A Niner Watches Babylon 5 (NO spoilers, please)

[Hyperspace05]

But it is still odd that the aspect ratio changes (picture stretches), it should not. The 4:3 VFX shots should be 'letterboxed'.

Are you watching this on DVD? perhaps that disc had a mastering error.

 

[Gepard]

Perhaps they stretched it on purpose? If they were letterboxed, the resolution would be even worse because it would be missing the tops and bottoms of the 480i image. Imagine trying to upconvert that to 720 or 1080p.

 

[Hyperspace05]

Perhaps they stretched it on purpose? If they were letterboxed, the resolution would be even worse because it would be missing the tops and bottoms of the 480i image. Imagine trying to upconvert that to 720 or 1080p.

And that is exactly what was done with the B5 DVD transfers... Top and bottom cut off, and then the entire image scaled up. That's why the VFX do not look as clear as the live action footage. There are lots of threads about this, though...

 

[Harvey]

Yes, Warner Bros. did the series no favors with the transfers on DVD. I'd almost prefer the series be released in 4:3 fullscreen (like The Gathering) than have to endure visual effects shots that are blown up and letterboxed, leading them to look awful.

But has Warner Bros. ever treated the series with respect on home video?

 

[Kegg]

It's hard to judge an episode like this as it's not really a story in its own right, it's an investigation of the show's myth arc.

Then hard times be ahead.

But yeah, this isn't a very good episode, even if it's an 'important' one. The only things that really work here are the suitably creepy moments of Sinclair onboard the Minbari vessel.

Spoiler: Wouldn't you like to know?

And I know this a pet bugbear from my own thread, but the more and more I think about the Minbari threatening to kill Sinclair the less sense it makes. Assume he discovers the truth: That the Minbari deleted part of his memory and that memory was that they ended the war because humans have their souls and he has the soul of one of their greatest leaders. What are they certain he'll do that's so dangerous that he, which they think is in some way connected to Valen (they may already know that he's basically Valen before he became Valen, but In the Beginning leaves that a little ambiguous), is worth killing? It's just sort of preposterous, bloated, and, of course, in retrospect little more than asinine posturing.

 

[Reverend]

Yes, Warner Bros. did the series no favors with the transfers on DVD. I'd almost prefer the series be released in 4:3 fullscreen (like The Gathering) than have to endure visual effects shots that are blown up and letterboxed, leading them to look awful.

But has Warner Bros. ever treated the series with respect on home video?

On the positive side, if WB ever expects to release the series on BluRay then they'll simply have to pay to have ALL of the vfx shots recreated with up-to-date graphics. Assuming it's done right then it's a net gain for us.

Spoiler: Wouldn't you like to know?

And I know this a pet bugbear from my own thread, but the more and more I think about the Minbari threatening to kill Sinclair the less sense it makes. Assume he discovers the truth: That the Minbari deleted part of his memory and that memory was that they ended the war because humans have their souls and he has the soul of one of their greatest leaders. What are they certain he'll do that's so dangerous that he, which they think is in some way connected to Valen (they may already know that he's basically Valen before he became Valen, but In the Beginning leaves that a little ambiguous), is worth killing? It's just sort of preposterous, bloated, and, of course, in retrospect little more than asinine posturing.

Spoiler: Nothing to see here, move along...

JMS has directly answered that question. See here and here.

 

[Hyperspace05]

"And the Sky is Full of Stars" was the 1st episode I saw... And it hooked me directly.

I suppose it might have helped that I had not been exposed to the 'hole in your mind' thing earlier - I did not even see the pilot movie.

Kegg, yeah the final moment was just inserted as a way to end the episode on a sinister note, but it doesn't really bother me at all. I still look back at this episode with extreme fondness...

 

[Harvey]

Which is why Warner Bros. is never going to release the series on Blu-Ray. It's too expensive, and television hasn't been selling well in the format.

Or, worse, they'll release it on Blu-Ray, but just upconvert the already awful looking visual effects shots.

