and Portents", this is all mostly setup, promising a lot but making us wait for the inevitable payoff. That said, a lot of it is pretty interesting, both the A-story on Babylon 5 and Delenn's B-story adventures. Normally at this point, I should see the pieces being moved around for the finale but B5's ambition is such that there are pieces clearly being moved around for episodes far beyond that as well.
I remembering LOATHING Zathras back in the early 00s when I first watched this episode but maybe age has tempered my irritation. He's still kinda irritating (all characters who refer to themselves in the third person are) but I don't find myself wanting to punch him anymore. There's a vulnerability to him that is touching beyond his usual obfuscations.
It's just a shame that the low-budget nature of the show is hurting its ability to deliver its ambitions, especially obvious in episodes like this which try harder. The sets look cheap, the visual effects look cheap, the music sounds cheap. Some might consider all of this charming and quaint but I just wish they had Star Trek's cash.
(I'm not as convinced at the episode's occasional attempts at comedy. It doesn't quite feel natural for these characters to behave in this way for some reason.)
"The Quality of Mercy"
While the serialized eps have been notably improving in the back half of the season, it's also good to see that the standalones are also better. This was pretty solid, overall. The A-story with Franklin was at first getting dangerously close to being a "Believers" retread but it looks like he actually learned some things from that episode after all.
I also appreciated how the B-story with the killer dovetailed its way into the A-story (although perhaps inevitably). The implications of that alien machine are unsettling and it is perhaps for the best that the episode chooses not to explore them.
The C-story with Londo and Lennier didn't leave much of an impression on me but we did get to see Centauri penis. Which intriguingly looks just like that freaky alien Londo was afraid of in an earlier ep. I'm guessing this was a practical choice but it amuses me nonetheless.
Star Trek alumni watch: Mark Rolston, I'm assuming typecast in the role of the creepy serial murderer. He played the exact same role in TNG. He also appeared in Enterprise but no one cares about that.
(One complaint. I live with a very painful illness. I didn't buy for a second that Rosen also had one. Lockhart is good in the role but for whatever reason, the illness she's suffering from doesn't really come across, aside from general exhaustion, also caused from the machine's effects.)
It's interesting that you mention that, because as you know I have unfortunately been diagnosed with something rough, too. I don't think my everyday pain is nearly as bad as yours, not that this is any kind of comparison game in the first place of course, but... that went through my head as well. It didn't go through my head in 2009, but it sure did in 2017. I have to agree with you.
I also agree that I wish B5 had Trek dollars. The budget does improve every year, but there's still a bit too much, shall we say, same-brand carpeting all over the galaxy. I think it's impressive that they do what they do with the money that they're given, though. There's obviously a lot of love in the production, it's just that that doesn't have to stop us from wishing the Emperor's Chambers on Centauri Prime weren't a 6x5 Brooklyn apartment from 1978.
I'm back from a week of getting behind Jeff, to comment on the next two episodes, which incidentally Jeff already wrote up.
Coming of Shadows was pretty sweet, all things considered. The conspiracies, while obvious, are handled well. Londo starts to consider the future implications of his actions but for some reason still thinks the Centauri place in the universe comes from war instead of trade. G'Kar is cockblocked by Death itself. The too-good-for-this-world emperor leaves it peacefully, a really big surprise. Some scary shadow ships do things. I like this sort of sci fi.
Then we hit Gropos, and it all falls apart. A bunch of military jargon, babby's first father-son wishful-thinking dialogue, Garibaldi somehow not recognizing his own female counterpart. NuSinclair looks good because he gives the General data on the assault, OldSinclair looks creepy and weird per spec, he has become a prophecy instead of a person - like Sisko having emissary visions. We are pushed to care about a batch of single episode wankers, the problem here being that I FEEL pushed to care, and therefore don't care. Also they are all wankers, so..... Lotta cringe here, with neatly wrapped-up-in-a-bow-within-30-minutes family drama worthy of the Brady Bunch. I can't.
Susan didn't get any funny lines.
The only thing I disagree with here is that I actually do find the Franklin stuff here fairly compelling. I didn't even grow up with a father, either, so I'm often kind of hard on this stuff since I lack a common point of reference. But for whatever reason, the actors make it work for me. The rest I agree with to varying levels, but I reveled enough in making mockery of the whole shebang that I wound up with a sort of cheesy reverence for it all. It's not everyday something is so absurd that I become compelled to record video of it or build up a dude who jumps onto a light fixture like Tarzan. "GROPOS" is that kind of college party.
It's also something which happens in reverse on Voyager, much to its boon. The lighting gets a little darker starting around midway through Season 3, adding atmosphere to a ship that was a bit too bright at first. But here on B5, and on TNG for that matter, things were probably overly dark at first. They've hit a nice mood now.
I recall really enjoying Season 3's theme, actually, so I can't say I'm with you there. 2's my least favorite, and I still dig it. The narration is a bit weaker is 2's real issue.
3's where I remember coming around to him, too. In Season 2 he's a bit of a cheeseball, as Pegasus Actual aptly described him. Just kind of a... dork, really, especially early on. Where I'm at now, I think he's already improved.
That scene was pretty great, as was Franklin strolling by like a school teacher and forcing them to swap it all back. I maintain, however, that there is no way Ivanova actually craves greens that badly. I like a good salad every once in a while, but that thing was 90% lettuce. She would not have, as Franklin put it, "very nice borders" if that was her go-to binge food.
She would be dead.
Yeah, you're right, come to think of it. I just never noticed because when I'm in the mood for Voyager, I always pick an episode from season 4 or later, haha.
Hell, I'm dieting right now and that was the saddest bunch of greens I've ever seen. It was truly a cry for help.
Season 2 Sheridan comes off as a jock who is secretly a nerd. Later on he's just a jock who happens to know nerdy stuff.
Lenny and a character to come later are top tier nerds. Both of which have cringe worthy dialogue at times that goes so far away from endearing to just, oh my, this was written by and for some top class nerds. Self hating ones when it comes to the character to be named later.
Lenny and a character to come later are top tier nerds. Both of which have cringe worthy dialogue at times that goes so far away from endearing to just, oh my, this was written by and for some top class nerds. Self hating ones when it comes to the character to be named later.
weemadarthur
Member
All Alone in the Night
A nameless (ok, not really) single episode mook is introduced by having a bet with named officers. This redshirt is obviously marked for death, because he agrees to do a thing 'after the mission'. Whoops. Galaxy Quest has taught us better. Franklin diagnoses the condemned man as a psychotic for liking the wrong baseball team. I think i've heard this exact conversation in a sports bar.
NuSinclair (seriously, why can't they start the name with a different letter? Tom Clancy loses me too with this) goes off and gets abducted by aliens and probed. In order to show that humans are really nice guys who will befriend any random alien, they give NuSinclair a strange alien, which he kills. Then they give him a Narn, which he befriends - clearly we can't just jump to TOO strange right off the bat. They attempt to escape, and eventually manage it, just barely not being shot down by the good guys. Who are human. Just a reminder.
Delenn gets told off for becoming too human, but I'm sure this will work out for her benefit in a couple of seasons. After all, the writers are human. She is dumped from the council but keeps her real job. And the council turns itself into....an isosceles triangle? Vice versa? It was so even before. Now it's all miscellaneous. I like Lennier in this, although I don't remember when he pledged to serve theSatai forever.
Act of Sacrifice
Starts with a lovely heroic Narn military sacrifice, showing that Narns can care about their own.
Moves on to Londo musing about having sacrificed his few real relationships to collect toadies, and basically whining about it. This guy really has not read any history.
G'Kar jumps through hoops, politicizes, duels another narn, begs and pleads, and suffers poisoning - for little payoff. Ouch, G'Kar. We'll tell you how sorry we feel for you, as long as there isn't an audience.
Londo sucks up to Garibaldi at the end, just enough to not start a war on the station where he'd coincidentally be a major target. Ok, Londo. I'm sure this will make up for starting a real shooting war out in space.
Susan's subplot reads like pathetic authorial wish fulfillment. Actually I remember seeing this back in the day. I had to mute the 'sex' scene. *shudders* Doesn't she still have to write up a report on this? If she's embarrassed to brag to sheridan about her maneuver, how is she going to put it in official Earth Force files? Or is this another thing we just don't ask about....
A nameless (ok, not really) single episode mook is introduced by having a bet with named officers. This redshirt is obviously marked for death, because he agrees to do a thing 'after the mission'. Whoops. Galaxy Quest has taught us better. Franklin diagnoses the condemned man as a psychotic for liking the wrong baseball team. I think i've heard this exact conversation in a sports bar.
NuSinclair (seriously, why can't they start the name with a different letter? Tom Clancy loses me too with this) goes off and gets abducted by aliens and probed. In order to show that humans are really nice guys who will befriend any random alien, they give NuSinclair a strange alien, which he kills. Then they give him a Narn, which he befriends - clearly we can't just jump to TOO strange right off the bat. They attempt to escape, and eventually manage it, just barely not being shot down by the good guys. Who are human. Just a reminder.
