Great list, Neroon, thanks!
According to a post of JMS' at one point she took time off to work on her own screenwriting projects.
Jan
A Niner Watches Babylon 5 (NO spoilers, please)
- Thread starter TheGodBen
- Start date
Jan
Oops!
So scratch that - But Janet Greek was certainly the most consistently best director on the show. But I guess she also had better material to work with... 
Eyes (*½)
There's so much promise in this episode but, sadly, it doesn't realise it. Considering the subject matter, an investigation of Sinclair and the command staff in light of how they've pissed off Earth Force all season, this would have made a good penultimate episode as a bookend for the season. One of the episode's strengths is that it calls back details of earlier episodes and uses them as a case against Sinclair. If Sinclair's solution to the strike several episodes back had encouraged the incident on Mars (or was it Phobos?) then this this episode could have forced Sinclair to question his past decision making. Unfortunately that doesn't happen, this is another episode where Sinclair is the unquestionable good guy while some hammy actor is an obvious villain.
The villain this week is Denholm Reynholm (of Reynholm Industries) sans moustache. He's dumb, rude, pompous, insane and in love with the sound of his own voice. His motivation is that he's dumb, rude, pompous, insane and in love with the idea of being commander of B5. He is also friends with Bester, which really makes me question Bester's choice of friends, as well as his professional conduct considering the fact that he orchestrated a plot to put a dumb, rude, pompous and insane man in charge of the most important station in the galaxy.
There's also Harriman Gray who is at least mildly sympathetic due to an entertaining performance by Scott Bakula.
Oh, and there's a b-story about Lennier building a motorcycle which only serves to continue my belief than Lennier is an idiot.
Scott Bakula: 12
That's why I drive a Corolla, folks.
There's so much promise in this episode but, sadly, it doesn't realise it. Considering the subject matter, an investigation of Sinclair and the command staff in light of how they've pissed off Earth Force all season, this would have made a good penultimate episode as a bookend for the season. One of the episode's strengths is that it calls back details of earlier episodes and uses them as a case against Sinclair. If Sinclair's solution to the strike several episodes back had encouraged the incident on Mars (or was it Phobos?) then this this episode could have forced Sinclair to question his past decision making. Unfortunately that doesn't happen, this is another episode where Sinclair is the unquestionable good guy while some hammy actor is an obvious villain.
The villain this week is Denholm Reynholm (of Reynholm Industries) sans moustache. He's dumb, rude, pompous, insane and in love with the sound of his own voice. His motivation is that he's dumb, rude, pompous, insane and in love with the idea of being commander of B5. He is also friends with Bester, which really makes me question Bester's choice of friends, as well as his professional conduct considering the fact that he orchestrated a plot to put a dumb, rude, pompous and insane man in charge of the most important station in the galaxy.
There's also Harriman Gray who is at least mildly sympathetic due to an entertaining performance by Scott Bakula.
Oh, and there's a b-story about Lennier building a motorcycle which only serves to continue my belief than Lennier is an idiot.
Scott Bakula: 12
At least Minbari have built-in crash helmets.
I kind of liked "Eyes." It's not a classic but it's enjoyable enough.
Yes, this was the episode I meant when I said season one still had stinkers to underwhelm. I don't think we're out of that minefield yet, either, though there are also some of B5's better hours yet to come.
It'd be cute if I didn't strongly suspect it was a take on the title of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The Minbari are, after all, our resident zen wisecrackers. And since Garibaldi is the required guy who is obsessed with twentieth century American culture (our Tom Paris, if you will) of course he's the guy with the bike.
Thanks for the heads up, I wouldn't have spotted that. Jan, you're slipping!
So far I've only bought the chronology, can't really afford much else but with this one, I have a funny feeling it'll come in handy so I just went ahead and ordered it.
As for 'Eyes', it's really bothers me that Bester could be "buddies" with Ben Zayn. I mean (without spoiling anything) since when did Bester have ANY friends, let alone a mundane?
Thanks for the heads up, I wouldn't have spotted that. Jan, you're slipping!
