![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Crusade - done!
I still like it! Woe! (Decided to add a tag for it, even.)
So first of all, now that I've seen the whole thing, I feel like there is *sort of* an order that's best to watch in for character purposes, you just have to ignore the changing uniforms. I would watch it as:
*1x09-1x11
"Racing the Night" (1x09) is clearly meant to be the pilot, is vastly better than the actual pilot, and introduces all the characters in essentially their base states, which means that if you're watching in number order, you're going to get a sharp reset to zero here.
Technically I think you could watch the pilot first and then jump to this episode, because the pilot does provide background on various characters that you don't get here, but it's also ... not good, and contradicts a few things in this episode about how the characters met. But that was what I did, basically by accident, and it DID work! Also, the flaws of the rest of the series seem less noticeable when you watched the worst episode first, lol. But if you want to start with the best, this run of episodes are very strong.
*Then 1x02-1x08
1x02 is kinda skippable if you're mainly interested in team, but the rest are all very nicely teamy and built up the group working together. (Which is why IMHO the skip to resetting the character relationships in 1x09 doesn't really work; it works better the other way around.)
*1x12 & 1x13 at any point beyond mid-series; also the pilot as an "extra" if you didn't watch it first.
1x12 is INCREDIBLY skippable (honestly wish I'd skipped it). 1x13 probably works better from a character standpoint if it's placed between the other two Lochley episodes (1x06 & 1x07) - it feels like it's meant to go earlier in Gideon and Lochley's relationship. But also, it functions well as a sort of mini-finale, given that we don't have an actual one.
So that would be, I guess, my ideal watch order. It does mean the uniforms change randomly, but IMHO that's better than character relationships and motivations changing randomly!
So .... thoughts on the rest of the series:
* I liked Galen a lot based on the middle episodes, but that was before finding out that every single episode leans heavily into Galen's tragic backstory and general angst, and it's like ... dude. Stop hogging all the angst, save some for everyone else! If Galen is supposed to be this mysterious guy who turns up now and then to help out, let him be mysterious, c'mon. I think I would like him better with at least 70% less angst and 50% more Mysterious.
* Max is very unsurprisingly turning out to be Stealth Fave now that I've seen more of him (though I still love Dureena and also really love Sarah). Uggghhhh I am MOURNING that we never got to see Max and Dureena, in particular, really bond with the rest of the crew and figure out that they have a home here.
* The episode with Max and Dureena hanging out on shore leave on Mars was highly RTMI. She rescues him! (Also: "You mess with me, you mess with my whole family"??! - MAX. Possibly he's quoting something, but also ... desperately lonely person who attaches himself to the first people who are really nice to him but can't admit it, y/y?) And Dureena could very easily have walked away and found somewhere else to socialize - this kind of seedy underworld is her natural habitat, rather than hanging out with these losers, but she wants to. Because she is like that too.
* I also really like that Max isn't exactly a socially awkward nerd, nor is he just book-smart. He genuinely is smart, he's competent, and he's good at a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd be good at - like charming the guys in the bar who want to beat him up (given what his ex says in the next episode about Max's childhood, this is probably something he has a lot of experience with), or dancing with Dureena and genuinely giving her a good time. In the body snatcher episode, he's the one who figures out the fairly complicated plan that Gideon is trying to telegraph to the others through coded hints. He's even capable of being scary when he wants to be, as when he threatens the mobster into backing down. I also really like his nascent friendship with Sarah, and the whole thing in the body snatcher episode with the soldier dying for him and Max clearly more broken up about it than he wants to admit and eventually going to talk to Sarah about it ... urgh.
* I wish we'd seen more of Sarah, other than just knowing she has a sister back home. We did find out more of Matheson's whole deal, and Gideon and Matheson are charming together, as are Gideon and Doreena. I like Gideon's entire trauma-based "can't leave people behind" thing.
* So much potential. Waaahhhhh.
* It was also really great to see B5 again, and I wonder how many of the B5 regulars we'd have seen if the series had continued. WOE AGAIN.
* Aggressively do not care about Gideon/Lochley, alas, to the point of fast-forwarding through a lot of their scenes. (Though the bit where he's rhapsodizing about Sheridan and she admits that Sheridan is her ex was cute.)
* The episode with the cybernetically enhanced Earth Alliance soldiers who were intentionally infected with the plague by the military! That is SO DARK, and they don't even have the "fascist made us do it" excuse this time.
* Actually, this series introduces quite a bit of B5 worldbuilding lore that is interesting to think about in terms of the main series: cybernetic enhancements on Earth Alliance soldiers, the existence of a widespread galactic slave trade trafficking in multiple intelligent races, people from relatively undeveloped worlds like Dureena's (I don't get the impression her people even had space travel?) getting sold or captured as slave labor, etc. And all the MANY ancient ruins of various vanished unknown species.
I really enjoyed it, and I'm glad I watched it! Though I really wish there was just one or two more seasons to enjoy. I could definitely see this show achieving Stargate levels of h/c-enhanced team bonding given another season or so. It is actually really interesting to compare it to B5 ... it's so much more conventionally "found family on a spaceship," though who knows where it would have taken that if it had the chance, since B5 also kinda looks like that in the first half-season or so.
So first of all, now that I've seen the whole thing, I feel like there is *sort of* an order that's best to watch in for character purposes, you just have to ignore the changing uniforms. I would watch it as:
*1x09-1x11
"Racing the Night" (1x09) is clearly meant to be the pilot, is vastly better than the actual pilot, and introduces all the characters in essentially their base states, which means that if you're watching in number order, you're going to get a sharp reset to zero here.
