A Niner Watches Babylon 5 (NO spoilers, please)

[Reverend]

^ Correct and their condition for doing so was to approve the station Commander. They rejected everyone until they got down to Sinclair.

 

[D Man]

Yeah, Babylon Squared. One of the best of the first season, though I like the finale more. But you'll get there soon enough.

And for clarification: I'd put "Babylon Squared" with "Signs and Portents", the finale, and "Believers" as the top tier of episodes from this season. That's not in any meaningful order, I might add, as I don't tend to organize orders of episodes on the entirely sound basis that it'd make my head hurt. But those are the ones I really connected with.

Completely agreed. My problem initially was that although "Believers" is still one of the best stand-alones the show put out (Ivanova subplot notwithstanding) and "Signs and Portents" is kind of intriguing the first time you see it (and better every time after,) both episodes were screened in between a whole lot of nonsense. The show didn't get its consistency until "Babylon Squared" hit, followed closely by the great finale. After that, there were never huge patches of the show where dud followed dud, IMO.

 

[TheGodBen]

Story goes they specifically designed B4 to look more impressive than B5, as B5 would have been built with 'left overs'. "Oh crap, we used up most of the budget on the kick-ass version. Welp, gotta economize this time."

Hmm, that's surprisingly acceptable. So this is why we can't have nice things?

And for clarification: I'd put "Babylon Squared" with "Signs and Portents", the finale, and "Believers"

That seems to align with my scores, those were the three episodes I awarded 8 or more. If I also score Chrysalis in that range then I'm declaring you to be the new Praetor, because he always agreed with everything I said about Voyager.

Sorry Praetor, but you never post any more and I need a sycophantic lackey.

See? Your sister was right.

Ooh, I wouldn't go so far as to say that she was right, she does only have a college diploma. In journalism. Let's just say that she took a guess about the quality of Babylon Squared and it just so happened that the guess she made was correct. It's like winning the jackpot on Deal or No Deal, it doesn't mean that you were right to pick a particular box, you were just lucky that you picked the right one.

Babylon 4 was also mobile as it had engines. I seem to recall that the Minbari were supposedly involved in financing Babylon 5, which is why they got a say in who was the commander. Maybe talking bollocks there.

According to Londo the Centauri also paid a substantial sum of money, but considering the state of their empire it probably wasn't as much as the Minbari.

My guess is that the Minbari sabotaged B3, B2 and B, and they were planning on sabotaging B4 until it disappeared, that way EarthForce would be forced to accept their money to build B5 and they could force Sinclair to be in charge. Those dastardly Minbari.


The Quality of Mercy (**)

I did not expect Scott Bakula's role as Ombuds Wellington to be recurring, so I'm afraid I used references to all three Bishop Brennan episodes of Father Ted in my review of Grail. Sadly, I have no more for this episode, but I shall struggle on.

Plot A: Dr Franklin and the Mystery Machine (no, not that Mystery Machine). This plot starts out poorly, Dr Franklin just assumes that Dr Rosen is a faith healer purely because she's a competitor, the fact that her patients didn't end up going to him to fix their health problems should have been a red flag from the beginning that her methods actually work. When he finds out that she is using alien technology to heal people he still just assumes that it's a big fraud despite the fact that he has come across weirder things than this in the past. The revelation that the machine actually works is only a revelation to him, the entire audience had it figured out 20 minutes ago.

It's at this point that the plot becomes vaguely acceptable as we learn that Rosen is dying but willing to use her last years helping people at the expense of her own well-being. This is fine until a murderer shows up and she ends up going all Betty White on his ass and kills him with her own pain, but even that is redeemed slightly by the remorse she feels afterwards. It's not a brilliant story overall, but it had its moments.

Plot B: Talia and the Eye of the Beholding Creepy-Looking Murderer (played by Scott Bakula). I was expecting more from this plot. The idea that there is a punishment that involves wiping out somebody's personality has tonnes of potential, instead we get Talia entering the mind of the creepy-looking murderer with no real explanation of the creepy-looking murderer beyond the fact that he looks creepy and enjoys murdering people. In the end he escapes his potentially interesting punishment and gets involved in a hostage situation with Rosen and her daughter, who I thought might have been Danny from The Shield (played by Michael Chiklis) but it turns out I was wrong. There's a first time for everything, folks. There's also a 2,647,492nd time for everything, this happens to be that time. The ending is too simple, the creepy-looking murderer dying is an anti-climax compared to what could have been.