:hangs head in shame: So sorry! I was being indecisive as to what thread to put it in. So I was glad when somebody else decided for me!
Perhaps I should mention that Larry DiTillio describes the episode he never got to write (and the restrictions he was under)?So far I've only bought the chronology, can't really afford much else but with this one, I have a funny feeling it'll come in handy so I just went ahead and ordered it.
Jan
I really liked "Eyes", though I prefered the B plot over the A plot. The shot at the end with Gariballdi and Lennier going for a ride...FUN!
Agreed. It was intended to hammer the home on how a mere "Commander" got the command, and how this hacked off some more senior officers. Sinclair was the Minbari choice, too, and this further enraged said officers and raised questions among the rest. Especially considering how the Battle of the Line ended for Sinclair.
Understand that the Motorcycle plot was purely a budgetary concern. Kawasaki paid them a shit-pot load of money to incorporate the Ninja ZX-11 into the show, and they couldn't think of a better way to do it and didn't really like trying.
Now that I think about it, it probably would have been better to have something a little more low-key. The station is big enough to have people riding motorcycles instead of that elevated mass transit thing, but what you gonna do.
Now that I think about it, it probably would have been better to have something a little more low-key. The station is big enough to have people riding motorcycles instead of that elevated mass transit thing, but what you gonna do.
Ladies and gentlemen, I had my first Babylon 5 dream! I was Garibaldi and I was tasked with babysitting a group of telepathic children who hated me because I killed one of them a few weeks ago. Then I started seeing glowing paintings and I had to convince the children to help me figure out what they meant. Then my real world ex showed up to help and things became uncomfortable for all involved. 
Legacies (***½)
I must admit that after the last couple of episodes I began to doubt the show again, so when it came to the mystery of who stole the body I was all set to blame Neroon since he was acting hostile towards humans since the start of the episode. It made sense; he disagreed with the religious faction's decision to end the war against humanity so he hatched an elaborate plot to blame humans for the disappearance of an important Minbari's body as pretext to go to war with humanity once again. So once it was revealed that Delenn was behind the body snatching I was moderately surprised, I hadn't even considered her, and it did make a reasonable amount of sense. It's not a good thing that the quality of some of this show's villains has been laughably bad, but it did work in this episode's favour.
Then again, this episode is about somebody stealing a corpse, which I found so weird that I couldn't help but laugh at times. But it does provide us with a few extra hints about the Earth-Minbari war, I learned that the war began because of the death of Dukhat and that the religious faction overruled the military faction in order to end the war. I still don't understand who Dukhat is or the circumstances surrounding his death, I don't even know how humans were involved with it, but I'm sure that all these things will be explained to me in time. And in the end Neroon seems like he could be an interesting character, and I'm assuming he will show up again because it would be odd for someone to pick a username based off of a one-off character.
The b-story treads old ground as we once again have Ivanova angry at the PsiCorps for what happened to her mother, just one week after the last time we saw her do this. This plot is okay, Alisa is an interesting enough character, but the solution to the problem does seem a little too easy. At the end she does make reference to a chrysalis, which I assume is foreshadowing something that is going to happen in the season finale. My guess is that Sinclair is the cocoon being referred to, whatever the Minbari did to him at the battle of the line will trigger in that episode. I can just see it now, he begins having sharp pains throughout the episode, and at the end he'll have the biggest pain of all, he'll fall to the floor with a sci-fi glow around him, and when he stands up again... he's a Minbari!
Cue shocking music, cut to black, "TO BE CONTINUED..."
Scott Bakula: 13
I was Garibaldi and I was tasked with babysitting a group of telepathic children who hated me because I killed one of them a few weeks ago. Then I started seeing glowing paintings and I had to convince the children to help me figure out what they meant. Then my real world ex showed up to help and things became uncomfortable for all involved. I hadn't thought of that, I compared it in my head to The Drumhead. I guess I preferred both of those episode because in Coming of Age Remmick only seemed insane, at the end of the episode he was completely objective and respectful to Picard, whereas in The Drumhead Norah Satie seemed friendly at the start and it was only towards the end that we realised she was insane. Zayn was always painted as a villain, there was no other side to his character beyond being a humongous prick.
