Watching Babylon 5 for the first time... *Spoilers, duh*

[Quinton O'Connor]

I am a lucky SOB. I'm not gonna lie.

Well, I watched "Knives" earlier. It, uh... it was pretty mixed. I thought the Londo stuff was great, and I couldn't believe my eyes when Jacob frellin' Carter showed up with the Centauri hair.

The Sheridan stuff disappointed me. When Babylon 4 entered the script I was hoping for something awesome but instead it was pretty run-of-the-mill. Oh, and watching the creature exit Sheridan was so unintentionally funny I almost thought I was watching a SyFy Original Movie.

Plugging in "In the Shadow of Zha'dum" in a bit. This sounds very promising.

 

[Sykonee]

Hey, now you can even go back and enjoy the DS9 Versus thread in all its glory!

Looks like you're getting to the point where the one-off sci-fi stories just don't hold a candle to the ongoing arc material. Fortunately, they don't appear too often after Knives.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Yeah, snap, you're right, Sykonee. I think I'll start reading the B5 stuff in that thread sometime soon!

So anyway, just finished the episode. Man oh man, that was a thriller. I don't know just how popular the episode is overall (although I'd imagine fairly so) but it might be my favorite so far. It did a terrific job of moving the plot forward, gave memorable performances to not just Sheridan but several players, there wasn't a single bit I felt unnecessary (I'm assuming this 'Night Watch' thing becomes relevant somehow later, the way it's written as 'harmless') and, just... wow.

If I were rating episodes this would be full-on four-star material. I'm pretty floored.

The Shadows look kind of like the Collectors from ME2.

 

[Angel4576]

I remember, back in the day, over here in the UK C4 aired Knives and In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum the wrong way around. Couldn't believe our luck at the time, awesome episode, the second season's equivalent of 'Signs & Portents'.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

I'm following along with The Lurker's Guide and its so-called Master List to get the right order since I want to get the proper experience. It seems like the first season, with its plethora of standalones, was all over the place about that. Afterwards it gets better but still crops up from time to time.

 

[Harvey]

Season three has a couple that are out of order, too, but that's pretty much impossible come seasons 4-5. The only episode of question there, I think, is "Day of the Dead." Almost all the other episodes there are arc-episodes, and all of them (except for the aforementioned "Day of the Dead" are written by J. Michael Straczynski).

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Well, that's good to hear. The arc-based episodes definitely seem superior to most of the standalones.

 

[Angel4576]

Well, that's good to hear. The arc-based episodes definitely seem superior to most of the standalones.

Very true, but Day of the Dead is a fine example of it not always being the case. B5 + Neil Gaiman = Fcuking ace!

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

I can only imagine. I'm a big fan of Gaiman's so the notion of that episode being anything less than at least above average didn't even enter my mind.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Just started the next one but I paused during the opening credits. I wanted to take an opportunity to point out how much the style of them has impressed me this season. I was kind of on-the-fence about the year's remix for the first few episodes but it's really grown on me and the character flashes are very well-done.

Ivanova's smile, Delenn's courteous nod, Vir's funny gaze, Lennier's sincerity to his path and Londo's busted-out laughter are timeless.

 

[Sephiroth]

day of the dead is one of my favorite episodes, that and the one about the two maintinence guys, B5 had some pretty good stand-alones

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

"Confessions and Lamentations"... how best to describe it than to paraphrase TGB? At the beginning I feared this was a disease-of-the-week episode and that's exactly what it turned out to be. But it was a really, really good disease-of-the-week episode.

This Sheridan/Delenn thing gets my seal of approval so far, and I'm a notoriously hard sell when it comes to romance. There was a lot of fun toward the beginning of the episode; that dinner scene is great.

Of course, the meat of the episode is about Franklin and the surprisingly well-acted guest star and the DOD (Disease of Doom). It's all done so tastefully and by god, that ending is killer.

So this Warren Keffer guy sure does show up rather infrequently.

 

[Angel4576]

I love Confessions & Lamentations for exactly the same reason I love Believers - it takes a story that's been done before, on Star Trek and other shows, and just when you think you know where it's headed, it kicks you in the balls with a killer sting in the tale.

 

[Sephiroth]

I got to watch the whole series at the beginning of the last year(when wal-mart had each season for $20), before then I had only caught a few random eps and I am kicking myself for missing such an excellent show (but I don't think my younger self would have appriciated the show like adult-me does)

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

I know what you mean, Sephiroth. By the time the show was nearing its completion I was only just discovering things like, say, saving the planet from particular white-haired men...

 

[Sephiroth]

uhm...I have NOOOOO idea what your talking about >.>

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

 

[OmahaStar]

Of course, the meat of the episode is about Franklin and the surprisingly well-acted guest star and the DOD (Disease of Doom). It's all done so tastefully and by god, that ending is killer.

You've seen him before, at least in Babylon 5, possibly elsewhere. His name is Jim Norton (a name he shares with a stand-up comedian). Also in Babylon 5, he played Ombuds Wellington. You'll recall the early episode with Deuce, where there was a fake Kosh, and they kidnapped the white-haired "Judge" (Ombuds) ... Same actor, only now under heavy makeup.

If you watch the Harry Potter movies, you'll have seen him there as well. In the second movie, towards the beginning, Harry's uncle is trying to impress a white-haired gentleman and his wife. Dobby, trying to stop Harry from leaving, floats a cake over and dumps it on the couple. That guy? Jim Norton, from Babylon 5.

So this Warren Keffer guy sure does show up rather infrequently.

This was in the era when JMS was getting notes from PTEN and Warner Bros. The character was forced on him, and so he used the character as minimally as possible. Not exactly the three-dimensional character type we usually associate with this series, right?

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

You've seen him before, at least in Babylon 5, possibly elsewhere. His name is Jim Norton (a name he shares with a stand-up comedian). Also in Babylon 5, he played Ombuds Wellington. You'll recall the early episode with Deuce, where there was a fake Kosh, and they kidnapped the white-haired "Judge" (Ombuds) ... Same actor, only now under heavy makeup.

If you watch the Harry Potter movies, you'll have seen him there as well. In the second movie, towards the beginning, Harry's uncle is trying to impress a white-haired gentleman and his wife. Dobby, trying to stop Harry from leaving, floats a cake over and dumps it on the couple. That guy? Jim Norton, from Babylon 5.

Ohh, hey. I've never watched the Harry Potter movies but it's interesting to know I've already seen the fellow in B5. Cool!

This was in the era when JMS was getting notes from PTEN and Warner Bros. The character was forced on him, and so he used the character as minimally as possible. Not exactly the three-dimensional character type we usually associate with this series, right?

Hm, yeah, seriously. I don't have any problems with the actor (I'd imagine most of his wooden nature stems from the near-complete lack of material...) but the character is just so bland.

It's pretty nifty that people have such inside scoops on the process of making the series.

 

[Jan]

So this Warren Keffer guy sure does show up rather infrequently.

This was in the era when JMS was getting notes from PTEN and Warner Bros. The character was forced on him, and so he used the character as minimally as possible. Not exactly the three-dimensional character type we usually associate with this series, right?

JMS did plan to have a fighter pilot character but PTEN insisted on a 'Han Solo' type and thought that the character JMS had described was 'too cerebral'. From the intro that Larry DiTillio did for the Other Voices script books for his episode GROPOS, they had to revise a scene he'd written for Keffer because he couldn't handle the dialogue written.

He does, however have one very important function to perform.

Jan