Delenn gets told off for becoming too human, but I'm sure this will work out for her benefit in a couple of seasons. After all, the writers are human. She is dumped from the council but keeps her real job. And the council turns itself into....an isosceles triangle? Vice versa? It was so even before. Now it's all miscellaneous. I like Lennier in this, although I don't remember when he pledged to serve the
Act of Sacrifice
Starts with a lovely heroic Narn military sacrifice, showing that Narns can care about their own.
Moves on to Londo musing about having sacrificed his few real relationships to collect toadies, and basically whining about it. This guy really has not read any history.
G'Kar jumps through hoops, politicizes, duels another narn, begs and pleads, and suffers poisoning - for little payoff. Ouch, G'Kar. We'll tell you how sorry we feel for you, as long as there isn't an audience.
Londo sucks up to Garibaldi at the end, just enough to not start a war on the station where he'd coincidentally be a major target. Ok, Londo. I'm sure this will make up for starting a real shooting war out in space.
Susan's subplot reads like pathetic authorial wish fulfillment. Actually I remember seeing this back in the day. I had to mute the 'sex' scene. *shudders* Doesn't she still have to write up a report on this? If she's embarrassed to brag to sheridan about her maneuver, how is she going to put it in official Earth Force files? Or is this another thing we just don't ask about....
Pegasus Actual
Member
This show is so good from the very end of S3 through early S4. I'm not that far in S4 so maybe the rest is really good too, I can't remember. Since I'm completely off in spoiler territory potentially going the length of the show...
The G'kar Londo stuff in this run, Cartagia... just all highly entertaining to me. The fate of Morden... I like to love all the actors involved... maybe it's a little over the top, but I really enjoyed it. The Sheridan/Vorlon/Shadow/Lorien stuff is all really good too. Lorien shouldn't really work. And he's hokey at times. Oldest being in the Galaxy. Spouting discount Dalai Lama-isms. But somehow it ends up working. The Vorlon/Shadow ideologies being fully explored is good stuff. The battles are good, even though the cropped CGI really lets them down a bit.
It doesn't even suffer that much from how compressed it was. There are some things that could have been done better. Like Ranger Heisenberg being a one-and-doner. Also it was a little jarring how Ranger One Delenn mostly just stood around while Sheridan gave out the orders and strategies. She was short changed a bit. Ivanova didn't do much. Lyta was terrible as usual. But the broad strokes were good enough that it didn't really matter that much.
Back to Ivanova for a sec... I know I probably shouldn't do too much DS9 vs B5 stuff.... but Kira >>>>> Ivanova. She was better acted, and had a whole lot more to do as the second in command. I mean JeffZero is rocking a Kira-av, so I know I'm good here...
And I guess I'm doing this a bit out of order. It's not linear! NO IT'S NOT!!!! (I may have strayed back to DS9 again but I digress). But when Sheridan comes back... knowing where it ends up... the fucking face on Lennier.... I remember nobody liking his heel turn back in the day. But his fucking faces he makes when Sheridan comes back alive and starts up his speech and gets Delenn's human parts all tingly.....
Fuck, I was totally gonna make my move and now...
I need.... to look... like I'm.. happy.... but imma kill this mofo.
It doesn't even suffer that much from how compressed it was. There are some things that could have been done better. Like Ranger Heisenberg being a one-and-doner. Also it was a little jarring how Ranger One Delenn mostly just stood around while Sheridan gave out the orders and strategies. She was short changed a bit. Ivanova didn't do much. Lyta was terrible as usual. But the broad strokes were good enough that it didn't really matter that much.
Back to Ivanova for a sec... I know I probably shouldn't do too much DS9 vs B5 stuff.... but Kira >>>>> Ivanova. She was better acted, and had a whole lot more to do as the second in command. I mean JeffZero is rocking a Kira-av, so I know I'm good here...
And I guess I'm doing this a bit out of order. It's not linear! NO IT'S NOT!!!! (I may have strayed back to DS9 again but I digress). But when Sheridan comes back... knowing where it ends up... the fucking face on Lennier.... I remember nobody liking his heel turn back in the day. But his fucking faces he makes when Sheridan comes back alive and starts up his speech and gets Delenn's human parts all tingly.....
Fuck, I was totally gonna make my move and now...
I need.... to look... like I'm.. happy.... but imma kill this mofo.
"Hunter, Prey"
There's a scene in "Hunter, Prey" where Garibaldi and Franklin bond for a few moments during an extensively cardio-centric investigation. They sit down, randomly speak wistfully over the brighter days of 20 years ago when mankind was more excited about its interstellar prospects, and Garibaldi insists they both eat a snack. The snack is some kind of energy bar. Franklin gets his bar out of the wrapper in a few seconds, but Garibaldi spends over half the scene seemingly struggling to do the same. The camera doesn't draw attention to it. The writing certainly doesn't factor it. But it's almost impossible to miss. Security Chief Michael Garibaldi, dressed in a ridiculous enough detective noir hat that you'd be forgiven for thinking you're watching The Expanse in low resolution, is taking an odd length of time to get to his energy bar. It's my favorite scene, because it encompasses all that's right and all that's wrong with the episode. "Hunter, Prey" has a few good moments and its heart's in the right place but it looks goofy, feels goofy, and struggles with the basics. Not bad, not good, it's destined to merely... exist.
Sheridan and Ivanova are checking out Kosh's sweet ride when it dawns on me that they're actually looking at computer-generated imagery. I know, I know, the above picture is utterly flawless and a modern marvel, a timeless classic of design like Peter Cushing in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. But it turns out, it's CG. How did those wizards do it? Kosh spies Sheridan spying on his ship, so he turns corners and causes Sheridan to confront him on their mutual curiosity. Kosh says things cryptically, but later, in a private scene between them, says further things cryptically. Of note, however, he demands that Sheridan never ask "what do you want?" again, and he also says he'll train him for war against legends. So that's bound to mean something.
Benjamin Sisko's friend Cal Hudson comes aboard B5 claiming to be a man named Cranston. There's an obvious Breaking Bad joke here but I'm saving it for another episode. Cranston reveals that a certain Dr. Jacobs has snuck aboard the station and he's a dangerous threat to Earth's security and he needs to be found. Sheridan agrees, but a woman with a ton of cheesy dialogue meets with him in secret to reveal some sensitive information. I should note that the woman's actress is actually rather talented at making the cheese seem well-aged and well-seasoned. She's here on behalf of General Hague, and it's about Dr. Jacobs. The fugitive has a data crystal containing proof that President Clark wasn't the least bit ill when he excused himself from EarthForce One less than a day before it blew. Remember that little plot thread? Earth's mysterious darkness has been swirling to a fever pitch lately and now we're back to the Clark factor. It feels good, and it's a highlight of the episode despite aforementioned cheese.
But Dr. Jacobs is not treated quite so kindly. First he has a scene with a cliche slimy pawn shop dude in Downbelow, then he gets kidnapped by a requisite shady Man-in-Black, because this show totally doesn't have enough of those. The Man-in-Black's name is Max and I've got to hand it to the production staff, they actually managed to out-Man-in-Black themselves. He wears shades to disguise himself when he tries to cut a deal with Cranston. What a bloke. Eventually, Garibaldi and Franklin outwit Max, and it isn't very hard because Max is suddenly played for laughs when Garibaldi shoots all around him to make him cough up the stolen data crystal. Do note I said "played for laughs" because it isn't actually funny.
"I want $50,000 in small bills and I want things back the way they were before the Gulf War. I want to be allowed to ride bikes without a helmet again and I want Metallica tickets, too. I'm a 90s TV villain and New Coke sucks. Meet me at the arcade, dweeb."
In the end, Dr. Jacobs gets away from the EarthForce investigation because Sheridan and Ivanova hide him in Kosh's ship after inducing a coma. The exposition overload after Cranston storms off-set is equally coma-inducing. There's a level of retroactive explanation here which is a notch short of winking at the camera. We learn that Kosh's ship is organic, and that it sings to people, so that's cute. We also learn that Garibaldi hides the most precious romantic messages for Franklin when the need arises, so that's mildly alarming. In more appropriate analysis, we do get that Clark development and some Kosh development, too, but it's not enough to turn "Hunter, Prey" into anything worth writing home about. We buckle past it quickly and move on to the next one.
"There All The Honor Lies"
Sheridan bumps into a man-in-black who steals his comm link. Seconds later, he bumps into a Minbari-in-black who tries to kill him. Sheridan finds a PPG just inches away and uses it to kill the Minbari, but another Minbari sees the ordeal, lies about what happened, and lands Sheridan in some very hot water. "There All The Honor Lies" is a good episode. It develops the station captain competently and kept me guessing the whole way through. It has a couple of unexpected gems, too, even if the gift shop plot muddles things a bit and the beyond-silly final scene has me reaching for my wine. But when everything else is this strong, we have a winner.
