alexcat: (Babylon5)
alexcat ([personal profile] alexcat) wrote in [community profile] b5_revisited2019-12-05 03:17 pm
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Rewatch of 1 x 6 - Mind War

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?
kitewithfish: (Default)

[personal profile] kitewithfish 2019-12-06 02:25 pm (UTC)(link)
So, I'm still working thru my first run thru of Babylon 5, and life gets in the way a lot, but this episode was where I really hit that moment of *oh, this is going to be great*. I knew Straczynski's writing from comics, so I wanted to watch this show, but this, this episode and that exact speech by G'Kar is where I completely got on board with this show.
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[personal profile] shipperslist 2020-01-25 02:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I love this episode. First, G'Kar shows who he really is and it's awesome. And especially the ant quote which, I gotta admit, comes to mind when Loki says "The ant has no quarrel with the boot." in Avengers. The love themes itself are fine by me but I do like they have interracial couples.

And I love to hate Bester and the Psi Corps.

(Also, I can't help drawing parallels to white men trying to subdue a black man who doesn't want to hurt anyone. I don't know if that's what it was meant to be but...)