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Apr 25, 2024 23:08
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- MrL_JaKiri
- Sep 23, 2003
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A bracing glass of carrot juice!
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Garibaldi is already a kind of food!
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May 31, 2022 15:55
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- Chevy Slyme
- May 2, 2004
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We're Gonna Run.
We're Gonna Crawl.
Kick Down Every Wall.
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Garibaldi is already a kind of food!
Bacon?
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May 31, 2022 16:45
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- MrL_JaKiri
- Sep 23, 2003
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A bracing glass of carrot juice!
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garibaldi_biscuit
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May 31, 2022 16:49
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- Angepain
- Jul 13, 2012
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what keeps happening to my clothes
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Every time they talk about Garibaldi I think of the biscuit.
S2E2
- Mollari is just as weirded out about the cocoon thing as I am, nobody else seems particularly fussed though
- G'Kar has been busy and is fighting some weird spaceships
- Doctor wants to use the alien lifedrain device to cure Garibaldi
- Captain's sister comes to visit so he has an opportunity to talk about his backstory
- G'Kar returns: "Close the door. Weep for the future, Na'toth. Weep for us all". ok a friendly "hello" would have been nice
- Garibaldi's awake, his assistant finds out, almost shoots Garibaldi as he almost remembers who shot him, i'm sure that would have gone down well
- Delenn has hatched from her cocoon! She's not feeling great though
- Garibald gets brain-scanned, remembers it's his assistant
- I knew Delenn the Butterfly was just a ruse but I'm still kinda disappointed
- new earth prez demands custody of the guy, whch isn't suspicious At All
- Garibaldi tells creepy space guy that the Narn are going to investigate the ancient race, the Narn get killed immediately on entry. G'Kar is suspicious.
- The shock reveal... Ambassador Delenn is back and she... she.... has hair!!
- I guess that means she's human or something? Sure, the classic transspecies cocoon method, standard procedure
- Captain was blaming himself for his wife's death, but luckily his wife sent a message to his sister just before her death along the lines of "Oh boy, I sure am glad to be going on this expedition. It sure isn't the fault of the captain guy, who I love very much. No siree. Entirely my decision.", so that's good
- I do not want to meet the guy who named his Earth Cruiser "Von Braun"
- Garibaldi suspects Psi Corps are involved
- G'Kar reads some Earth poetry, I do like the sci fi bits where the aliens talk about our art works. At least he appreciates it more than Mollari liked the Hokey Pokey
- Garibaldi's assistant is mysteriously intercepted on the journey to earth, surprise surprise
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Jun 2, 2022 21:18
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- Powered Descent
- Jul 13, 2008
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We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.
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After my longest hiatus yet, I've finally resumed the show with s05e08 - Day of the Dead!
- Oh my god that's Penn and Teller, I had no idea they were in the show
- Skulls made of sugar for a holiday called the day of the dead, what an out-there alien concept.
- Neat, this is the episode that Neil Gaiman wrote. (When's the last time we had an episode written by anyone besides JMS? Season 2, maybe?)
- Side thought: is G'Kar ever going to get his artificial eye colored to match, or has he decided he likes the blue?
- G'Kar sleeping rough in C&C is a fun little gag, but are there really no hotels in this city of a quarter million people with huge numbers of travelers passing through?
- Adira, the gropo that Garibaldi hooked up with... this is kind of a transparent writer's device to have characters deal with unfinished business, but you know what, I'm on board. Let's see where this goes.
- So it seems Lochley wasn't always the severe buttoned-down commander, she used to be an addict on skid row. Wouldn't have predicted that.
- I was expecting Lennier's visitor to be Marcus, not Morden.
- "Because it tells me to." ...What?
 I feel like I missed a setup for Teller's Zooty's episode-ending line there. I think it matches up with the "Why?" that Penn Rebo mentioned, but I still have no idea what it's referring to.
