Babylon 5: 4x21 – 5x04
Oct. 10th, 2015 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkFinally more Bab5! After months. AV didn't have time again and I finally ran out of patience, so we watched without him.
Rising Star: Marcus :( Poor Susan. At least I liked her conversation with Franklin later, even though I hate that it's apparently (according to Lennier) been overheard by many.
I'm pretty sure this was originally meant to be the series finale, and it would have worked well. An interstellar Alliance! I'm unclear on what kind of powers the Alliance has exactly, if it really was the series finale that wouldn't be a problem. I'd be happier with Sheridan as the President if I still liked Sheridan more, but at least he has a decent Advisory Council.
The new Earth president announces G'Kar as a member of the League of Non-aligned Worlds. I thought Narn wasn't a member of the League and LK and I spent several minutes talking about how the League and the Council were supposed to work before agreeing that it's possible the president just made a mistake.
I really like Londo and G'Kar together, basically all the time. (Though actually, after the first two seconds, G'Kar using his artificial eye to spy on Sheridan and Delenn having sex is not that funny.)
The Deconstruction of Falling Stars: This also would have worked better as a series than as a season finale. History is complicated and historians are not neutral. I didn't love Delenn showing up at the TV debate: I want old!Delenn to have better things to do than show up to a TV debate for no good reason.
The last scene, a thousand years later with the Rangers secretly rebuilding Earth in form of a religious order (presumed Christian from the imagery and that they get their orders from Rome), I wasn't a big fan of the religious aspect. A better answer to "what if our religion is wrong and we wasted our lives on faith in something imaginary" than "faith is a good thing, you just have to believe" would be "if it's true, awesome, if it's not true we're still doing good and important work." But then I already knew that Babylon 5 has more emphasis on religion than I would prefer.
No Compromises: We get a new station captain, captain Lochley, and I was immediately disoriented because to me her face looks like a mix of Susan and Talia. Someone in the casting department has a type. She immediately pisses of Garibaldi, which is not at all smart. Yes, he's annoying and biased when it comes to Sheridan and he left Babylon 5 (but not voluntarily!), but that doesn't mean his experience isn't worth anything. Other than that I think she has potential, but I really hope the division of operative and political decisions between her and Sheridan is clear. The ending doesn't make that seem too likely – hopefully Sheridan at least informed her beforehand! Unfortunately we know the telepath colony is not going to work out well because of the future tapes, but even if we didn't, wow Sheridan that's a major decision made for stupid reasons: "one of them saved my life, and we might need them as weapons in a coming war." WTF? One of many objections, you don't even know if they'd be on your side.
Speaking of religious elements in Bab5, I don't think it makes sense for Sheridan to swear his allegiance on a book with the first pages of all holy texts of all religions of all worlds in the Alliance. Not only is that impossible unless they're all on microchips, but the constitutions would be much more logical since it's an economical/political alliance and not a religious order.
Lennier leaves! I always preferred the interpretation that Lennier is not in romantic love with Delenn, but in 4x21 and here they strongly imply otherwise. (Sheridan saying more or less that he wouldn't be okay with a triad marriage made me grin. You wish.) I do like that they show that Lennier and Marcus were close, I wasn't aware of that to this extent. Lennier is shown as part of the main cast in the opening credits so I'm glad to know he'll come back, probably as a Ranger.
After the last Bab5 session a few months ago I was sad because I suspected that either Susan or Marcus would not be in season 5, but I still had hope they would both survive. Now both of them aren't here :( At least Susan I expect to show up again. (No spoilers.)
The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari: Finally Londo apologizes. I like how they showed how hard it was for him. I hope G'Kar realized what Londo meant and that he was sincere, because after someone just had a near-death experience that's not so certain. As always I really like Vir, and Londo and G'Kar together. (At one point, I forgot which one but after a bit of dialogue that could be read as particularly slashy, I paused the episode to point that out to LK. He was surprised by the idea that there could be Londo/G'Kar fic, I was surprised by the fact that he apparently never thought about that before. Very different fandom experiences.)
The Paragon of Animals: Poet!G'Kar is one of my favorite G'Kars.
Lyta, finally! Still a member of PsiCorps, even though the Alliance could totally afford to pay her. I get mad on her behalf every time I think about it. Garibaldi, remember who you're talking to, she literally saved all of your asses. Twice. Lyta just wants to be treated like anyone else. Unfortunately the only one who seems to offer her that right now is Byron, who at the same time thinks telepaths are inherently superior to mundanes. (LK immediately pointed out that the speech he's quoting was not meant seriously.) I don't think Lyta will fall for that, but at least on some level the respect he gives her must be tempting. I would also like to point out that Byron did not seek to inform the alliance about the trap for the White Star fleet on his own, only as a favor to Lyta. Screw that guy.
