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Recap and discussion for A Call to Arms
Jan. 21st, 2019 11:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexcatA Call to Arms
This is actually one of my favorite of the B5 movies. It’s the lead in to the series Crusade, which, I have to admit, is a real favorite show of mine. I came to Babylon5 after all of it was done – with the exception of The Legend of the Rangers and “The Lost Tales. In order to see Crusade, I had to buy bootleg video tapes from Ebay for an obscene amount of money.
But I digress.
A Call to Arms opens with a news report saying it’s the 5th anniversary of the Instellar Alliance and that President Sheridan hasn’t been seen in several days. There is mention of the recent Telepath War as well.
Garibaldi picks up Sheridan on a Whitestar. He is taking him to see some new ships designed by a Martian named Drake. They are a blend of Minbari and Vorlon tech and are top secret. Garibaldi says they can’t be followed so of course, we see a tiny ship following along. We see a hooded man inside the ship.
Garibaldi arrive at their secret location. He introduces Drake to Sheridan. Drake tells him about the Victory and the Excalibur. It turns out that they have not been tested as of yet. Funnily enough, the engines don’t start when they try to start them.
They tell Sheridan that there is a message from Delenn waiting for him. When he goes in, the message is all strange and next thing he knows, 30 minutes have passed without him knowing it. He agrees to rest.
An alien woman armed to the teeth comes aboard Babylon 5 and Zack asks her to leave her weapons. She asks where the ‘lost people’ go and Zack tell her the Brown sector.
John dreams of a planet and a voice telling him to listen – he hears nothing because the planet is dead, killed by the allies of the Shadows. He tells him to remember what he’s seen and he also sees the name of the planet, Daltron 7, written in rock.
Drake is taking the ship out to the firing range.
Dureena walks about in Brown sector, picking pockets and looking for a symbol. She follows it and a man kicks her and knocks her out. She dreams that she sees John and thinks she’s back on her own planet. She sees a Drakh as well. The voice tells her the planet shares the same fate as her world.
She wakes chained by the Thieves Guild and has to convince them she is a member, she does and they let her go. The head of the guild tells her he’s never seen one of her kind before and she tells him she isn’t sure why she came here either.
They are ready to test the weapon and Sheridan sees Earth as the target. Garibaldi thinks he’s nuts. When they do fire the main gun, it’s impressive but they can’t fire again for a full minute while the power recharges.
Sheridan appears on a planet with the technomages, which is what Galen, who has been making him hae the dreams, is. They are arguing about Galen interfering and about leaving. Galen explains that the Drakh are continuing the work of the Shadows and are testing their weapons ahead of another war. He tells Sheridan that he must find the rest of the answers on his own and in secret. When Sheridan wakes, he tell Michael they must go immediately to Babylon 5. He see 4 faces carved in stone.
On B5, he meets with Dureena and Captain Anderson, who has been having visions too. They are two of the four faces, along with Sheridan’s. The fourth face is a Drazi. They leave in Anderson’s ship and head for the new ships, contacting Drake and telling him not to talk to anyone else.
When they get there, they steal both prototype ships and head for Daltron 7. They find the Drazi dead there and he has video of the Drakh’s planet killer. The Drakh approach and the Excalibur picks up evidence of a message coming into the Drakh from elsewhere. Sheridan and Anderson escape into hyperspace and contact Garibaldi and between them they figure out that Drake informed the Drakh about the Sheridan and the ships.
Everyone heads for earth to try to stop the Drakh. They do stop the planet killer but the Drakh drop a 5 year nanoplague on the earth. Anderson rams the planet killer with the Victory to save Earth and now Sheridan commissions the Excalibur to find a cure for the plague before all life on earth is dead. Earth is quarantined until they find it.
*
Quotes:
Sheridan: Those who command the Excalibur will never stop, never give up, never slow down, until a cure is found. We will take any help we can get, wherever and whoever it comes from. Because this is a cause that surpasses borders and differences and distrust. This is a mission about the survival of Earth itself. What we do over the next five years, here and at home, and across the darkness of between the stars will determine the whether an entire world will live or die. It's a fight we can't afford to lose and we won't. We won't!
*
Questions:
1. Did you find Drake’s reasoning for selling out Earth to the Drakh to be a little shallow? ‘I don’t like Earth and they paid me a lot’? Really?
2. I can make a long list of things introduced here that were changed in Crusade, one being that Zander prime was victim to the Shadow Planet killer in the movie and in the show, it is inferred that they died from the plague. Can you name any of them?
3. If Drake were a sellout, why did he build such a good ship without sabotaging it as well?
4. How do you rate this one among the movies?
*
Sources:
The Lurkers Guide to Babylon 5: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/115.html
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5:_A_Call_to_Arms
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0146455/quotes/?tab=qt&ref_=tt_trv_qu
The Babylon Project: https://babylon5.fandom.com/wiki/A_Call_to_Arms
Cap-that.com: http://www.cap-that.com/b5/a-call-to-arms/
This is actually one of my favorite of the B5 movies. It’s the lead in to the series Crusade, which, I have to admit, is a real favorite show of mine. I came to Babylon5 after all of it was done – with the exception of The Legend of the Rangers and “The Lost Tales. In order to see Crusade, I had to buy bootleg video tapes from Ebay for an obscene amount of money.