- I absolutely do not mind that they don't even attempt to explain how all this happened, beyond a few vague ideas they'll probably never confirm or deny. It's good old fashioned mysterious-but-emotionally-meaningful weirdness and I'm here for it.
- I think it's impossible to watch this episode without wondering who would visit you, the viewer, if you were there for the day of the dead. Which is probably the whole point.
In other news, I've read JMS's autobiography.
Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood, came out in 2019. It's easy to find.
 How the hell did he not end up as a serial killer or something? His family and childhood were so unspeakably awful that his time as a member of the creepy cult looks almost healthy and normal by comparison.
Also, reading Becoming Superman right before Together We Will Go (JMS's novel about the tour bus full of suicidal people) puts you in a great position to see where a lot of stuff in that story came from in his psyche.
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Jun 5, 2022 15:18
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- Angepain
- Jul 13, 2012
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what keeps happening to my clothes
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S2E3, should I put the episode names in spoilers? People have been doing that
- Garibaldi still suspicious of the new captain and not keen to return to work
- Mollari agrees to do a bit of treason, putting him more towards the "terrible person" category
- Sheridan, his name's Sheridan, i'm going to remember that now, Sheridan
- Wait who's Warren Keffer
- a TECHNO-MAGE!!! arrives
- The Drazi are fighting each other to unconsciousness to decide who wins the next election. still better than the electoral college amirite
- Ivanova gets promoted but now has the job of getting them to settle down
- Love Vir's rambling about fate and currents
- I want Vir and Lennier to go on an adventure together, Lennier can teach Vir about being remotely competent at anything and Vir can teach Lennier, I don't know, how to party or something
- Mollari wants to consult with the TECHNO MAGES
- The Drazi camps are chosen entirely at random. are we getting to some BOTH SIDES ARE THE SAME political satire here
- that said my fine city of Edinburgh is currently run by a minority of 13/63 councillors because the two centre-left parties disagree on scottish independence, a policy that local councils have no say over, so I can't get too smug about silly stories of splitting over pointless differences
- Ivanova's diplomacy attempt of just calling them idiots and messing with their scarves does not go well
- Vir tries to speak to the TECHNO MAGES but they're too busy being dark and mysterious to talk to random ambassadors
- i want to be a TECHNO MAGE
- And the Drazi have started killing each other, that's great
- OVER A HUNDRED TECHNO MAGES
- Mollari's brilliant scheme to secretly record the master of technology does not go well
- The techno-mages are leaving because something vague and ominous is coming
- aww does this mean we won't see any more TECHNO MAGES
- The green Drazi are going full-on genocide on the Purples. ok this is a bit more high stakes than edinburgh council's bad cycle paths
- The Green Must Fight Purple simplicity is a bit much. wouldn't the greens have made a series of wojack memes about how the purples are threatening the fabric of society by now
- Garibaldi gets his groove back and frees Ivanova from the clutches of the Greens with an elaborate pretend-salesman scheme
- the TECHNO MAGES have sent Mollari a HOLO DEMON, which is basically the standard 90s fictional computer virus that animates flames on the screen
- ok so just taking the leader's bit of cloth makes you the leader. wouldn't the leader have like tried to stop them taking it or something
- "Rules change caught up in committee" yeah i feel you
- The techno mages absolutely have Mollari's number and know exactly what kind of poo poo he is getting into. I would like to think there is still some hope he will listen, eventually
The Drazi plot was kind of silly but it meant well I guess. I would like if the TECHNO MAGES come back or at least turn out to have some purpose in showing up other than being Ominous Portent Of Something Bad About To Go Down Later On #37
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Jun 7, 2022 21:25
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- Chevy Slyme
- May 2, 2004
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We're Gonna Run.
We're Gonna Crawl.
Kick Down Every Wall.
