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Season 2, episode 1 – Points of Departure

Links to recap -
Dreamwidth
Livejournal
(Don’t forget to check out the Lurker’s Guide. The link is in the recap and they always have the last word on the ep from JMS.)

A new captain – John Sheridan
01_sheridan

Delenn is moving in there!
Delenn

We meet John Sheridan – he is called to go to Babylon 5 as its new commander. We do NOT hear all that is said to him. He arrives to a mess – Garibaldi is in a coma, sincliar has been called back to Earthdome, G’kar is missing, Delenn is in a cocoon and everything is a mess. Also a rogue Minbari ship is reported to be close to B5.

Also we find out how why the Earth Minbari War ended. We do not find out how Clark knew this. The real question is – is it true?

Just so happens that Sheridan is the number 1 hated human among the Minbari and even has a nickname – Starkiller. The Trigati shows up as a protest and they blow themselves up.

Whee! What fun!

Sheridan doesn’t even get to give his good luck speech until the end… and to an empty room.

201_cap602

What were your first impressions of Sheridan?
Do you remember wondering what on earth Delenn was going to be the first time you saw this episode?
Was John Sheridan sent by Clark to further his agenda? What do you think Hague told him that we didn’t get to hear?
alexcat: (Babylon5)
[personal profile] alexcat
Rewatch for 1 x 22 – Chrysalis

Talk about going out with a bang! Season 1’s finale serves up all sorts bang! You can read the recaps here: Dreamwidth and Livejournal brought to you this time by [personal profile] ruuger.

JMS had tons to say at the Lurker’s Guide about the episode.

LOTS of things happen. Londo wants Quadrant 37 taken care of and Mr. Morden does just that – 10,000 Narns gone in a flash.
122_morden

Delenn is about to do something sooo drastic (and I still can’t figure out why) that nothing will ever be the same.
122_chrysalis

And Garibaldi comes across the nastiest morsel of them all when he finds the plot ti kill the president – he just doesn’t find it early enough to save the president and almost loses his own life in the process.
122_traitor
122_gar

I think the saddest part is that Londo takes the step that he can never take back. We see that killing all those Narn doesn’t sit well with him but it’s too late. Way too late.

What do you all think?
Why did Garibaldi’ aide kill Devereaux and his goons? Was Deverueax working for Clark? Or someone else? Just how deep does the conspiracy go? Do you think we ever find out?
What exactly is purpose of what Delenn does? I never really have made much sense of that in all the times I’ve watched the show.
alexcat: (Babylon5)
[personal profile] alexcat
Rewatch for 1 x 21 – The Quality of Mercy

Another jam packed episode and at the time, you had no idea what was important or what was a throwaway, did you?

Here are your blow by blow recaps written by the wonderful [personal profile] vjs2259: Dreamwidth and Livejournal.

JMS tells about having the flu when he wrote this episode at the Lurker’s Guide.

June Lockhart plays Dr. Laura Rosen, a doctor disgraced for being a Stim junkie, who finds an alien medical device that truly heals. You can see her and her device in the photo.
21_laural
I’m even old enough to remember her and Bill Mumy in Lost in Space. Um, and her in Lassie.

We also have our second look at death of personality, which is a kind of terrifying thing all together.

By far, the most memorable thing about this episode was Londo’s and Lennier’s big adventure. It’s probably the only instance that a male ‘appendage’ was used in a television show for cheating at poker. Lennier seemed to be enjoying the stripper as well. Anyway, here it is:
21_londo
JMS did say that they have six of them and female Centauri have six, um, slots on either side of their spine for them to fit in. Think about that – I dare you!

Sooooo

What did you think?
Was death of personality a cruel and unusual punishment? Crueler than real death?
Also the machine was rather a part of this idea as well since it was a punishment device that sucked the life force out of a criminal and gave it to someone terminally ill. Was that humane?
Will you ever look the Centauri the same after seeing that thing?