It was okay, but it felt forced. Why did Zayn want to mind probe them so much? Just what did he think he was going to find? In the finished episode it seems like he wants to mind probe her just because he knows that she doesn't want to be mind probed.
Which is fine, but they could have found a way to do that than this. As Starbrow suggested, it could have been more like Coming of Age where the senate sends an unlikable lackey to investigate Sinclair in the hope that he can be ousted, but at the end of the episode he finds nothing and even treats Sinclair with respect. Having Zayn be a one-note villain was too easy.
Well that explains why the motorcycle was a crotch-rocket rather than a chopper, which would have been more fitting with the tone of the story.
Legacies (***½)
I must admit that after the last couple of episodes I began to doubt the show again, so when it came to the mystery of who stole the body I was all set to blame Neroon since he was acting hostile towards humans since the start of the episode. It made sense; he disagreed with the religious faction's decision to end the war against humanity so he hatched an elaborate plot to blame humans for the disappearance of an important Minbari's body as pretext to go to war with humanity once again. So once it was revealed that Delenn was behind the body snatching I was moderately surprised, I hadn't even considered her, and it did make a reasonable amount of sense. It's not a good thing that the quality of some of this show's villains has been laughably bad, but it did work in this episode's favour.
Then again, this episode is about somebody stealing a corpse, which I found so weird that I couldn't help but laugh at times. But it does provide us with a few extra hints about the Earth-Minbari war, I learned that the war began because of the death of Dukhat and that the religious faction overruled the military faction in order to end the war. I still don't understand who Dukhat is or the circumstances surrounding his death, I don't even know how humans were involved with it, but I'm sure that all these things will be explained to me in time. And in the end Neroon seems like he could be an interesting character, and I'm assuming he will show up again because it would be odd for someone to pick a username based off of a one-off character.
The b-story treads old ground as we once again have Ivanova angry at the PsiCorps for what happened to her mother, just one week after the last time we saw her do this. This plot is okay, Alisa is an interesting enough character, but the solution to the problem does seem a little too easy. At the end she does make reference to a chrysalis, which I assume is foreshadowing something that is going to happen in the season finale. My guess is that Sinclair is the cocoon being referred to, whatever the Minbari did to him at the battle of the line will trigger in that episode. I can just see it now, he begins having sharp pains throughout the episode, and at the end he'll have the biggest pain of all, he'll fall to the floor with a sci-fi glow around him, and when he stands up again... he's a Minbari!
Cue shocking music, cut to black, "TO BE CONTINUED..."Scott Bakula: 13
Ivanova's characterization in Season 1 goes something like this:
"I hate the PsiCorp."
"I'm Russian."
"I hate the PsiCorp."
"I'm Russian."
"PsiCorps? Hate 'em."
"Did I mention that I'm Russian?"
I disagree. ben Zayn was not the focus of the story. Sinclair was. Spend too much time on giving the villain too much attention and you take away from the series regulars. Of course you can do that and get a good story, but it'd be more strategically valuable later in the series, not mid-S1. At this early stage in B5's life, there is precious little time to go down various alleyways that might never pan out. The sponsoring studio wants to see results yesterday.
Different series + different creators = different approaches, which does not equate with one being better, just preferable depending upon the viewer. Sinclair is not Picard and was never intended to be Picard. Sinclair's background is to be more mysterious and full of question. Picard is set up to be more the vintage Trek-like hero of unquestioned integrity and morals. Both can work and work well.
I'd amend the Russian part to include:
"I'm Russian so I understand the hardships and bleakness that is human existence. I am deeper than all of you because I understand such angst ridden things."
During the first season, I kept expecting her to say:
"It's a Russian inwention."
And Bester is sort of like a Russian PsiCop. 
And Bester is sort of like a Russian PsiCop.
"Telepathy is a Russian inwention."
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