Farscape or Babylon 5?

[Lindley]

they coulkd just leave hyperspace at any time. It makes me wonder how they can explore, since they'd have to travel under the speed of light once they get to the farthest point that a gate exists.

They can leave hyperspace at any time, but only with a functional jumppoint generator. Small craft like Starfuries and civilian freighters usually wouldn't have these, since they are expensive and require a lot of power.

Warships and explorer ships often do have them, especially the larger ones. However, the explorer ship's drive was damaged in this episode.

Note that even if you can leave hyperspace whenever you want, you still need the lock-on signals to navigate. Otherwise, you could come out pretty much anywhere.

 

[tomswift2002]

You can't read them until after you finish the Series, but, there is a Trilogy of Books about the Technomages, that are very good, and are blessed by JMS as Canon.

The Technomage Trilogy
All are considered canon[18]: written by Jeanne Cavelos.

1. Babylon 5: The Passing of the Techno-Mages - Casting Shadows (2001, ISBN 0-345-42721-1)
2. Babylon 5: The Passing of the Techno-Mages - Summoning Light (2001, ISBN 0-345-42722-X)
3. Babylon 5: The Passing of the Techno-Mages - Invoking Darkness (2001, ISBN 0-345-43833-7)

Not to mention that the post series Crusade and the movie A Call To Arms also feature Technomage's to a higher degree than they are seen in B5.

Plus with the thing about the opening credits, even if they weren't there during the original run, someone at Warners probably thought that most people, especially with a TV series, wouldn't be bothered watching the opening credits, so they were maybe hoping that that would just slip by.

 

[JoeD80]

^If I recall correctly, it wasn't so much the length of time to apply as it was all the glue. Plus I think she didn't believe it looked very flattering. I could be misremembering though.

What Mira said in interviews was that she had a hard time dealing with the barrier between actress and audience by having the makeup on; losing herself in it as it were. As for the lighting, I do recall something about having to avoid certain angles or her face would glow.

She may have also had a bad reaction to the appliances. I know it was certainly a problem for the actresses that played Ko D'Ath & Na'toth

I don't think that was an issue for Mira. She even did her full Minbari makeup in that first episode of season two (since there was that flashback). She also said she had a lot of fun being in the "mud-creature" makeup she wore in that scene when Dr. Franklin gets to her; as long as she didn't have to do it long-term!

 

[kirk55555]

The Long Dark - This was a decent episode. It was cool seeing Dwight Shultz. I always liked Barclay, and he played a good role in this episode. His parts were good, as was the shadow creature plot. The episode did get dragged down by the woman and Doctor's parts. I really don't care about the Doctor, and especially not his personal life. When they were together it was really boring. But, they didn't ruin the episode, they just stopped it from being more than just a decent one. Overall, I did like the episode, despite the boring parts.

 

[kirk55555]

A Spider in the Web - This was a good episode. I will say that I'm getting sick of annoying senators. The government stuff never acomplishes anything except to show that all senators are either idiots or corrupt, and just seem to be used as filler/exposition. Its not a huge deal, but if the mysterious entities they keep hinting at do come and attack, I hope the Earth Government gets destroyed. Also, is it just me or does it seem weird that pretty much no one other than B5 personnel have communications devices? What is with that? I mean, when the cyborg is ordered to eliminate Talia and kills the security officer, she barely gets saved by her mind powers and then has to run screaming for help, because she has no communication device. It seems like having some way to call for help would be sueful, even if portable personal communications isn't alolowed for some stupid reason.

The cyborg was interesting. I do wonder how Psi Corps is involved with this mysterious orginazation. The woman was wearing her badge, so even though the computer says shes dead, it may just be a death faked by the Corp. One thing this episode did is make me want to see Winters die. She is so fanatical in her devotion to the Psi Corps that she actually covers up their possible involvement in the cyborg plot? Seriously, shes either a fanatic or an idiot, or both. To be clear, i don't hate the character, I just now want to see her cover up exposed and then see her get punished for being an idiot. I am interested in learning why all telepaths seem to be idiots or loyal to the Corps. Are there really no legal telepaths in the Corps with minds of their own? Even if they have all be indoctrinated since they were young, there must be one or two of them with some free will, we just haven't seen them. I hope we see Walter Koenig again this season. So, overall, I enjoyed this episode, and I do hope the stuff that happens in this episode gets followed up on in other episodes (I'm assuming it will).

