A Niner Watches Babylon 5 (NO spoilers, please)

Trivia time: Franklin getting his ass kicked hand having to crawl for help is based on a real experience. JMS was mugged and beaten by a street gang in San Diago and had to literally drag himself several blocks to get help. You may recall a similar instance with Garibaldi way back in 'Chrysalis'. On a totally unrelated note, in B5's universe, San Diago was nuked by terrorists and is now an uninhabitable radioactive wasteland.

 

And I lived in San Diego for two years ! I even tried some walkabout in downtown inspired from Babylon 5...but I always got back when it was dark took lesson from JMS's actual experience. I also met JMS at Comic Con 2008 in San Diego.

 

You just might.

 

Actually by now part of their motives could already be guessed.
But the fun thing about the B5 universe is there's always new facets to be discovered on something you thought you already knew.

 

Z'ha'dum (****½)

So the Shadows aren't evil, they just have a different point of view? That makes them far more interesting. I'm still a little confused about the details though. The Shadows want to force conflict between the minor races, but why do they attack themselves rather than letting the various races kill one another? Did the Vorlons and Minbari really win the last war, or did the Shadows just decide that it was time to stop and go back into hibernation? Surely by uniting to fight the Shadows the various races are doing exactly what the Shadows want them to do. Not that they have much choice. If the Shadows can destroy B5 then why don't they? If they don't want to destroy B5, why did they do so in that alternate timeline? Why can't the Vorlons just kill off the Shadows and be done with it? Are the Shadows even telling the truth?

So many questions. I hope I get some answers.

The finale was good, although there were certain cliffhanger-y elements I wasn't so impressed by, such as Sheridan falling to what almost certainly wont be his death. Sheridan being put through an emotional wringer because of his wife, no longer being able to trust Delenn, going to Z'ha'dum on a suicide mission... all interesting stuff. And some answers too.

Scott Bakula: 50

 

They only attack to stirr things up among other races. They only engage in open warfare where the blame can be put squarely on them if they have something to gain out of it...or their back is to the wall.

 

Heh.

 

Whatever anyone may think of this whole season, it was worth it for G'Kar's monologue at the end. It still chokes me up.

 

Z'ha'dum. Damn that was a hell of an episode. It's what got me hooked on the show back when sci-fi was airing them again. I had no idea what was going on but I knew that I loved it.

 

Their plans just got changed after Sheridan's unexpected (by them) assault.

The Shadows had many more ships since Babylon 4 hadn't destroyed them in the past in the alternate timeline. The destruction of Babylon 5 happened 8 days after the start of the "War Without End" episode which would have been before Sheridan had a chance to go to Z'ha'dum. It's possible that Garibaldi's rigging of the fusion reactors (which he mentioned to Sinclair in the flash-forward) is actually what destroyed the station.

 

Yeah, this is one of the reasons I was impressed with B-5. Actually giving the forces of darkness and destruction a real motivation, a genuine philosophy, a line of reasoning, rather than just being "evil" was a welcome change from most depictions of the "great darkness" I'd come across in fiction. The Shadow's actions and approaches may be viewed by other races as "evil", but the Shadows themselves are operating on the basis of morality- just a morality that differs greatly from ours. It was the best of both worlds- you had the ancient, chaotic darkness moving back into the world and which had to be opposed by our heroes, but also a credible ideology for that dark force that gave the situation depth and meaning- and of course changes how we relate to the conflict.

 

I tend to think the induced infighting is just the initial phase to weed out the weaker races and see who rises to the top. They originally backed the Centauri so they'd start annexing smaller worlds and frighten the others into secret alliances with the Shadows who (playing both sides against the middle) urge them on to make war on their neighbours. The final phase is as it was 1000 years ago, they attack openly and start pruning the bushes they'd been cultivating.

A bit of both. They were fought to a standstill so they seeded their remaining ships on distant worlds (like Mars & Ganymede) and fell back to Z'ha'dum.

Surely by uniting to fight the Shadows the various races are doing exactly what the Shadows want them to do. Not that they have much choice.

Different timeline, different circumstances. In the alternate timeline the Shadows didn't destroy the station, Garibaldi did. The Shadows were boarding it, presumably to capture it for their own purposes and when it looked certain they'd win, with Sheridan dead and Ivanova not far behind, Garibaldi rigged the fusion reactor to blow and made his last stand while sending Sinclair to take the last shuttle off the station.

As for why they didn't do it this time round; Sheridan's actions changed the game a little, which will of course be addressed in season 4.

Understanding is a three-edged sword. [/Kosh]

 

You must admit that Sheridan knows how to conclude a divorce. Take a couple of nuclear bombs and drop them on your ex wife's head !

 

I grew up in San Diego, and lived there the majority of my life.

When I was in high school, downtown was not where you wanted to get caught alone at night. I can only imagine what it was like when JMS was living in San Diego.

Now, it's mostly restaurants, trendy clubs, and high-rise condos.

 

Yeah, it's a pity that Sheridan didn't start to quote "Total Recall" in that scene.

 

Season 3 Review

The Babylon Review Project was our last, best hope for interesting debate. It failed. But, in the month of college examinations, it became something greater: Ben's last, best hope... for escapism. The month is May. The place: Some internet forum.

Cue some really dramatic music.



There's an unusual graph for me, it's almost entirely above average, and the trendline shows that I thought the season got even better as it progressed. The graph is also very stable, there's only one large downward spike. The average score for the season was 6.5, easily the highest score for a season I've reviewed. Actually, the graph is freaking me out, it's far too high! It's like an old man wearing his trousers up to his chest.



Yikes! Seven sevens! I must have been drunk for the last month.
I rated an astonishing 17 episodes above average, 3 were average, and I only considered 2 episodes below average, shockingly.
Best episode: Severed Dreams
Worst episode: A Late Delivery from Avalon


Statistics

Captain Greyshirt: 15 (+3)
Scott Bakula: 50 (+15)
Scott Bakula?!: 4 (+0)

Season 1 Average: 5.045
Season 2 Average: 5.682
Season 3 Average: 6.5
Overall Average: 5.731

Voyager Average After 3 Seasons: 4.791
Enterprise Average After 3 Seasons: 5.187


In Summation

This was the knock-out blow I was waiting for, I can finally see why people rave about this series. It's not perfect, but no season can be, and when this show is good it can be really good. The biggest improvement this season made over the last two is that it successfully trimmed most of the fat, there was barely a handful of episodes that I considered poor, and absolutely no episodes which I found downright awful.

My biggest gripe with this season was the Shadows, because I lost interest in them about halfway through the season as I had little idea who they were or why they were attacking. Luckily, the show resolved this in the finale, so that shouldn't be a problem in coming episodes. My favourite parts of the season had to do with Babylon 5's response to EarthGov and the eventual declaration of independence. I did have some issues with the way the Night Watch were treated as goons, but ultimately it was a very satisfying story with one hell of a pay-off in Severed Dreams.

I'm hopeful that season 4 can keep the momentum going, but it's going to have a difficult time beating season 3. I'm not even sure if any season of DS9 could top a score of 6.5, and I love DS9 so much that only minutes after losing my virginity I showed the girl I was with the battle from Sacrifice of Angels. Sadly, that's not a joke.

 

Smooth move. Girls are really turned on by space battles.

 

Actually, they're really not.

 

Maybe the space ships weren't big enough.

 

Good point. Show her Return of the Jedi next time. There's huge ships there. And teddy bears. Girls love teddy bears.