Anything else you want to talk about?

Oh and the title comes from this quote from The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene 1:
The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath
alexcat: (Default)
[personal profile] alexcat
Rewatch for 1 x 20 – Babylon Squared

Now we’re cooking!!!

Here is a link to the episode recap at Dreamwidth and the Livejournal Mirror.

This is an action packed episode with all the dawdling and hinting and such finally beginning to come to fruition. I have said before that this might well be the pivotal episode in the entire series. From this point, we are going full on story arc and this and the next two episodes in season 1 will give us no time to linger over anything.

The Lurke’s Guide might give you some insight into the episode as well.

20_Babylon4

We have Babylon 4 and Zathras and the One. We have Delenn and Sinclair from the future. We have all sorts of things taking place or at least beginning to take place. Delenn is summoned before the Grey Council and they ask her to be their leader, but she decides to follow prophecy and find out more about the humans.

20_zathras


It’s just full of ‘signs and portents” and all hell is about to break loose!

We also must NOT forget the most important exchange in the entire season – Button then zip or Zip then button? The fate of the universe hangs on that one.

What are some points that I didn’t mention?
What is your favorite part of this one?
Anything else?
Button/zip or Zip/button?
alexcat: (Default)
[personal profile] alexcat
I am very sorry it's late... I actually meant to get it posted both days and time slipped away.

Rewatch 1 x 18 – A Voice in the Wilderness, part 1

The DReamwidth Recap and the Livejournal Mirror.

JMS has LOTS to say about this one!.

This one and the next one were a great beginning to something that never happened!

There was a lot of stuff stuffed into this episode and the next one.

Humor – Garibaldi’s tube omniscience concerning Talia! Londo is funny as hell in this one – he sings the Hokey Pokey! (And yes, that really is what it’s all about!) Also his mathematics and Narn thing.


Then we get suspense – what’s happening on Mars? Is Garibaldi’s ex safe? What’s inside Epsilon III and why is Draal going to the sea like Tolkien’s elves?
118_cap507

Then there is Ivanova’s ‘Ivanova is god’ speech!

And then there’s an old man in the machine!

The thing is we have this wonderful machine and story and they sort of drop it. We see it now and again but nothing as wonderful as it should be!

And then we have ‘to be continued’!

Favorite part? Questions? Anything?
kanadka: neroon, not looking amused, kind of a default neroon look (b5: neroon)
[personal profile] kanadka
Before getting started I want to give a special shoutout to the writer of this episode, DC Fontana, who recently passed away. DC Fontana was really well-known for her work in Star Trek, but she gave us three B5 episodes too, The War Prayer, A Distant Star, and today's episode, Legacies. Of these three, Legacies was actually her brainchild entirely. The War Prayer and A Distant Star were, like many episodes contracted out by JMS for B5, built off of a script idea he'd already had. When DC Fontana approached with Legacies, JMS actually took her idea over his and never wound up using the idea he'd originally had.

The highlights of this episode include:
- Neroon!! He's here for a funeral, and in Delenn's opinion he's making a big fat Warrior Caste mess over the whole affair. Neroon, naturally, disagrees.
- Talia and Susan bickering their way from Enemies to the Friends and Lovers part over a young telepath
- Delenn somehow gets a hold of the body and manages to cremate it on the station without anybody knowing, especially not Neroon
- Neroon and Garibaldi search the station for the body while Franklin pumps some pak'ma'ra stomachs
- Neroon gets friendly with Sinclair (read: he threatens to blow up the station and then hides in Sinclair's quarters to punch him a little)
- Na'Toth is fantastic in this episode and makes another attempt to get access to telepathic DNA for the Narn Regime (c.f. G'Kar with Lyta Alexander in The Gathering)
- young telepath Alisa eventually goes not with Psi Corps or Narn but with Minbar to train with Minbari telepaths; we never see or hear from her on-screen again - alas, because those experiences would be really interesting.

