I daresay I spy Bill Mumy in the far background. I'd recognize that hairdo anywhere.
♲ No Context Babylon 5 - 2024-02-28 04:23:08 GMT
#babylon5
###Surprise!
Sweden’s schools minister declares free school ‘system failure’ | Sweden | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/10/swedens-schools-minister-declares-free-school-system-failure
Sweden has declared a “system failure” in the country’s free schools, pledging the biggest shake-up in 30 years and calling into question a model in which profit-making companies run state #education.
I mean, what could possibly go wrong, when you let private companies run state education? Financed by taxes even? So this surprise reminds me of a scene from #Babylon5:
"Daggair! My, what a surprise!"
"A pleasant one?"
"I wouldn't go that far."
From J. Michael Straczynski - Hang with JMS
"Well, nuts...I had, or thought I had set up a scheduled post to go off at the same time the information hit Twitter, but apparently it didn't stick. My apologies. To recap:
There’s a brand new, original BABYLON 5 ANIMATED MOVIE coming out soon from Warner Bros. Animation & WB Home Entertainment! It’s classic B5: raucous, heartfelt, nonstop, a ton of fun through time and space & a love letter to the fans. To be clear, since there’s been some ambiguity, the movie is already done and finished and in the can. So it's 100% real, happening, and coming out very soon.
I'm ridiculously excited about the #B5AnimatedMovie because it feels the most B5-ish of anything we've done since the original show. Warners was terrific in giving me the freedom to write the story I wanted, and the animation is phenomenal. It's fun, deep, emotional, classic B5.
Full release details, including cast, title, when, where and how it will be available, and other info will come next week from Warners. Best of all, if this does well there will be more animated movies, maybe on a regular basis. (And this has no bearing on the other the reimagined B5 live-action series, which is currently on hold pending the resolution of the Writers Strike.)"
Z minus 5 days...
B5 Rewatch: 5x06 "Strange Relations"
A-Plot: The past finally catches up with Byron and his Telepath gang cult commune, as EarthGov sends Psi Corps bloodhounds, led by Bester to apprehend them as criminals and send them back. With Sheridan trying to play nice with Alliance members (like Earth), and Lochley not having any legitimate reason to stop them (and, further, having previously had not-horrible interactions with Bester), there seems to be little way to stop it from happening.
Well, except for Lyta Alexander, who’s been helping steal liberate drugs for the Teeps, and whom Byron continues to woo to join his cult commune. She’s not your average telepath, having had her powers goosed by Kosh waaaay in the past. And, indeed, she manages to stop Bester and his goon squad at least once — but cannot reliably do so, especially when he gets his requested support from station security.
Fortunately, after Bester has captured all the teeps and is going to head back to Earth with them, Lochley pulls a deus ex bureaucratica, using a new medical regulation (from Franklin, with the toner still damp) that requires thorough examination and quarantine of any folk who have been in Unknown Space, like the vagrant teeps have been, before being allowed back on Earth. That frustrates the hell out of Bester, but assuming he still has an ally in Lochley, he’s willing to come back in sixty days to pick them up.
Lochley, in turn, while not carrying the animus against Bester that Sheridan and Garibaldi do, isn’t by any means a fan, and it’s clear that while she can’t “let” the Teeps escape B5 before Bester’s return, she will not be at all disappointed if they find a way to do so.
Sad, lonely, isolated Lyta is sad, lonely, and isolated.
But while the Telepath plot here gets solved by Lochley, it’s really Lyta’s story, and there’s a lot of heartbreaking moments as Lyta watch the teeps run down and captured, one by one, and Byron tells her he’s turning himself in to be with them, even if it means his likely death. You can see the increasing isolation she’s under — cut off from Kosh, not a member of the Corps (despite still wearing a badge), not a member of the command team any more (and relegated to sneaking station supplies to the Teeps), but also not a member of the Teep cult colony. In every scene, it grows more and more painful …
Until, at the very end, as Byron is reunited with his cult family, and they all sit around and sing a slightly creepy song about love and harmony and finding “a better place” …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yECUU16dXuE
And we will all come together in a better place
A better place than this
My love will guide you
My love will hold you
My love will show you the way
There will come a tomorrow
Where we’re free from our sorrows
And our love will show us the way
We are sister and brother
And we will all come together in a better place
A better place than this …
… she takes off her Psi Corps badge and, a bit uncomfortably, goes to Byron’s side.
