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Babylon 5 5x03-04
We've slowed down a bit (busy season at husband's work), but this is a good time for it, since we're running out of show and this makes it last longer! To be fair, we've watched two entire seasons and change since the end of March.
The season four opening with the rotating voiceovers was my favorite of the various openers (well, that and the season 1 opening, because I have nice nostalgia vibes about the part of the show I originally saw - it was the dawn of the third age of mankind! Last best hope for peace! etc.). But I also like this season's, with the clips/voice clips from earlier seasons by year, in part because it's such an interesting mix of clips, especially early on. (Bester gets to be on there at last! And Londo collapsing on the table in season one.)
5x03 "The Paragon of Animals"
I have officially reached the point where I would happily watch these characters read the telephone book. Or, in this case, write their constitution and argue about it. (Things we do not normally see in scifi: the revolution is over and now you have to do the actual paperwork of running the place.)
Londo: I would remind the Drazi ambassador that the Centauri Republic has already signed!
G'Kar: And if the Centauri can sign it, anyone can sign it!
Londo: That's right -- wait a minute!
Garibaldi sitting in the conference room amphitheater with his feet on a table looking like he's about to die of boredom listening to them argue about diplomatic paperwork.
The friendly bickering and gentle teasing! The whole group are all just so *fond* of each other at this point in the show. There's a lovely warm vibe that is delighting me.
G'Kar: Shhh, my muse is speaking to me.
Sheridan: Okay, while we're waiting for G'Kar's muse ...
I am completely in love with the seating patterns in the conference room this season. For the entirety of seasons 1-4, whenever we saw the conference room, the seating is always, *always* with Londo and G'Kar on opposite ends of the table. Now the regular seating pattern has them next to each other.
And it's not just because they can be trusted to sit together without killing each other now. They actually like it and interact constantly, whether it's to trade pointed looks or smiles or just playfully razz each other.
Londo, leaning over to nitpick his spelling: There's no Y in "liberties."
G'Kar: Go repress someone else.
Also, Londo telling Delenn that they can give his body as tribute to the particular group of aliens they're currently arguing about, because he's going to be dead anyway after another round of council deliberations.
G'Kar: I second the motion.
Londo's reaction:
Sheridan's dead-on Londo impression later in the episode is also very funny and adorable.
I really enjoy Garibaldi and Sheridan's relationship this season (the little in-tune bit where Garibaldi, looking in the conference room door, sympathetically mimes gun-to-the-head and Sheridan nods back; the conversation on the observation deck). They're so much in sync and also clearly very fond of each other, and it's so nice to see after the distance in season four.
And I really love what we hear of G'Kar's preamble to the Alliance declaration of rights. It's very him, and it genuinely is nicely written.
The actual plot was a bit meh - I'm not that interested in the telepath plot that's developing this season. I did like the realpolitik turnaround with the Drazi, and the conversation between Lyta and Garibaldi about what it's like to be in someone's mind when they die. (Orion: That could explain a lot about Bester, honestly.) It is extremely obvious that they're undervaluing Lyta and pushing her further away. If she goes and joins the telepath liberation front, you all have no one but yourselves to blame!
I'm also a bit nervous about Garibaldi going further to the black ops side in his new spymaster job.
But everyone is so beautifully happy when they finally get the declaration signed! It's hard to find a shot properly showing them all, because the camera is mostly panning around the table, but they're just so delightful in their excitement and happiness.
I love them. <3
(Caps as usual from here.)
5x04 "A View from the Gallery"
This was fun! I really enjoyed the concept of the space battle from the maintenance guys' POV and seeing parts of the station we don't normally see. (Also the maintenance guys reacting to some of the wilder aspects of the show, like the telepath colony or Sheridan coming back from the dead: LMAOOOO.) I fully expected one or both of the outside POV guys to die in the fight, and I was glad they didn't.