Following Sheridan's frame job, Delenn must launch her own investigation opposite Garibaldi's, because the Minbari government ain't exactly pleased. Given the level of intrigue this show is famed for, it's easy to guess someone out there is trying to have Sheridan removed from command, and considering the witness Minbari, Ashan, keeps calling him "Starkiller" it's clear he's in on it. Ashan also detests Delenn, however; she's transformed into a "freak" (his own words!) and he can't stand to look at her.
This is one of the episode's hidden strengths: it parallels Sheridan's sense of loneliness with Delenn's, and it gives her the voice to tell someone else what manner of despair she has endured since becoming such a pariah in the eyes of her fellow Minbari. Many of Sheridan's best episodes are also great Delenn episodes, and we begin to see that here today. Sheridan also gains a lawyer, but the character is rather throwaway and doesn't really amount to anything; it almost feels as if she exists for Zack to hit on her and then later so that she can gasp when Sheridan strikes a deal protecting Lennier's clan. In fact, I daresay that is exactly why she exists. In any case, Lennier's clan requires protection because if the truth got out that Ashan and the ill-fated Minbari assassin were dispatched by the clan's elders, it would ruin Lennier by association. I'm skipping ahead to the climax here, but that's the gist -- it's a good opportunity to demonstrate that John Sheridan is a good dude with other people's interests in mind.
Romashan and Julennier.
During Sheridan's time in the frying pan, Kosh comes to his quarters to remind him that he's late for his scheduled lesson-du-understanding. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Bruce Boxleitner throw his hand up to the back of his neck and awkwardly "aw gee, Kosh, ah, williker" his way around it. But Kosh won't take no for an answer. Kosh insists, and Sheridan is forced to set aside the ongoing crisis for a little while. The Vorlon takes him to Downbelow, where he's sent into a cramped, unkempt chamber and gets treated to a "moment of perfect beauty". A bunch of galactic monks -- or something -- sing a lovely song and put Sheridan's heart at ease for a little while. It might just be the best scene of the episode, sudden as it is, and it works on all levels. Mike Vejar directed this one, and it shows.
There's also a Vir story and it's easily the best material he's given up through this point. He finds out he's been sent home because Centauri Prime wants someone better-trained and suited to be Londo's aide now that he's risen in prominence. Vir gets drunk and reveals to Londo that he's a pariah in his family. (I'd say we're looking at a theme with this episode, ladies and gentledrazi.) It's a touching moment and the late Stephen Furst is excellent. The result is that Londo stands up for his bumbling but pure assistant and we get a feel-good finish; under conventional circumstances, this would be fine if unremarkable, but given Londo's dark arc, this is downright brilliant. It's a celebratory moment of Londo's remaining decency and it layers his more questionable choices. He isn't an evil man. He's a complex man.
It's a small shame "There All The Honor Lies" has to end the way it does. As has recently been explained to me, the final scene (in which Sheridan, displeased with a teddy bear at the gift shop having been made in his... likeness, has the bear spaced and Keffer sees it slam into his Starfury's window) is based on an inside joke. Prolific author and episode writer Peter David got JMS this bear for Christmas, and JMS despises cutesy things, so he threw this cornball ending in as revenge. It's a funny story, but the whole thing feels shoehorned, and the episode suffers slightly as a result. The suffering stems from the relatively serious, powerful subject matter surrounding most of the script; closing the hour with a teddy bear slamming into Keffer and his less-than-stellar actor staring bewildered is very, very silly. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's very, very, very silly. And I reserve the third very for very rare occasions. When I bust out three very's, you'd best know I'm being real.
Or maybe I secretly giggled as the credits rolled. If I did, I sure wouldn't admit it.
There's a scene in "Hunter, Prey" where Garibaldi and Franklin bond for a few moments during an extensively cardio-centric investigation. They sit down, randomly speak wistfully over the brighter days of 20 years ago when mankind was more excited about its interstellar prospects, and Garibaldi insists they both eat a snack. The snack is some kind of energy bar. Franklin gets his bar out of the wrapper in a few seconds, but Garibaldi spends over half the scene seemingly struggling to do the same. The camera doesn't draw attention to it. The writing certainly doesn't factor it. But it's almost impossible to miss. Security Chief Michael Garibaldi, dressed in a ridiculous enough detective noir hat that you'd be forgiven for thinking you're watching The Expanse in low resolution, is taking an odd length of time to get to his energy bar. It's my favorite scene, because it encompasses all that's right and all that's wrong with the episode. "Hunter, Prey" has a few good moments and its heart's in the right place but it looks goofy, feels goofy, and struggles with the basics. Not bad, not good, it's destined to merely... exist.
Sheridan and Ivanova are checking out Kosh's sweet ride when it dawns on me that they're actually looking at computer-generated imagery. I know, I know, the above picture is utterly flawless and a modern marvel, a timeless classic of design like Peter Cushing in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. But it turns out, it's CG. How did those wizards do it? Kosh spies Sheridan spying on his ship, so he turns corners and causes Sheridan to confront him on their mutual curiosity. Kosh says things cryptically, but later, in a private scene between them, says further things cryptically. Of note, however, he demands that Sheridan never ask "what do you want?" again, and he also says he'll train him for war against legends. So that's bound to mean something.
Benjamin Sisko's friend Cal Hudson comes aboard B5 claiming to be a man named Cranston. There's an obvious Breaking Bad joke here but I'm saving it for another episode. Cranston reveals that a certain Dr. Jacobs has snuck aboard the station and he's a dangerous threat to Earth's security and he needs to be found. Sheridan agrees, but a woman with a ton of cheesy dialogue meets with him in secret to reveal some sensitive information. I should note that the woman's actress is actually rather talented at making the cheese seem well-aged and well-seasoned. She's here on behalf of General Hague, and it's about Dr. Jacobs. The fugitive has a data crystal containing proof that President Clark wasn't the least bit ill when he excused himself from EarthForce One less than a day before it blew. Remember that little plot thread? Earth's mysterious darkness has been swirling to a fever pitch lately and now we're back to the Clark factor. It feels good, and it's a highlight of the episode despite aforementioned cheese.
But Dr. Jacobs is not treated quite so kindly. First he has a scene with a cliche slimy pawn shop dude in Downbelow, then he gets kidnapped by a requisite shady Man-in-Black, because this show totally doesn't have enough of those. The Man-in-Black's name is Max and I've got to hand it to the production staff, they actually managed to out-Man-in-Black themselves. He wears shades to disguise himself when he tries to cut a deal with Cranston. What a bloke. Eventually, Garibaldi and Franklin outwit Max, and it isn't very hard because Max is suddenly played for laughs when Garibaldi shoots all around him to make him cough up the stolen data crystal. Do note I said "played for laughs" because it isn't actually funny.
"I want $50,000 in small bills and I want things back the way they were before the Gulf War. I want to be allowed to ride bikes without a helmet again and I want Metallica tickets, too. I'm a 90s TV villain and New Coke sucks. Meet me at the arcade, dweeb."
In the end, Dr. Jacobs gets away from the EarthForce investigation because Sheridan and Ivanova hide him in Kosh's ship after inducing a coma. The exposition overload after Cranston storms off-set is equally coma-inducing. There's a level of retroactive explanation here which is a notch short of winking at the camera. We learn that Kosh's ship is organic, and that it sings to people, so that's cute. We also learn that Garibaldi hides the most precious romantic messages for Franklin when the need arises, so that's mildly alarming. In more appropriate analysis, we do get that Clark development and some Kosh development, too, but it's not enough to turn "Hunter, Prey" into anything worth writing home about. We buckle past it quickly and move on to the next one.
"There All The Honor Lies"
Sheridan bumps into a man-in-black who steals his comm link. Seconds later, he bumps into a Minbari-in-black who tries to kill him. Sheridan finds a PPG just inches away and uses it to kill the Minbari, but another Minbari sees the ordeal, lies about what happened, and lands Sheridan in some very hot water. "There All The Honor Lies" is a good episode. It develops the station captain competently and kept me guessing the whole way through. It has a couple of unexpected gems, too, even if the gift shop plot muddles things a bit and the beyond-silly final scene has me reaching for my wine. But when everything else is this strong, we have a winner.
Following Sheridan's frame job, Delenn must launch her own investigation opposite Garibaldi's, because the Minbari government ain't exactly pleased. Given the level of intrigue this show is famed for, it's easy to guess someone out there is trying to have Sheridan removed from command, and considering the witness Minbari, Ashan, keeps calling him "Starkiller" it's clear he's in on it. Ashan also detests Delenn, however; she's transformed into a "freak" (his own words!) and he can't stand to look at her.
