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Babylon 5 through 3x08
I already talked about 3x06 Dust to Dust here.
Other than the absolute glorious idfest that was 3x06, the middle of the season is kind of a mediocre run of episodes until it gets up to 3x08 - the others are interesting, but really just feel like typical sci-fi alien-of-the-week episodes. (Though with this show's emphasis on continuity, I'm sure there are various aspects that matter to the ongoing plot.)
3x04
It's interesting to see the aftermath of a death-of-personality mindwipe from the perspective of people who don't know the guy's personality is fake. I had absolutely no idea what was going on for the first half of the episode until the sudden "ohhhhh" moment when you realize that the monk is getting bleedthrough memories from a past life. It was interesting to see the monks again; I had assumed when they appeared that they'd just be a one-off joke/bit of station life (the station has a religious experience, religious orders start showing up) but no, they're still around. And the episode had some interesting thinky stuff on the nature of revenge/forgiveness that is important to the show's overall themes. I think it's interesting that the human characters seemed to mostly come down on the side of the mindwipe-style punishment being both terribly cruel to the individual who doesn't know they've been wiped, but not actually cruel enough to satisfy the human urge for revenge after being wronged. Interesting, but not really a favorite.
3x05
Finally an Ivanova-centric ep! I loved her getting to use the planetary computer - as Draal invites her to step into the matrix, I was once again reminded of the era this is from, and that the movie The Matrix is still several years out - and captain the White Star, and most of all out-maneuvering a group of millennia-old aliens by using their hatred of the Vorlons against them! Very nice, very nice. Ivanova showing up holographically just in time to interrupt Sheridan's unwanted tete-a-tete with the subtle-as-a-bag-of-anvils Peace lady was also a nice bit. ("It looks like you're about to go where everyone has gone before.")
Husband's observation as soon as the disco-ball alien ship showed up: "Well, done with the rave, back to normal space." (And then at the end: "Back to the rave, call us when the war starts!") I like that it's so truly alien-looking; it must have been a challenge to create a ship that looks nothing like anything we've seen on the show before *and* like it might have been created by an incomprehensible alien intelligence from before the dawn of time.
Back on B5, G'Kar's continues to try to figure out what's going on with the Rangers across these two episodes. It's interesting that he eventually chooses Garibaldi as the person he's going to hit up with the Book of G'Quon(sp?). Because he found Garibaldi particularly approachable, he thought he'd be more receptive than the rest of the command crew, he recognizes their kinship as fellow warriors, or just because he's gotten turned down by almost everyone else and finally decided not to take no for an answer - idk. Anyway, it's an intriguing dynamic!
3x07
Another alien-of-the-week episode; honestly don't really feel like I have much to say about it. (Though it would have been nice if the recorder aliens had anything useful to contribute to the ongoing Shadow war, BUT NO.)
3x08
Finally a good chunk of ongoing plot! This was really terrific. I can't get over that even when you KNOW you're probably going to spot a Shadow ship, they're so creepy and weird-looking that it's simply a "gasp!" moment. (And I noticed that the "package" from Mars, that turned out to be the lady with the intel, was mentioned in the previous episode; nice continuity nod there!) Interesting that Garibaldi was peripherally involved with the events surrounding the discovery of the Shadow ship on Mars, even if he didn't understand its significance then. And I really enjoyed Sheridan and Delenn's expedition - they've now managed to destroy their second Shadow ship this season (and it was Delenn who came up with the insane idea to escape from the Agamemnon; they really deserve each other).
In general, I appreciate that the show is building up Sheridan and Delenn as friends who truly care for each other first and foremost; you can see a romance on the horizon, but it's clear that romance or not, they're two people who genuinely like and admire each other. The handholding while they sleep was adorable. (Also it just figures that the Minbari have invented the most uncomfortable beds in the known galaxy.)
I've also seen 3x09, and that was certainly a Lot, but I'm probably rewatching it with the husband today or tomorrow (since I've watched farther ahead than he has) and I'll talk about it then.
Other than the absolute glorious idfest that was 3x06, the middle of the season is kind of a mediocre run of episodes until it gets up to 3x08 - the others are interesting, but really just feel like typical sci-fi alien-of-the-week episodes. (Though with this show's emphasis on continuity, I'm sure there are various aspects that matter to the ongoing plot.)
3x04
It's interesting to see the aftermath of a death-of-personality mindwipe from the perspective of people who don't know the guy's personality is fake. I had absolutely no idea what was going on for the first half of the episode until the sudden "ohhhhh" moment when you realize that the monk is getting bleedthrough memories from a past life. It was interesting to see the monks again; I had assumed when they appeared that they'd just be a one-off joke/bit of station life (the station has a religious experience, religious orders start showing up) but no, they're still around. And the episode had some interesting thinky stuff on the nature of revenge/forgiveness that is important to the show's overall themes. I think it's interesting that the human characters seemed to mostly come down on the side of the mindwipe-style punishment being both terribly cruel to the individual who doesn't know they've been wiped, but not actually cruel enough to satisfy the human urge for revenge after being wronged. Interesting, but not really a favorite.