Here's a quick recap of the episode, and here's the Lurker's Guide page. For funsies, here's a great blog post that goes through all the wonderful things people are wearing in this episode with appropriately scathing commentary.

Now for some fun screencaps! I got a bit carried away so I'll put them under this cut. )

Fun Facts and Tidbits:
  • "You talk like a Minbari, Commander."

    I have been told that this line was ad-libbed by the actor. (Which was a surprise! I'd thought JMS didn't really allow ad-libs, even when it's not his script.) I've never been able to find proof of that in interviews with Vickery, Fontana, or JMS, but I've also never been able to find this line in the scripts I have access to. Fontana added: "...once the script was down in terms of, 'This is what we're going to shoot', there were no changes allowed on the stage. If there were changes that came up for some reason - they had to call Joe Straczynski and he would come down to the set and see what was going on and say, 'No, do it my way,' or 'Okay, we can change this line, it's for a valid reason'. But generally, once the script was set, it was set in stone." [This is from Echoes of All Our Conversations]
    So if it was added by JMS, it was added to a script that never seems to have been widely circulated. Otherwise, I think it might be an ad-lib that JMS kept in because it accidentally hit on something he was planning on doing, and he ran with it, and as we who've seen S3 know, he really ran with it.

  • Neroon's makeup was by request of the actor who wanted to look more aggressive to feel more in the role, so the artist gave him heavier eye makeup. Should've asked for Delenn's sassy dark lip.

  • Na'Toth's role was supposed to be played by G'Kar, but Andreas Katsulas wasn't available that day. Lucky too because this is one of my favourite Na'Toth episodes. Alas, this is Julie Caitlin Brown's second last appearance in the role (the last one is Chrysalis). Though the makeup was the biggest deterrent in the role (not just for her but for also Mary Woronov who played Ko'Dath, and the first actress they had cast as Na'Toth, who left) she liked the character so much she built her own backstory for Na'Toth and the Narn Regime. Here's a super interesting interview with Julie Caitlin Brown, Na'Toth's actress. Remember that bit where Alisa says her mind is cold, ugly, and alien? Apparently, it was less a remark about Narn minds generally and more an intended reference to Na'Toth's ulterior motives and plots.

  • Telepath trivia: Apparently only 5% of telepaths manifest abilities post-puberty (from "Deadly Relations - Bester Ascendant" by J. Gregory Keyes). Talia meanwhile says that telepaths can be born with the ability already functional (adding that, in which case, one develops the ability to block others out) or the talent is latent and triggered around the onset of puberty. I take it that means that those who have it from birth are being 'found out' by the Psi Corps tests?

  • At the end of the episode, Alisa takes the Ingata to Minbar. I really greatly hope she makes Neroon's return voyage extremely uncomfortable. I hope she steals many things from him! There's a tie-in short story ("True Seeker", by Fiona Avery) that is set post-series: ten years later, Alisa Beldon is reunited with Na'Toth.


This is one of my favourite episodes - definitely my favourite in S1 - and I could easily talk about it for days. Tell me what you think of this episode!
alexcat: (Babylon 5G_D_L)
[personal profile] alexcat
Rewatch for 1 x 15 – Grail

We meet a very icky species in this episode – a true non humanoid alien – the Na’ka’leen feeder. It’s a very nasty piece of work.
15_Nakaleenfeeder

The recap can be found Here (Mirrored on Livejournal.

JMS has a lot to say about this one, too, at the Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5. He loves the little bit about the human suing the alien for his grandfather being abducted from earth many years ago. The Vree, of course, is the alien he’s suing.

Aldus Gajic comes aboard the station – and is met with reverence by Delenn and Lennier. They consider the fact that he is a seeker much more important than what he is seeking. Delenn does tell Sinclair he is also a Seeker though he pays her little attention.
15_Aldus

Jinxo believes he can’t leave the station because he is cursed and the station will blow up if he leaves. That is also interesting (considering the awful trick the writer’s play on him in the end).