This is one of the episode's hidden strengths: it parallels Sheridan's sense of loneliness with Delenn's, and it gives her the voice to tell someone else what manner of despair she has endured since becoming such a pariah in the eyes of her fellow Minbari. Many of Sheridan's best episodes are also great Delenn episodes, and we begin to see that here today. Sheridan also gains a lawyer, but the character is rather throwaway and doesn't really amount to anything; it almost feels as if she exists for Zack to hit on her and then later so that she can gasp when Sheridan strikes a deal protecting Lennier's clan. In fact, I daresay that is exactly why she exists. In any case, Lennier's clan requires protection because if the truth got out that Ashan and the ill-fated Minbari assassin were dispatched by the clan's elders, it would ruin Lennier by association. I'm skipping ahead to the climax here, but that's the gist -- it's a good opportunity to demonstrate that John Sheridan is a good dude with other people's interests in mind.
Romashan and Julennier.
During Sheridan's time in the frying pan, Kosh comes to his quarters to remind him that he's late for his scheduled lesson-du-understanding. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Bruce Boxleitner throw his hand up to the back of his neck and awkwardly "aw gee, Kosh, ah, williker" his way around it. But Kosh won't take no for an answer. Kosh insists, and Sheridan is forced to set aside the ongoing crisis for a little while. The Vorlon takes him to Downbelow, where he's sent into a cramped, unkempt chamber and gets treated to a "moment of perfect beauty". A bunch of galactic monks -- or something -- sing a lovely song and put Sheridan's heart at ease for a little while. It might just be the best scene of the episode, sudden as it is, and it works on all levels. Mike Vejar directed this one, and it shows.
There's also a Vir story and it's easily the best material he's given up through this point. He finds out he's been sent home because Centauri Prime wants someone better-trained and suited to be Londo's aide now that he's risen in prominence. Vir gets drunk and reveals to Londo that he's a pariah in his family. (I'd say we're looking at a theme with this episode, ladies and gentledrazi.) It's a touching moment and the late Stephen Furst is excellent. The result is that Londo stands up for his bumbling but pure assistant and we get a feel-good finish; under conventional circumstances, this would be fine if unremarkable, but given Londo's dark arc, this is downright brilliant. It's a celebratory moment of Londo's remaining decency and it layers his more questionable choices. He isn't an evil man. He's a complex man.
It's a small shame "There All The Honor Lies" has to end the way it does. As has recently been explained to me, the final scene (in which Sheridan, displeased with a teddy bear at the gift shop having been made in his... likeness, has the bear spaced and Keffer sees it slam into his Starfury's window) is based on an inside joke. Prolific author and episode writer Peter David got JMS this bear for Christmas, and JMS despises cutesy things, so he threw this cornball ending in as revenge. It's a funny story, but the whole thing feels shoehorned, and the episode suffers slightly as a result. The suffering stems from the relatively serious, powerful subject matter surrounding most of the script; closing the hour with a teddy bear slamming into Keffer and his less-than-stellar actor staring bewildered is very, very silly. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's very, very, very silly. And I reserve the third very for very rare occasions. When I bust out three very's, you'd best know I'm being real.
Or maybe I secretly giggled as the credits rolled. If I did, I sure wouldn't admit it.
Remarkably apt from what I recall.
Haha, yeah. Poor Ramirez had death flags coming out of his ears by the time his intro scene was over. Still, he went out like a boss!
Aye, part of what makes him so great a character right now. So layered.
You took the mature path with this part of the analysis. I was unable to do so, myself. Maybe I wrote it. Maybe I'm the problem.
I don't want to lock myself into any statements past wherever I am at any given time in my rewatch, since it's been so long. But from what I recall, almost the entirety of Season 4 is great to me. You're in the gold zone now, yo. It's all good.
I confess I merely skimmed your post for the time being. Hopefully 4Tran or BlackLagoon -- you know, one of the posters here who knows B5 like the back of their hand -- chimes in at some point and can share in the joy. Otherwise, I'll get back to your later-game posts once I get there. I'm giddy over having forgotten so much, basically. But from what I skimmed... heck yes.
BlackLagoon
Member
One should note that the lawyer was played by Julie Caitlin Brown, who played Na'Toth in the first season. She did Na'Toth as a favor to someone on staff (the original actress cast for the role bailed on them at the last minute when she couldn't handle the prosthetics,) and decided she didn't want to commit to B5 long term but came back for this role. Apparently she started working as talent agent after a while, and according to IMDB represented Michael Shanks and Christopher Judge of Stargate fame.
I'm generally a sucker for silly stuff like that. Anyway, the bear story continued on for a while after this, including several bear related pranks at conventions and an episode of David's show Space Cases until it got to the point where people were under the impression the two were genuinely feuding. He recounted his side of the whole thing in a magazine column in 1997, which is now available on his blog.
"The Long Dark"
These early season 2 standalones are a drag. Here we have some rampaging evil force (shades of the even more dire "Infection"), Dwight Schultz hamming it up and... well, that's mostly about it. It's all very by-the-numbers and sloppy directed, with bad visual effects and an especially irritating score.
And then there's the female guest star. Franklin's behavior throughout the episode is wildly unprofessional, given this woman is his patient and she for all intents and purposes just lost her husband. He's touchy feely with her from the very beginning, petting her hair as she woke up. It really rubbed me the wrong way. They at least figure out that it's inappropriate (after a kiss, of course) but it takes half the episode to get there.
It really feels like the episode exists for the final scene, which is more of what this part of the season has done incessently, promise that something is coming. I wish it would hurry up.
These early season 2 standalones are a drag. Here we have some rampaging evil force (shades of the even more dire "Infection"), Dwight Schultz hamming it up and... well, that's mostly about it. It's all very by-the-numbers and sloppy directed, with bad visual effects and an especially irritating score.
And then there's the female guest star. Franklin's behavior throughout the episode is wildly unprofessional, given this woman is his patient and she for all intents and purposes just lost her husband. He's touchy feely with her from the very beginning, petting her hair as she woke up. It really rubbed me the wrong way. They at least figure out that it's inappropriate (after a kiss, of course) but it takes half the episode to get there.
It really feels like the episode exists for the final scene, which is more of what this part of the season has done incessently, promise that something is coming. I wish it would hurry up.
water_wendi
Water is not wet!
i love the Shadows reply to this.
avengers23
Banned
I'm still watching off and on, just haven't written anything in a while. The last episode I saw was "Soul Mates", which I thought was a hoot. The dialogue was notably sharper than most attempts at comedy on this show (perhaps because Peter David wrote the script, although it's hard to say how much JMS touched it up).
"The Coming of Shadows" is next. :|
"The Coming of Shadows" is next. :|
I couldn't type enough words about Soul Mates' best character.
Alright, so it seems like I'll be working second shift for the remainder of my training days. This will afford me more time to stay awake, and I thiiiink I can get back into the swing of bi-daily write-ups by the end of the weekend.
Alright, so it seems like I'll be working second shift for the remainder of my training days. This will afford me more time to stay awake, and I thiiiink I can get back into the swing of bi-daily write-ups by the end of the weekend.
Jane Carr's character? She was quite entertaining. But largely because she's the only one of the wives who made an impression (and I suppose, needed to).
weemadarthur
Member
Watched Hunter, Prey.
Jeff, you cynic.
This episode was pretty cool. It had multiple secret services working at odds with each other, fugitives not knowing who to trust, and a Kosh giving sphinxy conversation to a soldier - that works great in fiction! - and in the end, a poor random citizen in a bad spot doesn't die.
Well it's still cheesy, sure, but I'm happy with it. And they let Susan snark at ron canada about being nice to people, which has irony dripping out the airlock.
Although i'm wondering about the organic ship. Is it a sentient creature itself, moving the science-potential of the vorlons back a thousand years (and their diplomacy up a thousand), or is it a brain ship? The fact that it sings makes me think somebody was reading McCaffrey. But i can't complain, i recycle stories too.
Jeff, you cynic.
This episode was pretty cool. It had multiple secret services working at odds with each other, fugitives not knowing who to trust, and a Kosh giving sphinxy conversation to a soldier - that works great in fiction! - and in the end, a poor random citizen in a bad spot doesn't die.
Well it's still cheesy, sure, but I'm happy with it. And they let Susan snark at ron canada about being nice to people, which has irony dripping out the airlock.
Although i'm wondering about the organic ship. Is it a sentient creature itself, moving the science-potential of the vorlons back a thousand years (and their diplomacy up a thousand), or is it a brain ship? The fact that it sings makes me think somebody was reading McCaffrey. But i can't complain, i recycle stories too.
SiegfriedFM
Member
Please don't die, thread!
Soul Mates is a little weird in that it shows that Londo already has one beautiful wife who is a scheming witch, which makes it ironic that he would take another one as a mistress.
Soul Mates is a little weird in that it shows that Londo already has one beautiful wife who is a scheming witch, which makes it ironic that he would take another one as a mistress.
Yes! I just love her accent. Criminally underused accent. I looked her up on IMDb afterward and apparently she's still got it! I think I saw some 2016 stuff.
Hey, usually I'm the uber-optimistic one with my show write-ups! I liked this episode okaaaaay, but it had its weak points IMO. I also couldn't stop laughing at the Vorlon ship, but I bet it looked grand to me when I was a kid.