I just wish they'd assemble the interviews that are cut up into the short season introductary videos (the ones that actually spoil just about everything) into a longer documentary, because there's no way they interviewed that many members of the cast and the production for as little as each ends up appearing. There must be hours of interview footage waiting to be seen.

 

[Reverend]

I'm sure they'll get around to it eventually. If not BluRay then whatever ultra-HD format comes next. So long as there's a profit margin to be had, it's really just a matter of time.

 

[Truth_Seeker]

Scott Bakula was the standout of this episode, playing both Knight One and Knight Two.

This episode is something of a rarity as it's not written by JMS. In fact, it was written by somebody that used to write for a science fiction series I was a fan of when I was younger; Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap fame. I know what you're thinking; "Scott Bakula is an amazing actor and a very sexy man, but Ben is being weird by thinking that he wrote for Quantum Leap." And you'd be wrong on all counts (except the bit about me being weird) because Scott Bakula wrote the song Somewhere in the Night for the episode Piano Man. JMS was apparently so impressed by the emotion in the lyrics that he hired him to write an episode of B5.

 

[CorporalClegg]

^
It's never wise to arrive late to a party and wonder why all the men are wearing panties.

 

[apenpaap]

Scott Bakula was the standout of this episode, playing both Knight One and Knight Two.

This episode is something of a rarity as it's not written by JMS. In fact, it was written by somebody that used to write for a science fiction series I was a fan of when I was younger; Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap fame. I know what you're thinking; "Scott Bakula is an amazing actor and a very sexy man, but Ben is being weird by thinking that he wrote for Quantum Leap." And you'd be wrong on all counts (except the bit about me being weird) because Scott Bakula wrote the song Somewhere in the Night for the episode Piano Man. JMS was apparently so impressed by the emotion in the lyrics that he hired him to write an episode of B5.

GodBen, in addittion to the Scott Bakula counter, you should also have a "Scott Bakula?" counter counting the number of people weirded out by that. So far it's on 2.

 

[Kegg]

On the positive side, if WB ever expects to release the series on BluRay then they'll simply have to pay to have ALL of the vfx shots recreated with up-to-date graphics. Assuming it's done right then it's a net gain for us.

Spoiler: Wouldn't you like to know?

And I know this a pet bugbear from my own thread, but the more and more I think about the Minbari threatening to kill Sinclair the less sense it makes. Assume he discovers the truth: That the Minbari deleted part of his memory and that memory was that they ended the war because humans have their souls and he has the soul of one of their greatest leaders. What are they certain he'll do that's so dangerous that he, which they think is in some way connected to Valen (they may already know that he's basically Valen before he became Valen, but In the Beginning leaves that a little ambiguous), is worth killing? It's just sort of preposterous, bloated, and, of course, in retrospect little more than asinine posturing.

Spoiler: Nothing to see here, move along...

JMS has directly answered that question. See here and here.

Spoiler: Don't you hate whole conversations in spoiler-tags?

It doesn't wash, though. This super-critical information is something that they're willing to tell Sheridan - a human who doesn't have the soul of Valen and also isn't popular with the Minbari. It doesn't make sense that Sinclair's knowledge automatically entails his death; if they could trust Sheridan to be circumspect and keep it a secret, why are they unwilling to consider the same regarding Valen himself? I can see considering killing him as an option, but not as a necessity.

 

[TheGodBen]

Today is a momentous day! It's 90210 day. (Sorry America, you have to wait until September for your 90210 day.)

Actually, today marks the one year anniversary of my first Voyager review, posted at around 2am on February 9th 2009. I think this is deserving of a celebration, so I'll accept cash transferred into my PayPal account and I'll use it to buy myself a bottle of expensive champagne.

But it is still odd that the aspect ratio changes (picture stretches), it should not. The 4:3 VFX shots should be 'letterboxed'.

Are you watching this on DVD? perhaps that disc had a mastering error.

