Niners Unite...around Babylon 5! - The Lost Threads

[od0_ital]

Well, I watched my first full episode of Eureka tonight, and while I thought the daughter's story seemed too teeny-bopper-y and the invisibility thing silly, it was still alright. Not great, but not completely annoyin'.

Bothers me, though, that invisibility still can't be done convincingly as a special effect when an invisible character is wearin' something that is visible.

 

[Mal]

PKTrekGirl said:
My problem these days is that I'm out of new stuff to watch.

*snip*

good new scifi is in pretty short supply these days, IMO.

it's sad, but the last show i cared about was firefly, and that was almost *counts quickly* almost 5 (!) years ago

nBSG and WHO are good, but not special (at least not to me).

fortunately, i never seem to tire of re-watching B5, DS9 and TNG again and again and again. i don't really need much more than that, since there doesn't ever seem to be much time to watch anything anyway.

still, it would be nice to have something new. maybe if only for a little while...

who knows, at some point things might get so bad, i might even watch some fantasy. i hear Angel is pretty good.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

^ Buffy *and* Angel are pretty good. And while Buffy is not 'essential' viewing for Angel, it *does* help quite a bit. There are characters that cross over quite a bit between the two shows...and the character of Angel has some important backstory which took place on Buffy - not only recent past sort of backstory, but distant past sort of backstory. Also, probably the saddest moment in all of Buffyverse takes place on Angel...but unless you see the first three seasons of Buffy, I can't imagine it meaning anywhere *near* as much. And this is one of those saddest moments that are on-par with Sleeping in the Light.

But yeah...it's a good show.

 

[Lindley]

Buffy's a fun show for the first three years, at least, which is what's really relevant to seeing Angel. It gets a bit overly angsty later on in its run.

Armin Shimmerman is awesome as Principal Snyder.

And Xander's always funny.
"It says, 'Come to the Bronze alone, or we'll make her a meal.'"
"They're going to cook her dinner!? ....Let's pretend I didn't just say that..."

 

[Neroon]

Hirogen Alpha said:
^^
That one has a nice score by Chris Franke, IIRC. Also, it sets off the events that will quickly culminate into the best three episode arc of Babylon 5, ever, IMHO.

Most definitely. It's a brilliantly melded stream of three episodes, which also contains some of the most often quoted material in the entire series... none of which I will mention here, yet.

Then again, "Voices of Authority" does have one of those Trek-inspired quotes:
"Good luck, captain. I think you're about to go where everyone has gone before".

 

[PKTrekGirl]

^ Agreed. What a great quote!!!

Ah...my favorite episode of any show in scifi is upon us!!!! I get all excited when I think about Delenn...kickin ass and takin' names.

Or threatening to, anyway.

Can't get through it without rewinding a few times. Too great to watch only once.

 

[od0_ital]

Alright, I'm goin' to go ahead & add Bill Mumy's Lennier to my list of favorite characters, after G'Kar.

I watched 'Messages from Earth' earlier today, and that bit with Sheridan on the White Star bridge.

"Give me everything you've got!"
"If I were holding anything back, I would tell you."

G'Kar is still the coolest, though.

Up next - 'Point of No Return', Season Three / Disc Three.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

^ Clear a few hours. You won't be able to stop at just one, trust me. You are just moments away from my favorite episode of any show in all of scifi.

 

[od0_ital]

Well, that was a pretty good episode. I especially liked Majel Barrett's role as the emperor's widow, and the final scene between Londo & Vir. Though I do wonder, why would Londo be uncomfortable? He already knows how he's goin' to die, and if Vir becomes emperor after him, it won't matter. And Vir wouldn't work for a guy who had a hand in killin' him, would he? And he should know how he dies, since Centauri have prophetic dreams about their moment of death.

G'Kar is still hella cool - I especially liked his "mischieve" expression in the C in C and the bit with Sheridan at the end.

Really, the Narn just have a cool look to 'em - I like it.

