Babylon 5

[David cgc]

It's possible the Shadows aren't just invisible, but insubstantial. What was, early on, assumed to be their ships having Star Trek-style cloaking devices because of the similarity of the visual effect turned out to be a way they can shift in and out of hyperspace without using a jump point. Perhaps when they disappear, individual Shadows are doing something similar, and not just becoming invisible using camoflauge, but actually, shifting outside of normal reality. It'd explain why Morden can move around in crowds without trouble, though there are some places where that doesn't quite add up (they needed Morden to pick the lock and open Kosh's door, they couldn't just walk through the walls, and one of them seemed to die when Londo had the spot where it was standing machine-gunned). Maybe they're... smaller or flatter somehow, but still inside normal space to enough of a degree to be unable to pass through solid metal, or avoid a flamethrower of blazing plasma.

 

[Kraig]

So Morden is using commercial shuttle liners to traverse space from a to b, so that he can pass for a nobody.

Cool?

But what about the 4 or 5 gorilla sized invisible spider monsters hanging out with him?

Pick one...

1. Morden buys two seats for each Shadow, but because they are invisible, he looks like he is stuck up.

2. Morden charters staterooms on the liner or sleeping coaches intended for a large group or family.

3. The Shadows split up, and each hide in a different toilet for the 4 day trip from Centauri Prime to Babylon 5.

4. The invisible Shadows fuck up the ceiling with their dagger feet, skittering around upside down, on the ceiling.

5. The Shadows don't travel with Morden, but there are Shadows already there, whereever he is going, who live on places like Babylon 5, and meet Morden at customs, to hear word from home, and find out what they are going to do next to forward the grand plan.

6. The Shadows travel as cargo in steamer trunks.

7. The Shadows dig in to the hull from the outside and cling to the ship as it zips through real space and hyper space at ludicrous speed.

8. Million year old multi trillionaire space gods, the Shadows purchased a fleet of passenger liners 10 years ago, and went into business as inter galactic travel entrepreneurs. Hell, they may even be the pilots driving these ships in and out of port and paying the docking fees.

9. Shadows can look human when they want to.

10. The Shadows, are inside Morden, like Kosh or AlKosh was inside Lyta.

I'm partial to 6. But, being invisible, they don't need steamer trunks, they just walk into the cargo hold.

 

[Guy Gardener]

S04e03 Whatever became of Mr Garibaldi?

Are they still using Earth Creds?

They would have nationalised the banks, cracking open every atm and vault, and probably tried to secure as much digital currency as possible, before headoffice sent the order to halt and catch fire.

Was paroll shipped in with the mail, was it digital-ledgers, or is there a printing press hidden somewhere discreet on babylon 5? Meanwhile, they don't have to pay taxes to Earth either, so the docking guild just got a huge raise.

If Earth credits back home are changed to reflect the new government, then that means all the Earth money on Proxima, Mars and Babylon 5 is suddenly bullshit.

Do the Minbari have money?

The Narn are using Centauri ducets, if they are even allowed to have bank accounts, and the Centauri are the baddies at war with everyone except Earth, so a currency exchange seems ridiculous.

Why didn't Zack ask for a White Star to go get Mr Garibaldi?

 

[Forbin]

Built a bigass 3D printed Star Fury model:
http://www.inpayne.com/models/scifi/starfury48.html

(more pics at the link)

 

[Farscape One]

Very impressive!

 

[Guy Gardener]

Got through Third space, and I do mean "got through".

It's pretty, but pointless.

It's an astronauts vs. Zombie movie for people who know nothing about B5. I was thinking however, in the "Taxi Universe" does Bobby Wheeler play Zack, and is Louie finally proud of him?

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

John "Nukem" Sheridan strikes again.

 

[DonIago]

John "Nukem" Sheridan strikes again.

Yeah. Yeeeeaaaaaaahhhhh. I really wish they'd come up with a slightly more original resolution there, or at least had lampshaded this.

 

[Ithekro]

So Morden is using commercial shuttle liners to traverse space from a to b, so that he can pass for a nobody.

6. The Shadows travel as cargo in steamer trunks.

Marx Brothers style comedy with a group of Shadows making their way to Babylon 5.

 

[David cgc]

The soundtrack album for The Road Home has been announced, and is releasing on October 27.

Track list and if that includes a physical release TBA.

 

[DonIago]

I don't remember the music for the film being particularly notable. Not on the level of Franke's stuff, and not as bizarrely out-of-place as Chen's, but cool for folks who want a copy.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Constant lite Homophobia on Friends.

I like to think that they were stealth tricking mainstream assholes into gradually tolerating homosexuals, but there was seriously a lot in there where gay = abnormal, although they also picked on everything else too.

Chandlar's dad's boyfriend is Mr Garibaldi.