Bester volunteering for death bed duty and going too far into the mind of a dying person is a very creepy explanation for, well, him. I like it.
Sheridan, pointing out that you're standing on a slippery slope as far as ethics go in regards to telepathy does not actually help if you don't know where you're standing, you'll never notice if you're actually slipping.
Did we know before that the Drazi are ruthless like that? Though whoever said it was right, making a deal with raiders who attack small worlds on their borders is economically smart.
If they really expected a purely economical Alliance no wonder some worlds are unhappy about a Declaration of Principles, but from what we heard it's no more than the most basic "be nice."
A View from the Gallery: Maintenance! I love that we get to see maintenance guys.
Now Byron has a catch phrase ("tell me it matters to you"), but Morden was still creepier.
The maintenance guys thought Sheridan and Delenn were so romantic, but I don't quite agree. Sheridan pressures Delenn to take a life pod because he "needs" to know she's safe – not only do I hate that trope, but it's not like Sheridan had an excuse not to join her there, he wasn't necessary for station defense.
I liked the example of how rumors spread. I bet they're going to make something big out of the reveal of Captain Lochley's allegiance during the civil war, but I'm not looking forward to it. Sheridan requested her personally, he must know her service record, and as head of covert operations by now so does Garibaldi or he's not worth his money.
LB's birthday is tomorrow, so now: midnight baking! Fun. *yawns*
Rising Star: Marcus :( Poor Susan. At least I liked her conversation with Franklin later, even though I hate that it's apparently (according to Lennier) been overheard by many.
I'm pretty sure this was originally meant to be the series finale, and it would have worked well. An interstellar Alliance! I'm unclear on what kind of powers the Alliance has exactly, if it really was the series finale that wouldn't be a problem. I'd be happier with Sheridan as the President if I still liked Sheridan more, but at least he has a decent Advisory Council.
The new Earth president announces G'Kar as a member of the League of Non-aligned Worlds. I thought Narn wasn't a member of the League and LK and I spent several minutes talking about how the League and the Council were supposed to work before agreeing that it's possible the president just made a mistake.
I really like Londo and G'Kar together, basically all the time. (Though actually, after the first two seconds, G'Kar using his artificial eye to spy on Sheridan and Delenn having sex is not that funny.)
The Deconstruction of Falling Stars: This also would have worked better as a series than as a season finale. History is complicated and historians are not neutral. I didn't love Delenn showing up at the TV debate: I want old!Delenn to have better things to do than show up to a TV debate for no good reason.
The last scene, a thousand years later with the Rangers secretly rebuilding Earth in form of a religious order (presumed Christian from the imagery and that they get their orders from Rome), I wasn't a big fan of the religious aspect. A better answer to "what if our religion is wrong and we wasted our lives on faith in something imaginary" than "faith is a good thing, you just have to believe" would be "if it's true, awesome, if it's not true we're still doing good and important work." But then I already knew that Babylon 5 has more emphasis on religion than I would prefer.
No Compromises: We get a new station captain, captain Lochley, and I was immediately disoriented because to me her face looks like a mix of Susan and Talia. Someone in the casting department has a type. She immediately pisses of Garibaldi, which is not at all smart. Yes, he's annoying and biased when it comes to Sheridan and he left Babylon 5 (but not voluntarily!), but that doesn't mean his experience isn't worth anything. Other than that I think she has potential, but I really hope the division of operative and political decisions between her and Sheridan is clear. The ending doesn't make that seem too likely – hopefully Sheridan at least informed her beforehand! Unfortunately we know the telepath colony is not going to work out well because of the future tapes, but even if we didn't, wow Sheridan that's a major decision made for stupid reasons: "one of them saved my life, and we might need them as weapons in a coming war." WTF? One of many objections, you don't even know if they'd be on your side.
Speaking of religious elements in Bab5, I don't think it makes sense for Sheridan to swear his allegiance on a book with the first pages of all holy texts of all religions of all worlds in the Alliance. Not only is that impossible unless they're all on microchips, but the constitutions would be much more logical since it's an economical/political alliance and not a religious order.
Lennier leaves! I always preferred the interpretation that Lennier is not in romantic love with Delenn, but in 4x21 and here they strongly imply otherwise. (Sheridan saying more or less that he wouldn't be okay with a triad marriage made me grin. You wish.) I do like that they show that Lennier and Marcus were close, I wasn't aware of that to this extent. Lennier is shown as part of the main cast in the opening credits so I'm glad to know he'll come back, probably as a Ranger.
