Niners Unite...around Babylon 5!

[Autobot]

Re:

GROPOS

25,000 Marines take up residence on the station prior to heading off to war, led by General Franklin, the doctor’s father.

I found this episode had many nice moments for the characters, but there really is no plot to this episode. Which is nice, in a way, because it’s great to find out more about the characters and their relationships, but IMO it’s not really an episode where you’ll later say to yourself, “self, I want to see that episode where… well what happens… there are some soliders on the station. Yeah I want to rewatch that.” But there are great character moments like learning Garibaldi’s father was a soldier, that Dr. Franklin has three sisters, and how the doctor’s relationship with his father is and has been. And, that Earth is now growing wary due to the alien conflicts in the galaxy.

There really was no good purpose of bringing all the soldiers onto the station at once. They couldn’t have stayed on the ship? Maybe some “shore leave” on the station was welcomed, but for all 25,000 at once is a little incredulous.

In the bar fight, shortly after Garibaldi says “I’m getting too old for this,” a guy is shown who lands a punch just offscreen. You hear the sound effect of him landing the punch, but I guess the scene was shot widescreen and then maybe cut for fullscreen, because you can clearly see him not landing the punch at all!

At the end, our B5 flyboy Warren Keffer sure looks like he’s just been to 1995 Earth with that outfit, mainly the shirt. Definitely a product of 90s fashion.

Trek connections:
- General Franklin, played by the late Paul Winfield, was in Star Trek II as Captain Terrell and as Captain Dathon in the TNG episode “Darmok”.
- Dodger, played by Marie Marshall, portrayed Kelsey in the TNG episode “Starship Mine”.
- Lou Welch has been on B5 for a few episodes, and David L Crowley has also appeared in TNG’s “Phantasms” as ‘Workman’. Must've been one of those 3 guys pulling apart the panel in the Ent-D corridor in Data's vision.
- The inexperienced Private Yang, played by Art Chudabala, played ensign Ilario in DS9’s 7th season episode “Field of Fire”, according to imdb.

 

[Autobot]

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ALL ALONE IN THE NIGHT

Delenn faces the Grey Council to answer for her transformation, and Sheridan is kidnapped by an unknown foe for experimenting on.

This episode was interesting and enjoyable. The kidnapping of the captain was similar to Picard in ‘Allegiance’ but I found TNG did it much better. In addition, I don’t know about you, but after using swords to pry open a door, wouldn’t you take them with you?

Interesting to see that professional baseball is still alive and well in 2259, with Dr. Franklin and Ramirez both fans of the sport. And Mars is part of the league.
When Sheridan decides to pilot a Starfury himself, he says “what could go wrong?” Yeah we KNOW something’s going to go wrong!!

I wonder what Kosh’s “You have always been here” will mean…. So Sheridan’s been on B5 with an alternate agenda? Interesting. Wonder if we'll learn more about that.

Trek connections:
- Robert Foxworth returns as Admiral Hague. He was on Enterprise as V’Las in “Kir’Shara”, “Awakening”, and “The Forge”.
- Robin Sachs returns as Hedronn from “Points of Departure” earlier this season. He was General Valen in VOY’s “The Void” according to imdb.
- Marshall R. Teague played the Narn, who has been a Jem’Hadar named Temo’Zuma in “Hippocratic Oath”, and as Hulak in VOY’s “Distant Origin”.
-John Vickery played Neroon here, who has portrayed Orak in Enterprise’s “Judgement”, Gul Rusot in three episodes of DS9, and Counselor Hagan in TNG’s “Night Terrors”.

 

[Autobot]

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ACTS OF SACRIFICE

Narn and Centauri conflicts are heating up on the station, and G’Kar tries to rein in his people's retaliation. And, Ivanova plays tour guide to assist in obtaining a species’ entrance to Earth and its allies.

Parts of the Ivanova plotline were interesting, namely the other species' view on human life, but the union by having sex was very silly, especially her method of doing so. What was this, the first take? I very much enjoyed G’Kar in this episode. Asking for help, not getting what he was hoping for, working with his people to do take the best action to obtain the best results. All very well acted and thoroughly enjoyable.

Londo has a great line in this episode: “I wanted respect; instead, I have turned into a wishing well with legs.” Haha! I love his exchange with Garibaldi in the bar earlier in the episode, with Londo opening up and admitting he has no close friends to share his good fortune with. And Garibaldi telling him, essentially, “well, yeah, we’re all a little afraid of you now.”