The two standout things in the episode for me, though, were:
a) The Franklin scenes, the explanation for why he became a doctor, and then the absolutely wrenching scene at the end when he is quietly and matter-of-factly cataloging the dead, and you can see that he both accepts this as a regular part of his job, but has to lock down the emotional side of himself in order to do it. I think in seasons 1-2 I didn't really have a lot of feeling for him other than enjoying him as part of the crew, but over the last couple of seasons, especially season four, Franklin has crept up on me to be another top fave when I wasn't looking.
b) Londo and G'Kar's conversation about their childhoods in the B5 bomb shelter, because I am completely predictable.
I really loved seeing the shelters a bit more, in general. We know that they have them, and we've glimpsed them briefly in the past. But this is the first time we've been on that side of a fight; normally we're out there with the characters who are fighting, as opposed to stuck in the shelter with the ones who are simply hanging out on cots waiting for things to be over.
Anyway, though, I feel that, no more than we see them in this episode, we get a lot of little clues about the way they relate to each other at this point in the show, including the fact that they can genuinely hurt each other now with a careless remark in a way I don't think was possible just a few episodes ago. I do think there's a clash of mutually incompatible coping mechanisms going on when Londo's reaction to G'Kar telling him about his (G'Kar's) experiences in bomb shelters as a kid is a tossed-off joke, but of course Londo does that because that's how he handles emotionally charged situations: he deflects.
This is something that Londo probably could have done without it being a big thing a few episodes ago, but not now, because G'Kar is being unusually open - admittedly with the obvious purpose of driving a point through Londo's thick head - and telling him something fairly personal and painful (and in response to Londo actually being, if not intentionally a dick, then certainly obtuse AF about their relative imbalance of power and privilege in the situation they're in and the one they're talking about). And you can see the almost physical flinch on Londo's end, the way his face shuts down as he starts to realize what his casual complaining looks like from G'Kar's side of things - which he then reacts to as he does, by deflecting with a joke.
Which actually hurts and angers G'Kar, and then G'Kar doubles down in a way that you can see stings Londo because it's meant to ("While I was sitting in a bomb shelter learning to hate your people, where were you spending your time as a child? Playing in the Imperial gardens?") - it's the pettiest that G'Kar has been towards him in a while. And he pushes hard enough to get a straight answer out of Londo for a change. The interesting thing is that the dynamic flips at that point - G'Kar's still defensive but not really angry at him anymore, he switches to a sort of semi-sympathetic (or at least empathetic) psychoanalysis, but now Londo's getting mad and defensive himself - the hissed-through-his-teeth answers, he's getting really sick of G'Kar dropping truth bombs on him (or, depending on your point of view, psychoanalyzing him rather uncharitably against his will). But G'Kar is clearly determined not to let him walk away mad or hurt; when Londo decides to withdraw, G'Kar goes with him, and their last exchange is a little more playful, starting to get past the upset and get back to their friendlier dynamic.
This is an actual fight, not just banter, but it's a fight mostly because they care about each other enough to be more open with each other than they used to be, and to be hurt when they get dismissiveness and sarcasm back. It may be the first fight they have that's born out of mutual fondness, rather than anger and antagonism; their newly deepening friendship clashing with the massive, massive history of all the pain and blood and power imbalance and atrocity that lies between them. And it's a fight that ends up actually underscoring the strength of their newly developing ability to have painful, emotionally charged conversations, which clearly this is, for both of them, and to go too far and walk it back and try to resolve it (in their own strange way) rather than letting the other one walk away mad. I mean, if G'Kar really doesn't want to talk to him anymore, he can just let him leave, and if Londo's actually done with the conversation he can make it clear that he's serious about walking away, and neither of them do that.
I think the level of G'Kar's pushback against Londo is at least partly trauma-fueled, as well. Londo asks him how he's handling the station bombardment/bomb shelter situation so calmly and G'Kar answers that he's comfortable with it because he's used to it, basically, but there is *no way* that a guy who spent his childhood under aerial bombardment, and definitely lost a lot of friends/family that way, doesn't have a huge load of trauma surrounding it. So G'Kar is also snapping back because he's in a situation that's personally traumatic for him and he's on edge and in those circumstances, Londo - especially Londo at his Londo-est - is going to become a target once again for G'Kar's general feelings on Centauri. But it doesn't stay that way for long.