This will not end well.
And it shouldn’t. Zack is already on the record thinking that Byron is going to be trouble, not because of telepath prejudice (he and Lyta had a thing going on at one point, remember?) but because Byron is so clearly aiming to be a martyr. Byron himself is clearly about one batch of Kool Aid from a self-inflicted tragedy. The guy is just so plainly manipulative that it’s terrifying seeing Lyta sucked into his orbit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kVmAPVgp\_k
Some reviews try to complain that Byron and his cult band of merry teeps are being forced on us as heroes. I disagree, at least so far to date: I don’t trust the guy, even if he’s as sincere as a saint.
B-Plot: The Mystery of Lochley is Revealed! Delenn chats with Lochley, having been given the skinny by Sheridan the previous night, though nothing specific gets said. Lochley’s a bit peeved that Sheridan didn’t warn her, but also feels vaguely apologetic to Delenn. Meanwhile, Garibaldi is hanging out around the corner, taking notes.
But not for long, since in short order he’s in the brig, having stormed into Lochley’s office to punch Bester in the snoot — understandable (even to Lochley), but not to be allowed (even if she has to threaten the security team she summoned before they lay hands on their former boss).
In short order, she and Zack discover Garibaldi has been riffling through Lochley’s personnel files on the computer, so she goes down to his cell (quite a nice and sizeable room, to be sure) to hash it out — which annoyingly turns into Lochley answering all of Garibaldi’s questions.
She explains her chumminess with Bester from a past experience where he took out a rogue telepath who had killed two of her people (who had found out he was using his telepathy to win at gambling). And she explains that Sheridan chose her because it would be politically valuable to have an EarthForce officer who was on the “other side” in the war, but one he could trust both not to stab him in the back, disagree with him when needed, and back him up likewise.
As to how Sheridan would know that …
LOCHLEY: We met fresh out of Officer Training School. We hit it off, fell crazy in love, got married, realized we’d made a terrible mistake, fell crazy out of love, and split up. You see, in a relationship. you gotta take turns being in charge, but, we both wanted to be in charge all the time. We had arguments that could peel paint off the wall.
They remained friends and respectful of one another and knew they could trust one another.
It almost feels a little anticlimactic, esp. since the scene feels rushed and info-dumpy, and Lochley’s spilling all the beans that Garibaldi asked for comes across more as weak than reasonable.
(It also feels … unrealistic. None of her records — or his — indicate her marriage to Sheridan? The press — directly or via politicians and partisans in EarthGov — haven’t learned about this? It’s a kind of clever idea, but it makes no sense.)
Other Bits and Bobs: Londo is shifting into the next phase of his life, preparing to return to Centauri Prime to support the ailing Regent, and anticipating becoming Emperor — the prospect of which he’s increasingly melancholy and pessimistic about.
Things get a bit more exciting when the Centauri cruiser he’s supposed to be on is destroyed in an obvious assassination attempt. Delenn and G’kar are concerned over Londo’s safety, so Delenn decides he needs a non-Centauri bodyguard — and that G’kar is the perfect choice. The Narn is initially taken aback, but the idea of his being a necessary part of the Centauri court tickles his funny-bone, and by the end Londo and G’kar are heading off the Centauri homeworld, bickering about who gets the aisle seat.
Meanwhile, the criminally-underused Franklin is given by the writer the Alliance a new side gig: research head for medical care of Alliance species, with an emphasis on diseases and the like that can jump to other species. It’s actually a good tie-in to some of his original research (which he dumped when he learned that EarthForce was going to use it for bio-weapons). And it means he’ll get more opportunities to do something in the show than hang out in MedLab and look distressed.