Trek connections:
- Paul Williams played Tak, the short little interpreter. He played Koru in VOY’s “Virtuoso”.
- Christopher Darga played a Narn, probably the one that was taken into custody for the murder of the Centauri. He was Kaybok in DS9’s “Way of the Warrior” parts 1 & 2, Y’Sek in VOY’s “Think Tank”, and Captain Vorok in ENT’s “Unexpected”.
- The Narn captain at the beginning of the episode… the voice sounded so familiar… David Sage is the actor, who played the head telepath Tarmin in TNG’s “Violations”.
- The redheaded officer that Sheridan speaks to over the communication screen was instantly recognizable to me as Ensign Burke in TNG’s “Peak Performance”. Glenn Morshower is the actor’s name; he also was Orton in TNG’s “Starship Mine”, a Mokran Guard in VOY’s “Resistance” and the Sheriff in ENT’s “North Star.”

 

[Lindley]

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Autobot said:
- Robert Foxworth returns as Admiral Hague. He was on Enterprise as V’Las in “Kir’Shara”, “Awakening”, and “The Forge”.

Notably, he also appeared on DS9 as Admiral Leyton. In fact, there's a rather funny bit on the B5 season 3 blooper reel relating to that.

 

[Autobot]

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Lindley said:

Autobot said:
- Robert Foxworth returns as Admiral Hague. He was on Enterprise as V’Las in “Kir’Shara”, “Awakening”, and “The Forge”.

Notably, he also appeared on DS9 as Admiral Leyton. In fact, there's a rather funny bit on the B5 season 3 blooper reel relating to that.

Yes, of course! I forgot to put that in. Doh! The two roles are very similar, even.

 

[BigFoot]

Re:

Well I've been insanely busy this week (I've watched about an hour and a half of TV which is very little for my standards), so I haven't watched any of this week's episodes yet. But no worries, I'll have quite a bit of free time this afternoon, so I'll try to catch up then.

 

[Angry Angel]

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I hope I can start watching the shows of this week tonight .. I'm recovering from a hard drive crash so I need to get everything working first.

Figures .. just when I caught up again this happens

Oh! And wuz should be joining this soon

 

[Orac Zen]

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OmahaStar said:
That's not exactly true ...

I know. This is my...seventh? eighth? full viewing of the series, so I know all that stuff. But given others are on their first go-round I choose not to go into too much detail.

Hopefully I'll get to this week's episodes this week.

 

[OmahaStar]

Re:

I decided not to post my reviews last week, to see if anybody else would step up. Nope. Ah well.

GROPOS - Dr. Franklin's father, General Richard Franklin, arrives at the station with his crew of 25,000 Ground Pounders. Known only to Gen. Franklin, Susan, Sheridan, and Garibaldi, they are being sent in to fight a war no one knows anything about.

Not even the soldiers.

Those soldiers include Dodger (played by Marie Marshall) and Large (played by Ken Foree - he's starred in lots of Zombie movies).

Lots of good little character moments, and I just adore the Dodger character. It's a sad ending for everyone, showing the horrors of war.

For the first time this season, we get to see Jane again ... along with another ISN Reporter, Tonia. Because of Jane's appearance, it gets 5/5.

 

[OmahaStar]

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All Alone in the Night

At first glance, nothing happens. When given a full look, an awesome episode, with major things happening.

Delenn is kicked out of the Grey Council, demoted to being "just" an Ambassador. She is replaced by Neroon of the Warrior Caste, the first time the Council has been comprised of anything other than 3/3/3, since being formed by Valen.

Sheridan, out in his Star Fury, is kidnapped by an alien race known as the Stribe. He meets a Narn who has also been kidnapped.

We'll see them both again. It'll be awhile before we see the Stribe ... You may forget all about them in the time it takes before we do.

The Narn, though ... He'll be around for awhile. And you'll love him. Everyone does.

4/5 stars

 

[OmahaStar]

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Acts of Sacrifice

Honestly, with the exception of the actual "sex" scene, this episode doesn't have anything going for it. So we met a new alien race that the crew is trying hard to sign onboard.

Big Woop.

And that's it. Just these blah racist aliens.

1/5 stars

 

[Fist McStrongpunch]

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What? When do the Streib show up again?

 

[OmahaStar]

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Spoiler: Streib

They don't show up again until season 5. They're working with the Drakh, other servents of the Shadows. In one scene, just shortly before Londo gets his Keeper, they're operating on him in a room in the Palace.

