"Ship of Tears" discussion

[ruuger]

This is the discussion post for the episode 3X14, "Ship of Tears". Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.

Summary:
Bester returns to Babylon 5, this time asking for help to rescue a group of frozen telepaths.

Extra reading:
The article for "Ship of Tears" at Lurker's Guide.

Comments

[alexcat.livejournal.com]

I almost missed the post.

This wasn't one of my favorite episodes though it is one that incidcates how deep in with the shadows Clark really is. Thge newscast was chilling. I found Stephen's odd hope that things would work out to be rather contrary to his pessimistic nature. Maybe it was the stems talking.

I sort of wish Sheridan had blown Bester out of the sky and that problem would have been solved. I have to agree with vjs2259 that I didn't buy Carolyn being the love of his life either. She was just a pretty blip that he knocked up because he could. Were the blips treated so badly that they'd prostiute themselves for better food, yet they refused to become part of PsiCorp or take sleepers? That doesn't add up eiother for me but then I never was able to understand the telepaths at all.

I liked it that G'Kar didn't let Delenn off the hook so easily when he told her that might forgive her someday but not today. He did seem to join the group with lots of enthusiasm though. I loved his admonisment to Garibaldi not to thump the Book of G'Quan.

When Sheridan said 'we have a weapon,' I found that a chilling statement too since they'd be using the telepaths literally as weapons, more or less, as much as the Shadows did.

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

That was another favorite moment of mine..'Captain?' 'I'm thinking!'

'We have a weapon'
You're right, that's awesome foreshadowing of Sheridan's own 'ends justify the means' issues later in S4.

Bester may have thought Carolyn was the love of his life, but there's no real indication there was anything there beyond obsession. Why the pregnancy plotline btw? Is that supposed to make the love story more appealing, or is it for later, so Sheridan will have a reason beyond practical payback for not using Carolyn in his little plan to disable the EarthForce ships? (He made a point of using single, 'unattached' teeps. Eek.) And what effect would pregnancy have had when Carolyn was plugged into a ship? There's a neat story idea...