Plot C: Londo & Lennier's Excellent Adventure. The less said about this the better. Although I'm 100% certain that Londo's chestacles will play an important part of the story arc going forward.

Scott Bakula: 15

 

[Lindley]

You haven't seen the last of the "death of personality" idea.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Londo's chestacles (or chesticles?) -- yes, they do turn up again. Can be very useful if you're a polygamist.

 

[RoJoHen]

Everything in that episode is important in one way or another.

 

[Brian]

The.. er, "appendages" don't come from the chest area, but from the sides of the body.

I love these assorted quotes from JMS on the subject at the Lurker's Guide...

Q: What are Londo's appendages called?
Tentisticularites?

Are Londo's appendages in addition to or instead of human-type "appendages"?
That would be instead of, not in addition to.

As for the tentacles...well, there's no rules about showing tentacles on TV. I think they didn't even want to deal with it. There are some moments when they pretend they didn't see it, and I pretend I didn't write it.


Centauri males have six.


Centauri females, btw, have six narrow...ummm...slots on their backs, three on either side of the spine, right around the base of the spine.
The awful thing is that the two women in props -- who were having FAR too much fun with this -- kept bringing me the tentacle to verify the shape, size, consistency, do we see veins or not.... I tell you here and now: our staff meetings are something else.


Actually, Centauri have six. They extend out from the sides of the body, and "fold" in over the solar plexus when not in, er, use. (We actually saw one extended for other purposes in the first season, "The Quality of Mercy.") Female Centauri have six...er...slotted areas on either side of the spine, just above the hips, three on either side. To go any further would probably bring in the FBI.


Does that mean Centauri women have multiple births on a regular basis?
No multiple births, in that sense, not any different than humans.

"What kind of birth control do the Centauri use?" Conversation.

Which of the six do they use for urination?
That assumes the urinate out of the same organs they use for sex; ain't necessarily the case.

We used a bullwhip sound effect for the "retraction" in QoM; when we were in sound editing, I asked for the hardest whip-crack they had...and got it put in REAL loud. Every time I hear it, I'm on the floor....

 

[Canadave]

I like "The Quality of Mercy" mostly for the A-Plot. It's not terrific, but it is reasonably well-done and Franklin-centric stories are generally good. Definitely agreed on the B-plot, though. Great concept, but it's not used to its potential in this one. Dexter it ain't.

 

[Neroon]

I like "The Quality of Mercy" mostly for the A-Plot. It's not terrific, but it is reasonably well-done and Franklin-centric stories are generally good. Definitely agreed on the B-plot, though. Great concept, but it's not used to its potential in this one. Dexter it ain't.

Biggest problem for "Quality of Mercy" ..... they couldn't get Bill Mumy and June Lockhart on the same screen at any time during the episode.

 

[Pilot Ace]

You haven't seen the last of the "death of personality" idea.

It bothers me this sort of coaching keeps popping up.

I wish even that low level of a spoiler would be enforced.

I mean, let the whole spectra of the show make him wonder instead of coaching him about what's important or going to happen.

 

[Lindley]

I think that's more than sufficiently vague, but now that I think about it, I don't want to encourage more of the same which might not be, so I won't do that anymore.

 

[TheGodBen]

That sort of low-level spoiler doesn't bother me because I have no way of knowing how it will turn up in the future. It's sort of like saying that there's an episode of The Shield that deals with the issue of a man being raped, you sort of expect that a story like that could happen on a semi-procedural cop show, and it's not like as if it ruins the episode.

The.. er, "appendages" don't come from the chest area, but from the sides of the body.

I love these assorted quotes from JMS on the subject at the Lurker's Guide...

Q: What are Londo's appendages called?
Tentisticularites?

Are Londo's appendages in addition to or instead of human-type "appendages"?
That would be instead of, not in addition to.

As for the tentacles...well, there's no rules about showing tentacles on TV. I think they didn't even want to deal with it. There are some moments when they pretend they didn't see it, and I pretend I didn't write it.


Centauri males have six.


Centauri females, btw, have six narrow...ummm...slots on their backs, three on either side of the spine, right around the base of the spine.
The awful thing is that the two women in props -- who were having FAR too much fun with this -- kept bringing me the tentacle to verify the shape, size, consistency, do we see veins or not.... I tell you here and now: our staff meetings are something else.


