Babylon 5 5x05-08

[sholio]

So much for slowing down. Onwards!



.... Onwards towards DOOM, that is. And it's interesting how many of these episodes have had a general air of Oncoming Doom hanging over them, even when things are generally pretty good.

I don't really like Sheridan and Lochley turning out to have a sexual history, but oh well. At least Delenn got over her jealousy pretty quickly? (Also: cannot believe when I wrote my missing scenes for 5x02, the one other person besides Londo that I decided to have her interact with as a stranger is the one person she actually knew before B5, although I reread that and I think it reads okay even with the additional context, since they work hard at being publicly formal with each other.)

One of the handful of things I knew about season 5 is that G'Kar ends up as Londo's bodyguard in this season (I'd seen a couple of clips beforehand), but I had no idea how it happened, and I didn't expect it to be Delenn's idea, or to happen this early!

Delenn walking away GIGGLING after she inflicts Londo on his new bodyguard, I just cannot even with that scene.





They're all so cute! I'm really loving the Delenn-Londo-G'Kar triad in general this season (and at the end of last one). She loves these two idiots, she really does.

I predictably loved the Bester episode. I love that we got some closure on the Bester-Garibaldi-Sheridan plot from last season (namely, Garibaldi having to be locked up in the brig to stop him from giving Bester the beatdown of his life).

I had completely forgotten about Lyta being modified by the Vorlons until that came up in the telepath plot - I wasn't expecting anything about that to be revisited now that the Vorlons are gone, but we got that and also Kosh's message from the other side to Sheridan (typically cryptic).

The "Day of the Dead" episode was - something. I like the show leaving it at least somewhat open to interpretation whether the afterlife is canonical in the B5 universe, or whether this was some kind of tech/mental stimulation/etc, leaning towards "probably really dead people" but not making it completely unambiguous. I did not expect most people to have a really good time with their dead loved ones! That's not how it normally goes! Garibaldi and Dodger were especially cute; I love that they just got to have a second fun one-night stand with nothing really attached to it. I'm glad they brought her back, because I had forgotten about her, and I feel like she and Garibaldi have more chemistry, and more of a sense of being MFEO, in one and a half episodes than he and Lise did in their entire storyline. (Also completely here for Garibaldi being hyper-competent with patching the call through from their current location to B5.)

And Londo getting one last night with Adira. T__T Also Lennier with Morden, which I was *not* expecting; I thought it would be either Marcus or Neroon. (Me @ Lennier: Don't listen to him! This is the literal last ghost you should be listening to! Tie him up and gag him!) I liked that they kept the identity of the ghostly guest stars a secret by not putting it up front on the opening credits, so each visitation was a surprise.

The existence of an arguably canonical afterlife in B5 as well as people being able to come back from the dead under certain circumstances may need to be revisited in fanfic, I'm just saying.

Comments

[sholio]

Delenn ships Londo/G'Kar, I'm telling you. The whole representatives of enemy races thing worked for her and Sheridan!

I'd buy it! She probably had input into the seating arrangements for the new Alliance advisory council, too ...

I did notice the Gaiman credit on the episode, which, yeah, retrospective case of the Oh Noes, but it's certainly true that this was definitely by far the most human Lochley has felt in the entire season; hers and Garibaldi's were my favorites of the visitation scenes. (Although, I wonder if the different writer is why Londo and G'Kar felt a little out of step to me in that episode compared to the overall consistency of the rest of the season, to an extent - not in a way that I could really put my finger on specifically, more like both of them felt a little like a throwback to their somewhat less developed characterization to me. I didn't connect it to the writer, I just thought that every show has slightly inconsistent episodes; but also, I didn't realize that JMS has been writing literally *all* of them, and I could see those two, who both have incredibly specific character voices, being hard to capture.)

Anyway, I had simply assumed that the choice of dead visitor was based on actor availability, so the carte blanche thing is interesting to know! TBH I do feel like Adira is perhaps the *least* interesting possibility for Londo, particularly Adira as portrayed in the episode, who didn't really seem to have the edges or complexity that she had when we last saw her; she's really just there to be supportive and give him closure about her death. But at the same time, she's probably the only one of his many dead who could have given him a positive experience - well, maybe Urza as well - and it was nice to see him simply have a pleasant night in contrast to all expectations.

It's also interesting that the choice of dead visitor is not based even slightly on what they wanted or expected to happen, considering that those who had expectations (Londo, and possibly Lennier) definitely did not get whatever they had in mind.

And thank you so much for the vid rec, I will watch it! <3 I've been missing being able to interact with fanworks, especially with vids, but there's simply no way without finding out way too much. (The one relatively low-spoiler vid I had watched a couple of times turned out to be too revealing once I got deeper into the series and knew enough about the clips I was seeing to put them in context ...)

[sovay]

(Although, I wonder if the different writer is why Londo and G'Kar felt a little out of step to me in that episode compared to the overall consistency of the rest of the season, to an extent - not in a way that I could really put my finger on specifically, more like both of them felt a little like a throwback to their somewhat less developed characterization to me. I didn't connect it to the writer, I just thought that every show has slightly inconsistent episodes; but also, I didn't realize that JMS has been writing literally *all* of them, and I could see those two, who both have incredibly specific character voices, being hard to capture.)

"Day of the Dead" felt at the time and still feels to me like a blip in the voice of the show, which since I knew nothing from Neil Gaiman in 1998—it's more than possible that this episode was my first encounter with his work—I just chalked up to the difference in writers after more than two straight seasons of unfiltered JMS. Without getting into the retrospective problematics, I would say now that it feels like a Gaiman episode because he really is not a writer of science fiction; he found a way to niche a fantastic conceit into a show which was at home to it because B5 has always had an admixture of fantasy and horror in its sci-fi and then he was on his own ground. I still have no idea how he wound up guest-writing the episode. The mid-fifth season is a weird place for it to happen. In high school, I hoped fruitlessly for Harlan Ellison to do one before the show wound down.

(All of that said, agreed that Lochley deserved some actual characterization and she definitely gets it. I should be clear that I don't hate this episode! It's just a really odd object.)

she's probably the only one of his many dead who could have given him a positive experience - well, maybe Urza as well

I would have been completely down for that. ("Knives" left an impact crater in my adolescent id.)

(The one relatively low-spoiler vid I had watched a couple of times turned out to be too revealing once I got deeper into the series and knew enough about the clips I was seeing to put them in context ...)

That feels unfair!

[selenak]

I still have no idea how he wound up guest-writing the episode.

As far as I recall, JMS had asked him to since season 1, and s5 was the when he had the time and space. They knew each other as comic book writers and came across as mutually admiring each other a lot back in the day.

Speaking of Knives, wasn't that the last non-JMS written B5 episode before this one? Or was that the second Peter David episode? Anyway, it still appears crazily workoholic and mysteriously efficient to me that JMS managed to write every single episode since then (and then after Day of the Dead again) in a time when seasons were still 22 episodes per season.

[sholio]

I am genuinely astonished! I obviously knew that he wrote a lot of the episodes, but I wasn't paying enough attention to the credits to notice he's been writing *all* of them since that far back. Mad props.

[sovay]

As far as I recall, JMS had asked him to since season 1, and s5 was the when he had the time and space.

Fine! That makes sense. It was otherwise such a random time for a guest spot. Larry DiTillio's "Knives" had indeed been the last.

Anyway, it still appears crazily workoholic and mysteriously efficient to me that JMS managed to write every single episode since then (and then after Day of the Dead again) in a time when seasons were still 22 episodes per season.

It's still nuts.