We get Ivanova’s BOOM speech, too, at the end!


Questions? Comments? Wasn’t the alien thingy gross?
alexcat: (LondoG'kar)
[personal profile] alexcat
I am so sorry that I didn't get this posted Monday. Life has been interfering with my real work!

~~

Rewatch for 1 x 14 – TKO

This episode is about a prize fight and prejudice on Babylon 5, but it’s also about Susan Ivanova and the loss of her father and what it really meant to her.

There is an excellent recap by [personal profile] vjs2259 Here (and at Livejuirnal). She points out several funny things about the episode – both A and B plot.

JMS talks a LOT about Ivanova at the Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5 as well. I am not sure I can add all that much to the discussions they have.

But that won’t stop me from trying!

This was originally one of my least favorite episodes, but I rather enjoyed this rewatch. Garibaldi’s boxing friend, Walker Smith, comes to B5 to try to regain ground he lost when he refused to throw a fight on earth. Some things never change, I suppose. This part of the story gives us a glance at the prejudice on the station. The aliens seem to hate humans – perhaps because they run the station and represent authority? What other reasons?
114_cap093

Smith wants to fight in a to the death alien fight called the Mutai and, Garibaldi can’t seem to talk him out of it. He finds a man who is familiar with the Mutai and its rules, who helps him make a challenge. Smith trains and fights to a draw, surprisingly, and wins the respect of the aliens involved in the Mutai. Smith leaves B5 to go back home and try to revive his career there. We do see a report that the fight makes news back home on Earth.
114_cap497

Rabbi Koslov has come to bring Susan her legacy from her father and to sit shiva with her. She tells him that she isn’t going to do it because her father didn’t offer her love when both her mother and her brother were gone. The Rabbi does a little scheming and Susan does a little thinking and finally decides to sit shiva for her father after she realizes that he did love her and he had apologized to her for his own shortcomings just before his death. The legacy was their family’s samovar – which is a container used to heat water for tea.
114_cap459

I think this part was not only about forgiveness but also about embracing our heritage. JMS does mention they cut a long discussion about whether the fish was Kosher or not.

So what do YOU think? Which part was more important? Why do the aliens hate the humans so much?
alexcat: (Babylon5)
[personal profile] alexcat
Rewatch for 1 x 13 – Signs and Portents

Here it the Recap for this episode. Follow the link to the Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5 for some good notes from JMS on this episode though he doesn’t tell us everything!

This is the episode that sets the stage though we don’t really know that our first time viewing it, do we? The whole episode fit into its title – every single story line.

Did Morden give you the creeps? He certainly did me and maybe that’s why we never see him in many other things after that. Poor Ed Wasser WAS Morden! Did you know he was trouble the first time you saw him?

13_morden

I guess this was the reason for all the raider stuff in the first episodes of this season. As far as I can remember, we never see them again. The one man did mention that they spent most of their funds to buy the mothership thing so they could make their own jumpgates. Perhaps that, along with the fact that B5 killed or captured most of their pilots, put them out of business. I can’t help but think JMS could have put them to use again… maybe an ex-raider throwing in with B5 to get revenge?

And we see a shadow ship! And what a shadow ship!
13_shadow

What do YOU want?
I suppose G’kar saying that he needed a guarantee for the safety of his people was the thing that made Morden move on from him. Perhaps G’kar has already begun his journey to who he will become. Did you see Delenn’s forehead glow? What did Morden and his ‘escorts’ do to Kosh? Poor Londo – he walked right into it, didn’t he? I always think of Springsteen’s Glory Days when I think of the Centauri.

And the last tie-in that we might not expect was Sinclair asking Garibaldi to look into his history with regards to the Battle of the Line. I don’t think anyone really expected what happened there, did we?

I suppose with all the hints and such, JMS did his job and surprised us in the end.

