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b5_revisitedAfter the progression of events in the last episode, where things got Real…things get even more Real.
Recap:
Londo finds standing in line absurd. He is not thrilled with the new Narn security. They are likewise, not thrilled with him.
We jump to the Alexander which is in a running space battle with the Clarkstown. The choice is to jump and abandon their fighters or fire on the Clarkstown, whose forward interceptors are down. They destroy the ship, and take their fighters back on board in preparation for jump. The captain of the Clarkstown had a wife, 3 small children, and an Abyssinian cat named Max.
“This time we know everyone we kill.”
When asked where they go from here, Major Ryan replies, “There’s only one place safe for us. Set course for Babylon Five.”
Sheridan tells Garibaldi and Ivanova that the Alexander is coming to the station for repairs. “Well, we’re screwed,” is Ivanova’s summation. Sheridan asks Garibaldi to put a kill switch in communications so they can black out the comms when the Alexander arrives, leaving only a private channel for the command staff and the ISN feed for news.
“Hague is arriving here in a few hours and hell is riding in with him.”
Lennier is hustling Stephen to a Ranger patient, who has been attacked on his way to the station with information. Delenn tells Stephen that the Ranger must not die, and Stephen says they have to get him to MedLab. Delenn says the Security is tight and she doesn’t know which Narns they can trust. G’Kar appears from the shadows and announces he can get them through Security. He picks up the injured Ranger with ease. When Delenn asks “Can you carry him very far?” He answers, “As far as you like.”
Jane from ISN announces Mars is not going to implement Clark’s martial law edict. Sheridan and Ivanova watch the monitor with concern. The jump gate is activated, the Alexander comes through, Garibaldi hits the cut-off switch, and Sheridan makes an announcement.
The station symbol with the laurel of peace on the wall behind him is somewhat depressingly ironic.
Sheridan is determined to at the least render humanitarian aid to the Alexander. “As much as our humanity got us into this, our humanity’s the only thing that’s going to get us out again.”
Back to MedLab where the Ranger tells them the Shadows are moving, that they have made alliances with many in the non-aligned worlds. They listen to the Shadows out of fear. A defensive alliance gives way to the dream of conquest. As long as they are protected by the Shadows they cannot be defeated. The Grey Council has said ‘The problems of others are not our concern.’
Delenn is stricken by this news.
A shuttle arrives on the station containing Major Ryan. General Hague is dead, and with him, a lot of their hopes for a quick resolution to the problem of Clark and his illegitimate government. A few Senators have escaped and are on the run. Shock troops are out in force, everywhere. Crime has fallen to nothing so the populace doesn’t care. Clark has been replacing military commanders with those on his side and everyone else has taken the lesson. To speak up is career suicide if not more. ISN is walking a fine line between reporting what is going on and being shut down if they report too much. Their one hope is the Mars government holding out against marital law, encouraging some of the other colony worlds to join with them to push Clark out.
This hope is squashed by word from the Alexander that Clark is bombing Mars. Sending the military against civilians. And civilians that live within domes that provide air and warmth for survival. Will we ever outgrow the ‘women and children’ line? Children, okay, they are our future, but women civilians shouldn’t count for more than men civilians in deprecating the body count.
Delenn is leaving to confront the Grey Council. Lennier warns here that they may not see her, that they are no longer what they were. Delenn replies that they will see her, and that is time they face reality. Ivanova and G’Kar come to see her off, and she tells G’Kar he is no longer the same person he was when she met him four years before. And she should know about people no longer being the same. Change is in the air.
Fashion aside: Delenn’s purple and blue outfit is my favorite along with the green battle dress. I have a Christmas tree with white, purple and blue lights, my Minbari tree.
The Zhalenn leaves with Delenn going to face her destiny, and the Churchill arrives to challenge Sheridan to face his. Captain Hiroshi has news but won’t put it on an open channel. She leaves for the station.
Jane is reporting on the bombing of Mars, where the number of civilian casualties are unknown. She is interrupted by another reporter who tells the audience that the colonies on Orion 7 and Proxima 3 have broken away from the Earth Alliance to protest the bombing, setting themselves up as independent states. The camera pulls back to reveal the newsroom in confusion. Jane tries to stop Rick but he persists in putting out the truth, not knowing how long they will be permitted to speak. Armed troops are moving in on the broadcast headquarters. People rush around, gunfire is heard, the ceiling collapses…the screen goes to snow.