Meanwhile: So JMS briefly belonged to a religious cult/commune when he was in his early 20s, after escaping an extremely abusive and isolating household. A lot of that experience feeds into the Byron / Lyta / Telepath saga — Byron as charismatic leader, the group behavior, even the song they sing.
No, nothing at all creepy or cult-like here.
And knowing that makes it clear that there will be no happy ending here, for anyone — we know that Psi Corps is awful, and Bester a nasty piece of work, but in his own way Byron is as manipulative as the Psi Cop, and his band of teeps is as much a trap as the Corps.
The only question with someone like Byron is how many of his followers he’ll take down with him.
I can’t let a Bester episode go by without commenting on Bester. He is his usual maddening self — gentile and oh-so-pleasant sharing jokes and tea with Lochley, snarky and smirking whenever he knows he has the upper hand (and wants to rub it in), and, at a few moments, almost desperately eager in wanting to take Byron in and being told he can’t (yet).
Don’t you (like Garibaldi) just want to punch this guy?
Bester is not Walter Koenig’s most famous role, but it should be, and any time he’s in an episode, like this one, it’s a treat.
Most Dramatic Moment: Despite the reeeeeally annoying (and creepy song), there’s a lovely moment from the director, John C Flinn, where Lyta approaches the Teep colony, and sees them with their candles and their singing and their camaraderie and family … through a plastic grid, separate and shut away from them and emphasizing for the final moment how cut-off and alone she is …
Lyta, on the outside, looking in.
Most Amusing Moment: Lochley realizing that, with all the other things that have been going on, she’s forgotten to order Garibaldi released from holding.
LOCHLEY: I also have this nagging feeling that I’m forgetting something.
CORWIN: I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Good night, Captain.
LOCHLEY: Good night, Lieutenant. [beat] Oh no! [into link] Lochley to security.
SECURITY: [over link] Security here.
GARIBALDI: [over link] I said, let me the hell out of here! [Sound of something getting thrown]
LOCHLEY: You can release Mr. Garibaldi now.
GARIBALDI: [over link] About time.
Honorable mention to most of the dialog between Sheridan and Lochley. She still feels stiff with the other characters — trying to be the hard-ass Ivanova type in a way that Tracey Scoggins just cannot pull off with her perfect makeup and hair — but her banter with Sheridan is almost always loaded with gems that are delivered neatly.
SHERIDAN: I’m caught in a web of my own good intentions.
LOCHLEY: Well, the road to hell is paved with them, sir.
SHERIDAN: I know, but why does it have to go through this office?
Or, as Lochley’s explaining why, legally, she has to cooperate with Bester:
LOCHLEY: How am I doing do far?
SHERIDAN: Annoyingly logical.
LOCHLEY: Thank you.
SHERIDAN: It wasn’t a compliment.
Most Arc-ish Moment: Londo has a chat with Zack. The security chief doesn’t understand why Londo is moping about — being emperor sounds like a sweet gig. But Londo has forebodings, both from Centauri premonitions about the future, and from family history — he will be the second Mollari to be emperor, and that one ended badly, too.
“This is where it begins to go bad for all of us.”
Knowing what’s coming, he’s not wrong. But even on first watch, it was easy to remember the threads — Londo’s premonition of his death at G’kar’s hands, the flash-forward Sheridan had about him and Delenn being held captive by the Centauri, and, of course, the creepy Shadow stuff going on in the palace.
Yeah, this is where it all starts to go bad for Londo … and everyone in his orbit.
Overall Rating: 4.3 of 5.0 — After two episodes that were largely filler (entertaining in their own way, but still not really progressing anything), we finally get some plot movement around the Telepaths, the Alliance, and an array of personal stories. It’s the best episode of the season so far.
Other Resources for this episode:
- Lurker’s Guide
- Babylon Project Wiki
- IMDb
- AV Club (covers eps 6-10 of the season)
- TV Tropes
- Sci-Fi Musings (home of the little videos in so many of these reviews I’ve done)
- Sundry Thoughts
Previous episode: 5×05 “Learning Curve”
Next episode: 5×07 “Secrets of the Soul” – Hot telepath sex, not-so-hot telepath origins, and aliens who are (gasp) keeping secrets
Reposted on Pluspora.