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The suits demanded that JMS write in a "Good looking hot shot young fighter pilot" character in season 2. So we get Keffer.
quote:
I want Vir and Lennier to go on an adventure together, Lennier can teach Vir about being remotely competent at anything and Vir can teach Lennier, I don't know, how to party or something
Lol, vir probably knows less about how to party than Lennier does.
quote:
I would like if the TECHNO MAGES come back or at least turn out to have some purpose in showing up
They were going to figure prominently in the spinoff/sequel series Crusade, before it's very premature cancellation. I think there's a tie in novel or three about them too.
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Jun 7, 2022 22:59
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- Angepain
- Jul 13, 2012
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what keeps happening to my clothes
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The suits demanded that JMS write in a "Good looking hot shot young fighter pilot" character in season 2. So we get Keffer.
oh it's that guy who was weirdly prominent in the first episode of this season despite doing nothing except mildly grumble about some orders
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Jun 7, 2022 23:29
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- Lemniscate Blue
- Apr 21, 2006
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Here we go again.
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The suits demanded that JMS write in a "Good looking hot shot young fighter pilot" character in season 2. So we get Keffer.
Lol, vir probably knows less about how to party than Lennier does.
They were going to figure prominently in the spinoff/sequel series Crusade, before it's very premature cancellation. I think there's a tie in novel or three about them too.
There is a trilogy all about them that takes place before, during, and after the series. I like it but I get the feeling I'm in the minority on that. It does answer a lot of questions that the episode of the series refuses to and makes a point of saying "aren't mysteries neat?".
IIRC there are also technomage minor characters in one of the other sequel novel trilogies, the one about Centauri Prime.
Lemniscate Blue fucked around with this message at 00:59 on Jun 8, 2022
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Jun 8, 2022 00:47
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- Chevy Slyme
- May 2, 2004
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We're Gonna Run.
We're Gonna Crawl.
Kick Down Every Wall.
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oh it's that guy who was weirdly prominent in the first episode of this season despite doing nothing except mildly grumble about some orders
Yeah. It's very obvious that he wasn't part of the original Five Year Plan, and instead a lot of plot beats that were either assigned to other people, or were meant to be just a faceless redshirt type all get piled on to him in a kind of haphazard way.
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Jun 8, 2022 02:02
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- Super Deuce
- May 25, 2006
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TOILETS
Oh, I like the smell of my own dumps.
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Titles are good because not all ways people watch are in the same order. So numbers can be different.
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Jun 8, 2022 02:11
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- Narsham
- Jun 5, 2008
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You could always just use the production numbers.
There is one late season 5 title that could be construed as a spoiler (The Fall of Centauri Prime), but I don't think it's worth worrying too much about that.
Oh, you mean the episode about autumn on another planet?
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Jun 8, 2022 05:19
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- Powered Descent
- Jul 13, 2008
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We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.
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s05e09 - In the Kingdom of the Blind
- I'm guessing from the title that we're back to the telepaths -- from their perspective, all non-telepaths are kind of blind.
- The strange behavior of the Regent, drunkenness and all, sounds like he's got one of those weird neck things on him that we saw in the future.
- "Welp, the lights in my room won't come on, that's not suspicious at all, I'll just wander on in anyway and light up an electric candle that isn't nearly bright enough, purely to make it extra-spooky before I get killed."
- drat. Serious respect to G'Kar for deciding not to take revenge on the one who whipped him when the opportunity was presented, and turning the situation to his advantage instead. (I do kind of wish we had a few reaction shots of the guy in danger of being whipped, though. I wonder what he thought of all this.)
- So whoever is controlling the Centauri aristocracy with the neck things seem to have considerable telekinetic power available to them. And they like Londo. (As a kindred spirit or as a useful idiot?)
- And now the telepath cult is going all Ruby Ridge and barricading themselves inside their compound. Which is sure to end well.
- Final thought -- the title of the episode might refer to the telepaths, or it might refer to G'Kar -- the (literal) one-eyed man, who as the saying goes would be king in the land of the blind.
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Jun 8, 2022 05:46
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- Powered Descent
- Jul 13, 2008
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We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.