Hiroshi has more bad news. Clark has sent two destroyers and more will join them. Ryan offers to leave immediately, but Hiroshi tells them the ships were already on their way. Their orders: to take over Babylon 5, arrest and detain her command staff. The camera does that distancing thing with Sheridan, who is feeling the weight and isolation of command like never before.
Sheridan puts the choice to Ivanova, Franklin, and Garibaldi. Do we fight, or do we surrender?
That is a teary moment when they all, one by one, decide to stand and fight. This is almost as good as Frodo breaking into the argument at Elrond's council to say he will take the Ring, although he does not know the way. Almost.
We see a lot of ships, a whole lot of ships, in hyperspace, apparently heading to the station.
Sheridan tells Ivanova to prepare fighters, Garibaldi to get Security ready to repel boarders and to use the Narn, Franklin to empty MedLab and prepare for casualties. Then he goes to make a call, and tells them to ready Draal’s holographic system as he has an announcement to make.
Back to Delenn, who arrives at the Grey Council’s ship. She is totally out of f*cks to give. White hood guy tells her the Council will not see her. She says then they’ll listen.
“I served the Council for 16 cycles. I was the Chosen of Dukhat to replace him. I held him when he died. His blood is on my hands, his spirit in my eyes, his word on my lips. You will step aside in his name and mine, or in Valen’s name, I will tear this ship apart with my bare hands until I find them. Move aside.”
And he does.
This scene. This scene, guys! The camera circles the group with Delenn in the center. She pivots to look at each in turn then goes up to various members, shaming them to their face with her a cascade of words.
She breaks Valen’s staff, and challenges the Religious and Worker caste representatives to follow her and fight. They do, and she doesn’t even look behind to see if they follow.
Sheridan talks to his Dad, a touching awkward scene with unspoken undertones.
“What was the first lesson I ever taught you?”
“Never start a fight, but always finish it.”
Pilots are scrambling. Security forces arming. Fighters dropping into formation. Sheridan uses the holographic system to tell the station he is declaring independence. He lets the folk of C&C leave if they want.
Corwin is okay though so that’s good. Ivanova asks to go out with the Starfuries; one of the command staff has to lead them.
A meaningful look as she leaves. They both know she may not come back.
Sheridan coordinates with Ryan and Hiroshi. The music stretches out the tension….and the jump gate is activated.
Sheridan tries a convincing argument. “You are executing an illegal order in violation of the Earth Alliance constitution.” But ends with orders to his StarFuries--“Let them fire first. We won’t start this fight but by God we’ll finish it.”
And the battle begins. Pew pew pew against those beautiful NASA image backgrounds. I am no good at describing battle scenes but his is a corker. We go back and forth between C&C, Garibaldi in Brown sector fighting off the breaching pod, Ryan in the Alexander, Susan in her fighter.
The music during the battle between the suicidal Narns and the Earth troops swells and swirls.
The Churchill is going down, and decides to take the Roanoke with her. Susan’s ship is hit and she has to eject. The Alexander takes on the Agrippa. We go back and forth between ship battles and hand to hand combat, between the distant, almost beautiful, remote carnage in space and the sweaty immediacy of close-up fighting. The Agrippa blows up without ejecting survival pods. Fighting is still going on but it seems like it’s over.
It’s not over.
Two more destroyers show up through the jump gate. Surrender and prepare to be boarded.
Corwin reports four more jump gates forming, right on top of them.
Sheridan looks sick. They’ve got nothing left. What do they do?
Well, they do have one thing. Allies. Powerful, fearsome, badass allies and the best exchange ever.
“This is Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection. Withdraw, or be destroyed.”
“Negative. We have authority here. Do not force us to engage your ships.”
“Why not. Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a MInbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else.”
And they turn tail.
We see up close the results of war, with human and Minbari casualties, including an injured Garibaldi being helped by Zack. Sad, sad music.