It's the DVD, region 2 if that makes a difference. It doesn't affect all the episodes, I've only noticed it on this one, whereever a special effect is used in a shot they stretch the image rather than cutting the top and bottom off. For example, the scene where Sinclair is in the cybernet and imagines Garibaldi finding him and disappearing, every time Garibaldi is in the shot the image is stretched because they use a wavy effect when he disappears, but when it cuts back to Sinclair he looks normal. Even the external shots of the station appeared stretched in that one episode.

It's hard to judge an episode like this as it's not really a story in its own right, it's an investigation of the show's myth arc.

Then hard times be ahead.

It depends on whether the later episodes actually tell a good story while dealing with the show's myth arc. I'm reminded of BSG's No Exit, an episode that everybody loved because it finally revealed the mystery of the Cylons but which I didn't like because it was just two people in a room shouting exposition at one another. Lost's The Man Behind The Curtain revealed a lot about that show's myth arc but it still managed to be a good character episode for Ben and a very interesting story about Jabob and the cabin. So it really depends on how B5 handles these mysteries in the future.


Deathwalker (**½)

There's some alien woman who killed a whole bunch of people in some war for some reason and now she's back and all the aliens want her dead. Oh, and her species were all complete gits and were wiped out, but she survived because some Minbari liked the cut of her jib, so now she's back with some sort of magic that allows people to live forever and everyone wants her dead. Except all the major powers who want her alive because they didn't do anything during the wars where she killed a whole bunch of people, and Earth Alliance wants her alive for her magic immortality serum. Do I have all this right?

The plot is convoluted and steeped in a backstory I don't understand and don't care to understand, and it also brings back bad memories of Soul Hunter. The episode becomes slightly interesting when the evil alien woman reveals that she has an immortality potion and Earth Alliance is willing to forgive her sins if they can obtain it, but even that isn't all that engaging. No, the episode only becomes really interesting once the politics comes into it! Seriously, I enjoyed the scenes of the council voting on whether there should be a trial for the evil woman, all it needed was a little ELO playing in the background to make it perfect. Then some alien ships show up and threaten B5 to keep things on the interesting path.

Then comes the finale as Sinclair comes to some sort of deal I don't understand with the fish woman and the Jam'Hadar-alike, then the evil woman tells us that the immortality potion requires the death of others before cackling like the witch the make-up artists made her out to be. The episode lost a point for this. Then the Vorlons show up out of nowhere and blow her up real good. The episode earned a point for this.

There's a b-story where Kosh does some weird thing to Talia involving lots of disconnected phrases and a robot man. It sounds like it should be right up my street, but the robot man annoyed me and Talia is boring so I was only interested in it for Kosh. Kosh is an odd one, I bet he wont play a bigger role in the future.

Scott Bakula went back to his old ways by playing a woman this week, this time with an added fin-mohawk. I also forgot that Scott Bakula also plays series regular G'Kar. This man's range is amazing!

Scott Bakula: 5

Scott Bakula?!: 2

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

On the positive side, if WB ever expects to release the series on BluRay then they'll simply have to pay to have ALL of the vfx shots recreated with up-to-date graphics. Assuming it's done right then it's a net gain for us.

Spoiler: Wouldn't you like to know?

And I know this a pet bugbear from my own thread, but the more and more I think about the Minbari threatening to kill Sinclair the less sense it makes. Assume he discovers the truth: That the Minbari deleted part of his memory and that memory was that they ended the war because humans have their souls and he has the soul of one of their greatest leaders. What are they certain he'll do that's so dangerous that he, which they think is in some way connected to Valen (they may already know that he's basically Valen before he became Valen, but In the Beginning leaves that a little ambiguous), is worth killing? It's just sort of preposterous, bloated, and, of course, in retrospect little more than asinine posturing.

Spoiler: Nothing to see here, move along...

JMS has directly answered that question. See here and here.

Spoiler: Don't you hate whole conversations in spoiler-tags?

It doesn't wash, though. This super-critical information is something that they're willing to tell Sheridan - a human who doesn't have the soul of Valen and also isn't popular with the Minbari. It doesn't make sense that Sinclair's knowledge automatically entails his death; if they could trust Sheridan to be circumspect and keep it a secret, why are they unwilling to consider the same regarding Valen himself? I can see considering killing him as an option, but not as a necessity.