 

[BigFoot]

Re:

GROPOS

I like this ep. I actually felt like I got to know all the guest characters which isn't always the case in these kinds of episodes. I especially enjoyed all the scenes with dr. Franklin and his father.

B+

 

[Autobot]

Re:

Hmmm not many people posting any more?

Time for this week's episodes: "Hunter, Prey", "There All the Honor Lies", and "And Now For A Word".


HUNTER, PREY

Dr. Jacobs, the physician to the President, is loose. And he’s got secret information.

In the teaser Garibaldi says Earth Force wants him “preferably alive, dead if necessary.” Then says “Our orders are shoot to kill.” What happened to preferably alive? You’re just being dramatic, Garibaldi!

Too bad the B5 computers no longer have that ability to find anyone, anywhere, like they did a few episodes back when the telepath wanted to find Talia…

Sheridan met up with the woman who works with General Hague by noticing a red ribbon in a hallway. What if Sheridan never went down this hallway, or only went at the end of his shift, or something? Would the woman have waited 4 hrs? 8 hrs? 12 hrs? 2 days? Hopefully it was on a route he frequently takes, I guess!

I really enjoyed this episode. Although I’m surprised Sheridan didn’t think for himself earlier on that the information Dr. Jacobs had might be needed by General Hague and the secret society, seeing as it was just the prior episode.

Trek connections:
-Bernie Casey as Agent Cranston. Seems one thing after another keeps bringing us back together again. Capt. Cal Hudson in DS9’s “The Maquis”, parts 1 & 2.


THERE ALL THE HONOR LIES

Sheridan kills a Minbari in self defense. Is it a setup?

I really enjoyed this episode. It appears that Delenn’s stress of not being on the Grey Council anymore seems to be getting to her. I could completely sympathize with Sheridan, doing the right thing at the time, and then being railroaded. It was also nice to see what Vir thinks about his job. The stress of the secrets he keeps, versus the stress of not being good enough to his family. Londo was so sweet by standing up for Vir with his superiors, and informing Vir’s family what a great job he does. And then, Londo still being Londo, invites Vir’s family to stay with Vir at the station, just to muck things up a bit. Ha!

Learned about the status bars on the Earth Force uniforms: Gold = Command, Red = Medical, and Green = Security. It was nice to see the return of Julie Caitlin Brown, although not as Na’Toth. The entire presence of the lawyer seemed shoehorned in, however, and really could have been dropped altogether in this storyline. Although it is good to know that a station commander isn’t required to investigate and defend himself for accusations against him.

This episode had me laughing out loud a few times. I particularly enjoyed this exchange:
Ivanova: Another lesson? What this time?
Sheridan: Beauty… in the dark.
Ivanova: It must be working. You’re beginning to talk just like the Vorlons.

And, upon Londo’s lack of anatomically correct Londo dolls:
Ivanova: So you feel like you’re being symbolically cast… <pause> in a bad light.

I liked that little move that Lennier used to take down security guy Zack. Is that like a Minbari neck pinch? ;-) I bet Ashan was stoked that he manged to get away from Lennier and his challenge to a pinky battle!

So the Babylon 5 emporium. It reminded me very much of the stores at Star Trek: The Experience in Vegas! It’s a good idea, have the station make its own revenue, perfectly logical. I bet many fans wish those items had been actually produced, like the 12” dolls/action figures and the ~2 foot model of the B5 station. Then there’s the teddy bear that Sheridan stole from Ivanova. Just where was she going with it, anyway? Funny moment with it being thrown out an airlock. There’s gotta be some rules about sending random junk into space…. but a funny moment anyway I didn’t get why it was called “Babberlon 5” at first, but then realized it must be Bab-BEAR-lon.

Sheridan’s thoughtful resolution of the entire matter just shows what a caring person he is, not wanting to disgrace Lennier’s clan, thus protecting his honour.

Trek Connections:
-another episode written by Peter David
-Julie Caitlin Brown, the original Na’Toth, played Vekor in TNG’s “Gambit” parts 1 & 2, and Ty Kajada in DS9’s “The Passenger”.


AND NOW FOR A WORD

A news crew spends 36 hours on Babylon 5.

What a great way to present an episode! I haven’t ever seen a show do this before. What a great method! I really thought that the writing of the media personality was very good, a parody yet so true to media interviewers. The direction of the film crew’s footage was also done well, it was definitely different from the standard way of shooting, which made it feel like real news footage. Well done! Also fun was the complete propaganda of the Psi Corps. I’m sure everyone paused their DVD to find out that the subliminal flash of text was The Psi Corps is Your Friend, Trust The Corps. The wording was poorly cut off at the bottom, I guess to make their fullscreen image into a widescreen? Dammit widescreen should give us more image, not less!