Ryan leaves some of Churchill’s pilot and ships at the station. Ryan is leaving to get together with any other rebel ships. Sheridan goes to meet Delenn but he won’t wear his uniform any more. (It's okay. We'll fix that soon.)
Some of the Nightwatch posters are torn and tattered. Sheridan meets up with Garibaldi before greeting Delenn. There is a long line of folks leaving the station, Nightwatch mainly, the ones they know about anyway. There is going to be a problem with sabotage.
Sheridan takes Delenn aside to thank her for saving hisass bacon.
Her offered handshake is turned into a courtly salute by Sheridan.
The others observe.
Delenn is abashed as Ivanova interrupts with a throat-cleaing harumph. Franklin tells of her injuries but Ivanova interrupts again, telling them there is something they need to see. A crowd has gathered in the Zacalo and spontaneous applause breaks out.
Delenn takes John’s arm, and he puts his around her, as they both accept the gratitude of those on the station. A defaced ‘Traitors Can’t Hide’ poster hangs behind them.
Beautifully cut and edited episode with awesome music. Last episode we had Zack has our Everyman viewpoint character; this episode we have Corwin in the role. And they both have life-altering choices to make, as do our main characters.
Notes: One of the ships is mis-identified in a fight scene. I have read that there was a real fire on set during the taping of this episode, which was hurriedly put out and the scene left in the final take.
The insignia on the helmets of the StarFury pilots are taken from actual WWII fighter squadron images, with permission. And Jerry Doyle broke his arm and wrist during filming. That's real pain on his face there.
Discussion:
Won't the Minbari rescue play into the current xenophobia on Earth? And where are the Vorlons in all this?
The Warrior caste is deliberately sitting out the biggest war of their time out of pique over the Religious caste's unexplained ending of the Human-Minbari war. What will this do to their reputation as warriors and their very reason for existence?
Where the heck did that hand-kiss come from? Is John Sheridan a fan of romance novels? And the background looks from the Three Musketeers (Ivanova, Franklin, Garibaldi) are priceless. John/Delenn is an open secret on the station at this time, yes? Yes!
Recap:
Londo finds standing in line absurd. He is not thrilled with the new Narn security. They are likewise, not thrilled with him.
We jump to the Alexander which is in a running space battle with the Clarkstown. The choice is to jump and abandon their fighters or fire on the Clarkstown, whose forward interceptors are down. They destroy the ship, and take their fighters back on board in preparation for jump. The captain of the Clarkstown had a wife, 3 small children, and an Abyssinian cat named Max.
“This time we know everyone we kill.”
When asked where they go from here, Major Ryan replies, “There’s only one place safe for us. Set course for Babylon Five.”
Sheridan tells Garibaldi and Ivanova that the Alexander is coming to the station for repairs. “Well, we’re screwed,” is Ivanova’s summation. Sheridan asks Garibaldi to put a kill switch in communications so they can black out the comms when the Alexander arrives, leaving only a private channel for the command staff and the ISN feed for news.
“Hague is arriving here in a few hours and hell is riding in with him.”
Lennier is hustling Stephen to a Ranger patient, who has been attacked on his way to the station with information. Delenn tells Stephen that the Ranger must not die, and Stephen says they have to get him to MedLab. Delenn says the Security is tight and she doesn’t know which Narns they can trust. G’Kar appears from the shadows and announces he can get them through Security. He picks up the injured Ranger with ease. When Delenn asks “Can you carry him very far?” He answers, “As far as you like.”
Jane from ISN announces Mars is not going to implement Clark’s martial law edict. Sheridan and Ivanova watch the monitor with concern. The jump gate is activated, the Alexander comes through, Garibaldi hits the cut-off switch, and Sheridan makes an announcement.
The station symbol with the laurel of peace on the wall behind him is somewhat depressingly ironic.
Sheridan is determined to at the least render humanitarian aid to the Alexander. “As much as our humanity got us into this, our humanity’s the only thing that’s going to get us out again.”
Back to MedLab where the Ranger tells them the Shadows are moving, that they have made alliances with many in the non-aligned worlds. They listen to the Shadows out of fear. A defensive alliance gives way to the dream of conquest. As long as they are protected by the Shadows they cannot be defeated. The Grey Council has said ‘The problems of others are not our concern.’
Delenn is stricken by this news.