Questions? Comments? Anything? Ask away or comment away. I may not get back in the next day or two but I’ll try to get back to you. Also, feel free to comment on other people’s comments as well!
alexcat: (Babylon 5G_D_L)
[personal profile] alexcat
By Any Means Necessary – 1 x 12

This has never been one of my favorite episodes but it is a showcase for Sinclair and how he is willing to use the rules to get what the station and its people need. We will see Sheridan do this as well. We also see him interacting again with the non-military people on the station. The dock workers and their union rep seem to develop a great deal of respect for him during this episode. We also see another mention of how the station is underfunded.

I prefer the episodes that fit into the arc, but many of season 1’s eps are similar to this one. Perhaps they give us a history of the characters in a way that arc eps do not.

You can read a complete recap Here.

You can read more about the episode at theLurker’s Guide Post.

The union rep is Neeomi Connoly:


We also see Sinclair help G’kar to have his religious service with the G’Quan Eth – this story line is the comic relief, I suppose in the darker story of the dock workers.

What do you all think?
alexcat: (Babylon5)
[personal profile] alexcat
Survivors – 1 x 11

Lurker’s Guide always has some good stuff, much of it from JMS, himself.

There is a recap Here as well.

Michael’s past comes back to haunt him in the form of a woman who blames him for her father’s death years before. She lets her need for revenge almost allow President Santiago to get killed. We see the rise of Homeguard as well… and how it’s infiltrating much of the government. This again is a harbinger of what is coming soon and hints at the whole story arc.

11_LiannaKemmer01
Lianna Kemmer

The avalanche is beginning.

We learn of Michael’s past and how his alcoholism destroyed his life more than once. It’s certainly not the last we see of that problem, sadly enough. There are times when he is hard to like – he seems to make the worst choices.

So who were the survivors in the title?
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[personal profile] alexcat
Believers – 1 x10

Here is a recap at TV Tropes: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/BabylonFiveS01E10Believers

There is also a discussion post here: https://b5-revisited.dreamwidth.org/88433.html

The alien mother M'Ola:
09l


And young Shon:
10l


I personally hate this episode. I have lost a child and simply cannot fathom any religion that would be this stupid. Period. I understand the politics and the sticky situation, but at the end of the day, I’d have done what Franklin did. Franklin had an oath to uphold as well. He is a bit on the arrogant side, but we come to know this is his character.

Kosh got the best line with “The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.”

It would appear that no one is willing to stick their neck out either way in this one except Stephen. Is he arrogant? Yes, he is always that. Is he wrong? Hell no. Is Sinclair right? As captain, I suppose so but I’m still with Franklin on this one.

There are real ethical problems here, I suppose, but I simply don’t see them. It’s all pretty black and white to me.

The raiders subplot never interested me much even though it led to more eventually. We did get to see Ivanova show off a bit.
[personal profile] janetcarter

(Here’s the link to the previous rewatch session’s Deathwalker recap if you'd like to check it out! Also, sorry for any formatting issues here - I'll fix it all up later.)


This week on Babylon 5, the infamous war criminal Deathwalker arrives on the station to trade her immortality serum, raising some fun moral questions in the process. Additionally, Kosh enlists Talia to help in some odd negotiations with someone who has a VCR for a brain. 


One of the first things we see is Na’Toth try to murder someone named Deathwalker with her fists alone. I LOVE how badass Na’Toth is and the overall blood oath (Chon’kar) concept! It’s her duty to get vengeance for the murder of an ancestor, and she absolutely holds to that - even though it seemed unlikely for that person to be Deathwalker herself.


We learn that Deathwalker survived so long due to her anti-agapic, because of course during all her time causing death and destruction she’d make a serum to prolong her own life. I’d love to see her other experiments tbh. The details we did get seemed pretty brutal. For example, Deathwalker had implanted a device in Na’Toth’s grandfather’s brain so when he did escape her clutches, it slowly killed his mind and body. No wonder the League was so pissed off about her presence - and yet the major races unsurprisingly voted against them in their own self interest. Narns were trying to make a deal for her anti-agapic, the Centauri supposedly used Dilgar assassins in the past (and were okay with her crimes since they hadn't been against their race), and of course the Minbari had been harboring Jha’dur for years.


