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I can see where I am interested in somebody's reaction on SA because they are a fellow poster and there's an interactivity element, I literally have no loving idea why anybody cares about a random reviewer at this point
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Oct 26, 2018 02:53
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it's some weird vicarious thing also yeah the guy is insufferable
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Oct 26, 2018 03:44
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If goons think someone is insufferable then, well, yikes, I'll just stick to this thread.
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Oct 26, 2018 03:49
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S1E10, Believers - I thought this could have been a Star Trek script almost word for word until the last five minutes. If it had been Trek, the doctor would have done the operation, the kid would have been quiet and moody and ambiguously soul-less before being whisked away by angry parents, and the captain would have given a monologue questioning whether the right choice was made. Instead we got...what we got. It reminds me that the show has a different tone that I need to prepare myself for. S1E11, Survivors - Garibaldi gets framed. Not a very exciting episode in my opinion since you know he’s going to make it out fine, even in a serialized show. Gives some background on his character though which is nice I guess. Brings back the earth-first bigots as a recurring antagonist, guessing they will probably continue to be important. S1E12, By Any Means Necessary - Labor strike! Go unions! I want to see more of the guild leader character but know I probably won’t. I want to see more Londo and G’Kar squaring off and know I probably will. This episode also continues two themes I didn’t expect coming into the show but have seemed pretty consistent so far. #1, everyone has religious leanings and is coming to terms with how to express them. #2, if a guest star is a white human dude then he’s (almost?) always the bad guy of the week.
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Oct 26, 2018 04:57
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wizzardstaff posted:S1E10, Believers - I thought this could have been a Star Trek script almost word for word until the last five minutes. If it had been Trek, the doctor would have done the operation, the kid would have been quiet and moody and ambiguously soul-less before being whisked away by angry parents, and the captain would have given a monologue questioning whether the right choice was made. Instead we got...what we got. It reminds me that the show has a different tone that I need to prepare myself for. It was written by longtime Star Trek writer David Gerrold, so your instinct probably isn't far off. I don't think he ever worked on the show again.
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Oct 26, 2018 05:02
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ConfusedUs posted:This guy is mildly insufferable. I I've met Mark Oshiro, he came to a couple of Discworld conventions while he was doing his stint on that series. I didn't have a problem with him.
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Oct 26, 2018 07:19
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If you like G'Kar and Londo squaring off, strap in.
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Oct 26, 2018 07:25
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Timby posted:It was written by longtime Star Trek writer David Gerrold, so your instinct probably isn't far off. I don't think he ever worked on the show again. He only wrote the one episode. JMS a really wanted Gerold to write this one, ostensibly because David had recently adopted his son so knew what being a parent was like. But I suspect JMS intentionally wanted it to feel Star Trek just to pull the rug out at the end. Guest writers got less frequent because JMS was a madman and decided he had to write everything himself when the arc cranked up.
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Oct 26, 2018 10:58
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Doctor Zero posted:He only wrote the one episode. JMS a really wanted Gerold to write this one, ostensibly because David had recently adopted his son so knew what being a parent was like. But I suspect JMS intentionally wanted it to feel Star Trek just to pull the rug out at the end. I'm pretty sure JMS has said as much in those B5 episode guide books with the behind the scenes interviews.
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Oct 26, 2018 15:34
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Well I guess in that case my reaction was the intended one, so good job and well done. I'm finding in many cases that my thoughts about the show are nowhere near unique. (Infection is universally hated? Londo and G'Kar are fan favorites? Who knew?!) Still having fun though.
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Oct 26, 2018 16:00
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I think Infection was the first episode ever produced. And even it has things that you look back on during a second watch and go 'oh, huh, that's neat'.
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Oct 26, 2018 16:09
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It's good they're not necessarily unique! It indicates a degree of coherency from the show.
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Oct 26, 2018 16:10
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wizzardstaff posted:S1E10, Believers - I thought this could have been a Star Trek script almost word for word until the last five minutes. If it had been Trek, the doctor would have done the operation, the kid would have been quiet and moody and ambiguously soul-less before being whisked away by angry parents, and the captain would have given a monologue questioning whether the right choice was made. Instead we got...what we got. It reminds me that the show has a different tone that I need to prepare myself for. I always get a kick out of the dad pulling a tiny little knife on the doctor. It's the, er, little touches.
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Oct 27, 2018 04:12
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ConfusedUs posted:This guy is mildly insufferable. I
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Oct 27, 2018 05:42
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S1E13, Signs and Portents - Definitely portentous. Would have felt more mysterious if I wasn’t already spoiled a bit about the existence of the Shadows, but still an effective episode. Kind of hoping the Eye of the Centauri Emperor is a magic space jewel with magic space powers given the Shadows’ interest in it, because magic space macguffins are extremely my poo poo, but it feels more like it’s just a bauble to secure the favor of the Centauri. Oh well. S1E14, TKO - Alien boxing match, meh. More interested in Ivanova’s character development. The show is taking great pains to demonstrate how religious all the characters are. I’m starting to think Parliament of Dreams might have been more significant than I originally took it for. S1E15, Grail - This time the white dude guest star wasn’t a villain. (Or was he? His quest for the grail was mysterious and certainly seems like it will come up again.) Lots of little tidbits dropped in this episode about the bigger picture...the Minbari have a warrior caste and a religious caste who are always in conflict; the Vorlons (or just Kosh) have an interest in the other races fearing them; we get reminders that Babylon 4 publicly and dramatically disappeared after it was constructed.