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s05e10 - A Tragedy of Telepaths
- So, Na'Toth is a prisoner, chained to the wall of a cell, wearing rags, hasn't seen the light of day in years, and might not survive a few more months of these conditions. Why are her captors feeding her a luxurious delicacy specially prepared in the Narn fashion?
- It's a little disturbing how willing the courtesan was to remove her clothes upon Londo's request, and it's even more disturbing how willing the dungeon guard was to have (as far as he knew) his prisoner murdered and forgotten and the body walled up, also at Londo's request. Even after the end of the war, the departure of the Shadows, the withdrawal from Narn, and the death of the mad emperor, there's still a lot that's Not Quite Right with the Centauri, and not all of it can be chalked up to the neck things and the telekinetic glowy-eyed guys who seem to be pulling the strings.
- Although I'm guessing the Centauri being behind the attacks on shipping DOES fall on the neck things and glowy-eye guys.
- I haven't said much about the telepath plotline, and that's because I've mostly lost interest. The whole thing with the telepath colony could have made a really kickass two-parter episode, but it has just dragged on so drat long and I'm sick to death of Byron and his extremely 90s leonine haircut being all pained-but-determined.
s05e11 - Phoenix Rising
- So in this one we finally get to the end of the telepath colony story, and get to the Garibaldi-as-the-telepaths'-hostage scene that we saw in that weirdass future-documentary at the end of last season.
- (Apropos of nothing, I think the previous line might be the first time I've ever used an apostrophe followed directly by a dash.)
- Shouldn't all these new psi-corps arrivals be wearing black gloves? That's as much a psi-corps signature as the badge is, but I can clearly see some bare hands among these people getting their orders from Bester.
- I predict/hope for a plot point in some unknown future episode! Garibaldi's telepathic block follows the wording of the First Law of Robotics: he cannot harm Bester, or, through inaction, allow Bester to come to harm. JMS, please please pleese use this in a clever way to hoist Bester by his own petard.
- Lyta walks away from Byron, back toward the rest of the protagonists, in a scene that's just a tiny bit too much on-the-nose, symbolism-wise.
- Garibaldi fell off the wagon once before, way back in season 1 or 2, but only as a one-episode plot point that was fixed by the end of the hour. This one feels a little more... real.
- Honestly, at this point I'm mostly just relieved that the telepath colony plot is done. It went on way too long. And... for all that Lyta has been in the middle of this plot... when's the last time she actually DID anything?
s05e12 - The Ragged Edge
- The Alliance members are boycotting meetings with the "Council" (which lately seems to mean "Sheridan and Delenn"). Well, what did they expect after using the White Stars a couple of episodes ago to prevent the sovereign powers from using their own navies?
- As they arrive back on the station, Londo and G'Kar are seeming more like the Lockhorns, or possibly like
 and  , than ever.
- Only five or six hundred... thousand copies.
- ...You know, religions could do a hell of a lot worse than G'Kar as moral authority.
- Prideful Windcatcher would be a pretty decent username.
- I love these little worldbuilding details about things like Drazi architecture and why even modest hotel rooms have large balconies.
- Garibaldi is fighting extremely well for someone who was passed out drunk two minutes ago.
- I liked the discussion about G'Kar assuming his (unwanted?) responsibility as a spiritual leader. And also the book-slam-on-face lesson.
- This entire scene where Franklin tells Sheridan he's leaving just doesn't ring right to me. The war is over (and victorious), the conspiracy is complete. They're once again just work colleagues. Franklin taking a position elsewhere isn't any kind of betrayal. It shouldn't take Sheridan that long to come around into "Congratulations, and I wish you all the best" mode.
- There are some really good moments in this episode, but taken as a whole, it just never really came together for me.
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Jun 11, 2022 03:06
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- 2nd Amendment
- Jun 9, 2022
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by Pragmatica
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who want they gkarbussy ate?