Tbh, it only makes me wonder what she specifically contributed to the Wind Swords during her time with them, and what advantages it gave them during the Earth-Minbari War. According to Lennier, the Grey Council only found out about the Wind Swords’ alliance with her when the war began, but they seem to have still utilized her weapons. It’s always nice to get some of that early on sketchiness when it comes to the Minbari. Like G’kar said in Mind War, no one on B5 is exactly as they appear. 


Onto the B-plot, we got some creepy little meetings between Kosh, Talia, and a mysterious man named Abbut. We also learned about those funky little robo dudes, Vicars! It makes me wonder what similar beings exist in the B5 world. This particular one was very entertaining, but like… I feel very bad for Talia in this whole mess. Through that little hell, Kosh managed to record her personality in a data crystal. This was allegedly done so that, should Andrea Thompson ever come back, they could reinstall Talia's consciousness into her body after the Control issue. JMS loves his trapdoors! If only this one had been used. 


Additional Highlights:

  1. The G’kar & Na’Toth interactions! He was so supportive of her mauling Deathwalker, and despite being very into the development of his race… he refused to make the deal of trading Na’Toth’s decapitated head for the anti-agapic. In his support he mentioned he also has had many Chon’kars. It would have been very interesting to get more details on these. 

  2. We also learned a bit more about Talia’s past with the serial killer she scanned back on Mars. This helps foreshadow her reservations in scanning a different murderer in The Quality of Mercy. 

  3. Kosh had a lot of great quotes! But to be honest, I choose to believe when he says things like “Listen to the music, not the song” he’s just trolling the younger races.

  4. The League of Non-Aligned Worlds got so much attention <3 I adored getting to see their spaceships and the designs of people like the Abbai ambassador Kalika.

  5. We got a pretty classic B5 ending where you have different characters pulling an intense topic in every possible direction, but something happens to render it all useless outside of the impact it had on the characters and audience. Deathwalker is gone, and so is her work. But the characters won’t forget how this all went down, and I certainly won’t either. 


Quotes:

  1. “We will meet in Red 3 at the hour of scampering.” -Kosh

  2. “Understanding is a three-edged sword.” -also Kosh 

  3. “We will no longer be dictated to by the very powers who aided this woman’s atrocity.” -Ambassador Kalika 

  4. “Your kind takes blind comfort in the belief that we are monsters, that you could never do what we did. The key ingredient in the anti-agapic cannot be synthesized. It must be taken from living beings. For one to live forever, another one must die. You will fall upon one another like wolves. It will make what we did pale by comparison. The billions who live will be a testimony. And the billions murdered to buy that immortality will be the continuance of my work. Not like us? You will become us. That's my monument, Commander.” -Jha’dur 

  5. Sinclair: You think it’ll always be like this, Michael? Little powers at the mercy of bigger powers, politics before morality, expediency before justice? | Garibaldi: Seems to work for everybody… except you. Maybe that’s why I like you.


Fun facts! (These are sourced from the Deathwalker section of Babylon 5: Other Voices Vol. 2.)

  1. Since Vicar gets his name from VCR, DiTillio joked that if this had been written during the takeover of DVDs, the character could’ve been called David. 

  2. Gilbert Gottfried was supposed to play Abbut initially, but he had a last minute conflict and couldn’t come. DiTillio said the replacement did an okay job, but kind of attributed the inability to live up to the initial vision to why Vicars never came back. 

  3. The fight between Na’Toth and Jha’dur was supposed to be a LOT longer and more brutal, but JMS had it cut partly for time and partly because he didn’t like that much action. 