 

[Sindatur]

A Spider in the Web - This was a good episode. I will say that I'm getting sick of annoying senators. The government stuff never acomplishes anything except to show that all senators are either idiots or corrupt, and just seem to be used as filler/exposition. Its not a huge deal, but if the mysterious entities they keep hinting at do come and attack, I hope the Earth Government gets destroyed. Also, is it just me or does it seem weird that pretty much no one other than B5 personnel have communications devices? What is with that? I mean, when the cyborg is ordered to eliminate Talia and kills the security officer, she barely gets saved by her mind powers and then has to run screaming for help, because she has no communication device. It seems like having some way to call for help would be sueful, even if portable personal communications isn't alolowed for some stupid reason.

The cyborg was interesting. I do wonder how Psi Corps is involved with this mysterious orginazation. The woman was wearing her badge, so even though the computer says shes dead, it may just be a death faked by the Corp. One thing this episode did is make me want to see Winters die. She is so fanatical in her devotion to the Psi Corps that she actually covers up their possible involvement in the cyborg plot? Seriously, shes either a fanatic or an idiot, or both. To be clear, i don't hate the character, I just now want to see her cover up exposed and then see her get punished for being an idiot. I am interested in learning why all telepaths seem to be idiots or loyal to the Corps. Are there really no legal telepaths in the Corps with minds of their own? Even if they have all be indoctrinated since they were young, there must be one or two of them with some free will, we just haven't seen them. I hope we see Walter Koenig again this season. So, overall, I enjoyed this episode, and I do hope the stuff that happens in this episode gets followed up on in other episodes (I'm assuming it will).

Many of your questions/concerns will be addressed in due course

 

[kirk55555]

Soul Mates - This was an awesome episode, one of my favorite episodes so far (and not surprising, its a Londo episode, and written by Peter david, one of my favorite writers). Londo's wifes were great, and I liked how he chose which one to keep in the end. The delenn/Ivanova thing was pretty funny. The shady telepath stuff was also interesting, although having the empath force emotions on people reminded me of the DS9 episode were Luxana Troi had everyone acting weird because of some condition

A Race Through Dark places - It was nice to see koenig back. He plays Bester well. While I liked this episode, I had a few problems with it. Sheridan is the commander of B5, an important role on an important station. The rent thing was idiotic. I don't care if space is at a premium, he's military, a government employee who runs the station, he's entitled to having rent free quarters that are bigger than normal. It was kind of a funny subplot, but it also didn;t really make sense, even for a government as inept as the earth government in B5. After seeing this episode, I really want to see the Psi Corps get taken down. How many horrible things can this organization now be charged with? They've committed murder, rape, mind control (its atleast implied, plus what the empath was doing), torture, illegal human experimentation and more. I bet its going to come back to them eventually. The underground railroad was interesting. The Doctor being involved has raised my opinion of him, although he is still annoying. I like how his free clinic from last season tied into this operation.

The Coming of Shadows - The emperor was an interesting character. The fact that he was sorry about what his people had done was sefinately different. Londo really screwed up this time, which I knew was coming. We finally get to see a bit of sinclair this season, and he's acting really weird and mysterious, and not really in a good way. You can go too far with building mystery and suspense. Sinclair, with his "rangers" and talking about staying close to Kosh, and about Vorlons being important, really toed the line between being interesting and being stupidly mysterious. He managed to stay interesting, but they are really shoving all this mystery down the viewers throats, it definately needs to start paying off. That said, I'm still enjoying the series a lot, and this was a good episode.

 

[OmahaStar]

Soul Mates - This was an awesome episode, one of my favorite episodes so far (and not surprising, its a Londo episode, and written by Peter david, one of my favorite writers). Londo's wifes were great, and I liked how he chose which one to keep in the end. The delenn/Ivanova thing was pretty funny. The shady telepath stuff was also interesting, although having the empath force emotions on people reminded me of the DS9 episode were Luxana Troi had everyone acting weird because of some condition

This episode gave me one of my favorite Peter David stories. He told it to me, conspiratorially, at Dragon*Con a few years back. It seems he was on the set during the feeling, and Jane Carr (Timov), a few days into the filming, found him in a quiet corner. She then confronted him over the character's name, asking/screaming "Did you know Timov is vomit backwards?" He then told her that yes, it was on purpose. She nodded and went back to filming.

 

[Sindatur]

Yes, the rent thing was idiotic,but, completely believable. In today's military, if a soldier is wounded and laying dying, he better either die, or make sure he keeps track of his US Military owned items like his armor, his gun and so forth, or he will be charged for them (remember these news stories a few years back?). If we do that in today's Government to our soldiers that we supposedly care so much about, it is perfectly believable that B5's Earth Government would pull something like they did with Sheridan in this episode about the rent.

Regarding the mysteries, they will keep coming, and almost all of them since the beginning of the show will be addressed and played out. There are only a couple of things, that Real world stuff messed up.

