"TKO" is also a missed opportunity. They should have given Dolph Lundgren or Chuck Norris a special guest spot. 
A Niner Watches Babylon 5 (NO spoilers, please)
- Thread starter TheGodBen
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That's actually a famous montage of Voyager 1 images. Clicky! I used to have a book about the solar system with it on the cover. Always found it funny that they used such a stock picture of the Saturn system for Sinclair's office.
I liked TKO...but LOVED "Grail". Enjoyed the premise and David Warner always elevates whatever he's given to do.
Ha... Congrats on 'surviving' TKO. It certainly tops my least favorite B5 episodes list. 
What, no hate for "Day of the Dead"? I'd place that well beneath "Grail" (which is alright) and "Grey 17 Is Missing" (the B-plot isn't bad there). But "Day" is just excruiatingly stupid on a staggeringly epic scale. Which is what happens when Neil Gaiman writes for B5 - no, don't ask me how that's supposed to make sense, but they found a way. Actually there are a number of other season five episodes I could put up here if I could remember their names. One of them had a story by Harlan Ellison. No, really, I'm not sure what JMS did to these guys.
"TKO" is so bad that it's almost winsomely so - the A-plot, anyway, with its cornball story about Japanese martial arts and the white man learning to respect them. Only the white man, see, he's black, and the Japanese... actually his opponent is still Japanese. He's got a quasi-topknot and everything. And what's with the Muta'Do's accent? But yeah, it's a classic Lawrence DiTillio script: Wasting our time throughout the first two seasons with hackneyed melodrama (see also: "GROPOS").
"TKO" is so bad that it's almost winsomely so - the A-plot, anyway, with its cornball story about Japanese martial arts and the white man learning to respect them. Only the white man, see, he's black, and the Japanese... actually his opponent is still Japanese. He's got a quasi-topknot and everything. And what's with the Muta'Do's accent? But yeah, it's a classic Lawrence DiTillio script: Wasting our time throughout the first two seasons with hackneyed melodrama (see also: "GROPOS").
Harlan Ellison was B5's conceptual consultant for the entire series. He even has a couple of minor roles on the show.
In JMS's "Complete Guide to Scriptwriting" (or such) he talks about the problem with any sort of written-outside-of-house script on a TV show (which "Grail" was the only one of in the first season)-- and his complaint kind of matches "Grail" perfectly, in that it tends to be an episode where a guest character comes in and does everything while the main characters stand around and are amazed by him.
I think most people actually tend to like that episode and consider it one of the best of Season 5.
Definitely. It has to be my favourite of the fifth season, not counting "Sleeping in Light."
Glad to see you survived "TKO" in one piece, TGB.
Ok, let's just stop discussing future episodes before it turns into a "my favourite/most hated episode of B5 is..." thread. That way lies spoilers.
As for TKO...yeah it's certainly not the best but I think everyone who's seen B5 all the way though will agree that it's well below the average and such examples across the whole series are few and far between, though I must admit there's a bit of a dense patch here in season one so you'll just have to persevere and look forward to several more guest appearances by Scott Bakula.
As for TKO...yeah it's certainly not the best but I think everyone who's seen B5 all the way though will agree that it's well below the average and such examples across the whole series are few and far between, though I must admit there's a bit of a dense patch here in season one so you'll just have to persevere and look forward to several more guest appearances by Scott Bakula.
That people like "Day of the Dead" I find baffling and disheartening, but oh well. I can't remember an episode of the show that actually made more furious or more ashamed to be watching it.
I'm aware of that. On topic, "TKO" includes a shameless nod to Ellison by having Ivanova reading one of his books.
I liked TKO, especially the Ivanova subplot. Of course I also liked Voyager's "The Fight" so maybe it must be the whole Boxing thing that appeals to me.
Yeah... Enterprise should have had a boxing episode. That way we could watch Archer get beaten up again.
Well you survived TKO, and without beer - congrats! 
In my opinion, the series is never as bad again. On occasion it tries, but never betters this attempt! Now I did appreciate them trying to service Ivanova's character. She's been through the ringer a few times already in the first season. It's just a shame it's done in such a dull, cliched way. Luckily, from now on, Ivanova is portrayed in a better light.
As for the main A-plot, I just have bad flashbacks to all of the various genre shows that have tried out this dull, unimaginative plot over and over and run it in the ground. It offers nothing new, and the scenes an be fast-forwarded on rewatch, thank The Maker!
In my opinion, the series is never as bad again. On occasion it tries, but never betters this attempt! Now I did appreciate them trying to service Ivanova's character. She's been through the ringer a few times already in the first season. It's just a shame it's done in such a dull, cliched way. Luckily, from now on, Ivanova is portrayed in a better light.
As for the main A-plot, I just have bad flashbacks to all of the various genre shows that have tried out this dull, unimaginative plot over and over and run it in the ground. It offers nothing new, and the scenes an be fast-forwarded on rewatch, thank The Maker!
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As I recall he has announced plans to write it, with the very same title no less. This is a man who clearly lives in fear of disrupting the space-time continuum.
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