A Niner Watches Babylon 5 (NO spoilers, please)

All right, enough with the spoiler tags for now.

Spoiler: Shocking!

Even the spoiler tag *descriptions* are starting to push things in a spoilery direction.

 

Sucks that the alternate B5 thread I made didn't last.

 

Exogenesis (***½)

I have to admit that the name of this episode scared me, I feared I was going to have to sit through another episode like Infection, and as soon as I saw the insect creature things I thought to myself "We seek peaceful coexistence", "BANG!" Luckily the episode didn't go that route, the aliens weren't interested in infiltrating the station, they just wanted to remember stuff as part of the latest version update for Wikipedia. And they weren't capturing innocent people either, the people joined with the aliens willingly so that their lives could have meaning. Say, where can I get one of these things for myself?

Ron Moore is an odd character. He's a badass with a stick to beat people with, and he's preparing for a major war against darkness, but he's cheerful and has a friendly English accent. He's weird, but I'm sort of starting to like him. I'll have to see more of him before coming to a conclusion, and once I get to know him maybe I'll stop calling him Ron Moore, because all the real Ron Moore does is sit around all day drinking scotch and pleasuring himself.

I'm assuming that whatever package it is which is being sent to Ron Moorcas from Earth will be important in the next episode (I've heard that Messages From Earth is a major event episode).

Anyway, the end of the episode has an important message from Duncan who tells us that we all should stop wasting our time in the bath drinking jynnan tonnyx and should experience the world to its fullest. Not the smartest message to give to an audience of science fiction nerds, if they take it to heart they'll stop wasting their time on this fantastical nonsense and go outside. Weeeeeell, it is sunny out there today... maybe I should try it?

No no, it's too scary, there's people out there.

I don't know that this episode actually merits a 7/10, but I was sick of awarding 6/10s, so I went the generous route.

 

He's always looked more like d'Artagnan to me.

 

That's always been a part of JMS's work, especially Babylon 5. In fact, it's his personal motto on life. "Live the life you want to live," as he's put it, and "never surrender dreams."

 

I never throught much about "Exogenesis". For me it is one those "half decent half mediocre/terrible" episodes. I mean is there no space opera where there is no body snatching/infesting/mind controlling parasite alien involved ? The bits with Ivanova and her loyalty check of Corwin was cool though.

Now "Messages From Earth" hmmmm sounds interesting.....

 

My copy of the disc with Exogenisis is actually corrupted, so it's ages since I've been able to watch this one, but I do remember liking the chemistry they developed between Marcus and Franklin. More on that to come later in the show!

 

If it's caused by scratches on the protective layer, you can try to fix it with toothpaste. It works!

http://www.wikihow.com/Repair-a-CD-With-Toothpaste

Make sure you back up the DVD as soon as possible, because after that treatment the protective layer will become much thinner than before.

 

Well, one subtle thing about this particular episode is that it indirectly provides the fundamental reasoning beneath Bester's scheming dickery--G'Kar's explanation for the lack of Narn telepaths is that they were all slaughtered like witches a few hundred years ago.

Surely, this is an outcome which has occurred to the upper echelons in Psi Corps, so maintaining and expanding their institution is the most important thing in the world to them, since one--historically likely, even if all they had to go on was Earth history--alternative is persecution and perhaps extinction.

 

Well, it is better than that--even if I found the "reveal" so patently telegraphed that I wish they'd just gotten it out of the way in the first act and explored the more interesting questions it raises about identity and such, instead of trying to make it surprising. It's basically TNG's "The Host" if Crusher didn't find out that Odan was the slug until ten minutes before the end. I'll admit that they at least did manage to fill the other thirty minutes with entertaining jeopardy bits--and some more super-subtle innuendo that Ivanova is gay, because Franklin just laughing in Ron Moore's face and outright stating it wouldn't be television-friendly.

I found them a bit perfunctory. These people live in what is very close to becoming a fascist dictatorship. She asked him a few questions about orders, and discovered the shocking fact that someone who lives in a police state will generally not admit to disaffection with the regime.

 

Don't think it's a scratch so much as just data corruption. The rest of the disc plays fine.

Spoiler: Psi Corps novels

Actually, mass slaughter and witch hunting of telepaths has already happened on Earth at this point. Twice. Once when they were first identified, which lead to the Senate creating the MRA (Metasensory Regulation Authority) and again after first contact with the Centauri when it was found out that they had telepaths too, which in part lead to the Psi Corps proper.

So yes, Bester and others like him are convinced that sooner or later, one side or the other will be force to wipe out or totally enslave the other and they plan on getting there first.

 

I remember reading on the Lurker's GUide JMS talking about how he wrote about half the episode, and then some other stuff was happening that kept him away from the writing for a couple days, and then when he got back to it he had lost his feel for what the episode was supposed to be and couldn't find it again.

 

Y'know, I've just noticed that Godben's gone 7 episodes deep into this season and has yet to give a sub-par (below 5) score. Of all the seasons of VOY, ENT, and now B5 he's reviewed, I do believe that's a record!

 

It's also one of my favourites. It's a beautiful scene, and it gains added depth through the use of Kosh. I always had my suspicions about Kosh and the way he approached the younger races, and of course the interesting thing is that he's such a mystery. We can guess, we can try to determine who he is, how he thinks, what his plans and hopes are. It isn't all laid out the way it is with the more human aliens.

 

Sadly, it could not last.


Messages from Ben's Subconscious (**)

This dream follows on where the b-plot of the last episode left off; Lt Corwin decides to tell Ivanova how he is secretly in love with her, so he goes to her quarters and gives a speech about how much she means to him. Ivanova is shocked and doesn't know how to respond, but just as Corwin is about to leave she walks over to him, kisses him passionately and asks him if he has ever "clammed" before.

The dream then cuts to a scene of the two of them screwing on the floor, but they're both wearing green rubber hoods on their heads that look a bit like Minbari head bones. Apparently, this is the aforementioned "clamming", it probably comes from some sort of Minbari Kama Sutra. It is at this point that a hologram of Delenn appears. She is also wearing one of the green rubber hoods, but she also has a glowing red nose, much like Rudolph the reindeer. Delenn says to Ivanova "I had no idea you were gay!" which makes no sense considering Ivanova was participating in a heterosexual act. Perhaps it was a joke about Corwin's lack of backbone? Ivanova stops what she was doing and walks over to Delenn so they can talk in private, but Corwin overhears something about Sheridan's plan to bring down President Clarke, and his eye turns red like that of Sauron.

It is at this point that my alarm went off.

So what did this dream mean? Firstly, it means that I'm looking forward to watching Messages from Earth and I'm disappointed that I couldn't watch it last night due to work I had to do. Secondly, the dream is telling me that I desperately need to get laid. I don't know what the green rubber hoods or the glowing red nose were about. I also don't know where the word "clamming" came from, and Urban Dictionary's definitions don't seem to match.

Worst of all, there was no Scott Bakula in the dream.

 

All of the other 'Bari, used to laugh and call her names.

Don't worry, one of these nights Draal will ask her to take command of his sleigh or something, and then they'll all love her. I know how this goes.

 

TGB, we all desperately need to get laid.

 

Where are the Lumati when we need them?

 

Do a little dance, make a little love, get DOWN TONIIIITE!

 

It's one thing to have a sex dream, everyone has those. It's a completely different thing to have a B5 sex dream.