Kinda nuts to think my grandmother's late 70s TV, knob dial and everything, featured primitive TV CGI thanks to Babylon 5.
weemadarthur
Member
Not on my watch! (Get it? Eh? Eh?)
Watched blah blah Honor blah blah
This is not such an exciting episode. First, it goes into the always-stupid honor-culture crap that plagues so much sci fi. It's like a method of having religious motivations without having to write a religion, so they go with Clan worship instead.
I have no idea what Kosh is trying to teach Sheridan. The choral music was nice, but what's the point here? Hoping it comes back as some kind of setup because right now it's a little bit dropped-in.
Like the lawyer character. I like this actress, she has a great voice and an imposing manner. I can believe she would be a good lawyer. But who the hell hired her? Earth is going to prosecute the Captain, so...not Earth. If she was Earth Force JAG she'd be in uniform. And she seems to have no purpose in the episode at all....barely any lines, accomplishes nothing. She's a Chekov's gun that doesn't fire. Very poor.
Then it resolves with Captain Quarterback giving his smarmiest smile to the Minbari that he actually likes. Which just makes him seem insincere. I can see protecting Lennier - he's a great guy. But then, use a mannerism that shows respect, not this patronizing bull. It's hard to like this Captain because of it. He keeps on doing it. Could be the direction, but I suspect the acting is partly at fault. It's not a coincidence that the favorite star trek characters were also played by the best actors, whose careers extended beyonod trek.
Pegasus Actual
Member
Fine fine. I'll contribute my spoiler tagged ramblings as I make my way into S5.
So after GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR GALAXY and before they move on Earth the show gets in a bit of a lull. Some of the Minbari stuff is fine. Other than that.. ehhhh. But the season finishes really strong. Garibaldi's whole Bester-induced mission was a bit off. Franklin and Marcus's mission to Mars pairing was... crap. Number One was more like number two if you catch my drift (I'm calling her shit, to be clear, because she was awful). The special effects were mostly really good for the space battles and whatnot, aside from the usual caveats of cropped 4:3 looking like ass. But the Mars surface shots look like fucking PlayStation 2.
Random aside, watching Garibaldi do his private eye noir thing this season reminded me a lot of... can't remember the character from The Expanse. Except I think the Expanse for the most part did it better. Some stupid shit makes it into B5 scenes... like the Bugs Bunny flashbang. C'mon JMS.
Marcus using the magic healing device to suicide himself for Ivanova was pretty stupid. Though I guess Marcus start to finish was pretty stupid. I really really hated him this watch-through. And what's with Lennier pushing his friendzone buddy to his death. Hey Lennier fuck off with that. Of course now I'm solidly in the middle of the Ranger Friendzone Redux plot with Lennier in S5. Delenn is totally not helping with the oh it's fine it can totally work with you here and I totally love you like as a friend and stuff.
Speaking of S5... Byron showed up. And he's instantly annoying. And that fucking blonde kid. Here's a picture of flowers derpaderp... here's a picture of me cradling me mum derpaderp so sad! Now imma creep around the ducts and oh I telepathed the assassination plot and he shooted me but now I warn mister president because it's the right thing to do I will finally unleash my power of speech and say "NoOoOoOOoOOOoooooo" like a little wiener.
Captain Lochley showed up as a required warm body to run the station. My memory is not the least bit jogged regarding her. So the backstory seems to be oooooh looks like she fought on the wrong side of the war. Oh and she's butting heads with Garibaldi. I'm trying really hard to care over here but I'm not getting there.
G'Kar went for the carry on the S5 premiere but he didn't get enough screen time. Still he was pretty great as usual.
The 2nd episode was much better as even though I don't typically dig the fever dream type episodes, for Londo it works. His demons are actually interesting, so Londo gets the hard carry, as I recall him doing towards the end of S5 as well. But nothing is going to save the first part of the season from Byron. I remember that much. And I have that feeling of helplessness that only a truly bad television plot can bring to my stomach.
Random aside, watching Garibaldi do his private eye noir thing this season reminded me a lot of... can't remember the character from The Expanse. Except I think the Expanse for the most part did it better. Some stupid shit makes it into B5 scenes... like the Bugs Bunny flashbang. C'mon JMS.
Marcus using the magic healing device to suicide himself for Ivanova was pretty stupid. Though I guess Marcus start to finish was pretty stupid. I really really hated him this watch-through. And what's with Lennier pushing his friendzone buddy to his death. Hey Lennier fuck off with that. Of course now I'm solidly in the middle of the Ranger Friendzone Redux plot with Lennier in S5. Delenn is totally not helping with the oh it's fine it can totally work with you here and I totally love you like as a friend and stuff.
Speaking of S5... Byron showed up. And he's instantly annoying. And that fucking blonde kid. Here's a picture of flowers derpaderp... here's a picture of me cradling me mum derpaderp so sad! Now imma creep around the ducts and oh I telepathed the assassination plot and he shooted me but now I warn mister president because it's the right thing to do I will finally unleash my power of speech and say "NoOoOoOOoOOOoooooo" like a little wiener.
Captain Lochley showed up as a required warm body to run the station. My memory is not the least bit jogged regarding her. So the backstory seems to be oooooh looks like she fought on the wrong side of the war. Oh and she's butting heads with Garibaldi. I'm trying really hard to care over here but I'm not getting there.
G'Kar went for the carry on the S5 premiere but he didn't get enough screen time. Still he was pretty great as usual.
The 2nd episode was much better as even though I don't typically dig the fever dream type episodes, for Londo it works. His demons are actually interesting, so Londo gets the hard carry, as I recall him doing towards the end of S5 as well. But nothing is going to save the first part of the season from Byron. I remember that much. And I have that feeling of helplessness that only a truly bad television plot can bring to my stomach.
Edit: Had to backtrack and see if someone else had mentioned The Expanse, as while watching that I felt B5 vibes in the way the Sol system was working, and specifically Garbaldi feels so:
I had to go back to that scene. Yeah the hat man. And I never noticed the energy bar but it was pretty hilarious. It's like he's desperate to get it out with only tearing the side out, and keeps underestimating the size of the energy bar or something. Can't tell if it's bad acting, or actually really good acting as he refuses to break character and start bitching about PowerBar.
AKA oh GOD, not another KLINGON EPISODE. Haha.
SiegfriedFM
Member
Doing PS2 level CGI in 1996 is pretty damn ambitious for TV, if you ask me. But yeah, Babylon 5 mostly only looked good in space shots.
Speaking of the books, I've thought about tracking them down. What are the canon, essential ones? I don't care much for the post-show stories.
Also, you'd better not diss my Tess. She was the best part of season 5.
Speaking of the books, I've thought about tracking them down. What are the canon, essential ones? I don't care much for the post-show stories.
Also, you'd better not diss my Tess. She was the best part of season 5.
Pegasus Actual
Member
I dug up an ebook collection of most (all?) of the B5 stuff someone put together a few years back with reading order and whatnot. It seems like mostly the three trilogies. Then there are some novelizations of the umm.. lackluster... tv movies, something called "To Dream in the City of Sorrows". And some short stories, some of which were JMS-written. I haven't read any of it but if you want more details PM me I guess.
I haven't gotten to her part of S5 I guess, but as bad as S5 is I have a hard time buying her as the best part of anything. I mean. She's pretty. She's got that going for her at least.
As I plod along farther in S5...
Right... Right. Lochley is Sheridan's ex-wife. Of course. Yeah, that's not stupid at all. *groan*. Wasn't a huge fan of B5's crack at "Lower Decks" either. At least the guys weren't as annoying as other... East Coast Workin Schlub characters in this show.. such as Angry Dockworker Guy MY BRUDDA DIED... or Wisecrackin Computer AI when Garibaldi reinstalls Windows 95, or Wisecrackin Postal Guy when Garibaldi isn't cool with the increase in stamp prices....
Right now I'm enduring scenes of Byron romancing Lyta. I'm not gonna lie. This is tough to get through without vomiting. Somebody should have stopped this plot from happening.
Right now I'm enduring scenes of Byron romancing Lyta. I'm not gonna lie. This is tough to get through without vomiting. Somebody should have stopped this plot from happening.
I've always wanted to watch it as it intrigues me and I know I'll love it because I love Deep Space 9, but I can't get past the low budget feel of the show with its rather terrible costumes and such.
Now DS9 was set in the Star Trek universe, a setting that I already loved while watching it. Babylon 5 on the other hand is a different universe altogether exclusive to the show and the first time you see it was when the show first aired and it didn't do enough to grab me.
Now DS9 was set in the Star Trek universe, a setting that I already loved while watching it. Babylon 5 on the other hand is a different universe altogether exclusive to the show and the first time you see it was when the show first aired and it didn't do enough to grab me.
BlackLagoon
Member
The production values do improve significantly over time, as they found ways to stretch the budget. While it's not ideal, you could speed through the 1st season by only watching the episodes that most directly impact the main plot.