But I digress.
A Call to Arms opens with a news report saying it’s the 5th anniversary of the Instellar Alliance and that President Sheridan hasn’t been seen in several days. There is mention of the recent Telepath War as well.
Garibaldi picks up Sheridan on a Whitestar. He is taking him to see some new ships designed by a Martian named Drake. They are a blend of Minbari and Vorlon tech and are top secret. Garibaldi says they can’t be followed so of course, we see a tiny ship following along. We see a hooded man inside the ship.
Garibaldi arrive at their secret location. He introduces Drake to Sheridan. Drake tells him about the Victory and the Excalibur. It turns out that they have not been tested as of yet. Funnily enough, the engines don’t start when they try to start them.
They tell Sheridan that there is a message from Delenn waiting for him. When he goes in, the message is all strange and next thing he knows, 30 minutes have passed without him knowing it. He agrees to rest.
An alien woman armed to the teeth comes aboard Babylon 5 and Zack asks her to leave her weapons. She asks where the ‘lost people’ go and Zack tell her the Brown sector.
John dreams of a planet and a voice telling him to listen – he hears nothing because the planet is dead, killed by the allies of the Shadows. He tells him to remember what he’s seen and he also sees the name of the planet, Daltron 7, written in rock.
Drake is taking the ship out to the firing range.
Dureena walks about in Brown sector, picking pockets and looking for a symbol. She follows it and a man kicks her and knocks her out. She dreams that she sees John and thinks she’s back on her own planet. She sees a Drakh as well. The voice tells her the planet shares the same fate as her world.
She wakes chained by the Thieves Guild and has to convince them she is a member, she does and they let her go. The head of the guild tells her he’s never seen one of her kind before and she tells him she isn’t sure why she came here either.
They are ready to test the weapon and Sheridan sees Earth as the target. Garibaldi thinks he’s nuts. When they do fire the main gun, it’s impressive but they can’t fire again for a full minute while the power recharges.
Sheridan appears on a planet with the technomages, which is what Galen, who has been making him hae the dreams, is. They are arguing about Galen interfering and about leaving. Galen explains that the Drakh are continuing the work of the Shadows and are testing their weapons ahead of another war. He tells Sheridan that he must find the rest of the answers on his own and in secret. When Sheridan wakes, he tell Michael they must go immediately to Babylon 5. He see 4 faces carved in stone.
On B5, he meets with Dureena and Captain Anderson, who has been having visions too. They are two of the four faces, along with Sheridan’s. The fourth face is a Drazi. They leave in Anderson’s ship and head for the new ships, contacting Drake and telling him not to talk to anyone else.
When they get there, they steal both prototype ships and head for Daltron 7. They find the Drazi dead there and he has video of the Drakh’s planet killer. The Drakh approach and the Excalibur picks up evidence of a message coming into the Drakh from elsewhere. Sheridan and Anderson escape into hyperspace and contact Garibaldi and between them they figure out that Drake informed the Drakh about the Sheridan and the ships.
Everyone heads for earth to try to stop the Drakh. They do stop the planet killer but the Drakh drop a 5 year nanoplague on the earth. Anderson rams the planet killer with the Victory to save Earth and now Sheridan commissions the Excalibur to find a cure for the plague before all life on earth is dead. Earth is quarantined until they find it.
*
Quotes:
Sheridan: Those who command the Excalibur will never stop, never give up, never slow down, until a cure is found. We will take any help we can get, wherever and whoever it comes from. Because this is a cause that surpasses borders and differences and distrust. This is a mission about the survival of Earth itself. What we do over the next five years, here and at home, and across the darkness of between the stars will determine the whether an entire world will live or die. It's a fight we can't afford to lose and we won't. We won't!
*
Questions:
1. Did you find Drake’s reasoning for selling out Earth to the Drakh to be a little shallow? ‘I don’t like Earth and they paid me a lot’? Really?
2. I can make a long list of things introduced here that were changed in Crusade, one being that Zander prime was victim to the Shadow Planet killer in the movie and in the show, it is inferred that they died from the plague. Can you name any of them?
3. If Drake were a sellout, why did he build such a good ship without sabotaging it as well?
4. How do you rate this one among the movies?
*
Sources:
The Lurkers Guide to Babylon 5: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/115.html
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5:_A_Call_to_Arms
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0146455/quotes/?tab=qt&ref_=tt_trv_qu
The Babylon Project: https://babylon5.fandom.com/wiki/A_Call_to_Arms
Cap-that.com: http://www.cap-that.com/b5/a-call-to-arms/