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Jun 11, 2022 04:34
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- Qwertycoatl
- Dec 31, 2008
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I haven't said much about the telepath plotline, and that's because I've mostly lost interest. The whole thing with the telepath colony could have made a really kickass two-parter episode, but it has just dragged on so drat long and I'm sick to death of Byron and his extremely 90s leonine haircut being all pained-but-determined.
It's definitely a big weak point in the show. It could definitely benefit from being shorter, and I suspect it would have been, if not for the production fuckery with season 5 being cancelled then uncancelled. I also think it would have been better if, as presumably originally planned, Ivanova had been charge of the station instead of the new woman whose name I can't remember. Her history with telepathy would add an extra dimension to what was going on
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Jun 11, 2022 10:26
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- SlothfulCobra
- Mar 27, 2011
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I think all the psychic stuff is one of the parts of Babylon 5 that has aged the worst, but I also think that it's one of those parts that really puts Babylon 5 at a weird intersection of old and new sci-fi. For a long time, a lot of sci-fi thought that psychic powers were both probably real and would become an increasing factor in human life into the future, but that has almost entirely dissolved by this point.
There is kind of an idea of minority oppression/supremacy movements, but it's really buried beneath the weird specifics of the weird sci-fi premise.
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Jun 12, 2022 07:44
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- Lemniscate Blue
- Apr 21, 2006
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Here we go again.
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fair point, though there are other aspects that I won't get into in this thread that still have some currency
I'd be interested in reading your thoughts in the other thread.
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Jun 12, 2022 08:39
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- Angepain
- Jul 13, 2012
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what keeps happening to my clothes
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I remember reading Phillip K Dick complaining once that at one point one of the science fiction magazines demanded that every story had psychics in and that their powers conformed to specific rules, which i thought was exaggeration but maybe not that much
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Jun 12, 2022 13:05
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- Qwertycoatl
- Dec 31, 2008
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I remember reading Phillip K Dick complaining once that at one point one of the science fiction magazines demanded that every story had psychics in and that their powers conformed to specific rules, which i thought was exaggeration but maybe not that much
It's not literally every story, but John W Campbell was incredibly influential in deciding what sort of thing should be in SF stories in his magazine, and by extension ore generally, and he loved ESP almost as much he hated anything other than extremely logical white men
Qwertycoatl fucked around with this message at 13:43 on Jun 12, 2022
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Jun 12, 2022 13:40
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- Angepain
- Jul 13, 2012
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what keeps happening to my clothes
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S2E4 - A Distant Star
- Ivanova's still got her injury from last episode, nice bit of continuity there
- Big rear end ship comes in with one of Sheridan's friends captaining it. Sheridan's friend Stinky
- the doctor puts everyone on a diet, i mean food plan
- Stinky has seen a Big Ominous Something out in space one time. idk it sounds pretty weak he probably just imagined it. weird things in unexplored space? never
- The Minbari are getting antsy about Delenn having hair now. Seems they don't know what is going on with her either.
- Ivanova is told to eat more! hah women am i right
- Sheridan is mad he's been made to run a city and not a starship
- Stinky's ship has gotten lost in hyperspace, which is Very Bad
- The doctor calls Delenn's change a "transition". in this three hour video essay I will explore the queer themes in
- Maybe the pilot guy will get something to actually do now
- Keffer finds the ship but a big spooky thing comes out of hyperspace and kills his good friend we just met
- And Keffer dies? I guess that's a thing for him to do
- Delenn consoles Sheridan. She said "transition" again!! in this five hour video essay
- Oh wait Warren's alive, and he's promoted to lead pilot guy. That would have been pretty fun to introduce a new guy in the credits and then kill him off after four episodes but I guess if he's been put there by the studio we're not getting anything that silly.
- Sheridan's gotten his groove back. I guess i'm too cynical for Delenn's "we are all star stuff" speech to feel that insightful but maybe the 90s sci fi audience was up for it.