1.01 Midnight on the Firing Line
1.06 Mind War
1.08 And the Sky Full of Stars
1.13 Signs and Portents
1.18 A Voice in the Wilderness (Part 1)
1.19 A Voice in the Wilderness (Part 2)
1.20 Babylon Squared
1.22 Chrysalis
You will miss a number of details, but this will give you the brunt of the story and get you to the better looking second season much faster.
Pegasus Actual
Member
If you consider yourself a sci-fi fan you owe it to yourself to give B5 a real shot. If after getting through Babylon Squared or so and you're still not feeling it, fair enough.
If you're a sci-fi casual, you can skip it. It's definitely dated and has.. inconsistent production values. Ultimately that doesn't matter much to the strength of the show but I definitely understand why it's off-putting. And hey, G'Kar has better alien makeup than Tomalak, or really most of the aliens on Trek for that matter.
If you're a sci-fi casual, you can skip it. It's definitely dated and has.. inconsistent production values. Ultimately that doesn't matter much to the strength of the show but I definitely understand why it's off-putting. And hey, G'Kar has better alien makeup than Tomalak, or really most of the aliens on Trek for that matter.
weemadarthur
Member
Londo hating the action figure of himself because it was NOT anatomically correct was an amusing side point. Not unexpected due to the hype with the Centauri goddess of passion, but i'l take it. Hoping to watch one more episode tonight, but I have tons of work to do too.
I'm officially back to B5! I have a write-up pending (and several posts to reply to) either tonight or before work tomorrow morning. I'm gonna tackle an episode or so a day like we were pulling in before, so I'll be moving past Season 2 and into Season 3 within the next week or two.
We're back in business, ladies and gentledrazi.
"And Now For A Word"
Good evening, everyone. We regret that our regularly-scheduled episodic review news service, ERNS, went dark for a few weeks. We here at JZTV wish to offer our sincerest apologies for the long dark, but learning to adjust to a new life in a new state with a new full-time job that's on-your-feet and away from the computer has been a long, twilight struggle. We've also been suckered into a replay of Dragon Age: Inquisition, but that's besides the point at this time. JZTV is dedicated to bringing you a race through dark places, confessions and lamentations. We're a voice in the wilderness. I can't think of a way to shoehorn any further title references into this opening paragraph. And now for a word.
Have you ever dropped a passion project for a few weeks and dreaded your return because the next thing on the docket was dreadful? It's a lot like procrastinating on a college paper you just know you'll hate writing. It's one of the worst literary feelings in the world and I'm proud to say it isn't the case at all here. Rather, I'm quite fortunate in that "And Now For A Word" is easily one of my favorite episodes of the first two seasons. In some ways I may prefer it even to "The Coming of Shadows". I have a lot of thoughts on this one. I should clarify, however, that for once my write-up won't be as spur-of-the-moment -- I'd intended to keep up with this project during the move, so I watched this episode a little over two weeks ago. My memory is a bit foggy as a result, but we'll go over it in broad strokes.
We open on this nice TV lady talking to us as if we were watching a TV news program, rather than a pulse-pounding unparalleled sci-fi space opera. She acts like we're tuning in to our nightly broadcast of ISN, which I mimicked poorly in the first paragraph of this self-same review. I want to talk about my childhood reaction to this. It blew my mind. "There must be some mistake," I surely thought. "This is not a news program. Why is this happening? How could this be?"
A few years later, when I was in middle school and The Sci-Fi Channel aired the show in 8AM syndication and my grandmother -- ironically, perhaps -- eschewed actual 8AM news programs in favor of B5 -- I was blindsided all over again. I'm pretty sure I didn't really know the word "meta", but I was experiencing one of my first exposures to the concept. I probably compared it to DS9's "In the Pale Moonlight", since Captain Sisko opens every act of that classic episode by addressing the audience. But this was different. When I was old enough for high school, Stargate SG-1 would hold its two-part "Heroes" with a documentary as a framing piece, and a few years later BSG would have "Final Cut". The concept is all over the place now. Maybe it always was, and I was too young to know it. Whatever the case may be, "And Now For A Word" has always held a special place in my heart because it's the first time I realized that genres and ideas can crossover so brilliantly and characters we know and love can be represented in a vastly different light as a result.
And boy, howdy, do we run the gamut on character representations here or what? From Stephen Franklin's harrowing (if somewhat tonally out-of-left-field) monologue about a friend he couldn't save from being spaced to John Sheridan's hilarious double usage of the term "armchair quarterbacking" in relation to ongoing challenges to Delenn's genuine, heart-wrenching accountability when she's asked how she supposes folks back on Earth feel about her transformation (this is a character whose empathetic charm goes a long way in the second season) we see so many different shades of B5, all edited and abbreviated to suit a fictional news agency in a time of human turmoil. Because it is a time of human turmoil; Earth is shoring up a greater volume of xenophobic sentiment, a larger dose of security through any means necessary. We know this already, because Sheridan is being kept in-the-loop through Hague and his associates. We know something is amiss, and now there's a news program concerning whether or not our titular station should even remain operational? Some of my favorite parts involve the reporter's clips in which she discusses what's been put to the film with the chairman of the Babylon 5 Senate Oversight Committee. I'm going to let the B5 Wiki introduce him, because it sums things up quite nicely:
We learn Quantrell's leanings as reporter Cynthia Torqueman speaks with him intermittently throughout the episode. He never interacts with the main cast. He only stands on the sidelines, waving around his authority from afar as he helps to shape what Earth's viewers will think of those characters. It's a fascinating plot device. It also resonates with the turmoil we are experiencing in the real world today. Look, I'm going to refrain from getting too deep on this front. But there's a lot of material in Babylon 5 that is so very timeless, and there are themes in this show which many of us are better-equipped to handle 2017 through because we watched this modestly-budgeted mid-90s gig about humans and aliens and spinning metal. Science fiction is a doorway. "And Now For A Word" is a doorway into closed-borders politics, and how selective media can retool a person's interpretation of a given event. The ongoing shadows cast over our home planet can be seen to represent a certain current set of political factors, both here in the United States and elsewhere. Look, all I'm saying is that when it comes to comprehending my own stance on government, the things I learned watching these made-up men and women trump anything I read in a textbook.
No examination of the episode can be complete without addressing its core plot: Narn-Centauri hostility right here on and around B5. The Narns discover that their enemies have been shipping weapons to the frontlines, which prompts the destruction of one of their vessels. A tense stand-off occurs, and B5 itself becomes a battleground. Smartly, the writing chooses to focus on Torqueman's interviews with Londo and G'Kar and keeps the action to outer space rather than bursting into a full-on military engagement on the station. While that would have been a spectacle, this feels more believable, more authentic, and more suited to the framing device. Torqueman and her camera crew work hard to get their viewers fast updates on the state of affairs in the space surrounding B5. We see Sheridan and Ivanova working all the harder to resolve the situation, but only through Torqueman's lens. The best part? Londo and G'Kar gain even further layers to their ambitions through their speeches to ISN.
And of course, I can't close without mentioning the Psi Corps commercial. What a brilliant piece of propaganda. Not only for the blink-and-you'll-miss-it subliminal text in my opening image, but just the whole damn thing is so intentionally cheesy, so ridiculously scripted, so wonderful. Little Johnny just found out he's a telepath. His mother is worried sick for him! Blessings to the good Psi Cop who shows up at their door and informs them that Johnny will now grow up to be a terrific fellow with an all-expenses-paid education who will do great work for the betterment of society. "My Johnny? A telepath?" You can't read that without remembering the mother's delivery. If you have forgotten, I implore you to look it up. Precious few things in this world have compelled me to grin from ear to ear whilst simultaneously feeling dread. This commercial might top that list. Gotta love how the Psi Cop seems to fill in the role of family father, too. There's no mention of a previous father figure to Johnny, and the commercial ends with the guy framed in the picture as if he's taken over the role. It's kind of terrifying, the whole thing. The Corps is mother, and today, the Corps sure as hell is father.
So we're back. I can't guarantee these will happen every two days, because work is time-consuming and all that jazz. But I can say that we're definitely entering another stretch of the B5 rewatch, and that I'll have another episode or two in the bag tomorrow.
"And Now For A Word"
Good evening, everyone. We regret that our regularly-scheduled episodic review news service, ERNS, went dark for a few weeks. We here at JZTV wish to offer our sincerest apologies for the long dark, but learning to adjust to a new life in a new state with a new full-time job that's on-your-feet and away from the computer has been a long, twilight struggle. We've also been suckered into a replay of Dragon Age: Inquisition, but that's besides the point at this time. JZTV is dedicated to bringing you a race through dark places, confessions and lamentations. We're a voice in the wilderness. I can't think of a way to shoehorn any further title references into this opening paragraph. And now for a word.
Have you ever dropped a passion project for a few weeks and dreaded your return because the next thing on the docket was dreadful? It's a lot like procrastinating on a college paper you just know you'll hate writing. It's one of the worst literary feelings in the world and I'm proud to say it isn't the case at all here. Rather, I'm quite fortunate in that "And Now For A Word" is easily one of my favorite episodes of the first two seasons. In some ways I may prefer it even to "The Coming of Shadows". I have a lot of thoughts on this one. I should clarify, however, that for once my write-up won't be as spur-of-the-moment -- I'd intended to keep up with this project during the move, so I watched this episode a little over two weeks ago. My memory is a bit foggy as a result, but we'll go over it in broad strokes.
