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1x05 - The Parilament of Dreams
Nov. 11th, 2019 12:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
justanorthernlightThis week on Babylon 5: Earth tries to further diplomacy by asking everyone to share their dominant religious beliefs, Sinclair's ex shows up on the station, Delenn and G'Kar get new attaches, and someone plots a murder!
The Parliament of Dreams is among my favorite early season 1 episodes. It's our first time really focusing on G'Kar, rather than him popping up as the antagonist of someone else's story. We've gotten pretty good looks inside the heads of Londo (Midnight on the Firing Line, Born to the Purple), Delenn (Soul Hunter), and the various humans have had their moments scattered throughout, but this is our first real look at G'Kar as a person. It also introduces Na'Toth (real Na'Toth, not fake season 2 Na'Toth) who is one of my favorite supporting characters. She and G'Kar play off each in such a snappy and entertaining way, I'm always sad we didn't get a few more seasons of it.
The assassin plot really illustrates how cutthroat Narn internal politics are. If this is the treatment G'Kar can expect from his own people, no wonder he schemes against the Humans, Centauri, and everyone else at every chance he gets. The torture scene towards the end is also a nice bit of foreshadowing for Season 4, with his refusal to scream. His and Na'Toth's creative revenge and joint trolling of the assassin at the end is hilarious.
Other things we did not get were additional seasons of N'Grath and Catherine Sakai. I feel bad for missing N'Grath more than Catherine, but I hate ships that ride the break-up-and-get-back-together carousel in circles, even if the breakups are happening offscreen. The actress does a decent job with the material and dialogue she's been given, it's just that JMS's romantic dialogue tends to be... overwrought. At least it eases up in her later appearances.
What we did get a few more seasons of however is Lenneir. I'd forgotten that this is his first episode too. Lets take a moment to appreciate his baby bonecrest.
The Minbari religious ceremony always gives me serious Communion vibes. Given that Sinclair went to Jesuit school I wonder how much was conscious on his part when he went back in time to become Valen. We also get the first appearance of "Will you follow me into fire, into storm, into darkness, into death?" In most subsequent iterations the "into storm" line gets left out. And, if I'm not mistaken, our first "And so it begins."
I don't have much to say about the Centauri religious ceremony, but it's a fun scene. Londo is always entertaining.
Possibly unpopular opinion: I've never liked the bit at the end where they cop out on picking Earth's "dominant" religion.
1.) Yes, Earth has more than one religion, but subsequent events show that none of the alien religions are a monolith either. The Minbari had a religious caste long before Valen came, G'Quan isn't the only Narn prophet or spiritual leader (Na'Toth at some point mentions her mother being a follower of G'Lan), the Centauri follow both the Maker and their own pantheon, when later it is mentioned that all other Maker sects prohibit the keeping of other gods. Humanity isn't unique in that regard. Also, if the aliens are only allowed to show their one dominant religion, what happens if the ambassador is part of a minority religion?
2.) Earth Central organized this whole festival and then gave Sinclair no suggestions or guidance in what practices they wanted to showcase? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
3.) It took Sinclair until almost the last minute to come up with what he wanted to do, how did he even get all those representatives to the station in time? It must have been a logistical nightmare.
The Parliament of Dreams is among my favorite early season 1 episodes. It's our first time really focusing on G'Kar, rather than him popping up as the antagonist of someone else's story. We've gotten pretty good looks inside the heads of Londo (Midnight on the Firing Line, Born to the Purple), Delenn (Soul Hunter), and the various humans have had their moments scattered throughout, but this is our first real look at G'Kar as a person. It also introduces Na'Toth (real Na'Toth, not fake season 2 Na'Toth) who is one of my favorite supporting characters. She and G'Kar play off each in such a snappy and entertaining way, I'm always sad we didn't get a few more seasons of it.
The assassin plot really illustrates how cutthroat Narn internal politics are. If this is the treatment G'Kar can expect from his own people, no wonder he schemes against the Humans, Centauri, and everyone else at every chance he gets. The torture scene towards the end is also a nice bit of foreshadowing for Season 4, with his refusal to scream. His and Na'Toth's creative revenge and joint trolling of the assassin at the end is hilarious.
Other things we did not get were additional seasons of N'Grath and Catherine Sakai. I feel bad for missing N'Grath more than Catherine, but I hate ships that ride the break-up-and-get-back-together carousel in circles, even if the breakups are happening offscreen. The actress does a decent job with the material and dialogue she's been given, it's just that JMS's romantic dialogue tends to be... overwrought. At least it eases up in her later appearances.
What we did get a few more seasons of however is Lenneir. I'd forgotten that this is his first episode too. Lets take a moment to appreciate his baby bonecrest.
The Minbari religious ceremony always gives me serious Communion vibes. Given that Sinclair went to Jesuit school I wonder how much was conscious on his part when he went back in time to become Valen. We also get the first appearance of "Will you follow me into fire, into storm, into darkness, into death?" In most subsequent iterations the "into storm" line gets left out. And, if I'm not mistaken, our first "And so it begins."
I don't have much to say about the Centauri religious ceremony, but it's a fun scene. Londo is always entertaining.
Possibly unpopular opinion: I've never liked the bit at the end where they cop out on picking Earth's "dominant" religion.
1.) Yes, Earth has more than one religion, but subsequent events show that none of the alien religions are a monolith either. The Minbari had a religious caste long before Valen came, G'Quan isn't the only Narn prophet or spiritual leader (Na'Toth at some point mentions her mother being a follower of G'Lan), the Centauri follow both the Maker and their own pantheon, when later it is mentioned that all other Maker sects prohibit the keeping of other gods. Humanity isn't unique in that regard. Also, if the aliens are only allowed to show their one dominant religion, what happens if the ambassador is part of a minority religion?
2.) Earth Central organized this whole festival and then gave Sinclair no suggestions or guidance in what practices they wanted to showcase? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
3.) It took Sinclair until almost the last minute to come up with what he wanted to do, how did he even get all those representatives to the station in time? It must have been a logistical nightmare.