So “Tech #1” or “Tech #2”, portrayed in many episodes by Joshua Cox, finally gets a name: 2nd Lieutenant David Corwin. And then he’s credited at the end of the episode as “Tech #1”. Give the poor guy a break!

It’s great that the media woman gets a few things wrong, as she has a new perspective and doesn’t know the whole story. Like mispronouncing Ivanova’s name (IvaNOva) and calling her perky and energetic.

We find out that Kosh actually has a 2nd name, something like ‘Nerannet’. See, watching the news can help you learn really really good and stuff. (Sorry, Zoolander was on tv last night and I think it affected my brain.)

Trek Connections:
-The kid in the Psi Corps commercial was in the TNG episode ‘Disaster’ as Jay Gordon, one of the kids in the turbolift with Picard. (John Christian Graas).
-The Psi Cop himself, played by Granville Ames, was apparently the transporter chief in Star Trek: Generations!
-Senator Ronald Quantrell was played by Christopher Curry, who apparently also played the role of ‘Driver’ in the VOY episode “11:59”.

 

[eastman23]

Re:

Autobot said:
Sheridan met up with the woman who works with General Hague by noticing a red ribbon in a hallway. What if Sheridan never went down this hallway, or only went at the end of his shift, or something? Would the woman have waited 4 hrs? 8 hrs? 12 hrs? 2 days? Hopefully it was on a route he frequently takes, I guess!

I guess it's simply a matter of hoping that the person sees it and if they don't show up, then leave the meeting place.

For those that were alert, the guy that brushes by Garibaldi in that same scene appeared to be a Ranger.

Also something for you newbies to ponder: Why did Kosh react so strongly when Sheridan asked "What do you want?". Er...

 

[Lindley]

Re:

Autobot said:
THERE ALL THE HONOR LIES
Then there’s the teddy bear that Sheridan stole from Ivanova. Just where was she going with it, anyway? Funny moment with it being thrown out an airlock. There’s gotta be some rules about sending random junk into space…. but a funny moment anyway I didn’t get why it was called “Babberlon 5” at first, but then realized it must be Bab-BEAR-lon.

You've never read the Babar series of kids' books?

Also, funny story about the bear. "J.S." actually stood for Joe Strazinski. The bear was given to him by Peter David. JMS hates "cute", so he through the bear out an airlock in Peter's own episode.

In retaliation, the bear later showed up on Peter David's series, Space Cases.

 

[Autobot]

Re:

Lindley said:
You've never read the Babar series of kids' books?

Wasn't Babar an elephant? With a crown?

Also, funny story about the bear. "J.S." actually stood for Joe Strazinski. The bear was given to him by Peter David. JMS hates "cute", so he through the bear out an airlock in Peter's own episode.

In retaliation, the bear later showed up on Peter David's series, Space Cases.

Ha that's great!

 

[BigFoot]

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Autobot said:
Hmmm not many people posting any more?

I post a review (albeit sometimes short) of every episode I watch. I'm just a little behind again, last week was crazy. I'm catching up though and I definately plan to watch this week's episodes by the end of this week.

Anyway, onto my review of the next ep.


All Alone in the Night

I actually remember not caring that much for this episode. The last time I watched it, I found the whole "Sheridan as a prisoner" thing kind of boring.

But this time I actually enjoyed the whole episode. And the bit with Kosh was... very interesting.

My favourite part of the episode was Delenn's story. I felt bad for her, cos she was doing the right thing and the Grey council frelled her over. In their defense, they did not know if she was doing the right thing.

It was also good to see Neroon and Hedronn again. I always liked those two. And having Neroon join the council is definately a controversial decision. I like to what it leads in the future.

B+

 

[aladinsane]

Re:

"Hunger, Prey"
--Sheridan wants to get to know Kosh better--Don't we all?
--Pres' doctor is fleeing from EarthGov with info potentially damaging to the president
--A manhunt ensues for the doc
--Garibaldi and Franklin find him first thanks to Sheridan's misdirection of the search party
--Kosh helps hide the doc from a sensor sweep aboard his ship

This was an average episode. Good stuff about the growing conspiracy about the former president's death and about Kosh and his ship. The search for someone in hiding has been done before. 3/5