A Niner Watches Babylon 5 (NO spoilers, please)

[TheGodBen]

This may not be the best time to post this...


Ceremonies of Light and Dark (**½)

Once again, it's the villains that held me back from enjoying this episode. The secret Night Watch cell on the station seems to be made up of hicks that want to kill Sheridan and Delenn for reasons that I don't care about. The sniper character, who I have nicknamed Ronnie Gardocki due to his quiet tone and beard, wants to kill Delenn because he's something of a git. How did this guy get a job as part of station security anyway? So Ronnie and Boggs kidnap Delenn, then she's rescued. The end. Not much of interest happened here.

Meanwhile...

Ron Moorcus has a semi-serious story that feels a bit weird considering how light and fluffy his character has appeared so far. He doesn't want to go to Delenn's rebirth ceremony because he'd prefer to stay at home drinking scotch and pleasuring himself, but then we learn that the real reason he doesn't want to go is that he's all angsty about his survivor guilt. Could this guy possibly be any more like Ron Moore? So he gets into a fight where he beats everyone up, then Lennier shows up and reveals that he's secretly in love with Delenn, but not the sort of love that makes you want to do some hanky panky, the sort of love where you want to talk about feelings and give foot rubs.

Sorry, the revelation made me laugh, but entirely for personal reasons.

Meanwhile...

We learn that some idiot thought it would be a good idea to program one of the most expensive construction projects ever with an AI based on a caricature of a New York taxi driver. At any moment I expected the station to shave its head and attack a whore-house to rescue an under-age prostitute. Actually, watching an 8km space station do that would have been more entertaining than the "comedy" this plot provided.

Meanwhile...

Delenn is in med-lab, so the other characters go to her to confess their secrets.

SHERIDAN: I really, really like you. You're cute.
DELENN (THINKING): Why don't you just man the fuck up and tell me that you love me?
IVANOVA: I think I was in love with Talia.
DELENN (THINKING): Wait, what?! That awkwardness between you two was supposed to be love? Ah well, at least you have more balls than John.
GARIBALDI: I'm afraid of letting go.
DELENN (THINKING): No Sherlock, shithead.
FRANKLIN: I think I have a problem.
DELENN (THINKING): What's that supposed to mean?! A problem at work? Is he not getting along with someone? A problem with foot odour? Erectile dysfunction?
To punish them for this crap I think I'll give them uniforms to make them look like the Psi Corps.

There are things I enjoyed in this episode, especially the funeral, and I'm glad they took at least one episode after the big event episode before going back to normal. But there was also a number of things which detracted from my enjoyment of the episode. Overall, it was okay.

 

[stonester1]

BTW, that was Harlan Ellison as the AI.

And you will be finding out more about Marcus...call his silliness "tears of a clown", as you are beginning to find out his happy go lucky exterior hides much pain. You got a glmpse of it this ep.

 

[Lindley]

I pretty much agree on the bad guys. Coming down from Vaughn Armstrong to those clowns was just way too sudden a shift in tone for the Nightwatch.

 

[Sykonee]

DELENN (THINKING): No Sherlock, shithead.

I can totally see S2 Delenn saying something like that.

Yeah, CoLaD could have been better if it'd just kept it being a Character Episode without tagging a Kidnap Plot along with it. Then again, we wouldn't have gotten the "Marcus destroys a bar" scene!

 

[stonester1]

Gimme a break!

Of course! What would you like? A broken arm? Broken leg? We're fresh out of broken hearts, just had a run on those.

 

[Aeon]

I like those new uniforms. They're nifty.

 

[RandyS]

I like those new uniforms. They're nifty.

So did I. The main appeal for me is that they were black. When It comes to clothes, you never miss with basic black.

 

[Aeon]

So true.

 

[Reverend]

How did this guy get a job as part of station security anyway?

I'm not sure that they did, in fact I rather suspect they were ex-Homeguard. Remember that not everyone who was in Nightwatch was in station security, it was a volunteer organization, at least in the beginning. I guess the idea of being paid to wear armbands while informing on people and being generally suspicious of aliens and liberals appealed to them as they couldn't get anyone else to join their Gestapo historical re-enactment society.

 

[Can]

This may not be the best time to post this...


Ceremonies of Light and Dark (**½)

Once again, it's the villains that held me back from enjoying this episode. The secret Night Watch cell on the station seems to be made up of hicks that want to kill Sheridan and Delenn for reasons that I don't care about. The sniper character, who I have nicknamed Ronnie Gardocki due to his quiet tone and beard, wants to kill Delenn because he's something of a git. How did this guy get a job as part of station security anyway? So Ronnie and Boggs kidnap Delenn, then she's rescued. The end. Not much of interest happened here.

I think they are supposed to be hicks , bigots , prejudiced xenophobic nutcases , damaged/disturbed souls....Most of them are not bright anyway. Although they made a sound kidnapping plan their companions were trapped in hangar bay in previous episode.

Meanwhile...

We learn that some idiot thought it would be a good idea to program one of the most expensive construction projects ever with an AI based on a caricature of a New York taxi driver. At any moment I expected the station to shave its head and attack a whore-house to rescue an under-age prostitute. Actually, watching an 8km space station do that would have been more entertaining than the "comedy" this plot provided.

I agree. That was a VERY LAME humour attempt

Meanwhile...

Delenn is in med-lab, so the other characters go to her to confess their secrets.

