Babylon 5 3x03 - 3x11
Dec. 19th, 2014 11:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkEverything is happening so much sooner than I thought it would! It's fantastic.
We watched nine episodes today so I might be forgetting some details of some of them.
A Day in the Strife: G'Kar! The Narn decide he should stay because freedom is more important than safety, but both sides have good points, I like how they show that.
Garibaldi honestly concerned about G'Kar. And about Franklin, Garibaldi is great.
Londo and Vir disagreeing yet again, so Londo asks Delenn to send Vir as an ambassador to Minbar. Not a minor favor: the Minbari strengthening diplomatic relations to the Centauri right now could be seen as implicit support for their actions, a hot topic.
I knew there was something strange about that probe! Good on you, Sheridan.
Passing Through Gethsemane: Yes, they addressed the mind-wipe as a form of punishment! I thought the personality was erased, but apparently it's just very deeply buried. Programming them to want to serve society makes me less uncomfortable than what I imagined, that they were just an new, basically innocent personality forced to do community service.
I liked Brother Theo's forceful lines to Sheridan about forgiveness.
Lyta Alexander is back! I'm still not sure how much I like her, though I liked how she handled Londo. She's working for Khosh now, so she's basically rogue... Dammit, I still miss Talia.
Voices of Authority: Political Officer, oh my god. The 1984 parallels are becoming even more blatant. There are no homeless, and everyone who doesn't have a job must not want one because the government guaranteed jobs. All crimes are committed by the mentally ill. Just sickening. As a bonus she even tries to seduce Sheridan! (And Ivanova appears, hehe.)
"I like you. You are trouble." Ivanova! Getting some of the first ones to agree to help by threatening their pride xD And finding the evidence of Clark conspiring with Morden to kill Santiago, which she shouldn't have been able to do.
The Nightwatch is becoming scarier. At least Zack finally seems to realize what he got himself into, kind of. And he had the discussion with Garibaldi, that didn't go so well for either of them.
Dust to Dust: Bester, working together with Garibaldi, always good fun. He's not only a telepath, but also a cop. It doesn't surprise me that the Corps is responsible for Dust.
G'Kar invading Londo's mind and finding out that Londo conspired with Morden and the Shadows to attack and kill thousands of Narn. I wondered how that would happen. And also finding out about how Londo got the job. Then meeting his subconscious, and then Khosh, and having a revelation about, well, everything, really. This could become interesting.
Exogenesis: Ugh, the "living history" parasites are still creepy. They remind me of the Tok'ra.
Lt. Corwin is sort of adorably and unbelievably naive. Him bringing Susan roses because he thought she might have asked him out (to be fair it wasn't a far-fetched interpretation) was hilarious. Unfortunate that he seems to have swallowed the propaganda hook line and sinker.
I don't know why Franklin thinks Marcus isn't Susan's type? They're similar in some ways. I think that after they've fought a bit and got familiar with each other's edges they could actually work well together.
Marcus still reminds me very much of Strider.
Messages from Earth: They found a Shadow ship! Well, at least Clark didn't get control of it? White Star 2, Shadow ships 0, because Sheridan is crazy and flew into Jupiter. And then another crazy maneuver to escape Earth forces. The White Star is a beauty. But someone should have tested her more thoroughly to have an idea of what she's capable of, just saying.
More Nightwatch stuff. I don't like these guys. "Patriots", aren't you thinking about what any of this means?
Susan and Marcus get to know each other better :) He even makes her laugh. It's sort of cute.
Of course Clark has to act, now that he's accused and some evidence is out there. Martial law. Huh.
Point of No Return: Stupid Nightwatch. Poor Garibaldi. At least Zack comes back eventually. That's such a Sinclair solution, declaring it a mutiny because the order came from the Political Office and not from the military hierarchy. And with the support of the Narn! Yes! His revelation and time in contemplation seems to have done a lot to G'kar.