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Oct 27, 2018 06:04
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wizzardstaff posted:S1E14, TKO - Alien boxing match, meh. More interested in Ivanova’s character development. The show is taking great pains to demonstrate how religious all the characters are. I’m starting to think Parliament of Dreams might have been more significant than I originally took it for. This is one of my favorite episodes just for how wildly divergent the A and B plots are in tone, character significance, and how much I like them. I once had this exchange with a friend, when I was rewatching the series: "Do you remember the episode when Ivanova's hometown rabbi shows up because he's concerned she's not grieving for her father properly?" "Yeah, I thought it was a really well-done and touching story, and a really good depiction of Jewish culture." "Do you remember the episode when Sugar Ray Robinson shows up, and he's Garibaldi's old friend, and the plot is about him getting to be the first human allowed into Alien Kickboxing?" "Yeah. That was kind of dumb." "That was the same episode." "What." 
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Oct 27, 2018 06:13
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Vavrek posted:This is one of my favorite episodes just for how wildly divergent the A and B plots are in tone, character significance, and how much I like them. I once had this exchange with a friend, when I was rewatching the series:  "STROKE OFF"
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Oct 27, 2018 06:25
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That's the thing about the show that still impresses me - few episodes are total garbage* with no impact. Even one-offs like TKO still do world and character building. *Grading on the "Shoestring budget 90s Sci-Fi" curve
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Oct 27, 2018 14:24
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Galvanik posted:Well I'm curious, what did he find so objectionable about Avatar? Apparently thinking that Azula might be mentally ill is forbidden and any discussion of it makes one an ableist, bigoted rear end in a top hat. This despite her sociopathic manipulation of her friends, her breakdown at the end, and the face that the nicest character on the show literally says “she’s crazy.”
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Oct 27, 2018 14:45
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Platonicsolid posted:That's the thing about the show that still impresses me - few episodes are total garbage* with no impact. Even one-offs like TKO still do world and character building. Yeah, I am really liking that every episode contributes something interesting to the overall big picture, even just a little. S1E16, Eyes - Growing tensions with Earth and the Psi Corps. More character development for Ivanova, this time on her relationship with her mother. I feel like things are being set up for Ivanova to develop latent psychic powers or something. Meanwhile Garibaldi and Lennier bond over their shared love of motorcycles and identically receding hairlines. S1E17, Legacies - Good stuff with Minbari politics here. Clearly they have an agenda with the war and with Sinclair, but they are not totally unified behind it. Nice to see aliens who are not depicted as a single monolithic entity. Also we get even more movement on Ivanova and her rocky relationship with telepaths. There’s got to be something here.
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Oct 27, 2018 15:31
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wizzardstaff posted:Yeah, I am really liking that every episode contributes something interesting to the overall big picture, even just a little. Anything you see in Babylon 5 has a point and a purpose. Unlike other shows, no plotlines are dropped or ignored throughout the entire run. Save for some weird first-season standalone stuff like the guy hunting the Holy Grail.
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Oct 27, 2018 16:08
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Platonicsolid posted:That's the thing about the show that still impresses me - few episodes are total garbage* with no impact. Even one-offs like TKO still do world and character building. Also Walker's last line to Garibaldi 
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Oct 27, 2018 16:15
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nerdman42 posted:If people are looking for new B5 reactions, quasi-popular internet reviewer Mark Oshiro is going through each episode now. Just started season 2 this week. Anyone know how you translate the garbled spoiler talk in the comments?
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Oct 27, 2018 16:34
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I love that motorcycle B-plot in the dorkiest way possible.Marmaduke! posted:Anyone know how you translate the garbled spoiler talk in the comments? I dunno if browsers can do this by default any more, but I cut and pasted it into https://www.rot13.com/
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Oct 27, 2018 16:37
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wizzardstaff posted:Yeah, I am really liking that every episode contributes something interesting to the overall big picture, even just a little. Yep. And there are tons of small things that you aren't noticing that will come back later. It's super well done and rewards a rewatch some day in the future to see how there are things laid down in like episode two that don't come up again until the fifth season or whatever.
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Oct 27, 2018 17:08
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Anything you see in Babylon 5 has a point and a purpose. Unlike other shows, no plotlines are dropped or ignored throughout the entire run. Save for some weird first-season standalone stuff like the guy hunting the Holy Grail. Well, that's not quite true. There are plenty of potential hooks that never really get followed up on. Late game spoilers: You can see how Ironheart's Gift was going to develop into the kind of super-telepath that Lyta became - the stuff about how that trick with Bester shouldn't have worked in A Race Through Dark Places, for example - which got promptly dropped when Thompson left the series.
