A Niner Watches Babylon 5 (NO spoilers, please)

"Though it take a thousand years, we...will...be...free."

I get goosebumps just typing that line. Magnificent episode. Draal is a bit much though, I agree with TheGodBen[/i] there.

 

That line is a showstopper. And though Londo is trying to sell the Centauri party line, you can tell he's many kinds of uncomfortable with it. And though he thinks he has been waiting for a moment like this to completely humble G'Kar, it's not satisfying like he thought it would be. And G'Kar's defiant stoicism affects even him.

 

Gotta admit, the Londo and G'Kar you thought you knew in the first season have changed a bit, wouldn't you say TGB?

Jan

 

Insert any significant heterosexual B5 relationship you prefer, then, they're all treated more openly.

Spoiler: Oh, my!

That's why I suggested Marcus/Franklin, no? Marcus hadn't been set on any courses at this point, and if he ever had in mind that Franklin would find love, it's something he scuppered as the series progressed so it can't have been that big of a deal. I think that could have worked.

But enough of that. We have more important things to bicker about, like the greatly overrated tripe that is "The Long Twilight Struggle"!

...

I kid. Episodes like this is exactly why, in a nutshell, I love Babylon 5. Want me to point to what makes me actually a fan of this series when I've spent most of the threads ripping every other detail apart mercilessly, and this breathless, bitter finale to the Centauri-Narn War is one of the prime examples. Here Londo must witness the extent of his Faustian bargain - he hasn't just sold his soul, he's doomed countless others; the faceless victims calling his name from way back when in "The Geometry of Shadows." The duality is remarkable and excellent - the man willing to express doubts in private but in public is the hectoring, arrogant face of a revanchist Centauri agenda he's essentially created.

Londo Mollari is Babylon 5. I have said this before. I will say this again.

One of my two very favourite moments of B5, period. For a show that so often lets its talking does the talking, it rests an entire scene on Peter Jurasik's face and the soring score. It's an epic in vignette; personal hell in few seconds.

 

For an episode that is full of memorable moments, perhaps the one that affected me the most is amongst the quietest:

And still, he works up enough trust in that moment for Sheridan regardless. That's quite a leap of faith on G'Kar's part, when you think about it.

 

Londo's "NOW!" is a moment that I will never forget.

 

Long Twilight Struggle is the climax , crescendo of Season 2. A series events which had been leading to this conclusion. Narn-Centauri Conflict , Big Machine in Epsilon III , Draal....JMS does not let us to forget or dismiss anything. Final moment at League of Non-Alligned Worlds session where Londo initially crushes a beat up G'Kar and G'Kar rising up slowly in defiance...wow. Absolutely worthy of watching stupid episıodes like "Long Dark" or "Knives"

 

I've had the same thought, and I'd say it's a unique B5 trait that gave us these huge episodes that weren't season finales. Trek did 2-parters from time to time, but the mid-season ones never came close to the level of importance which a B5 ep like "Long, Twilight Struggle" produced in spades.

These days, I'd say both Lost and nuBSG have done some incredible episodes within any given season, but their season finales are still waaay bigger than the average episode. B5 is THE show for seriously confronting its core material, whether it be in a season finale, a 3rd to last episode, or something in between. B5, from late season 2 on, didn't care about the traditional "season" structure when it came to revelations, action, and Big Moments™. I think they call those "WHAM" moments over on the Lurker's Guide, but I haven't visited in a while...it may be time for a fresh re-watch.

 

I don't really agree. PTEN's scheduling just made it even more unconventional than it already was. Regardless of whether you use a conventional airing schedule or PTEN's creative scheduling, the same thing holds true: B5 had important events happening throughout the season, without regard to when the season premieres or finales happened and regardless of when the hiatuses were.

Of course, a lot more happened on B5 than on most of these other shows that we're comparing it to, so there's no way JMS could have confined the big events to the season openers and closers.

 

Yeah, I'd forgotten. PTEN was one of the first networks to have "mid season hiatuses" (Hiati?) and leave us hanging for three months at a time.

 

Yes siree, Bob, these young whippersnappers don't know how easy they've got it, I tell ya. Watchin' on them newfangled DeeVeeDees and knowin' that they'll get the whole show. Now, in my day, we never knew from one week to the next if it'd get pre-empted or shifted around...I tell ya it was hell, pure hell! Months between episodes an' god help you if your recorder missed cause you were jus' outa luck. We didn't have none o' that streamin' video or download'n in my day!

(and we walked five miles to school every day, barefoot in the snow and it was uphill both ways. )

Jan

 

Back in '95, I would go around campus with a tape of "The Long, Twilight Struggle" in my bag, and would occasionally tell people, "Hey, you want to see a cool space battle?" with the pretense that I would only show them the Narn/Shadow battle. And they'd stay glued to the screen to the end of the episode. In about two weeks, I had converted many people into Babylon 5 fans.

 

Cat Out of the Bag (**½)

This was a bit of a let down after the last episode, but this show does have a tendency to blow me away with one episode and follow it up with something that's average at best. Actually, that's not really fair because parts of this story were excellent, other parts of it were just weird. The G'Kar stuff was great. It started out a little slow, five minutes of watching him meditating was too much, but once Ivanova and Na'Toth arrived to "cheer him up" I was hooked. Who knew that Narn women have five nipples per breast? And I was shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn that her carpet did not match the drapes.

The b-plot was just weird. Firstly, Sheridan decides to go back to the Babylon Triangle on his own (because he's an idiot), and then he has the gall to be freaked out when he is chased by a giant cat. You shouldn't have gone walking in the weird area of the station on your own if you don't want to be chased by giant cats, you muppet! Of course, the cat turns out to be an illusion by the technomages who have returned to give Sheridan an important message; a great darkness is about to befall the galaxy. Sheridan's reply of "No Sherlock, shithead!" didn't even make sense, but I've decided to take it as my new catchphrase.

The reveal that the technomages are really small bird-like puppets in disguise was not only stupid, but it also showed off how low the budget for this show is. I mean, you could see the strings! Also, I think I saw this on another sci-fi show once, but I can't remember its name. Hopefully this is the last DiTillio episode I'll have to watch.

Captain Greyshirt: 13
Scott Bakula: 36

Spoiler: this review

 

Either TGB is on meds again, TGB has gone off his meds or it's April 1.

Or all of the above.

Jan

 

And my family lived in a shoebox!

 

Luxury!

 

Rich boy.