- The food plan plotline was a bit thin (pun not intended)
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Jun 12, 2022 20:38
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- Qwertycoatl
- Dec 31, 2008
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Ivanova's still got her injury from last episode, nice bit of continuity there
They didn't have a choice, Claudia Christian broke her leg, which is the real reason Ivanova was injured in the previous episode
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Jun 12, 2022 21:09
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- Angepain
- Jul 13, 2012
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what keeps happening to my clothes
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They didn't have a choice, Claudia Christian broke her leg, which is the real reason Ivanova was injured in the previous episode
love stuff like that, it's not quite up to the level of the bit in ds9 season 4 when Nana Visitor became pregnant and so they suddenly came up with a plotline where due to sci fi technobabble Major Kira had to carry the child of another character but still
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Jun 12, 2022 23:45
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- Powered Descent
- Jul 13, 2008
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We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.
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s05e13 - The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father
- Bester episode, bestest episode!
- Lauren Ashley and Chen Hikaru, both from the planet where last names sound more like first names than their first names do.
- The funny part about Babylon 5 not being the center of the universe is kind of funny, since it IS very much the center of this (fictional) universe.
- The fugitive's name is Jonathan Harris? As in the guy who played Dr. Smith on Lost in Space? (Or did they just invent the name out of thin air and not know it was already famous? I mean, Bill Mumy absolutely would have recognized the name of his old co-star, even if none of the writers did.)
- The Psi Corps has a gigantic mothership that's permanently in hyperspace? That's such a cool idea, I can't wait to see what it-- Really? They're not even going to show it to us beyond the shuttlebay and the logo? Jerks. They'd better give us a good look in a future episode.
- Yeah, just go in after the incredibly dangerous fugitive yourself, doing exactly what your boss just told you not to do. That's a great idea with no possible way to backfire.
- Chen finds a second chance to get himself killed, and this time actually does so. Why am I not surprised.
- This episode reminds us that villains generally don't see themselves as villains. They have their own perspective and their own motivations, and within those, they really do think they're on the side of right. It really makes you think-- aaaaand she just threw a still-squirming dude out the airlock. Not just into space, but into hyperspace, which has got to be a whole other layer of nightmare on top.
- I think this episode must have the fewest main cast members appearing of any episode except Intersections in Real Time. (It was just Zack and Franklin, right?).
- Not a brilliant episode, but a pretty decent one. I like the shift of perspective, and of course Koenig carried the whole thing very well.
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Jun 12, 2022 23:45
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- Powered Descent
- Jul 13, 2008
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We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.
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s05e14 - Meditations on the Abyss
- Meeting Lennier in a bar. When Marcus first arrived, they met him in a really seedy bar in downbelow too. What is it with Rangers and lovely bars? The station is huge, they could have met anywhere and still remained unseen.
- It's going to be a little difficult for Lennier to investigate things and return when he's done if he's only going to be on the ship as a trainee.
- Vir! Haven't seen Vir in ages, I was starting to wonder if he was still there.
- The way Londo handles the listening device is hilarious.
- It's just occurred to me that for some time now, G'Kar has been able to see things with an outsider's eye. And I suppose now that he's diving back in to tend to his own people, his face becomes fully Narn once more. Lovely metaphors all around.
- I love that Garibaldi left a coffee stain on the book that will now be there for all time. (Also a metaphor?)
- The "training exercise" of suddenly leaving a couple of trainees out there to die, wondering the whole time if they're being murdered via the rigged air tanks, is kind of hosed up.
- Action Vir!
- Lennier has come a long way from the sheltered kid he was back in season 1.
- Garibaldi's drunk off his rear end, and ordered a "suicide pizza". Is that just what that list of toppings is called, or is he planning his last meal? (He's more than a little out of sorts lately but he doesn't really strike me as suicidal.)
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Jun 13, 2022 02:19
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- RedSnapper
- Nov 22, 2016
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The original plan was that Delenn would also transition from Male to Female
Weren't Minbari originally supposed to be agender/hemaphrodidic?
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Jun 13, 2022 10:19
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- Adbot
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May 31, 2022 14:33