#3sd-nerditude #b5 #b5rewatch #babylon5
Originally posted at: https://hill-kleerup.org/blog/2022/01/12/b5-rewatch-5x06-strange-relations.html
B5 Rewatch: 5x05 "Learning Curve"
A-Plot: A delegation from the Rangers goes from Minbar to B5 to chat with Delenn, the Entil-zha. Two of them are older gents, instructors — Turval, from the religious caste, and Durhan, of the warrior caste — and they bring with them two trainees, Tannier from the religious and Rathenn from the warriors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-VngaL7iCo
Along the way, they get entangled with a new gang boss in DownBelow, Trace. The New Boss has Big Plans, and he’s doing some demonstration killings to show people who’s in charge.
Bullying Gang Boss Leader is a Bully
Unfortunately (for all concerned), recruit Tannier gets involved in one of Trace’s incidents — and ends up being seriously curb-stomped as another demonstration. That leads to Delenn taking the whole matter away from Zack and station security, and handling it via the Rangers. “Those who harmed him,” she tells Lochley, “now have power over him. He must take back that power, or he will never be whole again.”
Tannier, barely back on his feet, is given a chance to duke it out solo with an increasingly panicked New Boss. The recruit ends up taking the guy apart, resolving both the New Boss problem and giving Tannier back the self-respect and self-control he’ll need as a Ranger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWn2SCmu7UY
DURHAN: Where is your fear now, Tannier?
TANNIER: Gone, Master.
TURVAL: And what do you feel? Anger? Do you feel triumphant? Happiness? Joy?
TANNIER: Pity.
DURHAN: Why?
TANNIER: Because this is all he will ever have and all he will ever know. Because his name will be swallowed by silence. Forgotten. His name belongs to no one.
TURVAL: And who does your name belong to? History? The world?
TANNIER: No. It belongs to me.
And then we get some neat little bows, and Security moves in to clean up the mess.
“Don’t mind me, I just beat up this dude who beat me up.”
There’s a lot of this that seems to play well, if a bit preachy. On reflection, it does make the Rangers seem a bit more, um, cult-like, and with a fondness for violence as a way of resolving problems. That is, in part, their remit, but it’s also an extension of, as Garibaldi later comments, Minbari inability to back down from a righteous fight.
That these are the guys who are running interstellar security and espionage for the Alliance is both comforting and uncomfortable.
B-Plot: The Mystery of Lochley Continues! Garibaldi is obsessing over the station’s new captain, her past, and which side she fought on in the Civil War.
This leads to a blow-up between the two (with a very uncomfortable Zack sitting by), where Lochley ends up not-confessing that, yeah, she was loyal to Earthforce, because she believed in the chain of command, she wanted to keep her crew safe, and she wasn’t ordered to do something she couldn’t in good conscience do.
LOCHLEY: I am a soldier, Mr. Garibaldi, and as such my vocabulary is rather limited. I only really understand three words: loyalty, duty, honor. If I did it your way, one of those would have to go … and then the other two would become meaningless. Just like this conversation. Good day.
That hardly satisfies Garibaldi, esp. since it reinforces the question of why Sheridan would have picked her for the job.
(Parenthetical note: some poor direction or editing here: In some parts of the scene, the crowd in the cafeteria is definitely hanging on every word Lochley says as she and Garibaldi get into it, complete with applause when she leaves; but in the main shot when she’s saying it, everyone in the background is just chit-chatting amongst themselves.)
While the scene is a little clumsy and rushed, it’s a solid, legitimate argument against what Sheridan & Co. did. JMS plays fair with both sides — which is fine, now, but back actually during the Civil War, a lot of comments were made that “just obeying orders” or “the military can’t set political policy” were treated as weaselly, if not evil. Turning around and treating Lochley’s “as long as I don’t get ask to commit war crimes, it’s not my place to interfere” as something we want to hear our protagonist saying needs a little bit more explanation at this point.