In fact, if nothing else, this whole exchange illustrates something important, which is that G'Kar at this point feels that Londo - for all his obtuseness and flaws, after everything he's done - is worth it: worth explaining to, worth letting go of anger and hurt, worth pushing him to confront his own moral blind spots until his better nature comes to the surface. Worth spending time around, even when he's on edge and Londo is, however accidentally, pressing on all the sensitive spots left over from their wars both cultural and personal.
I also enjoyed seeing this exchange back-to-back with their playfulness and obvious mutual affection in the previous episode, when things are going well. They can be like that and they can also be like this, and either way the tentative but growing fondness comes through.
The season four opening with the rotating voiceovers was my favorite of the various openers (well, that and the season 1 opening, because I have nice nostalgia vibes about the part of the show I originally saw - it was the dawn of the third age of mankind! Last best hope for peace! etc.). But I also like this season's, with the clips/voice clips from earlier seasons by year, in part because it's such an interesting mix of clips, especially early on. (Bester gets to be on there at last! And Londo collapsing on the table in season one.)
5x03 "The Paragon of Animals"
I have officially reached the point where I would happily watch these characters read the telephone book. Or, in this case, write their constitution and argue about it. (Things we do not normally see in scifi: the revolution is over and now you have to do the actual paperwork of running the place.)
Londo: I would remind the Drazi ambassador that the Centauri Republic has already signed!
G'Kar: And if the Centauri can sign it, anyone can sign it!
Londo: That's right -- wait a minute!
Garibaldi sitting in the conference room amphitheater with his feet on a table looking like he's about to die of boredom listening to them argue about diplomatic paperwork.
The friendly bickering and gentle teasing! The whole group are all just so *fond* of each other at this point in the show. There's a lovely warm vibe that is delighting me.
G'Kar: Shhh, my muse is speaking to me.
Sheridan: Okay, while we're waiting for G'Kar's muse ...
I am completely in love with the seating patterns in the conference room this season. For the entirety of seasons 1-4, whenever we saw the conference room, the seating is always, *always* with Londo and G'Kar on opposite ends of the table. Now the regular seating pattern has them next to each other.
And it's not just because they can be trusted to sit together without killing each other now. They actually like it and interact constantly, whether it's to trade pointed looks or smiles or just playfully razz each other.
Londo, leaning over to nitpick his spelling: There's no Y in "liberties."
G'Kar: Go repress someone else.
Also, Londo telling Delenn that they can give his body as tribute to the particular group of aliens they're currently arguing about, because he's going to be dead anyway after another round of council deliberations.
G'Kar: I second the motion.
Londo's reaction:
Sheridan's dead-on Londo impression later in the episode is also very funny and adorable.
I really enjoy Garibaldi and Sheridan's relationship this season (the little in-tune bit where Garibaldi, looking in the conference room door, sympathetically mimes gun-to-the-head and Sheridan nods back; the conversation on the observation deck). They're so much in sync and also clearly very fond of each other, and it's so nice to see after the distance in season four.
And I really love what we hear of G'Kar's preamble to the Alliance declaration of rights. It's very him, and it genuinely is nicely written.
The actual plot was a bit meh - I'm not that interested in the telepath plot that's developing this season. I did like the realpolitik turnaround with the Drazi, and the conversation between Lyta and Garibaldi about what it's like to be in someone's mind when they die. (Orion: That could explain a lot about Bester, honestly.) It is extremely obvious that they're undervaluing Lyta and pushing her further away. If she goes and joins the telepath liberation front, you all have no one but yourselves to blame!
I'm also a bit nervous about Garibaldi going further to the black ops side in his new spymaster job.
But everyone is so beautifully happy when they finally get the declaration signed! It's hard to find a shot properly showing them all, because the camera is mostly panning around the table, but they're just so delightful in their excitement and happiness.
I love them. <3
(Caps as usual from here.)
5x04 "A View from the Gallery"
This was fun! I really enjoyed the concept of the space battle from the maintenance guys' POV and seeing parts of the station we don't normally see. (Also the maintenance guys reacting to some of the wilder aspects of the show, like the telepath colony or Sheridan coming back from the dead: LMAOOOO.) I fully expected one or both of the outside POV guys to die in the fight, and I was glad they didn't.