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Oct 27, 2018 17:15
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Anything you see in Babylon 5 has a point and a purpose. Unlike other shows, no plotlines are dropped or ignored throughout the entire run. Save for some weird first-season standalone stuff like the guy hunting the Holy Grail. I think Londo's wife is one of the big dropped threads of the show. I don't think she ever shows up after he divorces the other two. It must be hard to get women to shave their heads for these sci-fi parts too. Seems like that'd really hinder their chances at other roles for a while.
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Oct 27, 2018 18:12
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SlothfulCobra posted:It must be hard to get women to shave their heads for these sci-fi parts too. Seems like that'd really hinder their chances at other roles for a while. Since wigs were invented this is less of a problem.
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Oct 27, 2018 18:14
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Also, short hair + skullcaps. I'd be intrigued how many actresses actually shaved their heads for Centauri roles (or already had shaved heads). I know that Virginia Hey did it for her two years on Farscape, and that it was kind of a hardship.
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Oct 27, 2018 18:50
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Anything you see in Babylon 5 has a point and a purpose. Unlike other shows, no plotlines are dropped or ignored throughout the entire run. Save for some weird first-season standalone stuff like the guy hunting the Holy Grail. I choose to believe that this refers to a multi-season mororcycle repair arc.
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Oct 27, 2018 18:51
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Vavrek posted:Also, short hair + skullcaps. I'd be intrigued how many actresses actually shaved their heads for Centauri roles (or already had shaved heads). I know that Virginia Hey did it for her two years on Farscape, and that it was kind of a hardship. Note that they have ribbons around their heads. This is to hide the bald cap seams.
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Oct 27, 2018 19:12
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SlothfulCobra posted:I think Londo's wife is one of the big dropped threads of the show. I don't think she ever shows up after he divorces the other two. Timov has a major role in the ancillary material. The women don't shave their heads, though, they're generally wearing skullcaps.
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Oct 27, 2018 21:03
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SlothfulCobra posted:I think Londo's wife is one of the big dropped threads of the show. I don't think she ever shows up after he divorces the other two. It's a drat shame, Jane Carr did a great job as Timov. She was fairly busy for the next few years after Soul Mates, they might just not have been able to get her scheduled for another appearance. But more likely they did just let her go. There's a really great imaginary S5 in which Timov is a major player in the Centauri arc and, probably, dies horribly.
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Oct 27, 2018 22:02
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MrL_JaKiri posted:Well, that's not quite true. There are plenty of potential hooks that never really get followed up on. And even then it still got followed up on, after a fashion -- IIRC Bester had her dissected after her sleeper personality activated to try and figure out what Ironheart did to her. e: keyboard shortcuts
McSpanky fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Oct 28, 2018 |
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Oct 27, 2018 23:24
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McSpanky posted:And even then it still got followed up on, after a fashion -- IIRC Bester had her dissected after her sleeper personality activated to try and figure out what Ironheart did to her. spoiler, not s.
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Oct 27, 2018 23:41
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S1E18/19, A Voice in the Wilderness - The first two-part episode. Introduces an ancient planet-sized gun and immediately puts it on the mantelpiece for later. My favorite part of this episode is how humanity had no part in solving the problem; Londo and Delenn and her old teacher buddy just hopped down and plugged in. A good reminder that not everything revolves around the human command crew. Also, we had the old Minbari mention he was ready to move on to the “sea of stars”. A metaphor for death, or do Minbari just sail west to the Undying Lands? Speaking of Minbari, I thought I had picked up a difference between the religious and warrior castes based on the shape of their head ridges, but this guy looked like (what I thought was) a warrior. Either there’s more subtlety than I’m giving it credit for, or I’m just overthinking it.
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Oct 28, 2018 03:42
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The headbones are different for the castes but I don't think the makeup is always done consistently. E: Actually maybe it's that the ones for men are spikier than for women, I don't remember. E2: of course I should've just looked for a sperg wiki quote:The Minbari's distinctive head bones are actually two separate and distinct ridges. At birth, Minbari infants posses two very small, soft ridges that sprout from the temple and grow and close at the back of the skull, forming the appearance of a single structure. The ridges grow in stages, each stage advancing another few millimetres and do not fully develop until child is approximately one cycle old. By that time the two soft ridges should join at the back of the head and harden into a firm exoskeletal structure. Grand Fromage fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Oct 28, 2018 |
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Oct 28, 2018 03:56
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Grand Fromage posted:The headbones are different for the castes but I don't think the makeup is always done consistently. The Warrior-Caste ones are a lot spikier and intimidating-looking.
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Oct 28, 2018 04:01
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And there's apparently some mechanism for switching castes. We see 1 or 2 Warrior caste Minbari who moved to the Religious caste.
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Oct 28, 2018 07:21
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Grand Fromage posted:The headbones are different for the castes but I don't think the makeup is always done consistently. It amuses the hell out of me that Minbari sculpt their head bones using native crystal in a universe where its chief use is data storage. I wonder how many fights break out in Minbari college dorms over someone polishing his head with his roommate's porn collection?
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Oct 28, 2018 08:48
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