The seer said Vir is to become Emperor! Emperor Vir! And Londo too. Vir's look! And then both of them sitting at opposite ends of the bench, as LK said like an awkward morning after xD
So Londo has three more chances, to "save the eye that doesn't see", "not kill the one who's already dead," and "surrender to his worst fear, knowing it will destroy him." At least now he knows that he should repent. Progress!
Severed Dreams: Finally! That's sooner than I expected. Earth Forces bombing Mars, two colonies seceding, ISN attacked, ships send to remove Babylon 5 control - and they decide to fight. Of course they do. And many agree with them, even Lt. Corwin stays, nice. Sheridan even explains succinctly why they're resisting and why the orders are illegal, but apparently Earth Force propaganda has been pretty good.
Space battles are very exciting, but they're good at showing the cost. And how scary it is that spaceships can be blown up with such relative ease.
DELENN. How much of a badass is she. Challenging the Grey Council! "If the Council has lost its way, if it will not lead, if we have abandoned out covenant with Valen - then the Council should be BROKEN!" And the majority follow her, because she's burning that brightly.
Delenn coming to Babylon 5's rescue! "This is Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection. Withdraw, or be destroyed." [Negative. We have authority here. Do not force us to engage your ship.] "Why not. Only one human captain has ever survived battle with the Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else." YES YES YES YES YES! CMOA. I've watched that scene at least five times now.
Delenn and Sheridan :) They're like mom and dad of the station.
Ceremonies of Light and Dark: Londo poisoning and blackmailing Refa! Because he's a traditionalist, heh. Forcing Refa to stop some of the senseless conquests, to fortify their homeworld, and to break off contact with Morden. Nicely done, Londo.
Yes, Delenn basically got her way by sheer force of personality *g* Of course there are still people from the Nightwatch left. At least they got this group before they could execute their hostages.
Marcus: his anger isn't repressed anymore. A lot of other stuff still is. The rebirth ceremony would have done him good.
Lennier, that you're in love with Delenn is not in any way surprising. I was a bit annoyed that he said that his "pure, noble love" is higher than romantic love, but he probably feels better if he tells himself that. But I honestly believe he means it, that he doesn't so much desire her as just... really admires and loves her.
I liked that the staff did their best to complete the ritual with Delenn. Sheridan tells her how much he cares for her, Garibaldi says that he's always afraid, Franklin finally admits that he has a problem (with the stims), and Susan says that she loved Talia. !!! Dammit I still miss Talia, and as soon as I finished watching the show I'm looking for the long AU where Talia survives. Another reason for Susan to hate the Corps.
New uniforms! AV said he doesn't like them. I don't love them yet, but I could get used to them.
I hope they're able to solve the problem with the annoying AI soon, or Garibaldi will go crazy.
Tl;dr this show is amazing and everyone should watch it.
We watched nine episodes today so I might be forgetting some details of some of them.
A Day in the Strife: G'Kar! The Narn decide he should stay because freedom is more important than safety, but both sides have good points, I like how they show that.
Garibaldi honestly concerned about G'Kar. And about Franklin, Garibaldi is great.
Londo and Vir disagreeing yet again, so Londo asks Delenn to send Vir as an ambassador to Minbar. Not a minor favor: the Minbari strengthening diplomatic relations to the Centauri right now could be seen as implicit support for their actions, a hot topic.
I knew there was something strange about that probe! Good on you, Sheridan.
Passing Through Gethsemane: Yes, they addressed the mind-wipe as a form of punishment! I thought the personality was erased, but apparently it's just very deeply buried. Programming them to want to serve society makes me less uncomfortable than what I imagined, that they were just an new, basically innocent personality forced to do community service.
I liked Brother Theo's forceful lines to Sheridan about forgiveness.
Lyta Alexander is back! I'm still not sure how much I like her, though I liked how she handled Londo. She's working for Khosh now, so she's basically rogue... Dammit, I still miss Talia.
Voices of Authority: Political Officer, oh my god. The 1984 parallels are becoming even more blatant. There are no homeless, and everyone who doesn't have a job must not want one because the government guaranteed jobs. All crimes are committed by the mentally ill. Just sickening. As a bonus she even tries to seduce Sheridan! (And Ivanova appears, hehe.)