The two standout things in the episode for me, though, were:
a) The Franklin scenes, the explanation for why he became a doctor, and then the absolutely wrenching scene at the end when he is quietly and matter-of-factly cataloging the dead, and you can see that he both accepts this as a regular part of his job, but has to lock down the emotional side of himself in order to do it. I think in seasons 1-2 I didn't really have a lot of feeling for him other than enjoying him as part of the crew, but over the last couple of seasons, especially season four, Franklin has crept up on me to be another top fave when I wasn't looking.
b) Londo and G'Kar's conversation about their childhoods in the B5 bomb shelter, because I am completely predictable.
I really loved seeing the shelters a bit more, in general. We know that they have them, and we've glimpsed them briefly in the past. But this is the first time we've been on that side of a fight; normally we're out there with the characters who are fighting, as opposed to stuck in the shelter with the ones who are simply hanging out on cots waiting for things to be over.
Anyway, though, I feel that, no more than we see them in this episode, we get a lot of little clues about the way they relate to each other at this point in the show, including the fact that they can genuinely hurt each other now with a careless remark in a way I don't think was possible just a few episodes ago. I do think there's a clash of mutually incompatible coping mechanisms going on when Londo's reaction to G'Kar telling him about his (G'Kar's) experiences in bomb shelters as a kid is a tossed-off joke, but of course Londo does that because that's how he handles emotionally charged situations: he deflects.
This is something that Londo probably could have done without it being a big thing a few episodes ago, but not now, because G'Kar is being unusually open - admittedly with the obvious purpose of driving a point through Londo's thick head - and telling him something fairly personal and painful (and in response to Londo actually being, if not intentionally a dick, then certainly obtuse AF about their relative imbalance of power and privilege in the situation they're in and the one they're talking about). And you can see the almost physical flinch on Londo's end, the way his face shuts down as he starts to realize what his casual complaining looks like from G'Kar's side of things - which he then reacts to as he does, by deflecting with a joke.
Which actually hurts and angers G'Kar, and then G'Kar doubles down in a way that you can see stings Londo because it's meant to ("While I was sitting in a bomb shelter learning to hate your people, where were you spending your time as a child? Playing in the Imperial gardens?") - it's the pettiest that G'Kar has been towards him in a while. And he pushes hard enough to get a straight answer out of Londo for a change. The interesting thing is that the dynamic flips at that point - G'Kar's still defensive but not really angry at him anymore, he switches to a sort of semi-sympathetic (or at least empathetic) psychoanalysis, but now Londo's getting mad and defensive himself - the hissed-through-his-teeth answers, he's getting really sick of G'Kar dropping truth bombs on him (or, depending on your point of view, psychoanalyzing him rather uncharitably against his will). But G'Kar is clearly determined not to let him walk away mad or hurt; when Londo decides to withdraw, G'Kar goes with him, and their last exchange is a little more playful, starting to get past the upset and get back to their friendlier dynamic.
This is an actual fight, not just banter, but it's a fight mostly because they care about each other enough to be more open with each other than they used to be, and to be hurt when they get dismissiveness and sarcasm back. It may be the first fight they have that's born out of mutual fondness, rather than anger and antagonism; their newly deepening friendship clashing with the massive, massive history of all the pain and blood and power imbalance and atrocity that lies between them. And it's a fight that ends up actually underscoring the strength of their newly developing ability to have painful, emotionally charged conversations, which clearly this is, for both of them, and to go too far and walk it back and try to resolve it (in their own strange way) rather than letting the other one walk away mad. I mean, if G'Kar really doesn't want to talk to him anymore, he can just let him leave, and if Londo's actually done with the conversation he can make it clear that he's serious about walking away, and neither of them do that.