In a later scene, Lochley mentions something in passing that Delenn picks up on as indicating that she’s known Sheridan in the past. And the final scene of the episode has Delenn and Sheridan in bed that night, discussing the matter (or having discussed the matter) — with Delenn on the far side of the mattress, her back turned to him …
Sheridan faces the No Win Scenario
DELENN: I’m going to pretend that you were going to tell me this sooner or later.
SHERIDAN: I was just looking for the right time.
DELENN: Ten seconds after you thought of it would have been good.
SHERIDAN: Yeah. Yeah, maybe so.
What “this” is will remain a mystery until next episode.
Other Bits and Bobs: Garibaldi is beginning to work with Byron’s telepaths, though they seem unenthused (or perhaps just disdainful of Garibaldi and the other nats).
He’s also beginning to butt heads with Zack. There’s still a mentor/mentee and even old friends aspect to their relationship, but Garibaldi doesn’t want to listen to Zack, and there are hints here that he’s accessing station security info that Zack doesn’t approve of.
Meanwhile: This episode has one of the rare cases of an actor who played two significant (and not heavily made-up) characters: Turhan Bey, who not only plays the Religious Caste Ranger Instructor Turval here, but back in S.2 played the Centauri Emperor Turhan. This was his last credited role before his death a few years later.
In the script book, JMS recounts how a lot of this episode was driven by the curb-stomping he received when he was young, and at a time when he just got booted out of the cult he’d fallen into. A lot of the “face your fear” stuff here seems to come from this incident, even if Joe never got a chance to beat the shit out of his attacker while his colleagues stood around and applauded.
(His letting the remaining anger about that incident drive this episode is one of the reasons he feels it’s so weak.)
Most Dramatic Moment: Yeah, probably Lochley’s “Loyalty, Duty, Honor” speech to Garibaldi.
Honorable Mention to the cool dismantling of the retreating gang as they seek to escape their level of DownBelow, with thugs being picked off from the front and rear and dragged into the shadows by the Rangers. Not only is it creepy, but when the (mostly Minbari) Rangers in the shadows finally become visible in the dim down-lighting, they look positively satanic.
(The whole incident is scary — while the Mora’Dum, the “Application of Terror,” is meant to be about a Ranger overcoming their own terror, Trace, the New Boss, is clearly terrified by the whole matter, too.)
Most Amusing Moment: Gotta be the final scene there between Sheridan and Delenn.
Honorary Mention to: One of the new cross-species Ranger recruits is a Pak’ma’ra — who refuses to learn new languages, and whose dietary habits make it difficult to house him with the other Rangers.
Delenn figures out that the ubiquity of the Pakmara (and the fact that nobody wants to pay any attention to them) makes them perfect couriers for the Rangers, turning lemons into lemonade.
Most Arc-ish Moment: This episode is 98% arc-free, but there is one intriguing moment where Delenn and Turval are chatting, and he mentions how Lennier, now at Ranger Camp (though unseen in the episode) is not tackling training in a healthy fashion, driving himself to the breaking point.
Delenn, of course, knows why, but it’s not like she can talk much about it. She just asks Turval to watch over him.
It might have made this episode a lot better — and a lot more on-point — if we’d gotten Lennier rather than Tennier as one of the visiting apprentice Rangers.
Overall Rating: 3.5 of 5.0 — This episode is … kind of a waste of time, in an otherwise crowded season. There’s some minor progress on side fronts, but with Londo, G’kar, and the Telepaths all MIA, there’s just not that much there there, though what’s there is entertaining. It’s hardly a bad episode in and of itself — it just feels like an unnecessary one. Its problem is strategic (where it shows up in the series and what it does there) more than tactical (the show itself).
That’s not just my opinion. JMS has commented, “There are some stories you tell that you look back at later and wonder, what the hell was I thinking?” Between not having a core-character-focused story (after the previous not-a-core-character-focused story), and using yet another interchangeable violent crime guy trying to take over the gangs, Joe opines he would just as soon this episode vanish softly and silently away.
