Babylon 5 through the end of season 2

[sholio]

I continue to lack B5 icons, so I cycle slowly through my other sci-fi options...


Oh yeah, forgot to mention earlier, but in the episode with the bombardment of the Narn homeworld, I appreciated the filming with Londo's face in the reflection being slowly occluded by shadows until he's little more than a silhouette. Very nice. (There was something similar in season one that I also appreciated, in the episode where the Shadow ship appears for the first time; in the next shot of Babylon 5, the station's slowly rotating vanes block the light and the entire station falls slowly into shadow.)

The rest of this is in no particular order:

- My husband (who started watching with me in early season 2) called the Vorlon reveal a number of episodes ago. I don't know if it's possible that he vaguely remembered this from watching the show before - he doesn't think he's seen most of it, but remembers a little bit now and then - but he's been saying "Vorlons are angels" for a while, and - welp. Or something close to angels, at least. Edit: And he didn't even see the early episode in which we find out that they glow inside their armor! The thing that tipped him off was apparently a wing pattern on the back of Kosh's encounter suit, which I didn't even notice.

- On the topic of Vorlons, when everyone's talking about what they saw when Kosh appeared to them in his real form and someone asks Londo: "Nothing. I saw nothing." LONDO. T___T

- I enjoyed the touches of humor at the ambassador meeting in the garden during the finale: Sheridan rehearsing his legally mandated apology to the Centauri ("I'm sorry .... that your crew was stupid enough to fire on a station with a quarter million civilians including your own people"), G'Kar literally hiding in the bushes because he can't officially attend, Londo being blatantly shunned by every other ambassador after his people nearly blew up the station ...

- Evil Talia! Okay, now it's my turn to make a prediction: I think what Kosh and the mystery cyborg dude were doing with her back in season one was backing up her original, now-overwritten personality, which will be used to restore her from backup later.

- Ketter, we hardly knew ye. No really, we hardly knew ye; for a guy who was on the theme song, he sure wasn't around a lot. At least he went down ... uh, fucking up the entire Vorlon-Minbari plan for galactic peace; oops. (For about 2 seconds I was thinking, "Wow, someone actually fought the Shadows and managed to get word out about it!" And then "Wait, that's not actually a good thing.")

- Some nice Vir bits in these episodes - having a guilt attack in the elevator with G'Kar, and meeting Lennier for regular second-banana gripefests about their lack of control over their respective ambassadors.

- The Inquisitor/Jack the Ripper episode was ... definitely an episode that I watched, but I liked that the eventual resolution was that sacrificing yourself for just one person, for love, means more than lip service to grandiose principles. I liked that a lot, and also that it was Lennier's love for Delenn that got Sheridan involved in the first place, which ended up saving her (and him).

I will definitely slow down since I'm going to be traveling, but I'm looking forward to heading into season 3!

Comments

[yhlee]

There was deffo a whole sci-fi/horror thing of "this sci-fi explanation for Jack the Ripper," including freaking original Star Trek (the "Redjac??" possession alien thingy that possessed Scotty?) and at least one, possibly two, stories in Dangerous Visions ed. Harlan Ellison. I am so OD'd on sci-fi Jack the Ripper I can't tell you. XD

[sovay]

I am so OD'd on sci-fi Jack the Ripper I can't tell you.

Robert Bloch wrote at least three takes on it!

[edit] Robert Bloch wrote that episode of Star Trek as well as one of the two stories you mention in Dangerous Visions, the other having been written by Ellison as a direct sequel to it. He also wrote the infinitely anthologized "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" (1943), which I kind of think as kicking off the supernatural explanation trend. So he was kind of a cottage industry of sci-fi Jack the Ripper, which is definitely a thing a person can do, but.

[sholio]

I would have enjoyed that episode much better if it hadn't felt the need to go there! I very much did not need it to go there.

[sovay]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention earlier, but in the episode with the bombardment of the Narn homeworld, I appreciated the filming with Londo's face in the reflection being slowly occluded by shadows until he's little more than a silhouette.

Yes! It's an incredible image and the show knew it.

- Evil Talia!

My total inability at age *checks airdate* just fourteen to recognize it was at all unusual to have seen even a fleeting canon f/f relationship on network TV!

- Some nice Vir bits in these episodes - having a guilt attack in the elevator with G'Kar, and meeting Lennier for regular second-banana gripefests about their lack of control over their relative ambassadors.

"Same time tomorrow?"
"Sure."

(The elevator scene was one of the reasons I mistakenly assumed J. Michael Straczynski was Jewish: the inability to be forgiven by the dead, because there is no restitution to be made to them, only to the living.)

- The Inquisitor/Jack the Ripper episode was ... definitely an episode that I watched

I have such mixed feelings about the revealed identity of Sebastian, especially when it's done as the episode's gotcha mic drop, but I love the performance by Wayne Alexander and I like how the knowledge plays against the moral: he would never have been willing to die in the dark and be forgotten for another person.

Safe travels!

[sheron]

I'm enjoying reading these!

[lyr]

For me, the Ripper episode also made an important point about not lionizing "the Chosen One" and not embracing heroism for self-aggrandizing reasons. It isn't about who destiny chooses to be the person to save us. What matters is who shows up and does the work, who is prepared to make the sacrifices that are necessary, even if there is no glory in it at all.

[sholio]

"Same time tomorrow?"
"Sure."

I love how up to that point, it just looks like they incidentally ran into each other at the bar, but nope, it's a regular thing! These little side moments of B5 life are delightful.

Actually, that reminds me of another thing I'm really enjoying about this show that I haven't mentioned yet, which is how much tends to be going on with the extras in the background. (MASH was that way, too.) I feel like I could rewatch the show just enjoying the background detail, where people are having dates and fights, shopping, looking at the sights, etc.

(The elevator scene was one of the reasons I mistakenly assumed J. Michael Straczynski was Jewish: the inability to be forgiven by the dead, because there is no restitution to be made to them, only to the living.)

I was thinking about this scene later, about how Vir's apology is essentially empty for the living as well - he is genuinely sorry, and he feels guilty about it, but none of that has changed his actions. He's still actively complicit in the ongoing repression and genocide of the Narn, even though he doesn't want to be.

[sholio]

Excellent. :D

[sholio]

Yes, I really loved that!

[hamsterwoman]

re: icons -- I was thinking that surely iconsbycurtana icons from c.2009 would not still be up, but they are! Although you may want to be careful about any spoilers that might be lurking in there.

[sholio]

Thank you! I did find a few by looking at old LJ comms, but it's such a spoiler minefield right now that I might need to get farther along before I do too much icon diving. (I did find this one, but I'm not sure I like it; it's a bit garish.) I might start making some of my own again!