We open on this nice TV lady talking to us as if we were watching a TV news program, rather than a pulse-pounding unparalleled sci-fi space opera. She acts like we're tuning in to our nightly broadcast of ISN, which I mimicked poorly in the first paragraph of this self-same review. I want to talk about my childhood reaction to this. It blew my mind. "There must be some mistake," I surely thought. "This is not a news program. Why is this happening? How could this be?"
A few years later, when I was in middle school and The Sci-Fi Channel aired the show in 8AM syndication and my grandmother -- ironically, perhaps -- eschewed actual 8AM news programs in favor of B5 -- I was blindsided all over again. I'm pretty sure I didn't really know the word "meta", but I was experiencing one of my first exposures to the concept. I probably compared it to DS9's "In the Pale Moonlight", since Captain Sisko opens every act of that classic episode by addressing the audience. But this was different. When I was old enough for high school, Stargate SG-1 would hold its two-part "Heroes" with a documentary as a framing piece, and a few years later BSG would have "Final Cut". The concept is all over the place now. Maybe it always was, and I was too young to know it. Whatever the case may be, "And Now For A Word" has always held a special place in my heart because it's the first time I realized that genres and ideas can crossover so brilliantly and characters we know and love can be represented in a vastly different light as a result.
And boy, howdy, do we run the gamut on character representations here or what? From Stephen Franklin's harrowing (if somewhat tonally out-of-left-field) monologue about a friend he couldn't save from being spaced to John Sheridan's hilarious double usage of the term "armchair quarterbacking" in relation to ongoing challenges to Delenn's genuine, heart-wrenching accountability when she's asked how she supposes folks back on Earth feel about her transformation (this is a character whose empathetic charm goes a long way in the second season) we see so many different shades of B5, all edited and abbreviated to suit a fictional news agency in a time of human turmoil. Because it is a time of human turmoil; Earth is shoring up a greater volume of xenophobic sentiment, a larger dose of security through any means necessary. We know this already, because Sheridan is being kept in-the-loop through Hague and his associates. We know something is amiss, and now there's a news program concerning whether or not our titular station should even remain operational? Some of my favorite parts involve the reporter's clips in which she discusses what's been put to the film with the chairman of the Babylon 5 Senate Oversight Committee. I'm going to let the B5 Wiki introduce him, because it sums things up quite nicely:
We learn Quantrell's leanings as reporter Cynthia Torqueman speaks with him intermittently throughout the episode. He never interacts with the main cast. He only stands on the sidelines, waving around his authority from afar as he helps to shape what Earth's viewers will think of those characters. It's a fascinating plot device. It also resonates with the turmoil we are experiencing in the real world today. Look, I'm going to refrain from getting too deep on this front. But there's a lot of material in Babylon 5 that is so very timeless, and there are themes in this show which many of us are better-equipped to handle 2017 through because we watched this modestly-budgeted mid-90s gig about humans and aliens and spinning metal. Science fiction is a doorway. "And Now For A Word" is a doorway into closed-borders politics, and how selective media can retool a person's interpretation of a given event. The ongoing shadows cast over our home planet can be seen to represent a certain current set of political factors, both here in the United States and elsewhere. Look, all I'm saying is that when it comes to comprehending my own stance on government, the things I learned watching these made-up men and women trump anything I read in a textbook.
No examination of the episode can be complete without addressing its core plot: Narn-Centauri hostility right here on and around B5. The Narns discover that their enemies have been shipping weapons to the frontlines, which prompts the destruction of one of their vessels. A tense stand-off occurs, and B5 itself becomes a battleground. Smartly, the writing chooses to focus on Torqueman's interviews with Londo and G'Kar and keeps the action to outer space rather than bursting into a full-on military engagement on the station. While that would have been a spectacle, this feels more believable, more authentic, and more suited to the framing device. Torqueman and her camera crew work hard to get their viewers fast updates on the state of affairs in the space surrounding B5. We see Sheridan and Ivanova working all the harder to resolve the situation, but only through Torqueman's lens. The best part? Londo and G'Kar gain even further layers to their ambitions through their speeches to ISN.
And of course, I can't close without mentioning the Psi Corps commercial. What a brilliant piece of propaganda. Not only for the blink-and-you'll-miss-it subliminal text in my opening image, but just the whole damn thing is so intentionally cheesy, so ridiculously scripted, so wonderful. Little Johnny just found out he's a telepath. His mother is worried sick for him! Blessings to the good Psi Cop who shows up at their door and informs them that Johnny will now grow up to be a terrific fellow with an all-expenses-paid education who will do great work for the betterment of society. "My Johnny? A telepath?" You can't read that without remembering the mother's delivery. If you have forgotten, I implore you to look it up. Precious few things in this world have compelled me to grin from ear to ear whilst simultaneously feeling dread. This commercial might top that list. Gotta love how the Psi Cop seems to fill in the role of family father, too. There's no mention of a previous father figure to Johnny, and the commercial ends with the guy framed in the picture as if he's taken over the role. It's kind of terrifying, the whole thing. The Corps is mother, and today, the Corps sure as hell is father.
So we're back. I can't guarantee these will happen every two days, because work is time-consuming and all that jazz. But I can say that we're definitely entering another stretch of the B5 rewatch, and that I'll have another episode or two in the bag tomorrow.
It's a little strange how she shows up for the episode's climax as if she's had much impact on the episode itself beforehand. She was well-acted, like you said, but I had to subtract a couple of points from the episode because she fulfilled an obvious purpose but nevertheless managed to feel kind of random in the end.
It's beautiful. Whatever the hell it is.
*snrk*
Speaking of speaking of the books, it seems I've failed to make time to read To Dream in the City of Sorrows as I'd promised. ;_; Gah. I guess it's not too late to start.
[/QUOTE]
Like BlackLagoon said, the production values ramp up season-by-season. It's absolutely worth a watch, and our reviews of the earlier episodes might help you to stomach some of the... less-than-stellar early material, haha.
I know that feel! That's why we hit a lull, ha.
*snrk*
Speaking of speaking of the books, it seems I've failed to make time to read To Dream in the City of Sorrows as I'd promised. ;_; Gah. I guess it's not too late to start.
Right... Right. Lochley is Sheridan's ex-wife. Of course. Yeah, that's not stupid at all. *groan*. Wasn't a huge fan of B5's crack at "Lower Decks" either. At least the guys weren't as annoying as other... East Coast Workin Schlub characters in this show.. such as Angry Dockworker Guy MY BRUDDA DIED... or Wisecrackin Computer AI when Garibaldi reinstalls Windows 95, or Wisecrackin Postal Guy when Garibaldi isn't cool with the increase in stamp prices....
Right now I'm enduring scenes of Byron romancing Lyta. I'm not gonna lie. This is tough to get through without vomiting. Somebody should have stopped this plot from happening.
Right now I'm enduring scenes of Byron romancing Lyta. I'm not gonna lie. This is tough to get through without vomiting. Somebody should have stopped this plot from happening.
Yeah, "A View from the Gallery", egh. That one I remember hating.
This is prime cut from what I was talking about with "JMS humor not always landing for me at all". You mentioned the third-season postal guy, too. I have bad memories therein.
Whenever JMS thinks he's gonna channel weird 50s-style jokes, he overplays them and treats them entirely too... I don't know. 50s?
This is prime cut from what I was talking about with "JMS humor not always landing for me at all". You mentioned the third-season postal guy, too. I have bad memories therein.
Whenever JMS thinks he's gonna channel weird 50s-style jokes, he overplays them and treats them entirely too... I don't know. 50s?
Like BlackLagoon said, the production values ramp up season-by-season. It's absolutely worth a watch, and our reviews of the earlier episodes might help you to stomach some of the... less-than-stellar early material, haha.
I know that feel! That's why we hit a lull, ha.
BlackLagoon
Member
Some of the post processing like the anti-aliasing is probably still nicer than what you'd get from games today unless you have a fancy PC with downsampling and such enabled.
The three Del Ray trillogies are canon - The Psi Crops, The Centauri Prime, and The Technomage ones. Of the earlier Dell ones, only #9, To Dream in the City of Sorrows, is fully canon. #7, The Shadow Within, is partially canon - the Elizabeth Sheridan parts are, the John Sheridan parts are not. Dream and Shadow are probably the ones most directly tied into the show, the trilogies more provide background about the wider universe.
There was also six short stories, 3 in Amazing Stories and 3 in The Official B5 Magazine. The Ivanova one was interesting, but it seemed more like an intended companion piece to the unpronounced 1st season finale of Crusade and is somewhat meaningless without it. All in all I don't remember them being all that notable aside from "Space, Time, and the Incurable Romantic", which caused a bit of an uproar among certain parts of fandom being seen as something like an FU to
Marcus/Ivanova shippers.