A shuttle arrives on the station containing Major Ryan. General Hague is dead, and with him, a lot of their hopes for a quick resolution to the problem of Clark and his illegitimate government. A few Senators have escaped and are on the run. Shock troops are out in force, everywhere. Crime has fallen to nothing so the populace doesn’t care. Clark has been replacing military commanders with those on his side and everyone else has taken the lesson. To speak up is career suicide if not more. ISN is walking a fine line between reporting what is going on and being shut down if they report too much. Their one hope is the Mars government holding out against marital law, encouraging some of the other colony worlds to join with them to push Clark out.
This hope is squashed by word from the Alexander that Clark is bombing Mars. Sending the military against civilians. And civilians that live within domes that provide air and warmth for survival. Will we ever outgrow the ‘women and children’ line? Children, okay, they are our future, but women civilians shouldn’t count for more than men civilians in deprecating the body count.
Delenn is leaving to confront the Grey Council. Lennier warns here that they may not see her, that they are no longer what they were. Delenn replies that they will see her, and that is time they face reality. Ivanova and G’Kar come to see her off, and she tells G’Kar he is no longer the same person he was when she met him four years before. And she should know about people no longer being the same. Change is in the air.
Fashion aside: Delenn’s purple and blue outfit is my favorite along with the green battle dress. I have a Christmas tree with white, purple and blue lights, my Minbari tree.
The Zhalenn leaves with Delenn going to face her destiny, and the Churchill arrives to challenge Sheridan to face his. Captain Hiroshi has news but won’t put it on an open channel. She leaves for the station.
Jane is reporting on the bombing of Mars, where the number of civilian casualties are unknown. She is interrupted by another reporter who tells the audience that the colonies on Orion 7 and Proxima 3 have broken away from the Earth Alliance to protest the bombing, setting themselves up as independent states. The camera pulls back to reveal the newsroom in confusion. Jane tries to stop Rick but he persists in putting out the truth, not knowing how long they will be permitted to speak. Armed troops are moving in on the broadcast headquarters. People rush around, gunfire is heard, the ceiling collapses…the screen goes to snow.
Hiroshi has more bad news. Clark has sent two destroyers and more will join them. Ryan offers to leave immediately, but Hiroshi tells them the ships were already on their way. Their orders: to take over Babylon 5, arrest and detain her command staff. The camera does that distancing thing with Sheridan, who is feeling the weight and isolation of command like never before.
Sheridan puts the choice to Ivanova, Franklin, and Garibaldi. Do we fight, or do we surrender?
That is a teary moment when they all, one by one, decide to stand and fight. This is almost as good as Frodo breaking into the argument at Elrond's council to say he will take the Ring, although he does not know the way. Almost.
We see a lot of ships, a whole lot of ships, in hyperspace, apparently heading to the station.
Sheridan tells Ivanova to prepare fighters, Garibaldi to get Security ready to repel boarders and to use the Narn, Franklin to empty MedLab and prepare for casualties. Then he goes to make a call, and tells them to ready Draal’s holographic system as he has an announcement to make.
Back to Delenn, who arrives at the Grey Council’s ship. She is totally out of f*cks to give. White hood guy tells her the Council will not see her. She says then they’ll listen.
“I served the Council for 16 cycles. I was the Chosen of Dukhat to replace him. I held him when he died. His blood is on my hands, his spirit in my eyes, his word on my lips. You will step aside in his name and mine, or in Valen’s name, I will tear this ship apart with my bare hands until I find them. Move aside.”
And he does.
This scene. This scene, guys! The camera circles the group with Delenn in the center. She pivots to look at each in turn then goes up to various members, shaming them to their face with her a cascade of words.
She breaks Valen’s staff, and challenges the Religious and Worker caste representatives to follow her and fight. They do, and she doesn’t even look behind to see if they follow.
Sheridan talks to his Dad, a touching awkward scene with unspoken undertones.
“What was the first lesson I ever taught you?”
“Never start a fight, but always finish it.”
Pilots are scrambling. Security forces arming. Fighters dropping into formation. Sheridan uses the holographic system to tell the station he is declaring independence. He lets the folk of C&C leave if they want.