I think the level of G'Kar's pushback against Londo is at least partly trauma-fueled, as well. Londo asks him how he's handling the station bombardment/bomb shelter situation so calmly and G'Kar answers that he's comfortable with it because he's used to it, basically, but there is *no way* that a guy who spent his childhood under aerial bombardment, and definitely lost a lot of friends/family that way, doesn't have a huge load of trauma surrounding it. So G'Kar is also snapping back because he's in a situation that's personally traumatic for him and he's on edge and in those circumstances, Londo - especially Londo at his Londo-est - is going to become a target once again for G'Kar's general feelings on Centauri. But it doesn't stay that way for long.
In fact, if nothing else, this whole exchange illustrates something important, which is that G'Kar at this point feels that Londo - for all his obtuseness and flaws, after everything he's done - is worth it: worth explaining to, worth letting go of anger and hurt, worth pushing him to confront his own moral blind spots until his better nature comes to the surface. Worth spending time around, even when he's on edge and Londo is, however accidentally, pressing on all the sensitive spots left over from their wars both cultural and personal.
I also enjoyed seeing this exchange back-to-back with their playfulness and obvious mutual affection in the previous episode, when things are going well. They can be like that and they can also be like this, and either way the tentative but growing fondness comes through.
no subject
(Things we do not normally see on scifi: the revolution is over and now you have to do the actual paperwork on running the place.)
I have a lot of mixed feelings about Season 5 which boil down to choices and exigencies proceeding from its de-cancellation, but it may be the only science fiction television I have seen deal seriously with the practical aftermath of the epoch-shattering space opera—I feel like I haven't seen it that often in written fiction, either—and I love how unglamorous and protracted the process is, so that a viewer would really have to like 1776 not to feel like Garibaldi during this phase of it. (I really like 1776. And G'Kar is in writing mode, so he's doing fine.)
The friendly bickering and gentle teasing! The whole group are all just so *fond* of each other at this point in the show. There's a lovely warm vibe that is delighting me.
And it doesn't make their interactions uninteresting! It was not automatically better television when the main cast were splintered/at odds with one another! Take that, narrative dependence on conflict.
Londo's reaction
I am so happy you got a screencap of that face.
I fully expected one or both of the outside POV guys to die in the fight, and I was glad they didn't.
Yes! It turns out not to be that kind of story. It's just a day in the slightly wonky life.
This is an actual fight, not just banter, but it's a fight mostly because they care about each other enough to be more open with each other than they used to be, and to be hurt when they get dismissiveness and sarcasm back. It may be the first fight they have that's born out of mutual fondness, rather than anger and antagonism
I love your very careful tracing of this interaction and I think your reading of it as the kind of fight they couldn't have if they didn't actually let their guard down around one another is bang on; it's a terrific density of information for a scene that can't exceed five minutes if it even runs that long.
(and in response to Londo actually being, if not intentionally a dick, then certainly obtuse AF about their relative imbalance of power and privilege in the situation they're in and the one they're talking about).
And not doing great with their Blitz situation! And characteristically not admitting that he's not doing great with it! Just converting his nerves into running his mouth about the universe's inexplicable beef with him, on which even non-G'Kar audiences could call bullshit! And since I agree with you that it seems impossible for the station's shelters not to raise ghosts for G'Kar—no matter how calmly he delivers it, there are real edges on that claim that being under attack makes him feel at home—it's just about the worst environment in which Londo could be, however facetiously and obliviously, griping about the hard time the universe is giving him. It's a really believable set-up for the conversation to go south as fast as it does. Presumably they have not been fighting this entire time, but from the way G'Kar is first seen doing his best to tune out Londo's self-dramatizing soliloquy, and in fact only starts dropping the truth bombs after Londo pokes him about his apparent equanimity under the tense circumstances, they have been closing in on snap-point for a while.
I mean, if G'Kar really doesn't want to talk to him anymore, he can just let him leave, and if Londo's actually done with the conversation he can make it clear that he's serious about walking away, and neither of them do that.