Actually, Centauri have six. They extend out from the sides of the body, and "fold" in over the solar plexus when not in, er, use. (We actually saw one extended for other purposes in the first season, "The Quality of Mercy.") Female Centauri have six...er...slotted areas on either side of the spine, just above the hips, three on either side. To go any further would probably bring in the FBI.


Does that mean Centauri women have multiple births on a regular basis?
No multiple births, in that sense, not any different than humans.

"What kind of birth control do the Centauri use?" Conversation.

Which of the six do they use for urination?
That assumes the urinate out of the same organs they use for sex; ain't necessarily the case.

We used a bullwhip sound effect for the "retraction" in QoM; when we were in sound editing, I asked for the hardest whip-crack they had...and got it put in REAL loud. Every time I hear it, I'm on the floor....

That may just be the most disturbing thing I've ever read, and I once read the plot description for Taboo 2.

 

[Brian]

Thanks for the tip, Great Mambo Chicken! I just ordered the Behind the Scenes book. It'll be a great companion for my B5 chronology and quotes books.

I ordered it on Friday and it already arrived today (Wednesday)!! And I took the economy shipping option!

 

[Neroon]

The folks involved in producing and distributing the script books, etc. are top shelf. Some of the best customer service I've ever enjoyed.

 

[Kegg]

The thing about JMS is... he's got an answer to everything. Every. Little. Thing. I'm sure he knows how Narn and Minbari sex organs work, and even the Vorlons, but thankfully I don't think he's shared those pearls of wisdom with us yet. As far as the Centauri goes it seems to be a quirk mostly there to make them seem more aliens - I mean, they're basically just humans with head rashes and goofy hairstyles otherwise.

I did not expect Scott Bakula's role as Ombuds Wellington to be recurring, so I'm afraid I used references to all three Bishop Brennan episodes of Father Ted in my review of Grail. Sadly, I have no more for this episode, but I shall struggle on.

And yet, in an episode featuring a Very Special guest appearance by June Lockhart, which also had series regular Bill Mumy, there are no Lost in Space jokes? At all? For shame!

 

[Reverend]

If I remember right, the lack of Lost in Space gags and a scene with Lennier and Rosen was very much deliberate.

As for the various alien "attributes", it's all part of conceptualising a fictional species so that their depiction is internally consistent. I have to admit though, after writing up a lot of the biology notes for the wikia, I did feel a little dirty...especially with the Drazi...and you don't even want to know what the Abbai have stashed in those skirts!

 

[Kegg]

If I remember right, the lack of Lost in Space gags and a scene with Lennier and Rosen was very much deliberate.

TheGodBen, not Babylon 5 itself.

I did feel a little dirty...especially with the Drazi...

Oh yeah, who could forget that?

 

[Jan]

The thing about JMS is... he's got an answer to everything. Every. Little. Thing. I'm sure he knows how Narn and Minbari sex organs work, and even the Vorlons, but thankfully I don't think he's shared those pearls of wisdom with us yet. As far as the Centauri goes it seems to be a quirk mostly there to make them seem more aliens - I mean, they're basically just humans with head rashes and goofy hairstyles otherwise.

We do know that Narns are marsupials. I don't remember anything about the Minbari (although there's something somewhere about 10-month gestation, iirc) and the only information we ever got on Vorlon mates was in the original treatment and the Vorlons were *very* different from what we eventually got in that.

There's a document Larry DiTillio (story editor, first two seasons) compiled with all sorts of interesting data about the League aliens, including reproductive methods.

I don't remember if I posted this or not but in "Born to the Purple", we were supposed to see 6 gill-like slots along the base of Adira's spinal column. We've seen Li, Centauri goddess of passion who is a synthesis of male and female centauri twice now-at the Centauri banquet and again in 'Quality of Mercy'. When you think about it, having to keep track of six might explain the Centauri propensity for complex political manuevering.

Jan

 

[Kegg]

When you think about it, having to keep track of six might explain the Centauri propensity for complex political manuevering.

One also wonders

Spoiler: not really a spoiler but better safe than sorry

if it's related to their six stages of intimacy. If the Minbari do everything in threes... wait, the Minbari have three?

Some questsions are best left unexplored; although G'Kar's predelication for human females suggests either that his species and humans are in some sense compatible or that he is one inventive Narn.

 

[Jan]

... although G'Kar's predelication for human females suggests either that his species and humans are in some sense compatible or that he is one inventive Narn.

Or both. This *is* G'Kar we're talking about.

Spoiler: G'Kar's predilictions

One can't help but wonder what ways he and Lyta found to entertain themselves in that small flyer.

Jan