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b5_revisited2018-04-23 02:23 pm
alexcat) wrote in b5_revisited2018-04-23 02:23 pm
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Recap and discussion for Crusade 1 x 3 - The Memory of War
Recap and discussion for Crusade 1 x 3 – The Memory of War
Our episode begins with Matthew watching a newscast on ISN. The same newscaster we remember from Babylon, looking quite a bit older, mentions that 4 months have passed since the Drakh dropped the plague on Earth and things are not going well. There are riots, economic woes and the Pope (A woman, Bernadette II) is calling fo0r a worldwide day of prayer and fasting.
Matheson tells him that they have arrived at the planet. Gideon tells him to send probes down to the planet. The probes indicate no life signs but that the buildings are intact so this could mean that a plague wiped them out.
Galen pops up, telling Gideon NOT to go down to the planet, that it is dangerous and odds are, some of the crew won’t return.
And this little gem:
Clear me for docking. Put away the breakable, turn on the landing lights. I’m coming in.
Dr. Chambers is telling Gideon and the others that the life on the planet seemed to be similar to humans. Max says many of the buildings are still intact. Galen arrives, says that technomages are forbidden to come to this planet because it is known as a bad, diseased, dangerous place. Gideon says they will go anyway.
Max’s IPX underlings tell him that they will stay on the ship in case something happens to him, and he informs them that they have to go because he is the most important part of the IPX presence here.
Gideon gives Matheson a copy of his logs and some instruction if he doesn’t return.
Galen mentions all the ‘dead’ places they’ve been: "Have you wondered why there are so many dead worlds out there? Let me tell you why. It’s because despite the best advice of people who know what they are talking about, other people insist on doing the most massively stupid things."
Galen says he doesn’t know what is down on the planet but since he is no longer part of the technomage family, he has made Matthew and the crew his family and he doesn’t want them hurt. He said one technomage went there long ago and the only word they ever received from him was “genius Loci” which means “the spirit of the place”.
Galen watches as the shuttles go to the planet.
They take a heavy military presence with them and walk around, armed and looking about. Gideon sets up a perimeter, gives max a room and then finds Dureena has already disappeared. We see her high up on some buildings looking at the two suns set. She finds a mechanism that activates a bridge to some buildings across the way, she crosses over and grabs a data crystal, which makes the control mechanism start to blink as does the bridge so she runs to get across and has to jump the last few feet to make it.
She brings the data crystal back to Max, who confidently says he can decode it in no time.
Some soldiers are talking and one says he hears things and see some odd writing in chalk.
Max decodes the crystal and a native from the planet says that millions are already dead and he doesn’t know what is wrong and that by tomorrow, they will all be dead. He speaks of the death that glides out of the darkness and cannot be stopped.
A woman screams. It’s Max’s IPX colleague and the other one says something attacked her out of the shadows. She is dead. There are more soon and Max decodes the chalk writing as saying “Behold and die.” Gideon asks for a shuttle to load the bodies for Dr. Chambers to autopsy.
While she is working on the bodies, Galen shows up. She is angry that he refused to go down to the planet with Gideon. She tells him that he seems to bring death with him and that the crew calls him ‘the spectre at the banquet’. All were murdered, one way or another. He interfaces with one of the still live probes and notices that the solar energy of the twin sun interferes with the probe and suddenly he knows… it is a nanovirus that is causing the crew members to kill one another. Everyone who goes down to the planet gets infected. The binary suns’ solar energy keeps it from working in the daylight so it makes people kill one another at night.
When Sarah enlarges the nanovirus, there is a sigil, a signature of sorts of the technomage who made it. Galen decides he must go down to the planet to face this rogue technomage. Galen tells Gideon what he is about to do and he finds the opening to where the technomage has his machine to control the nanites. The technomage is long dead b ut his consciousness has been loaded into an AI, the Genius Loci, as it were. He was hired by one faction to kill the other and the nanovirus was his weapon. He had been dormant but now he is awake and wants to kill more.
IN the meantime, it is nearing sundown when the virus becomes active, so Gideon tells Max (and all the others) to lock themselves in their rooms and he goes to find Galen.
When Galen gets ready to throw his staff at the machine, Dureena steps out and throws her knife at him, hitting him in the shoulder. Gideon comes up behind him with his gun. He tells Galen to step out of the way and he shoots the bridge between them and Dureena, she jumps just before Galen throws his staff into the machine. The three run for the surface as the machine blows up.
Back on the ship, Dr. Chambers is trying to work on Galen’s shoulder wound, but he will not remove his shirt. She tells him there is nothing she hasn’t seen before but when he finally does remove it, we and the doctor see the tech down his back. She stares but doesn’t comment.
Gideon shows up and Galen tells him how he is upset over the loss of his staff… that is the control mechanism and is the only thing he could use to unmake something made by another technomage. About that time, a filthy Dureena shows up with the staff and hands it to him.
Dr. Chambers tells Gideon about the nanites and ‘buckets of the stuff’ she has and how she’s made an inhaler that will block someone from getting the virus for 48 hours. While it’s not a cure, it’s a start.
As Galen flies away in his little ship, Gideon talks to the Apocalypse Box and it tells him not to trust Galen.