I probably laughed about this 20 years ago, but it surprised me (again?).

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

About the ending of "Day of the Dead"

Zooty (played by 'Teller', of Penn & Teller) whispers something in Sheridan's ear. Apparently regarding the device Zooty always carries - the device he uses to speak. According to Sheridan, Zooty said "Because it tells me to." He does not say WHAT, specifically, the device is telling Zooty to do, or what prompted the question in the first place (we never see anyone actually asking Zooty the question). I wonder...

I do know that the OUT-of-universe reason is so Teller doesn't have to speak onscreen (Since, AFAIK, he never speaks IRL), but there must be an IN-universe reason too....right?

 

[David cgc]

I do know that the OUT-of-universe reason is so Teller doesn't have to speak onscreen (Since, AFAIK, he never speaks IRL), but there must be an IN-universe reason too....right?

To be clear, Teller does speak publicly when he's not performing, unlike Zooty, though examples are much easier to find now than they were in 1998. But since Teller was playing Zooty as, in a way, part of a Penn and Teller act, Zooty was never out-of-character, even when Zooty wasn't performing in the reality of the story... never mind.

It's fodder for speculation. According to Rebo, Zooty spoke one other time, to say, "Why?" The implication was it was a very long joke. Why? Because it tells me to. So, the question is, "Why what?"

"Why do you never speak?" seems like the obvious one, just as it seems obvious that "it" is the Machine. If it's something not obvious, we've no chance of getting it, so I'm going to say that Zooty was an explorer on the Rim and the Machine is a Shadow-built comedy-computer to which he sold his soul (or at least his voice). Zooty is to pratfalls as Technomages are to magic.

 

[Tosk]

To be clear, Teller does speak publicly when he's not performing

And sometimes he even does speak in character, such as on The Simpsons. I guess they figured we could only have his real face or his real voice, but not both at the same time.

 

[David cgc]

And sometimes he even does speak in character, such as on The Simpsons. I guess they figured we could only have his real face or his real voice, but not both at the same time.

Reminds me of the infamous "Colbert Report" where Daft Punk didn't appear due to a contractual obligation. Luckily, they'd already known they wouldn't be able to perform (or speak), so the episode had already been written around them not participating and it wasn't impossible to change the context a little. One of the things we lost, though, was that they were going to make a joke about how it could be a huge fraud, and we had no way of knowing it was the real Daft Punk inside those costumes, to which Colbert would point out, if it wasn't the real Daft Punk, they'd be allowed to perform a Daft Punk song.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Reminds me of the infamous "Colbert Report" where Daft Punk didn't appear due to a contractual obligation. Luckily, they'd already known they wouldn't be able to perform (or speak), so the episode had already been written around them not participating and it wasn't impossible to change the context a little. One of the things we lost, though, was that they were going to make a joke about how it could be a huge fraud, and we had no way of knowing it was the real Daft Punk inside those costumes, to which Colbert would point out, if it wasn't the real Daft Punk, they'd be allowed to perform a Daft Punk song.

Easily one of my favorite epsiodes of that entire show.

 

[somebuddyX]

Got through Third space, and I do mean "got through".

It's pretty, but pointless.

It's an astronauts vs. Zombie movie for people who know nothing about B5. I was thinking however, in the "Taxi Universe" does Bobby Wheeler play Zack, and is Louie finally proud of him?

I hated "Third Space". What a waste of an episode. I've still never seen "River of Souls." I remember when "Soul Hunter" aired and there was something interesting about the mix of sci-fi and the supernatural and I don't think I ever saw that again in the show. I think the closest was Lennier talking about Minbari souls migrating to human bodies but then that just became something about DNA or Sinclair/Valen or whatever.

 

[Steve Roby]

I hated "Third Space". What a waste of an episode.

I kind of liked it. I would never in a million years argue that it was any good, but sometimes that's not relevant to whether I get some enjoyment out of something.

I've still never seen "River of Souls."

Now that, on the other hand, was one that (a) I would argue was about as close to objectively bad as something can be and (b) I really hated.

I remember when "Soul Hunter" aired and there was something interesting about the mix of sci-fi and the supernatural and I don't think I ever saw that again in the show. I think the closest was Lennier talking about Minbari souls migrating to human bodies but then that just became something about DNA or Sinclair/Valen or whatever.

As I recall, having only watched it once, one of the Lost Tales stories tried to walk the line between supernatural and maybe not supernatural. The way I remember it, it fell over the line onto the supernatural side. And I was not thrilled that I had paid money to watch it. It's better than River of Souls, though only because it's over more quickly.

 

[Forbin]

Teller also played Amy's father on an episode of Big Bang Theory. The joke, IIRC, was that her mother (Kathy Bates) would never let him get a word in edgewise. But he did have a line or two.