"I like you. You are trouble." Ivanova! Getting some of the first ones to agree to help by threatening their pride xD And finding the evidence of Clark conspiring with Morden to kill Santiago, which she shouldn't have been able to do.
The Nightwatch is becoming scarier. At least Zack finally seems to realize what he got himself into, kind of. And he had the discussion with Garibaldi, that didn't go so well for either of them.
Dust to Dust: Bester, working together with Garibaldi, always good fun. He's not only a telepath, but also a cop. It doesn't surprise me that the Corps is responsible for Dust.
G'Kar invading Londo's mind and finding out that Londo conspired with Morden and the Shadows to attack and kill thousands of Narn. I wondered how that would happen. And also finding out about how Londo got the job. Then meeting his subconscious, and then Khosh, and having a revelation about, well, everything, really. This could become interesting.
Exogenesis: Ugh, the "living history" parasites are still creepy. They remind me of the Tok'ra.
Lt. Corwin is sort of adorably and unbelievably naive. Him bringing Susan roses because he thought she might have asked him out (to be fair it wasn't a far-fetched interpretation) was hilarious. Unfortunate that he seems to have swallowed the propaganda hook line and sinker.
I don't know why Franklin thinks Marcus isn't Susan's type? They're similar in some ways. I think that after they've fought a bit and got familiar with each other's edges they could actually work well together.
Marcus still reminds me very much of Strider.
Messages from Earth: They found a Shadow ship! Well, at least Clark didn't get control of it? White Star 2, Shadow ships 0, because Sheridan is crazy and flew into Jupiter. And then another crazy maneuver to escape Earth forces. The White Star is a beauty. But someone should have tested her more thoroughly to have an idea of what she's capable of, just saying.
More Nightwatch stuff. I don't like these guys. "Patriots", aren't you thinking about what any of this means?
Susan and Marcus get to know each other better :) He even makes her laugh. It's sort of cute.
Of course Clark has to act, now that he's accused and some evidence is out there. Martial law. Huh.
Point of No Return: Stupid Nightwatch. Poor Garibaldi. At least Zack comes back eventually. That's such a Sinclair solution, declaring it a mutiny because the order came from the Political Office and not from the military hierarchy. And with the support of the Narn! Yes! His revelation and time in contemplation seems to have done a lot to G'kar.
The seer said Vir is to become Emperor! Emperor Vir! And Londo too. Vir's look! And then both of them sitting at opposite ends of the bench, as LK said like an awkward morning after xD
So Londo has three more chances, to "save the eye that doesn't see", "not kill the one who's already dead," and "surrender to his worst fear, knowing it will destroy him." At least now he knows that he should repent. Progress!
Severed Dreams: Finally! That's sooner than I expected. Earth Forces bombing Mars, two colonies seceding, ISN attacked, ships send to remove Babylon 5 control - and they decide to fight. Of course they do. And many agree with them, even Lt. Corwin stays, nice. Sheridan even explains succinctly why they're resisting and why the orders are illegal, but apparently Earth Force propaganda has been pretty good.
Space battles are very exciting, but they're good at showing the cost. And how scary it is that spaceships can be blown up with such relative ease.
DELENN. How much of a badass is she. Challenging the Grey Council! "If the Council has lost its way, if it will not lead, if we have abandoned out covenant with Valen - then the Council should be BROKEN!" And the majority follow her, because she's burning that brightly.
Delenn coming to Babylon 5's rescue! "This is Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection. Withdraw, or be destroyed." [Negative. We have authority here. Do not force us to engage your ship.] "Why not. Only one human captain has ever survived battle with the Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else." YES YES YES YES YES! CMOA. I've watched that scene at least five times now.
Delenn and Sheridan :) They're like mom and dad of the station.
Ceremonies of Light and Dark: Londo poisoning and blackmailing Refa! Because he's a traditionalist, heh. Forcing Refa to stop some of the senseless conquests, to fortify their homeworld, and to break off contact with Morden. Nicely done, Londo.