*
Questions:
1. What did you think of Galen’s back? Did you have any idea where it came from at the time?
2. Were you surprised at all the soldiers that went down to the planet?
3. Have you ever watched in this order before?
4. Do you think the nanites are the key to the sure? (I know we never find out but speculate).
Sources:
Cap-that.com: http://www.cap-that.com/b5/crusade/110/?page=1
The Babylon Project: http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/The_Memory_of_War
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0551023/quotes/?tab=qt&ref_=tt_trv_qu
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusade_(TV_series)
The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/510.html
Our episode begins with Matthew watching a newscast on ISN. The same newscaster we remember from Babylon, looking quite a bit older, mentions that 4 months have passed since the Drakh dropped the plague on Earth and things are not going well. There are riots, economic woes and the Pope (A woman, Bernadette II) is calling fo0r a worldwide day of prayer and fasting.
Matheson tells him that they have arrived at the planet. Gideon tells him to send probes down to the planet. The probes indicate no life signs but that the buildings are intact so this could mean that a plague wiped them out.
Galen pops up, telling Gideon NOT to go down to the planet, that it is dangerous and odds are, some of the crew won’t return.
And this little gem:
Clear me for docking. Put away the breakable, turn on the landing lights. I’m coming in.
Dr. Chambers is telling Gideon and the others that the life on the planet seemed to be similar to humans. Max says many of the buildings are still intact. Galen arrives, says that technomages are forbidden to come to this planet because it is known as a bad, diseased, dangerous place. Gideon says they will go anyway.
Max’s IPX underlings tell him that they will stay on the ship in case something happens to him, and he informs them that they have to go because he is the most important part of the IPX presence here.
Gideon gives Matheson a copy of his logs and some instruction if he doesn’t return.
Galen mentions all the ‘dead’ places they’ve been: "Have you wondered why there are so many dead worlds out there? Let me tell you why. It’s because despite the best advice of people who know what they are talking about, other people insist on doing the most massively stupid things."
Galen says he doesn’t know what is down on the planet but since he is no longer part of the technomage family, he has made Matthew and the crew his family and he doesn’t want them hurt. He said one technomage went there long ago and the only word they ever received from him was “genius Loci” which means “the spirit of the place”.
Galen watches as the shuttles go to the planet.
They take a heavy military presence with them and walk around, armed and looking about. Gideon sets up a perimeter, gives max a room and then finds Dureena has already disappeared. We see her high up on some buildings looking at the two suns set. She finds a mechanism that activates a bridge to some buildings across the way, she crosses over and grabs a data crystal, which makes the control mechanism start to blink as does the bridge so she runs to get across and has to jump the last few feet to make it.
She brings the data crystal back to Max, who confidently says he can decode it in no time.
Some soldiers are talking and one says he hears things and see some odd writing in chalk.
Max decodes the crystal and a native from the planet says that millions are already dead and he doesn’t know what is wrong and that by tomorrow, they will all be dead. He speaks of the death that glides out of the darkness and cannot be stopped.
A woman screams. It’s Max’s IPX colleague and the other one says something attacked her out of the shadows. She is dead. There are more soon and Max decodes the chalk writing as saying “Behold and die.” Gideon asks for a shuttle to load the bodies for Dr. Chambers to autopsy.
While she is working on the bodies, Galen shows up. She is angry that he refused to go down to the planet with Gideon. She tells him that he seems to bring death with him and that the crew calls him ‘the spectre at the banquet’. All were murdered, one way or another. He interfaces with one of the still live probes and notices that the solar energy of the twin sun interferes with the probe and suddenly he knows… it is a nanovirus that is causing the crew members to kill one another. Everyone who goes down to the planet gets infected. The binary suns’ solar energy keeps it from working in the daylight so it makes people kill one another at night.
When Sarah enlarges the nanovirus, there is a sigil, a signature of sorts of the technomage who made it. Galen decides he must go down to the planet to face this rogue technomage. Galen tells Gideon what he is about to do and he finds the opening to where the technomage has his machine to control the nanites. The technomage is long dead b ut his consciousness has been loaded into an AI, the Genius Loci, as it were. He was hired by one faction to kill the other and the nanovirus was his weapon. He had been dormant but now he is awake and wants to kill more.
IN the meantime, it is nearing sundown when the virus becomes active, so Gideon tells Max (and all the others) to lock themselves in their rooms and he goes to find Galen.
When Galen gets ready to throw his staff at the machine, Dureena steps out and throws her knife at him, hitting him in the shoulder. Gideon comes up behind him with his gun. He tells Galen to step out of the way and he shoots the bridge between them and Dureena, she jumps just before Galen throws his staff into the machine. The three run for the surface as the machine blows up.
Back on the ship, Dr. Chambers is trying to work on Galen’s shoulder wound, but he will not remove his shirt. She tells him there is nothing she hasn’t seen before but when he finally does remove it, we and the doctor see the tech down his back. She stares but doesn’t comment.
Gideon shows up and Galen tells him how he is upset over the loss of his staff… that is the control mechanism and is the only thing he could use to unmake something made by another technomage. About that time, a filthy Dureena shows up with the staff and hands it to him.
Dr. Chambers tells Gideon about the nanites and ‘buckets of the stuff’ she has and how she’s made an inhaler that will block someone from getting the virus for 48 hours. While it’s not a cure, it’s a start.
As Galen flies away in his little ship, Gideon talks to the Apocalypse Box and it tells him not to trust Galen.
*
Questions:
1. What did you think of Galen’s back? Did you have any idea where it came from at the time?
2. Were you surprised at all the soldiers that went down to the planet?
3. Have you ever watched in this order before?
4. Do you think the nanites are the key to the sure? (I know we never find out but speculate).
Sources:
Cap-that.com: http://www.cap-that.com/b5/crusade/110/?page=1
The Babylon Project: http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/The_Memory_of_War
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0551023/quotes/?tab=qt&ref_=tt_trv_qu
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusade_(TV_series)
The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/510.html