Corwin is okay though so that’s good. Ivanova asks to go out with the Starfuries; one of the command staff has to lead them.
A meaningful look as she leaves. They both know she may not come back.
Sheridan coordinates with Ryan and Hiroshi. The music stretches out the tension….and the jump gate is activated.
Sheridan tries a convincing argument. “You are executing an illegal order in violation of the Earth Alliance constitution.” But ends with orders to his StarFuries--“Let them fire first. We won’t start this fight but by God we’ll finish it.”
And the battle begins. Pew pew pew against those beautiful NASA image backgrounds. I am no good at describing battle scenes but his is a corker. We go back and forth between C&C, Garibaldi in Brown sector fighting off the breaching pod, Ryan in the Alexander, Susan in her fighter.
The music during the battle between the suicidal Narns and the Earth troops swells and swirls.
The Churchill is going down, and decides to take the Roanoke with her. Susan’s ship is hit and she has to eject. The Alexander takes on the Agrippa. We go back and forth between ship battles and hand to hand combat, between the distant, almost beautiful, remote carnage in space and the sweaty immediacy of close-up fighting. The Agrippa blows up without ejecting survival pods. Fighting is still going on but it seems like it’s over.
It’s not over.
Two more destroyers show up through the jump gate. Surrender and prepare to be boarded.
Corwin reports four more jump gates forming, right on top of them.
Sheridan looks sick. They’ve got nothing left. What do they do?
Well, they do have one thing. Allies. Powerful, fearsome, badass allies and the best exchange ever.
“This is Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection. Withdraw, or be destroyed.”
“Negative. We have authority here. Do not force us to engage your ships.”
“Why not. Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a MInbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else.”
And they turn tail.
We see up close the results of war, with human and Minbari casualties, including an injured Garibaldi being helped by Zack. Sad, sad music.
Ryan leaves some of Churchill’s pilot and ships at the station. Ryan is leaving to get together with any other rebel ships. Sheridan goes to meet Delenn but he won’t wear his uniform any more. (It's okay. We'll fix that soon.)
Some of the Nightwatch posters are torn and tattered. Sheridan meets up with Garibaldi before greeting Delenn. There is a long line of folks leaving the station, Nightwatch mainly, the ones they know about anyway. There is going to be a problem with sabotage.
Sheridan takes Delenn aside to thank her for saving his
Her offered handshake is turned into a courtly salute by Sheridan.
The others observe.
Delenn is abashed as Ivanova interrupts with a throat-cleaing harumph. Franklin tells of her injuries but Ivanova interrupts again, telling them there is something they need to see. A crowd has gathered in the Zacalo and spontaneous applause breaks out.
Delenn takes John’s arm, and he puts his around her, as they both accept the gratitude of those on the station. A defaced ‘Traitors Can’t Hide’ poster hangs behind them.
Beautifully cut and edited episode with awesome music. Last episode we had Zack has our Everyman viewpoint character; this episode we have Corwin in the role. And they both have life-altering choices to make, as do our main characters.
Notes: One of the ships is mis-identified in a fight scene. I have read that there was a real fire on set during the taping of this episode, which was hurriedly put out and the scene left in the final take.
The insignia on the helmets of the StarFury pilots are taken from actual WWII fighter squadron images, with permission. And Jerry Doyle broke his arm and wrist during filming. That's real pain on his face there.
Discussion:
Won't the Minbari rescue play into the current xenophobia on Earth? And where are the Vorlons in all this?
The Warrior caste is deliberately sitting out the biggest war of their time out of pique over the Religious caste's unexplained ending of the Human-Minbari war. What will this do to their reputation as warriors and their very reason for existence?
Where the heck did that hand-kiss come from? Is John Sheridan a fan of romance novels? And the background looks from the Three Musketeers (Ivanova, Franklin, Garibaldi) are priceless. John/Delenn is an open secret on the station at this time, yes? Yes!
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Date: 2016-12-21 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-21 06:56 pm (UTC)The part that made it real was when the troops came to ISN and shut them down. It was all too close to a certain megalomaniac Tweeting about muzzling the press.
I am find these episodes very scary and disturbing to watch.
I had never noticed the hand kiss before. Maybe he'd been taking chivalry lessons from Marcus?