Great story Omaha

 

[kirk55555]

Gropos - This was probably the weakest episode so far this season. All the parts with the soldiers were pointless because I knew right away that the ones they focused on would die in the battle. Plus, the soldiers actually get away with almost assaulting Delenn? Are you telling me she didn't press charges? Its not like the idiots would have been hard to identify, or that the military was unwilling to punish them (although I suppose dying was punishment enough). Also, Garibaldi/the female soldier was really annoying. He goes off talking about his previous relationships, and it just makes no sense for him to do that. Is he just too stupid to realise that, as someone that was just passing through B5, she wasn't really trying to have a relationship, and just wanted sex? The whole exhange/"romance" was pointless. The Doctor and his dad segments were ok, I guess. Overall, this episode wasn't horrible, but I think its pretty pointless and was very mediocre.

 

[JoeD80]

Also, Garibaldi/the female soldier was really annoying. He goes off talking about his previous relationships, and it just makes no sense for him to do that. Is he just too stupid to realise that, as someone that was just passing through B5, she wasn't really trying to have a relationship, and just wanted sex?

True and actually they were supposed to sleep together in the original script. Jerry Doyle didn't want to go through with it because the actress playing Dodger was his real-life ex-girlfriend, and he was dating the actress playing Talia at the time.

 

[kirk55555]

I wonder why they even left it in the script, then? They could have added a scene that made a little more sense than that (or they could have casted someone who wasn't his ex-girlfriend, which seems like weird casting to begin with).

 

[Reverend]

The rent thing was idiotic. I don't care if space is at a premium, he's military, a government employee who runs the station, he's entitled to having rent free quarters that are bigger than normal. It was kind of a funny subplot, but it also didn;t really make sense, even for a government as inept as the earth government in B5.

Actually, given my experience with government, the military and bureaucracy in general, I find the scenario very much believable. For one thing, soldiers aren't given room and board for free while on base. There's such a thing as mess bills and I'm pretty sure they get charged rent for quarters. Hell, I think they're even charged (though very little) if they opt to live in barracks. That aside, never underestimate a bureaucrat's capacity for the very special kind of deep stupidity only achievable by the very intelligent.

After seeing this episode, I really want to see the Psi Corps get taken down. How many horrible things can this organization now be charged with? They've committed murder, rape, mind control (its atleast implied, plus what the empath was doing), torture, illegal human experimentation and more.

A charge requires evidence and Psi-corps are very careful about that sort of thing. Given that they can make witnesses forget what they've seen, or create ones from scratch if necessary, they've become *very* good at it. Plus most of the crimes they commit are against their own people. By and large, teeps and mundanes don't mix and so long as the Corps keeps rogue teeps under control, I'm sure EarthGov is happy to look the other way on the very rare occasions that something comes to light.

I wonder why they even left it in the script, then? They could have added a scene that made a little more sense than that (or they could have casted someone who wasn't his ex-girlfriend, which seems like weird casting to begin with).

It probably wasn't a problem until Doyle found out that the actress in question had been cast in the role. By which point it's a bit late for a dramatic re-write.

 

[Reverend]

[EDIT] Double post

 

[kirk55555]

All Alone in the Night - This was an ok episode. It was interesting to see the actor who played Admiral Leyton in DS9 (the guy who attempted a military coup) play a general who iss trying to stop people from taking over the government. The parts with the genral was good. The abduction was ok, but seemed pretty pointless. Sheridan's dream sequence was annoying, as was Kosh popping in at the end of the episode just to make some weird, mysterious statement.

Acts of Sacrifice - I liked this episode. The battle scene in the beginning was cool. Its interesting to learn as the series goes on that the Centauri are much more vicious then I would have guessed in the beginning. Also, I didn't think about it before seeing the guard kill the Narn, but energy guns in B5 don't have stun settings, do they? They don't seem to have nonlethal weapons in the security force, atleast none I've noticed. The ambassador wanting to have sex with Ivanova was hilarious. I liked how the music got very dramatic after he announced they had to have sex. Her solution to the problem was pretty funny.

 

[Jan]

They have shock sticks which you see security carrying sometimes, mostly when they're trying to disperse a crowd.

Jan

 

[kirk55555]

I figured they must have some nonlethal weapon, I just couldn't remember what it was off the top of my head.

 

[JoeD80]

Sheridan's dream sequence was annoying, as was Kosh popping in at the end of the episode just to make some weird, mysterious statement.

Well there's a reason Kosh pops in, which becomes clearer farther into the story. And the stuff in the dream is actually connected to the story as well; it's not just there to be weird.

 

[Lindley]

Sort of. I was never really satisfied with the explanations given for some of those images. (Not saying more for now.)

 

[JoeD80]

Did you read the script books? There's a definitive explanation of it in there.