Yes, Delenn basically got her way by sheer force of personality *g* Of course there are still people from the Nightwatch left. At least they got this group before they could execute their hostages.
Marcus: his anger isn't repressed anymore. A lot of other stuff still is. The rebirth ceremony would have done him good.
Lennier, that you're in love with Delenn is not in any way surprising. I was a bit annoyed that he said that his "pure, noble love" is higher than romantic love, but he probably feels better if he tells himself that. But I honestly believe he means it, that he doesn't so much desire her as just... really admires and loves her.
I liked that the staff did their best to complete the ritual with Delenn. Sheridan tells her how much he cares for her, Garibaldi says that he's always afraid, Franklin finally admits that he has a problem (with the stims), and Susan says that she loved Talia. !!! Dammit I still miss Talia, and as soon as I finished watching the show I'm looking for the long AU where Talia survives. Another reason for Susan to hate the Corps.
New uniforms! AV said he doesn't like them. I don't love them yet, but I could get used to them.
I hope they're able to solve the problem with the annoying AI soon, or Garibaldi will go crazy.
Tl;dr this show is amazing and everyone should watch it.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-20 02:50 am (UTC)This may be around the time the studio said they would only give JMS four seasons instead of five, so he started compressing things. I don't remember exactly, but it seems about right.
That was something B5 always did well.
One of my favorite episodes! Well-acted, well-written, deep ethical issues genuinely engaged with, a nuanced portrayal of religion and religious characters.
JMS is not subtle in his political allegory, no. What's even scarier is when you compare some elements of this to political developments since the show.
Bester was one of their best villains because he was complex, realistic, understandable, could be sympathetic ... and yet was still unquestionably a villain.
I think he's supposed to. There's also some arthurian echoes in his character--he calls himself Galahad, at one point. I love Marcus so! He's awesome.
That's what you get when the Warrior Caste isn't involved in designing and building and crewing warships. I'm sure the worker and religious Minbari manning the White Star are all very good at their jobs ... but it's not the same as being experienced, you know?
Yes. You can tell when Sinclair's actor had to leave that some of his character's plot beats stayed--this is one of them.
I love that scene, it is so awesome.
Except that being told he should is different from believing it himself, and still different from actually acting on it ...
No shields in the B5 verse. If you get hit, you get hurt.
I KNOW. This is one of my absolute favorite scenes in all of television and movies.
If I could think of any, I'd rec them. Alas, this is the problem with a show that's been over for so long, and which was pre-FF.net. This was in the days of email lists and dedicated archives, many of which have gone the way of the dodo. Sorry!
(I hope I was better with the spoilers this time?)
They absolutely should!
no subject
Date: 2014-12-20 01:57 pm (UTC)Yeah, there's nothing outdated about the politics in the show. Especially some of the political officer's lines were uncomfortably close to what happens even today in politics.
I love that Delenn gets to be such a badass as a female diplomat character. She is what Elizabeth Weir wanted to be.
If Bab5 had a fandom the size of SGA's, there would be so much wonderful fic! But maybe I'll be able to find some old ones. Or write myself. The only good thing about it being a small fandom is that I've been able to stay mostly unspoiled. (Yes, thanks :) )
no subject
Date: 2014-12-20 04:07 pm (UTC)This may be why I was so "meh" about Weir. I wanted to like her, but, "meh." Delenn, now, Delenn is AWESOME.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-20 04:52 pm (UTC)Imo the "problem" with Weir was that the writers were bad and therefore showed her as incompetent, starting from the very first episode. Now, if Delenn had to run Atlantis... (someone should write that fusion. Or crossover. Babylon 5 vs the Wraith.)
no subject
Date: 2014-12-22 03:41 am (UTC)Plot summary: "SGA the way it might have been if they hadn't managed to accidentally turn on the Stupid Generator."
no subject
Date: 2014-12-22 02:01 pm (UTC)