Technically I think you could watch the pilot first and then jump to this episode, because the pilot does provide background on various characters that you don't get here, but it's also ... not good, and contradicts a few things in this episode about how the characters met. But that was what I did, basically by accident, and it DID work! Also, the flaws of the rest of the series seem less noticeable when you watched the worst episode first, lol. But if you want to start with the best, this run of episodes are very strong.
*Then 1x02-1x08
1x02 is kinda skippable if you're mainly interested in team, but the rest are all very nicely teamy and built up the group working together. (Which is why IMHO the skip to resetting the character relationships in 1x09 doesn't really work; it works better the other way around.)
*1x12 & 1x13 at any point beyond mid-series; also the pilot as an "extra" if you didn't watch it first.
1x12 is INCREDIBLY skippable (honestly wish I'd skipped it). 1x13 probably works better from a character standpoint if it's placed between the other two Lochley episodes (1x06 & 1x07) - it feels like it's meant to go earlier in Gideon and Lochley's relationship. But also, it functions well as a sort of mini-finale, given that we don't have an actual one.
So that would be, I guess, my ideal watch order. It does mean the uniforms change randomly, but IMHO that's better than character relationships and motivations changing randomly!
So .... thoughts on the rest of the series:
* I liked Galen a lot based on the middle episodes, but that was before finding out that every single episode leans heavily into Galen's tragic backstory and general angst, and it's like ... dude. Stop hogging all the angst, save some for everyone else! If Galen is supposed to be this mysterious guy who turns up now and then to help out, let him be mysterious, c'mon. I think I would like him better with at least 70% less angst and 50% more Mysterious.
* Max is very unsurprisingly turning out to be Stealth Fave now that I've seen more of him (though I still love Dureena and also really love Sarah). Uggghhhh I am MOURNING that we never got to see Max and Dureena, in particular, really bond with the rest of the crew and figure out that they have a home here.
* The episode with Max and Dureena hanging out on shore leave on Mars was highly RTMI. She rescues him! (Also: "You mess with me, you mess with my whole family"??! - MAX. Possibly he's quoting something, but also ... desperately lonely person who attaches himself to the first people who are really nice to him but can't admit it, y/y?) And Dureena could very easily have walked away and found somewhere else to socialize - this kind of seedy underworld is her natural habitat, rather than hanging out with these losers, but she wants to. Because she is like that too.
* I also really like that Max isn't exactly a socially awkward nerd, nor is he just book-smart. He genuinely is smart, he's competent, and he's good at a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd be good at - like charming the guys in the bar who want to beat him up (given what his ex says in the next episode about Max's childhood, this is probably something he has a lot of experience with), or dancing with Dureena and genuinely giving her a good time. In the body snatcher episode, he's the one who figures out the fairly complicated plan that Gideon is trying to telegraph to the others through coded hints. He's even capable of being scary when he wants to be, as when he threatens the mobster into backing down. I also really like his nascent friendship with Sarah, and the whole thing in the body snatcher episode with the soldier dying for him and Max clearly more broken up about it than he wants to admit and eventually going to talk to Sarah about it ... urgh.
* I wish we'd seen more of Sarah, other than just knowing she has a sister back home. We did find out more of Matheson's whole deal, and Gideon and Matheson are charming together, as are Gideon and Doreena. I like Gideon's entire trauma-based "can't leave people behind" thing.
* So much potential. Waaahhhhh.
* It was also really great to see B5 again, and I wonder how many of the B5 regulars we'd have seen if the series had continued. WOE AGAIN.
* Aggressively do not care about Gideon/Lochley, alas, to the point of fast-forwarding through a lot of their scenes. (Though the bit where he's rhapsodizing about Sheridan and she admits that Sheridan is her ex was cute.)
* The episode with the cybernetically enhanced Earth Alliance soldiers who were intentionally infected with the plague by the military! That is SO DARK, and they don't even have the "fascist made us do it" excuse this time.
* Actually, this series introduces quite a bit of B5 worldbuilding lore that is interesting to think about in terms of the main series: cybernetic enhancements on Earth Alliance soldiers, the existence of a widespread galactic slave trade trafficking in multiple intelligent races, people from relatively undeveloped worlds like Dureena's (I don't get the impression her people even had space travel?) getting sold or captured as slave labor, etc. And all the MANY ancient ruins of various vanished unknown species.
I really enjoyed it, and I'm glad I watched it! Though I really wish there was just one or two more seasons to enjoy. I could definitely see this show achieving Stargate levels of h/c-enhanced team bonding given another season or so. It is actually really interesting to compare it to B5 ... it's so much more conventionally "found family on a spaceship," though who knows where it would have taken that if it had the chance, since B5 also kinda looks like that in the first half-season or so.
no subject
Yay, Max! I have good memories of all three of his episodes that you cite and keep trying to blank from my memory that one of them includes Gideon and Lochley hooking up.
(Also: "You mess with me, you mess with my whole family"??! - MAX. Possibly he's quoting something, but also ... desperately lonely person who attaches himself to the first people who are really nice to him but can't admit it, y/y?)
Missing scene based on the fact that Dureena heard him requested.
I also really like his nascent friendship with Sarah, and the whole thing in the body snatcher episode with the soldier dying for him and Max clearly more broken up about it than he wants to admit and eventually going to talk to Sarah about it ... urgh.
Teen me was stabbed by Max's sarcasm-cloaked certainty that no one who actually knew him would sacrifice themselves for him. DAMMIT SHOW GET THE CHANCE TO PROVE HIM WRONG.
And all the MANY ancient ruins of various vanished unknown species.
I loved the alien ruins and the fact that it is not even unusual to run into them. There was so much potential for deep time.