  4. Sarah Douglas played Jha’dur! I recognize her from a Tok’ra character in SG-1, but she’s been in loads of stuff. DiTillio mentioned regretting giving her the eye contacts because so much of her acting comes from her eyes and they were so uncomfortable they impacted her performance. But I personally love the look <3


Lastly, I leave you with this beautiful meme I found on reddit:


What did you guys think of the episode? Did you have any favorite or least favorite parts? Do you think Deathwalker should have had a different fate? Were there any elements you wish had been explored more? Let me know your thoughts!



alexcat: (Babylon5)
[personal profile] alexcat
Here is a link to the recap: https://b5-revisited.dreamwidth.org/87450.html

The Grey Council
08_greyc

Sinclair as prisonser
08_sinclair1
08_sinclair2jpg

Here is where we find out, as well as Sinclair finding out, what happened at the Battle of the Line. We see Delenn in a totally different light than we will see her in again, at least in my opinion. What is never made completely clear is who the “knights” are, but it is made clear that Sinclair does not think they are acting alone but are part of a larger conspiracy.

Also we get that little bit from Delenn to Franklin about what she did in the war being a tale for another day. Indeed!

The last rewatch was when Trump was running for president ibn 2015 and I have deleted some comments. As it turns out, Trump is pretty much exactly like Clark. And to paraphrase Forrest gump, that’s all I have to say about that.

I stated in the recap that I thought JMS was still experimenting with his arc at the time and through much of Season 1… what do you think?
alexcat: (Default)
[personal profile] alexcat
Season 1, Episode 7 – The War Prayer

This is one of D.C Fontana’s episodes and it could easily take place in the US today. We have hate groups and crazy militias ready to take things in their own hands and the biggest problem is that our friends and neighbors are often the monsters. Susan finds o9ut what that is like with an old boyfriend.
107_cap123

Here is a recap of this episode: https://b5-revisited.dreamwidth.org/87266.html

Delenn’s friend Mayan:
107_cap031

Vir’s love birds and the most wonderful of Londo’s quotes:
107_1
Something my father said. He was old, very old at the time. I went into his room, and he was sitting alone in the dark crying. So, I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "My shoes are too tight. But, it doesn't matter, because I have forgotten how to dance." I never understood what that meant until now. My shoes are too tight. And, I have forgotten how to dance.

For some reason, I didn’t even remember this one at all when I went to rewatch it, though I think it’s another sign of things to come, both on B5 and in reality.

The name came from a Mark Twain story that was not published until after his death: The War Prayer. There is an excerpt in the recap.
alexcat: (Babylon5)
[personal profile] alexcat
Season 1, Episode 6 – Mind War

Okay, I’ve been absent with some health things and will have more but I wanted to take some time to catch up this week. I’ll be posting the next two episodes as well either today or this weekend.

*

Here is a link to a recap already posted: https://b5-revisited.dreamwidth.org/86831.html

Bester
06__Bester

Jason Ironheart
06_Ironheart

I am no fan of telepaths and I hated Bester as much in this as my 6 year old self loved him in Star Trek: TOS as Chekov. Not much fonder of Talia either. God, that woman could whine.

I liked this episode because we saw another side of G’kar. He actually saved Sakai and not for any real gain on his part. And he gets the best quotes with these two:

Let me pass on to you the one thing I've learned about this place. No one here is exactly what he appears. Not Mollari, not Delenn, not Sinclair... and not me.

And

Catherine Sakai: Ambassador! While I was out there, I saw something. What was it?
G'Kar: [points to a flower with a bug crawling on it] What is this?
Catherine Sakai: An ant.
G'Kar: Ant.
Catherine Sakai: So much gets shipped up from Earth on commercial transports it's hard to keep them out.
G'Kar: Yeah, I have just picked it up on the tip of my glove. If I put it down again, and it asks another ant, "what was that? How would it explain? There are things in the universe billions of years older than either of our races. They're vast, timeless, and if they're aware of us at all, it is as little more than ants, and we have as much chance of communicating with them as an ant has with us. We know, we've tried, and we've learned that we can either stay out from underfoot or be stepped on.
Catherine Sakai: That's it? That's all you know?
G'Kar: Yes, they are a mystery. And I am both terrified and reassured to know that there are still wonders in the universe, that we have not yet explained everything. Whatever they are, Miss Sakai, they walk near Sigma 957, and they must walk there alone.