Other Resources for this episode:
- Lurker’s Guide
- Babylon Project Wiki
- IMDb
- AV Club (covers eps 1-5 of the season)
- TV Tropes
- Sci-Fi Musings (home of the little videos in so many of these reviews I’ve done)
- Sundry Thoughts
Previous episode: 5×04 “A View from the Gallery”
Next episode: 5×06 “Strange Relations” – Telepaths! Psi-Corps! Assassinations! Divorces! Finally, some chewy arc bits!
Reposted on Pluspora.
#3sd-nerditude #b5 #babylon5
Originally posted at: https://hill-kleerup.org/blog/2022/01/10/b5-rewatch-5x05-learning-curve.html
B5 Rewatch: 5x04 "A View from the Gallery"
A-Plot: The focus in this episode are the two floating maintenance workers, Mack and Bo. The former is salt-of-the-earth building super, always with a wry quip about the little guy. The latter is also grounded, but has a little bit bigger perspective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_U1ioARKOqQ
Over the course of the episode they have chances to observe — and comment to each other about — each of the major characters, and their relationships. It’s actually feels still part of the TNT reintroduction of the series, since there’s both a lot of show and a lot of tell.
Bo and Mack
Beyond observation, there are two parts of this plot. First, there’s the sense that the little guys (like Mack and Bo) never get paid attention to by the big guys. They’re the set changers in a kabuki play, invisible except when someone has a complaint. On the flip side, there’s also the idea that the little guys look for something more consequential than their work life. Bo, in particular, envies the snazzy Star Fury pilots out there, dogfighting their ways to glory.
So Byron (whilst they’re hunkering down with the teeps in Brown Sector) links Bo up to one of the pilots — initially terrifying, then exciting, then …
Bo suddenly seeing himself as a Starfury pilot
The vision is interrupted — but it’s a taste of a life he never had, never really grasped, making him both more respectful of the pilots and more glad of the role he gets to play on a daily basis.
A third aspect to this part of the plot is that, even as we see the little guys both feeling rare bits of appreciation and even a little adventure, we also get to observe how they see through the facade of heroism, up-close. Delenn and Sheridan’s love. Lochley’s fierceness. Franklin’s pain. G’Kar and Londo’s ties that bind. The telepaths’ humanity. It feel a bit stagey at times, but it still manages to work.
B-Plot: There’s a fleet of evil aliens looking to invade B5’s sector — let’s call them the McGuffins, because in the end who they are and what motivates them isn’t important, and they’ll never be seen again. Anyway, the station knows they’re on the way because of the Gaim. B5 has to give them, at the least, a bloody nose to teach them not to move along to another sector.
Lochley is facing her first big military challenge. B5 is a formidable force, but with the White Star fleet away (see last episode), they’re vulnerable.
Sheridan is facing the reality of not being in charge of the station any longer, but still wanting to see Delenn protected. Delenn, on the other hand, isn’t going to be the damsel locked in the tower for protection.
Garibaldi is fighting for his job, having both gotten the initial Gaim intel, but also missing out on some key strengths of the bad guys. He’s also paranoid about Lochley, trying to pin down on what side she fought during the Civil War.
Franklin is prepping for the big battle, to receive casualties both from B5 and the attacking aliens. When Bo asks why he’s willing to save aliens there to kill them, he exposits some backstory about how his own father (who visited the station in 2×10 “GROPOS”) had his life saved by an enemy doctor, inspiring Franklin to go into medicine himself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTWqCaa3nWc
Londo and G’Kar are in shelter, bickering, but also giving us a few glimpses at themselves through their origins. G’Kar grew up in bomb shelters, barely protected from the Centauri bombings, always eventually coming back out into the sun. Londo, on the other hand, was always saddled with layers of noble duty — he never grew up, as G’Kar put it, only grew old.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VH4Vrn-XUc
(That insight will inform the rest of the season, as G’Kar blossoms in the sunlight of freedom, and Londo becomes ever more burdened by his destiny and his duty. More on this below.)
Byron is protecting and honing his people, quoting Shakespeare (again), but still being moved enough by humanity to help Bo make the connection he’s looking for.