3x05
Finally an Ivanova-centric ep! I loved her getting to use the planetary computer - as Draal invites her to step into the matrix, I was once again reminded of the era this is from, and that the movie The Matrix is still several years out - and captain the White Star, and most of all out-maneuvering a group of millennia-old aliens by using their hatred of the Vorlons against them! Very nice, very nice. Ivanova showing up holographically just in time to interrupt Sheridan's unwanted tete-a-tete with the subtle-as-a-bag-of-anvils Peace lady was also a nice bit. ("It looks like you're about to go where everyone has gone before.")
Husband's observation as soon as the disco-ball alien ship showed up: "Well, done with the rave, back to normal space." (And then at the end: "Back to the rave, call us when the war starts!") I like that it's so truly alien-looking; it must have been a challenge to create a ship that looks nothing like anything we've seen on the show before *and* like it might have been created by an incomprehensible alien intelligence from before the dawn of time.
Back on B5, G'Kar's continues to try to figure out what's going on with the Rangers across these two episodes. It's interesting that he eventually chooses Garibaldi as the person he's going to hit up with the Book of G'Quon(sp?). Because he found Garibaldi particularly approachable, he thought he'd be more receptive than the rest of the command crew, he recognizes their kinship as fellow warriors, or just because he's gotten turned down by almost everyone else and finally decided not to take no for an answer - idk. Anyway, it's an intriguing dynamic!
3x07
Another alien-of-the-week episode; honestly don't really feel like I have much to say about it. (Though it would have been nice if the recorder aliens had anything useful to contribute to the ongoing Shadow war, BUT NO.)
3x08
Finally a good chunk of ongoing plot! This was really terrific. I can't get over that even when you KNOW you're probably going to spot a Shadow ship, they're so creepy and weird-looking that it's simply a "gasp!" moment. (And I noticed that the "package" from Mars, that turned out to be the lady with the intel, was mentioned in the previous episode; nice continuity nod there!) Interesting that Garibaldi was peripherally involved with the events surrounding the discovery of the Shadow ship on Mars, even if he didn't understand its significance then. And I really enjoyed Sheridan and Delenn's expedition - they've now managed to destroy their second Shadow ship this season (and it was Delenn who came up with the insane idea to escape from the Agamemnon; they really deserve each other).
In general, I appreciate that the show is building up Sheridan and Delenn as friends who truly care for each other first and foremost; you can see a romance on the horizon, but it's clear that romance or not, they're two people who genuinely like and admire each other. The handholding while they sleep was adorable. (Also it just figures that the Minbari have invented the most uncomfortable beds in the known galaxy.)
I've also seen 3x09, and that was certainly a Lot, but I'm probably rewatching it with the husband today or tomorrow (since I've watched farther ahead than he has) and I'll talk about it then.
no subject
"Passing through Gethsemane" made a huge impression on me when it aired, not even so much because of the revenge-and-forgiveness questions which you are totally right about running straight through the center of this series, but because responsibility for the crimes of your unremembered self is one of the evergreens of both science fiction and film noir and this episode was either my introduction to the concept or the iteration that blew my mind about it. (It was definitely my introduction to Brad Dourif, so I had no idea that it was playing off his established screen persona of serial killers and generally deranged weirdos, in which case I might have been better braced, I just thought Brother Edward was lovely and blew a fuse as the reveal came off the wall. Part of what makes it work for me is that it's clear that even if the death of personality starts the subject off as a well-intentioned blank-ish slate, they both retain the substrate of their original selves and grow from the people they were programmed to be, which is one of the reasons I disagree so completely with his climactic decision, but I'm not a space monk.)
Husband's observation as soon as the disco-ball alien ship showed up: "Well, done with the rave, back to normal space." (And then at the end: "Back to the rave, call us when the war starts!")
I'm just going to hear that whenever I see the episode again, please tell him thanks from me.
I really like that when Babylon 5 goes for deep time, it generally does it well, like the Andre Norton-ish thing where no one knows who built the original jump gates—they seem to be the sole remnant of the civilization that originally discovered the existence and accessibility of hyperspace and all other jump tech has been reverse-engineered from them—or the First Ones being these exponents of Lovecraftian weirdness.
Interesting that Garibaldi was peripherally involved with the events surrounding the discovery of the Shadow ship on Mars, even if he didn't understand its significance then.
There's so much of this show that is just stored in my brain and then details I have completely forgotten, like this one. Even if it originates with this episode, it retrofits with Garibaldi's willingness to believe Amis in "The Long Dark" about his encounter with a Shadow soldier. Speaking of Lovecraftian what the fuck.
[edit] Oh, hey, show-specific icon, nice.
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Yeah, rereading my write-ups, I also found this stretch mostly not that interesting / not RTMI (though I did enjoy Marcus shenanigans and Garibaldi & G'Kar visits.
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I don't remember any of these episodes awfully well (a shame, with an Ivanova episode), but boy, do I remember the beds! They will appear again, naturally, but I think seeing them once is plenty.
I occasionally still think to myself, "I'm tired enough that I could probably sleep in/on/in the vicinity of a Minbari bed" when I'm completely wiped.
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