These two quotes, to me are quite essence of what B5 is all about. It’s almost always G’kar who tells us these things.

And Jason Ironheart is what the show might have been if the dabblers had left it alone. He was the seed of an idea of what mankind could become and possible does become in a millions years. It’s a pity, though, that we never saw Talia use her gift.

What do y’all think?
alexcat: (Default)
[personal profile] alexcat
I apologize for being so late with this one but my best friend was visiting from Germany and I simply didn’t get a chance to do it!

*

I’ve never been sure that JMS had decided on the details of the coming of the Shadows yet. It certainly would seem so. Or does it?

Episodes like this make me wish we had fund out more about what Earth was really doing with biotechnology. We gets heavy hints and some revelations but never quite enough to answer all our questions…

OH well.

You can read the recap of this episode Here.

I really like David McCallum and have since he was Illya Kuryakin. I also like old David as Duckie on NCIS.

This particular tech was a bit like Marvel’s Ultron – to fix imperfection, it wiped out its creators. Seems to be a common enough theme in Sci-fi but it’s not too bad here.

And of course, Sinclair jumps in with both feet to go after the biotech monster. Does he have a death wish?

Here is Nelson: 04_NelsonDrake01

And what he became:
04_monster
alexcat: (LondoG'kar)
[personal profile] alexcat
1 x 03 – Born to the Purple

Londo and Adira – I’ve never been sure of how I felt about this episode though it does seem to be a favorite of fans. Londo makes a complete fool of himself yet we feel for him. We do find out why Londo has any power at all. Poor Adira has little choice, but still… I find it rather distasteful.

G’kar’s new head of staff is a hoot. She cracks me up. She does appear to frighten almost everyone else.

We learn more about Ivanova – about her father. And her use of the Gold Channel.

The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5 is a good source for information from JMS himself. You can find the entry for this episode here: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/003.html

Here is more detailed recap for this episode:
https://b5-revisited.dreamwidth.org/85393.html

I mentioned in the recap and I will mention it again that having a telepath present at diplomatic negotiations seemed quite unethical to me. We never see it again. What do you all think?

The idea that Ivanova could outsmart them gives credence to the idea that she might have been supposed to be a traitor all along, as some have suggested. I am not sure that I agree with this. I remember nothing else that would suggest such a thing. Perhaps it was just the idea that she was taking Takashima’s place and would perhaps be a traitor as well.

Adira and Londo:


Please feel free to ask or say anything in the comments. Any opi ions are welcome and comments remain open.

Please forgive my brief comments today but I have company and not much time.
alexcat: (LondoG'kar)
[personal profile] alexcat
1 x 2 – Soul Hunter

The craziest episode in the series in many ways. The Soul Hunters are some bizarre dudes!

The recap for this episode is Soul Hunter on Dreamwidth. LJ mirror is Here.

We meet Dr. Franklin. Many fans have expressed a dislike for him – as if he's a Mary Sue or something. I personally adored him. He was handsome and such a nice guy. He really jumped right into it with the arrival of the Soul Hunter.

What did the Soul Hunter see in Delenn's mind?

I love righteous and angry Delenn... she was scary as hell. So did she just free the Minbari souls? Or all of them?

Did y'all like this one? I can never decide.

Favorite quote for me: The burial rite done by Ivanova - "From the stars we came, and to the stars we return, from now until the end of time. We therefore commit this body to the deep."

Here's Franklin:
02_franklin

Remember that commenting on this post does not expire. We also welcome any links to fanworks of any sort!

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