Ultimately, the McGuffins are defeated, thanks to a deus ex White Star return of the fleet to trounce them. The command crew are wearied but satisfied with their jobs. Sheridan and Delenn can bill and coo. And Franklin gets stuck signing the death certificates.
The B-plot, in the end, isn’t meaningful, except to advance its entwined A-plot. It would have been nice to have thrown in some plot development in what’s been a slow start to a busy season, but …
Other Bits and Bobs:
Meanwhile: JMS has noted that Mack was modeled somewhat after Harlan Ellison, who had been pestering him the entire series about doing an episode from the perspective of “the little people.” Ellison gets a story credit on this episode.
Most Dramatic Moment: Franklin, having already talked about his desire to go out and find any lives he save after the battle … ends up the episode tagging corpses overflowing out into the hallways.
You think Mack and Bo have it tough?
As Mack starts saying in complaint to Bo, “They get all the glory, we get all the mess. Well, maybe not all the mess.”
Most Amusing Moment: Mack and Bo exchange any number of amusing quips, not even counting their interactions with the series protagonists, but the best has to come as Londo and G’Kar, after lengthy bickering, kvetching, and kvelling, wander off …
Londo: [uncomfortably] I think I will see how things are going out there.
G’Kar: I’ll go too. Good idea.
Londo: What, are you afraid I won’t come back, G’Kar?
G’Kar: No, afraid you will. [They walk off.]
Mack: [to Bo] So, how long you figure they’ve been married?
Amusing, but insightful. The two are bound, if not by oaths of love, by deeper strands of destiny and personality. There are times when it seems that B5 is actually a show about those two aliens, and, even if it’s not true, it’s still close to being so.
Honorable mention to Delenn arguing Mack and Bo out of escorting her to an escape pod at Sheridan’s orders. It may be Sinclair who studied from the Jesuits, but he instilled some of that into the Minbari generations ago, and Delenn has learned her lesson well.
Most Arc-ish Moment: Much of this episode is throw-away regarding arc, but the interaction between Londo and G’Kar and their mutual childhoods is both foundational and predictive of where things are going for the two of them.
G’Kar: Ah, that explains a great deal.
Londo: Really? And what exactly does it explain, G’Kar?
G’Kar: I spent my years in one shelter after another, but sooner or later, I was able to leave the shelter and walk out into the daylight. You do not have that luxury. You carry your shelter with you. Every day. You did not grow up, you grew old.
Mack and Bo in the raid shelter, enjoying some time off.
Overall Rating: 4.1 of 5.0 –My son, who’s always had a love-hate relationship with (his dad forcing him to watch) B5, opined, as the credits rolled, that he’d be happy to watch B5 in the future if every ep was like this.
I think this comes mainly from that human, non-epic, un-pompous note to it. Even though some of the dialog from JMS feels a bit — elaborate and heavy, even from Mac and Bo — it’s still much more of a grounded episode, reflecting not just the legendary heroes (and villains), but the little guys who get whipped up into their wakes.
We’ve seen B5 from other perspectives in the past — but that was the news media, friendly and un-. Mack and Bo, even if a bit too precious and wise at times, still give us an everyman’s perspective on life on B5 that’s too often missing in the sturm und drang of galaxy-shaking drama.
Other Resources for this episode:
- Lurker’s Guide
- Babylon Project Wiki
- IMDb
- AV Club (covers eps 1-5 of the season)
- TV Tropes
- Sci-Fi Musings (home of the little videos in so many of these reviews I’ve done)
- Sundry Thoughts
Previous episode: 5×03 “The Paragon of Animals”
Next episode: 5×05 “Learning Curve”
Reposted on Pluspora.
#3sd-nerditude #b5 #babylon5
Originally posted at: https://hill-kleerup.org/blog/2022/01/06/b5-rewatch-5x04-a-view-from-the-gallery.html
Babylon 5 Is Getting Rebooted, With J. Michael Straczynski at the Helm
I loved the series and they have the right man at the helm, but don’t know if I can adjust to a whole new cast.
https://gizmodo.com/babylon-5-is-getting-rebooted-with-j-michael-straczyn-1847752907
#babylon5