Further, DC released a 11 issue comic series based on premises by JMS, which goes into Sinclair returning to earth after being reassigned, and expands on Garibaldi's past. It was ok as I recall, but not that essential. More notable was the In Valen's Name 3 issue mini-series, which wrapped up a few loose ends.
B5 was pretty much his first major role though. Regardless of what you think of the episodes, just having a multi-episode recurring role on his resume was likely far more helpful to help his further career than harm it.
Pegasus Actual
Member
So the S5 theme... they kick it off with the badass quotes... And the music builds and builds in the background, and finally the quotes end, the station and logo pop up... it's go time for the theme and.... and......
I don't even know man. I don't even dislike the S5 theme in a vacuum. But the music makes me expect... a shirtless Kevin Sorbo popping up on screen playing a fun-loving pirate with a heart of gold or something. Just go into the regular B5 theme. It's not that hard!
Lol at JMS's name stamped onto the station as executive producer at the very end. So corny. And also lol at the end of season 4 where he put his 'fuck you' to Usenet. He was a true trailblazer in the field of creators fighting with fans online.
Anyway, comments on 5x08 Day of the Dead...
I don't even know man. I don't even dislike the S5 theme in a vacuum. But the music makes me expect... a shirtless Kevin Sorbo popping up on screen playing a fun-loving pirate with a heart of gold or something. Just go into the regular B5 theme. It's not that hard!
Lol at JMS's name stamped onto the station as executive producer at the very end. So corny. And also lol at the end of season 4 where he put his 'fuck you' to Usenet. He was a true trailblazer in the field of creators fighting with fans online.
Anyway, comments on 5x08 Day of the Dead...
So this is like the lone non-JMS written episode in the last 3 seasons of the show. It features... Rebo and Zooty played by Penn and Teller. Uhh, what? I love Penn and Teller, they are probably the most talented (and maybe the richest aside from maybe like Majel Barrett Roddenberry #trekbucks) people to show up on this show but... why? And they need to be dissuaded from going into politics. Penn's not that great at politics anyway, he just didn't have it in him to suck up incessantly to future POTUS Donald and thus couldn't win the show despite being clearly the most competent person there in both of his seasons. Sad!
But I digress. So Rebo and Zooty go nowhere, and are a waste of time. Meanwhile part of the station disappears to the Brekiri homeworld in order for Space Magic to happen, and for them to see dead people. That leads to some odd pairings of visitors. Ok, Morden goes to see Lennier. Wait what? Why? And Lennier mostly just ignores him. So there's nothing there except for Morden clumsily telling Lennier that he's going to betray the Angle-Shock (I am so not going to bother looking up the aliens-use-apostrophes official spelling on that one). Also Morden doesn't have Morden hair. I guess the actor didn't have long enough hair anymore? Put it all together and it feels like a real waste of time.
Then we have Londo's Idira coming back. Which I guess is fine. Strange that she shows up here but doesn't even show up for the episode where she dies. She definitely could have used a bit more build-up earlier in the show so that Londo willing to 'let the whole galaxy burn' for revenge would resonate a bit better. But it's fine. It works for where Londo is and where he's going for her to be his visitor. I mean you could have just dropped in Morden here to taunt Londo about his future as well but whatever!
Actually he could have taunted Londo quite a bit about his future fate. After all as it happens, Sheridan was resolving the war on his own and Londo turning on the Shadows accomplished absolutely nothing except for marking him and his people for revenge. Presumably if he had left the Shadows alone and didn't put Morden's head on a pike for Vir to wave at he could have had a much nicer run as emperor.
So Dodger shows up to visit Garibaldi. Ehh. The one episode one night stand coming back? Who cares. Or did they not even get together originally because Garibaldi was concerned that he might have just met his soul mate 5 minutes ago? Either way they're singing poetry to each other or whatever and it's just a bunch of crap.
And that leaves us with Lochley. And you know she has no history on the show so they just have to try to do some on-the-fly character building but... the problem is she's a 1 season character on a show that knows it's the last season. It's like DS9 wasting time on Ezri. Like fuck off, ain't nobody got time for that!
So turns out Lochley had a friend and they were kinda whores turning tricks for drug money or something. Yep, not really a backstory we needed I don't think.
I can't help but think that Ivanova being visited by her mom here would work really well. Especially since it could tie in nicely to the Byron garbage. Of course Claudia Christian would have ruined it with her garbage acting anyway. But I guess if she was going to be in Lyta's place as Byron-love-interest she would have at least been an acting upgrade there.
Speaking of Byron and his band of merry telepaths, an odd absence this episode as you'd think that having the dead come back might mind-fuck them pretty hard. It just seems like something could have been done there, I get it that they're just on the rest of the station and happened to miss out on the whole thing, but with Lyta's recent speech about how much it sucks to be in someone's mind when they die, and attributing Bester's psychoticness to it, it just seems like it could fit in with the whole cult going crazy thing.
Back to Tracy Scoggins vs Claudia Christian for a sec. Tracy actually did pretty well with the material she was given here. I can't help to think that she could have played Ivanova a lot more effectively had she been cast in the role. Hey, did I mention I really don't like Claudia Christian?
And it wasn't in this episode, but like 1 or 2 before... but two Byron scenes that were so awful that I can't just ignore them... Byron-Lyta sex with all the other telepaths just hanging around intercut with Vorlons making telepath babies or whatever... yeesh. I never need to see that shit again.
And then this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yECUU16dXuE
No thank you to that. The whole Branch Davidian telepaths plot really could have used a lot more David Koresh kinda crazy in place of... whatever Byron is.
But I digress. So Rebo and Zooty go nowhere, and are a waste of time. Meanwhile part of the station disappears to the Brekiri homeworld in order for Space Magic to happen, and for them to see dead people. That leads to some odd pairings of visitors. Ok, Morden goes to see Lennier. Wait what? Why? And Lennier mostly just ignores him. So there's nothing there except for Morden clumsily telling Lennier that he's going to betray the Angle-Shock (I am so not going to bother looking up the aliens-use-apostrophes official spelling on that one). Also Morden doesn't have Morden hair. I guess the actor didn't have long enough hair anymore? Put it all together and it feels like a real waste of time.
Then we have Londo's Idira coming back. Which I guess is fine. Strange that she shows up here but doesn't even show up for the episode where she dies. She definitely could have used a bit more build-up earlier in the show so that Londo willing to 'let the whole galaxy burn' for revenge would resonate a bit better. But it's fine. It works for where Londo is and where he's going for her to be his visitor. I mean you could have just dropped in Morden here to taunt Londo about his future as well but whatever!
Actually he could have taunted Londo quite a bit about his future fate. After all as it happens, Sheridan was resolving the war on his own and Londo turning on the Shadows accomplished absolutely nothing except for marking him and his people for revenge. Presumably if he had left the Shadows alone and didn't put Morden's head on a pike for Vir to wave at he could have had a much nicer run as emperor.
So Dodger shows up to visit Garibaldi. Ehh. The one episode one night stand coming back? Who cares. Or did they not even get together originally because Garibaldi was concerned that he might have just met his soul mate 5 minutes ago? Either way they're singing poetry to each other or whatever and it's just a bunch of crap.
And that leaves us with Lochley. And you know she has no history on the show so they just have to try to do some on-the-fly character building but... the problem is she's a 1 season character on a show that knows it's the last season. It's like DS9 wasting time on Ezri. Like fuck off, ain't nobody got time for that!
So turns out Lochley had a friend and they were kinda whores turning tricks for drug money or something. Yep, not really a backstory we needed I don't think.
I can't help but think that Ivanova being visited by her mom here would work really well. Especially since it could tie in nicely to the Byron garbage. Of course Claudia Christian would have ruined it with her garbage acting anyway. But I guess if she was going to be in Lyta's place as Byron-love-interest she would have at least been an acting upgrade there.
Speaking of Byron and his band of merry telepaths, an odd absence this episode as you'd think that having the dead come back might mind-fuck them pretty hard. It just seems like something could have been done there, I get it that they're just on the rest of the station and happened to miss out on the whole thing, but with Lyta's recent speech about how much it sucks to be in someone's mind when they die, and attributing Bester's psychoticness to it, it just seems like it could fit in with the whole cult going crazy thing.
Back to Tracy Scoggins vs Claudia Christian for a sec. Tracy actually did pretty well with the material she was given here. I can't help to think that she could have played Ivanova a lot more effectively had she been cast in the role. Hey, did I mention I really don't like Claudia Christian?
And it wasn't in this episode, but like 1 or 2 before... but two Byron scenes that were so awful that I can't just ignore them... Byron-Lyta sex with all the other telepaths just hanging around intercut with Vorlons making telepath babies or whatever... yeesh. I never need to see that shit again.
And then this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yECUU16dXuE
No thank you to that. The whole Branch Davidian telepaths plot really could have used a lot more David Koresh kinda crazy in place of... whatever Byron is.