Spoiler: Yeah because Safari doesn't allow me to open more than one

Nevertheless, I think the whole Sinclair-must-die-if-he-learns-the-truth is a left over from JMS's original direction for the metastory that unfortunately creates in incongruity. In original arc, or at least an early iteration, Sinclair isn't Valen but merely the "tool" by which the Minbari can continue as a race--i.e. he is the one who will mate with a transmuted Delenn and sire a mixed Minbari/Human child. I'd suspect, like as was explored in "Atonement", there were those Minbari who did not want Sinclair's "tainted blood" to spoil the purity of the race.

 

[Canadave]

Yeah, unfortunately right now you're stuck in a bit of a rut of very standard sci-fi plots, about five episodes long. None of them stand out as being particularly terrible, but I have no great desire to rewatch any of them, either. Luckily, "Signs and Portents" comes after this stretch, which is one of the highlights of season 1.

 

[Truth_Seeker]

Scott Bakula went back to his old ways by playing a woman this week, this time with an added fin-mohawk. I also forgot that Scott Bakula also plays series regular G'Kar. This man's range is amazing!

It's obviously some kind of an inside joke which I fail to understand!

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Deathwalker (**½)

There's some alien woman who killed a whole bunch of people in some war for some reason and now she's back and all the aliens want her dead. Oh, and her species were all complete gits and were wiped out, but she survived because some Minbari liked the cut of her jib, so now she's back with some sort of magic that allows people to live forever and everyone wants her dead. Except all the major powers who want her alive because they didn't do anything during the wars where she killed a whole bunch of people, and Earth Alliance wants her alive for her magic immortality serum. Do I have all this right?

The plot is convoluted and steeped in a backstory I don't understand and don't care to understand, and it also brings back bad memories of Soul Hunter. The episode becomes slightly interesting when the evil alien woman reveals that she has an immortality potion and Earth Alliance is willing to forgive her sins if they can obtain it, but even that isn't all that engaging. No, the episode only becomes really interesting once the politics comes into it! Seriously, I enjoyed the scenes of the council voting on whether there should be a trial for the evil woman, all it needed was a little ELO playing in the background to make it perfect. Then some alien ships show up and threaten B5 to keep things on the interesting path.

Then comes the finale as Sinclair comes to some sort of deal I don't understand with the fish woman and the Jam'Hadar-alike, then the evil woman tells us that the immortality potion requires the death of others before cackling like the witch the make-up artists made her out to be. The episode lost a point for this. Then the Vorlons show up out of nowhere and blow her up real good. The episode earned a point for this.

There's a b-story where Kosh does some weird thing to Talia involving lots of disconnected phrases and a robot man. It sounds like it should be right up my street, but the robot man annoyed me and Talia is boring so I was only interested in it for Kosh. Kosh is an odd one, I bet he wont play a bigger role in the future.

Scott Bakula went back to his old ways by playing a woman this week, this time with an added fin-mohawk. I also forgot that Scott Bakula also plays series regular G'Kar. This man's range is amazing!

Scott Bakula: 5

Scott Bakula?!: 2

Great review as always, TGB, although I personally like this episode quite a lot, as alien politics is always my favourite part of sci-fi.

Pointless info! *puts on geek hat*: The fish-women are the Abbai of the Abbai Matriarchate. The "Jem'Hadar-alike", by which I assume you mean the grayish scaly people, are the Drazi of the Drazi Freehold. Oh, and the "alien ships" were a Drazi sunhawk, two Vree Xill-class saucers and an Ipsha Battleglobe. Didn't this information just make your day?

 

[Jan]

As a future-but-not-present Niner, would it be out of line for me to mention that some of TheGodBen's references to DS9 and other shows (such as "Jam'Hadar-alike" (which I think is supposed to be Jem-Hadar-alike)) when referring to B5 characters is getting too obscure to make any sense?

Jan

 

[Lindley]

Other than reptilian looks, the Drazi don't have a lot in common with the Jem'Hadar.