 

[Neroon]

And wasn't it cool how they pull the old "sleight of hand" with the viewer, on how Sheridan et al outsmarted the Nightwatch? That episode has a bit that is the source for one of my oft-told stories. I was up late being on-call one night, so I put n some B5 to help pass the time, this being one of the episodes I watched. At one point, there is a scene with Sheridan in his office right before they allegedly are to confront Nightwatch. The computer chimes in "the time is 0230 hours".... and I looked up at my own clock to notice that it was 2:30 in the morning.

Okay, so it's only mildly amusing.

 

[od0_ital]

Have 'Severed Dreams' playin' now. New favorite Ivanova quote -

"Well, we're screwed."

 

[Neroon]

Just wait until towards the end. Delenn......

 

[od0_ital]

^

She just broke the Gray Council's staff in two.

 

[Neroon]

Careful examination of that scene reveals a slight smile on her face. That's because Mira had so much trouble breaking the staff - even after they had purposely scored it to make it more brittle, that they had to edit the scene.

But she has possibly the most quoted line in the entire series, towards the end of this episode. You will know it when it occurs.

 

[Harvey]

It's pretty hard keeping Delenn's line from the end of the episode in right now. Damn, that's a fine capstone to a great series of episodes.

 

[Phily B]

I didn't know people liked Doctor Who a lot, I always thought it was just . It seems like it's just geared towards kids, it just doesn't interest me at all. All the DW advertisements come on when kids are watching, DW spin off shows are on CBBC, all interviews on Newsround etc

 

[Can]

What I liked most Mesages from Earth/Severed Dreams trigolgy is events and development characters reach to peak. We savour the infrastructure of story which has been building since "The Gathering" and Season 1. In sci-fi there is mostly a reset button which enables us to return to status quo at the end of every episode. ( usually a tecnobabble solution is found or the crisis itself is resolved by a last minute attempt ) Not here. After Severed Dreams , the main story crossed "Point of No Return" And we feel after effects of it !

 

[Mal]

Phily B said:
I didn't know people liked Doctor Who a lot, I always thought it was just . It seems like it's just geared towards kids, it just doesn't interest me at all. All the DW advertisements come on when kids are watching, DW spin off shows are on CBBC, all interviews on Newsround etc

WHO is a kids show. i watched it as a kid years ago, and part of the reason i like it now (and the only reason i even gave the re-launch a chance), is nostalgia.

that said, WHO is really pretty good when taken on its own. part of that has to do with the fact that there really isn't any amazing scifi out there (such as B5 - and you thought this post had nothing to do with this thread); and part of it has to do with the fact that Tennant is just really really really good as a Doctor.

still, there is some classic WHO cheesiness that you just have to get over (e.g., the slaveen). but all in all, you can't really go wrong with a show that ends the season with (SPOILERS!) the sound of drums

 

[Lindley]

Phily B said:
I didn't know people liked Doctor Who a lot, I always thought it was just . It seems like it's just geared towards kids, it just doesn't interest me at all. All the DW advertisements come on when kids are watching, DW spin off shows are on CBBC, all interviews on Newsround etc

You can't view Who in the same light as a more "serious" SF show. It's not trying to be realistic or even plausible in the strictest sense; it's just a really fun show about a genius who defeats monsters, aliens, and other bad guys.

I suppose you could think of it as a somewhat less character-dynamic-focused, time-traveling version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's got a rather similar sense of humor.

And yes, it's designed to be accessible to kids. One of the best things about Doctor Who is that it's really one of the few shows that can be appreciated (on various levels) by all ages.

If you want a good look at what sort of thing it tries to do, watch next Friday's episode, "Blink". (This Friday's is also good, but it's the second half of a two-parter. Not the best first look.) "Blink", by contrast, is not only a modern SF classic already----it's about as standalone as you can possibly get, story-wise, not even featuring the main characters all that heavily.

I'm assuming you're in the US, here.

 

[od0_ital]

^

'Blink' isn't this season's 'Love & Monsters' is it? 'cause that one sucked.

Anyway, just finished 'Ceremonies of Light and Dark' - new uniforms, spiffy. G'Kar's duckin' out from bein' reborn - funny. The hostage situation - dull.