A Niner Watches Babylon 5 (NO spoilers, please)

But that's true of a lot of stuff which *is* followed up, so I'd remind everyone that what doesn't happen can be as much a spoiler as what does in some cases.

 

Spoiler: The Future

Which is why my wording is rather deliberate. I don't say it wasn't followed up, just that there's no sense in the episode that it should be - while "The Coming of Shadows" is an episode in rather blatant need of further events.

 

Maybe they should have been the opening act for Rebo and Zooty.










No, maybe Rebo and Zooty should have opened for THEM.

 

Good lord that must've been hard to type so badly!

One thing to remember, though, is that all of the threads are up in the air throughout and so the episodes will weave in and out keeping them all current.

Jan

 

One of my favorite eps. No offense, but I'm thinking you ARE a plot whore, TGB. Instead of just letting it unfold, you want it NOW.

Relax, it will come. Try to enjoy the other eps as they are.

I LOVED this one.

This is a big universe. There isn't one single linear plot going on. There are at least three major ones and several minor ones unspooling.

 

I feel like there is a joke with his post that I'm not getting.

 

With my post?

I'm just saying it looks like it was typed by a drunk guy.

 

When it comes to Babylon 5 and plot arcs, JMS tends to take a long run up before things get really interesting. Which is partly why season finales are usually followed by relatively sedate season premiers. In this case, take GROPOS as a quick break before the plot breaks out in a dead run. There's a similar situation in season 3 and likewise when it finally kicks of things can really snowball and take on an unexpected momentum.

The Narn and the Centauri may have declared war, but neither were really geared up for it so it'll naturally take both sides a little time to mobilize before getting into it properly, so what you see in GROPOS is just EarthGov hedging their bets, using a smaller conflict to position themselves better for whatever may come next and probably a warning to both sides that the EA still has teeth. Saber rattling, as Sheridan said.

 

Also no offense, but I was under the impression given over the years that "GROPOS" is not highly regarded, with its heavy handed war cliches plus the spectacularly trite father/son bonding.

The truth is, as I've bloviated about, B5 just frequently isn't good at the stuff that isn't big arc events. When I pick out what I think are the best episodes of the season ("The Coming of Shadows", and some others) they're almost heavily arc related.

Spoiler: The episode titles, no other spoilers

"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum"
"The Long Twilight Struggle"
"Comes the Inquisitor"
"The Fall of Night"

The only exception is

Spoiler: another title

"Confessions and Lamentations"

, really.

"GROPOS", however, just blows, and if that was typical - nay, standard - of Babylon 5, it wouldn't be as popular as it is.

 

I've never heard that. Further, I often use the ep to introduce others to B5. I've never gotten a "that was not good" reaction. The reactions are always positive, from mild to fairly enthusiastic.

That's where we differ. I frequently enjoy the non-arc eps, especially with more of what they reveal about the B5 U and tidbits with the characters. The non-arc eps often add to the world building exercise that is B5, one of the reasons I love it so much.

 

Really? I've seen fans go so far as to mention it as one of the worst episodes of the show, which I'd definitely consider a wild overreaction (there are so many other more deserving targets). Certainly the timing was unfortunate for the show; it's a slap in the face of a return to substandard dreck after a genuinely nicely laid hour of TV.

I don't differ in that I don't see a point to non-arc episodes. As a Star Trek fan, quite fond of the episodic format for sci-fi storytelling. I just think a lot of them stink.

 

Really, this is the first I've heard that about GROPOS.

And we can disagree on them. I do think that's where one will find the weakest eps of B5, but I think I'm far less inclined than you to describe any one as "stinky".

 

"GROPOS" is one of my least favorite episodes in the entire show. There, you've heard it again.

 

Wait... an Irishman drunk-posting on March 16th?

GROPOS has its moments but, as mentioned, relies a bit too heavily on war cliches. Depending on my mood, I find the tragi-ending either very moving or dully predictable. As a subsequent episode to Coming Of Shadows, well it's certainly a better episode than TKO was as a following episode to Signs And Portents.

 

That was my whole point.

 

I liked the peak it showed into other maneuvers of power and reactions to events in B5. I enjoyed some of the new characters, especially the Sergeant Major and most especially Dodger. Love saucy, curvy redheads. And Paul Winfield is just awesome.

And I'm Army, and it was great to FINALLY see a space opera show give some major love to the ground forces. Enough fekking squids, let's show the people who REALLY work for a living when the balloon goes up.

 

I pnly seen Gropos for the first time about a week ago and I found myself laughing out loud at it as it was so bad. It was full of cliches with a bunch of unconvincing military guys oh but what got me is the last shot where all the people we where introduced too all died within a foot of each other

 

I enjoy GROPOS just for the fact that it has both Paul Winfield and Ken Foree in it (neither of whom you can go wrong with). But it's not the finest episode of the series, and another example, IMO, of DiTillio's work being extraneous to the series in the long run.

 

It took me about twice as long as normal to type it, and by the end my spell checker had given up. I haven't seen that much red since the "accident" involving the woodchipper.

I would have gone into my reasoning behind being disappointed with the episode more, but it was so hard trying to type like that that I kept it short. In essence, my main problem was that the episode focused on a lot of army clichés as opposed to the characters I've gotten to know over the last few months. Right now Londo and G'Kar are my favourite characters, and I would have liked to see more of them, especially after the events of the previous episode. Failing that I would have liked to see some Garibaldi, but his scene felt a little weird. I know how difficult it is to screw up your life by losing the only future you ever wanted, but that's not something you talk about with a quick lay, that's something you keep bottled up inside until it turns you cold and bitter, and you only let it slip out every once in a while on the internet.

I've lost my train of thought.

Oh yeah, the episode. Now I'm a bit of a left-wing pinko that has little interest in the armed services, but even I don't like it when Hollywood makes the military out to be a bunch of jarheads. The sergeant guy that started a bar brawl because someone accidentally spilled a drink on him seemed annoyingly stupid, and the bar-brawl itself was just comical, I think I actually saw someone swinging from a chandelier.

Yes, we love the celebrate the death of Julius Caesar over here with several days of drinking. We hate him for attempting to occupy our good friends, the English.