After the last Bab5 session a few months ago I was sad because I suspected that either Susan or Marcus would not be in season 5, but I still had hope they would both survive. Now both of them aren't here :( At least Susan I expect to show up again. (No spoilers.)
The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari: Finally Londo apologizes. I like how they showed how hard it was for him. I hope G'Kar realized what Londo meant and that he was sincere, because after someone just had a near-death experience that's not so certain. As always I really like Vir, and Londo and G'Kar together. (At one point, I forgot which one but after a bit of dialogue that could be read as particularly slashy, I paused the episode to point that out to LK. He was surprised by the idea that there could be Londo/G'Kar fic, I was surprised by the fact that he apparently never thought about that before. Very different fandom experiences.)
The Paragon of Animals: Poet!G'Kar is one of my favorite G'Kars.
Lyta, finally! Still a member of PsiCorps, even though the Alliance could totally afford to pay her. I get mad on her behalf every time I think about it. Garibaldi, remember who you're talking to, she literally saved all of your asses. Twice. Lyta just wants to be treated like anyone else. Unfortunately the only one who seems to offer her that right now is Byron, who at the same time thinks telepaths are inherently superior to mundanes. (LK immediately pointed out that the speech he's quoting was not meant seriously.) I don't think Lyta will fall for that, but at least on some level the respect he gives her must be tempting. I would also like to point out that Byron did not seek to inform the alliance about the trap for the White Star fleet on his own, only as a favor to Lyta. Screw that guy.
Bester volunteering for death bed duty and going too far into the mind of a dying person is a very creepy explanation for, well, him. I like it.
Sheridan, pointing out that you're standing on a slippery slope as far as ethics go in regards to telepathy does not actually help if you don't know where you're standing, you'll never notice if you're actually slipping.
Did we know before that the Drazi are ruthless like that? Though whoever said it was right, making a deal with raiders who attack small worlds on their borders is economically smart.
If they really expected a purely economical Alliance no wonder some worlds are unhappy about a Declaration of Principles, but from what we heard it's no more than the most basic "be nice."
A View from the Gallery: Maintenance! I love that we get to see maintenance guys.
Now Byron has a catch phrase ("tell me it matters to you"), but Morden was still creepier.
The maintenance guys thought Sheridan and Delenn were so romantic, but I don't quite agree. Sheridan pressures Delenn to take a life pod because he "needs" to know she's safe – not only do I hate that trope, but it's not like Sheridan had an excuse not to join her there, he wasn't necessary for station defense.
I liked the example of how rumors spread. I bet they're going to make something big out of the reveal of Captain Lochley's allegiance during the civil war, but I'm not looking forward to it. Sheridan requested her personally, he must know her service record, and as head of covert operations by now so does Garibaldi or he's not worth his money.
LB's birthday is tomorrow, so now: midnight baking! Fun. *yawns*
no subject
Date: 2015-10-10 10:28 pm (UTC)Fun fact: the season finale they filmed for season 4 (when they thought that would be their last) was the very last episode you'll see. They aired it as the season 5 finale - and so it became the series finale, just as it was intended to be!
Deconstruction of Falling Stars was filmed as they started shooting season 5, before all of season 4 had aired - I believe it may have been written pretty quickly?
Ah, I love outsider POV stories, so I remember A View from the Gallery very fondly.
I had such a weird reaction to Tracy Scoggins (the new Captain) because she played a guest part in Highlander I kind of hated... I didn't exactly hate her character, but I hated a lot of how they presented the character?
no subject
Date: 2015-10-10 11:01 pm (UTC)Ah, that makes sense. Yeah, Deconstruction of Falling Stars is a bit, hm, it's just kinda there. At first I thought in the end they were sending all those scenes back into the past and adding a time-travel plot, but apparently not! I'm not sure how I feel about already knowing some of the future. We had elements of that before, of course, and there's always ambiguity so we don't know for sure what will happen, but still, this time it seems a bit more final.
After that episode I was the least excited I've been so far about the new season. I've been told it starts slow, I'm looking forward to finding out where it goes.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-16 12:03 am (UTC)The "type" of the casting department isn't anything as obvious as Moffat (Doctor Who and BBC Sherlock's showrunner)'s thing for scary dark-haired ladies.
Poet!G'Kar is awesome indeed.
The Very Long Night of Mollari is such a great episode.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-16 01:49 pm (UTC)I still want the AU where Talia wasn't brainwashed and her and Lyta eventually become friends. Through Talia, who is or at least was dating Susan, Susan learns more about telepaths and is on their side. Marcus can survive too! Because I say so.