Farscape or Babylon 5?

[JoeD80]

kirk55555 wrote:

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The doctor's story of the shadows ship on Mars was interesting, although I'm wondering why Garibaldi didn't mention that he saw something like this to sheridan before this woman brought it up.

Garibaldi and Sinclair were the only two who knew prior to this. Sinclair was on Mars at the same time as Garibaldi; that's where they met. (This is elaborated upon in the comics that were published during season two.) Garibaldi didn't have any other evidence beyond the badge so they kept it secret. IIRC, in the comic he just tells Sheridan that he found a piece of evidence, without identifying what it was. There wasn't anything else for Garibaldi to do until the news came around in this episode that Earth was after the ship on Ganymede and his story was corroborated with Dr. Kirkish.

[Leroy]

Kirk55555 wrote:

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Severed Dreams - I don't have much sympathy for the soldiers who die fighting for Clark. He's obviously gone far outside his powers, so if the good guys have to blow up the earth ships working for Clark, its the fault of the guys loyal to the president. Like Sheridan has pointed out, the soldiers are supposed to be loyal to Earth, not the president. It may suck for Sheridan and the good guys to fight them, but the idiots didn't leave them much choice. At this point, the president is obviously going far outside the law. If they support him, they should be prepared to get killed for their stupidity. I say the same thing about the majority of Earth's citizens. the fact that most of them support martial law (while the colonies see that its evil), and the fact that the soldiers will bomb civilians with no hesitation because they are so loyal to Emperor Palpa...I mean the president, just makes me want to see the Shadows attack earth. If they wipe it out, then a pit of evil will be gone from the universe, and there will still be enough humans in space and on the colonies to continue the species. Hopefully the good guys will let the shadows destroy earth before trying to stop them

The people fighting for Clark believe that they are being loyal to Earth and view the colonies and places like Babylon 5 that choose to go against the presidents orders as the disloyal ones and or corrupted by alien influences. I can't condone actions like bombing civilians but I imagine the pilots got caught up in all the anti-sedition talk and things like Nightwatch and fear of open rebellion and chaos, makes it much more believable that some of them could be a part of atrocities committed during the Earth civil war. Clarks forces aren't the cackling evil mustache twirling villains you make them out to be, it's not a cut and dry good and evil conflict. That and not everyone on Earth agrees with Clark and his policies (see the honest non-shill ISN reporters for an example). I don't want to get into spoiler territory but there are some reasons that the Shadows won't openly attack and destroy the Earth the way they helped the Centauri bring down Narn.

[Reverend]

It's worth keeping in mind that people on Earth DID fight back. Senators were barricading themselves in their offices trying to Rally support from the military and the public, the President's own elite guard were sent to take out the planet's main news outlet *before* they broke ranks and tried getting the truth out.

This was a long time in the planning. Clark and his associates had over a year to get his people into key positions throughout the Alliance. I think the only reason things got as violent as they did was because Sheridan's actions at Jupiter forced them to initiate things a little sooner than they would have liked. This in turn may have caught General Hague and his people a little by surprise, hence them having to shoot their way out of the Sol system.

Lets also remember that there's been a steady anti-alien propaganda war being waged ever since Santiago was assassinated. You keep repeating the big lie often enough, people will start to believe it. And hey, if you're building on a prejudice that already exists, so much the better.

As for the Nightwatch crazies, I think it's pretty obvious that this lot were the hardcore human supremacist types, as opposed to the well meaning but mis-informed like Zack very nearly was. Indeed, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were originally a part of Home Guard.