SHERIDAN: I really, really like you. You're cute.
DELENN (THINKING): Why don't you just man the fuck up and tell me that you love me?
IVANOVA: I think I was in love with Talia.
DELENN (THINKING): Wait, what?! That awkwardness between you two was supposed to be love? Ah well, at least you have more balls than John.
GARIBALDI: I'm afraid of letting go.
DELENN (THINKING): No Sherlock, shithead.
FRANKLIN: I think I have a problem.
DELENN (THINKING): What's that supposed to mean?! A problem at work? Is he not getting along with someone? A problem with foot odour? Erectile dysfunction?
To punish them for this crap I think I'll give them uniforms to make them look like the Psi Corps.

There are things I enjoyed in this episode, especially the funeral, and I'm glad they took at least one episode after the big event episode before going back to normal. But there was also a number of things which detracted from my enjoyment of the episode. Overall, it was okay.

I see that rebirth ceremony as an apology made for Delenn. She was wounded by a human. And last time humans harmed a high ranked Minbari like that result was not pretty. By taking of their uniforms , making their confessions and accepting their new uniforms and identities Sheridan and his staff basicly say "We are sorry what happened to you on behalf of humanity." Yes maybe Delenn wouldn't mind that but this was a personal jest for her...

Funeral was an important touch yes. It adds and feeling of continuty and serious air

Meanwhile

Don't forget Lando / Lord Refa conflict....

 

[Truth_Seeker]

Don't forget Lando / Lord Refa conflict....

Oh yes, the poisoning scene! I had forgotten that it was in this particular episode!

 

[stonester1]

To your health, Lord Refa...

 

[TheGodBen]

Sic Transit Vir (*½)

For a second there I thought that my dream was coming true and that Ivanova was going to start clamming Lt Corwin, but it turns out that she was the one having a dream. You know, I've never had that dream, the one where you show up somewhere and you're naked. I've also never had the dream where your teeth fall out. The only dreams I have that fit into one of those interpretive models is the dream where there's an intruder in my home, and even those don't go according to plan. The last time I had that dream was about a week ago and in it I fought off all three intruders with some kitchen-knife-wielding ninja skills, I threatened the Asian girl in her underwear who was working with them (Asian women in their underwear are frequent parts of my dreams) and I used one of the lifeless intruders as a human shield against a guy on a bicycle who was firing RPGs at me.

And I don't even do drugs!

Anyway, what was the point of Ivanova's dream again? Oh, who cares?

Meanwhile...

Vir reveals that he's 5/6th virgin. His conversation with Ivanova leads to a very important question; If the Centauri have six... appendages and only two hands, what do single guys do on a night in? Two important questions; How many batteries do Centauri women go through in a year?

If it seems like I'm not taking this episode seriously, that's because I'm not. I've come to tolerate Vir, even like him at times, but I'm not going to get emotionally involved in a romance between a pathetic, bumbling idiot and his racist forced bride, no matter how well this plot mirrored past events in my life! Vir is helping Narns escape their homeworld? Fine, it's not a ground-breaking revelation but it helps to make me like Vir, but the romance stuff didn't work for me.

Oh, and Sheridan had better make a move on Delenn soon or else some gorgeous Italian is going to come along and woo her, thus dragging this inevitability out for another 6 months.

 

[Jan]

... against a guy on a bicycle who was firing RPGs at me.

You dream of people shooting you with Role Playing Games?? I think you mean PPG?

I'm *so* not gonna get into a conversation about Centauri sex except to note that something you didn't see way back in "Born to the Purple" is that the female Centauri's corresponding equipment is on either side of their spine.

Jan

 

[AdmiralGarak]

... against a guy on a bicycle who was firing RPGs at me.

You dream of people shooting you with Role Playing Games?? I think you mean PPG?

People shooting you with a brand of paint would be obnoxious, but hardly a serious threat.

Or do you mean Powered Paragliders?

 

[stonester1]

Losing your teeth/naked dreams? Done 'em both, friend.

 

[Lindley]

but the romance stuff didn't work for me.

I don't think it worked for Vir either. He seemed very uncomfortable about the whole thing.

 

[Reverend]

I think Vir saw Lyndisty as an innocent who couldn't help that she'd been brought up as a nutter. Mind you, all due respect to any seemingly helpless, small woman who can overpower a pissed off Narn.

I suppose Vir's capacity for empathy an compassion are what a large portion of the episode is about. Not only was he willing to hope Lyndisty could be redeemed, he was willing to risk everything to get Narns (a race he's practically obligated to hate by law) out of harm's way, which for a Centauri is extremely unusual. It's probably hard to appreciate at this point, but later on you'll see the lengths most nobles are willing to go to not rock the boat or stand out from the crowd.

 

[Sean_McCormick]

... against a guy on a bicycle who was firing RPGs at me.

You dream of people shooting you with Role Playing Games?? I think you mean PPG?

I'm *so* not gonna get into a conversation about Centauri sex except to note that something you didn't see way back in "Born to the Purple" is that the female Centauri's corresponding equipment is on either side of their spine.

Jan

I also think, he meant PPG.

But he could have meant a Rocket-Propelled Grenade, although those look pretty difficult to operate while riding a bike.

 

[TheGodBen]

A guy firing rocket propelled grenades at me while riding a bike is fairly normal by my dream's standards; the night before last I had that Shining dream where the decomposing naked woman cackled at me, and a few weeks ago I had a dream that my ex girlfriend was hunted down and shot by a Na'vi. I've tried to interpret them online, but apparently those aren't generic enough.

I don't think it worked for Vir either. He seemed very uncomfortable about the whole thing.

Which is probably why I can't empathise with him, I'm a stud when it comes to the ladies.