Yes! And they are still a little pricklier than the last time we saw them as they leave, but Londo's exit line is in its own back-handed way a fairly direct check-in that they're still good: "Afraid I won't come back?" To which he gets the verbal answer he deserves and the real reply of G'Kar walking out with him, leaving the maintenance guys to ventriloquize the permanent nature of their partnership. I really like your observation that it's the kind of fight they couldn't recover from without actually trusting one another, either. They can hurt each other in ways they couldn't before, but they can also get through it.
no subject
it may be the only science fiction television I have seen deal seriously with the practical aftermath of the epoch-shattering space opera—I feel like I haven't seen it that often in written fiction, either
Agreed! I'm really loving that aspect, even if the epoch-shattering space opera is more exciting to watch.
it's a terrific density of information for a scene that can't exceed five minutes if it even runs that long.
Yes! For such a brief scene, it conveys a lot. As usual, you can trace their developing relationship just in the snapshots we get of it in episodes that are technically about other things.
And not doing great with their Blitz situation! And characteristically not admitting that he's not doing great with it! Just converting his nerves into running his mouth about the universe's inexplicable beef with him, on which even non-G'Kar audiences could call bullshit!
Yes! It really is a case of mutually incompatible coping mechanisms. G'Kar tries to focus on his writing and tune the rest out (including Londo, who won't shut up) and Londo sublimates his fear into nattering on about how the universe hates him in spite of the fact that he's done nothing wrong -- I love how G'Kar just looks up and stares at him when he gets to that part.
Londo: Well, all right, a few things.
(Another bit of their interactions that I enjoyed at the start of the scene is Londo's "I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to the universe!" when G'Kar answers his rhetorical ramblings - when, having the entire shelter to wander around in talking to the universe, he has chosen to do it right next to G'Kar, obviously for no reason whatsoever. In a frankly terrifying situation, he's sticking close to the one actual friend/ally/distraction he has in his immediate vicinity at the moment.)
Presumably they have not been fighting this entire time, but from the way G'Kar is first seen doing his best to tune out Londo's self-dramatizing soliloquy, and in fact only starts dropping the truth bombs after Londo pokes him about his apparent equanimity under the tense circumstances, they have been closing in on snap-point for a while.
Yes, very much so! It's clear even at the start of the conversation that Londo is working his last nerve; it just hasn't erupted into active fighting yet.
And they are still a little pricklier than the last time we saw them as they leave, but Londo's exit line is in its own back-handed way a fairly direct check-in that they're still good: "Afraid I won't come back?" To which he gets the verbal answer he deserves and the real reply of G'Kar walking out with him, leaving the maintenance guys to ventriloquize the permanent nature of their partnership.
I hadn't realized, but it IS that, you're right! <333 Checking in, smoothing over, getting them back to their weird yet mutually satisfying status quo. G'Kar poking him with a stick, but more gently this time. (And as we were talking about in the other post, being able to easily roll with teasing hasn't really been a feature of his friendships in general up to this point.)
no subject
*hugs*
Thank you. Even though it's about to disappear again, I have.
and Londo sublimates his fear into nattering on about how the universe hates him in spite of the fact that he's done nothing wrong -- I love how G'Kar just looks up and stares at him when he gets to that part.
Seriously, any truth bombs after that point were really self-inflicted.
(Another bit of their interactions that I enjoyed at the start of the scene is Londo's "I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to the universe!" when G'Kar answers his rhetorical ramblings - when, having the entire shelter to wander around in talking to the universe, he has chosen to do it right next to G'Kar, obviously for no reason whatsoever. In a frankly terrifying situation, he's sticking close to the one actual friend/ally/distraction he has in his immediate vicinity at the moment.
Yes! His emotional support Narn.
Yes, very much so! It's clear even at the start of the conversation that Londo is working his last nerve; it just hasn't erupted into active fighting yet.
I wonder if it is their first real fight of this kind—when the stressors aren't planetary, they aren't directly involved in the action, but everyone is edgier than their normal back-and-forth. In which case they actually handled it pretty well.
G'Kar poking him with a stick, but more gently this time.
I just love this image.
no subject
I hope it's not a spoiler to say that I was underwhelmed by this season.
And I think that's why: that plot just didn't do it for me, and the previous seasons had had such marvelous plotting that I was expecting more. If I watch again, I feel ready to enjoy the characters more!
no subject