[kirk55555]

Sic Transit Vir - Londo vs. the bugs was really funny, especially when he finally skewered one with his sword, just to realise it wasn't the right one Its interesting to see the b5 staff mostly wearing random stuff since the station went independant (not counting the main cast). Even before this episode I had guessed that Vir is considered weird by other centauri, since he's a nice guy and has a conscience, this episode just confirmed that thought. Abrahamo Lincolni is an awesome name. Also, wqhen they talkjed about Vir giving the narn better jobs, I knew it was going to be just a cover for getting them away from the centauri completely. Vir's conversation with Ivanova was great. Centauri sex stuff is really weird The Sheridan/Delenn romance is ok. Its not really annoying me or anything, I just don't really care. This episode did a good job of not making you get too suspicious of Vir's fiancee. For a lot of the episode, I figured she was just a normal Centauri, with an annoying voice. I didn't even think about the narn attack being against her. Then, you find out she's insane. Sure, centauri don't care for Narn, but I don't think you'd find Londo going out and butchering them, reguardless of his apparent attitude when hearing about dead narn. Hearing her talk about all the horrifying things she and her father had done was really freaky. I may find her voice annoying, but the actress did a good job with her delivery when talking about the horrible things.

Something is really annoying me, though. What happened to the tied up narn? We see him, learn stuff about the woman, then it fades to black with her trying to get Vir to kill the narn. When the episode came back, Vir is talking to Londo, and the tied up narn is never mentioned again. There is no way Vir would kill the narn, and I doubt he'd allow her to do it, but the narn isn't mentioned or shown again. I actually went back after finishing the episode and watched the scene again. I didn't miss anything, they just never tell you what happened. Am I insane and somehow missed an explination twice? Reguardless, this was a great episode (dissappearing narn and all). This episode had a good plot, great moments, and succeeded in keeping its surprise until the end.

[JoeD80]

Apparently when the episode was edited, the line that said the Narn was OK was accidentally cut.

[kirk55555]

Well, thats interesting. I was rather annoyed when the scene ended and the narn wasn't brought up again. It seemed like a weird oversight.

[Jan]

kirk55555 wrote:

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Well, thats interesting. I was rather annoyed when the scene ended and the narn wasn't brought up again. It seemed like a weird oversight.

Just before Ivanova shows Sheridan the picture of himself as the new Abarahamo Lincolni, he asks her if everythings's quiet:

the script wrote:

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IVANOVA

Blissfully. The injured Narn we

found is recovering in medlab 4.

Jan

[kirk55555]

A Late Delivery from Avalon - It was interesting to see Michael York. He did a great job as Arthur/David. I liked the premise, and it was done well. He really seemed to believe that he was King arthur. The scenes with G'Kar and Arthur were very good. It was interesting to see garibaldi take on his toughest opponent yet, the post office Arthur's real story was very interesting. I liked learning a bit more about the start of the earth-Minbari war. Franklin was a bit of an ass this episode, but thats to be expected. I liked the resolution of the story, with Delenn being the "lady in the lake" to Arthur/David. The ending with Garibaldi succeeding in beating the post office was funny. Overall, this was an entertaining episode. Michael York's performance was great, if Arthur hadn't been played so well the episode would probably have suffered.

[kirk55555]

Ship of Tears - Well, I had guessed ISN would return as a propoganda network, and I was right. Bester is back this episode, and Koenig is awesome like always. I'm glad G'kar finally gets to join the group. He definately deserves to be in it. The scenes with Delenn talking to G'Kar were very good. The White Star mission was interesting. I wish that, when sheridan kicked Bester out of the captain's chair, Bester would have said something about his desire to sit in the captains chair. Although, that probably would have been a bit too obvious a reference. There were a lot of frozen telepaths. The connection between bester and the woman they defrosted was interesting, and let us see a different side of Bester. The shadows wanting to use telepaths for their ships was a good idea. The fact that telepaths may be a good weapon against the shadows will probably be important. The new war room is a good looking set. I liked seeing a bunch of different alien ships ating as defense for B5 this episode. The flying saucer's were especially cool. Overall, this was a very good episode.

[flavaflav]

The scene with Bester in the captains chair is great Bester is my favorite villain ever. Brilliantly written and acted.

[Sindatur]

flavaflav wrote:

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The scene with Bester in the captains chair is great Bester is my favorite villain ever. Brilliantly written and acted.

Yea, when he first showed up in Mind War, I thought, "COOL, Chekov", and now, I understand why he might sometimes cringe at Chekov, LOL

He did an awesome job bringing the character to life.

[hyzmarca]

The flying saucers belong to the Vree, who are the Roswell Greys. You might remember a scene from the first season episode Grail where a man was suing a Vree for abducting and probing one of his ancestors. The large openings on the bottoms of the saucers are anti-matter cannons.

[kirk55555]

Interludes and Examinations - Well, Morden is back, and causing trouble like always. I really hope he eventually gets whats coming to him. The Doctor finally lost it. I'm glad he finally admits he has a problem and resigns. I wonder if he's gone from the show, or just his position. I guess I'll see next episode. I'm glad Sheridan finally confronted Kosh.

Kosh "Disobedient"

Sheridan: "Up yours"



Sheridan was right about the Vorlons needing to stop being cryptic and actually do something, even if it had consequences. The Vorlons fighting the Shadows was a cool scene, and it accomplished what Sheridan wanted. The Shadows taking down Kosh was an intense scene. It was interesting seeing him talk to Sheridan through his dreams. Seeing his destoryed suit was dramatic. Londo's GF dying sucked, but it was obviously Morden who had her killed, which Londo probably should have figured out. Refa may have a grudge, but he probably wouldn't want to just piss Londo off. Londo is getting really dark now, it will be interesting to see what happens. Overall, this was a very good episode, and there are a lot of things that will have ongoing consequences for awhile.

[Sindatur]

Yea, seeing Kosh taken out was a mind blower, Ron Howard's dad did a great job too. Completely unexpected for me, and an unheard of action at the time, killing off a fairly main character, espcially in that way.

The next episode is pretty decent too, it revisits an earlier storyline that's been sitting bubbling for some time, and it puts a nice neat bow around a couple of things.

[kirk55555]

War Without End Part 1 - Its nice to see Sinclair back for a guest appearance. Is his voice/way of speaking different? He sounds weird, although that might just be because its been awhile since I've seen him. The weird transmission from the quarantined sector is interesting, as was seeing a Vorlon besides Kosh for a second on the minbari homeworld. I like that his encounter suit was different than Kosh's. I figured that the B4 incident would be brought up again. Its cool to see Sheridan and Sinclair together. Seeing the video of future Ivanova's message was interesting.

So, Sheridan and company have to go into the past, steal B4, and send it into the further past so that it can be used as a base to help in the fight with the shadows a thousand years ago. This definately clears stuff up about the earlier B4 episode, and its an interesting time travel story. Draal's assistant (who was also in the first B4 story) is still annoying, although not intolerable. I get why Sinclair didn't talk to Garibaldi, but its weird that they didn't even put in a small scene with him and Ivanova. He shows up in the war room and meets Sheridan, then later, on the White Star, Ivanova is just there, but we weren't shown even a small scene of Sinclair/Ivanova interacting when he first arrives, which would have been nice. So, I guess the White Star evolves/learns because of Vorlon tech? Thats weird, although I'm betting its not as "alive" as Kosh's ship was. It looks like the bomb that was supposed to blow up B$ has the power to make the film go negative Sheridan showing up in the place/time that he did was really interesting. I don't think that Future Londo should have been blaming Sheridan for the destruction on this world, though. The Centauri brought all the destruction in this future on themselves from what Londo said (they were the ones who allied with the Shadows), and Londo was a big part of it. Overall, this was an awesome episode. I bet that the nest part of this episode is going to be great.

Also, I just ordered season 4 from amazon. It was easily the most expensive season. 1-3 I got copies for less than $10 used (not counting shipping) of the older DVD run. But, it was actually cheaper to buy a new copy of the newer printing of S4 then it would have been to buy a used copy of the first run Even then, it was $13 without shipping. Well, its worth it, and it looks like Season 5 hovers at around $7 used, so whenever I order S5 I'm sure it will be comparable to seasons 1-3 in price. Not that I feel ripped off or anything for S4. I'm really enjoying Babylon 5. Its just a weird price increase compared to the prices of the other seasons.