Centauri Primetime

Babylon 5 Rewatch Season 3 Ep 03 A Day in the Strife

The Centauri/Narn peace continues to be one-sided as the current government sends Na'Far, a Narn dignitary, to Babylon 5 to fetch back G'Kar who is the last free member of the Kha'Ri. Meanwhile a Star Trek episode happens when a probe appears to give the command staff a pop quiz. Also Garibaldi challenges Franklin on his substance abuse. They eat Italian.

ALSO! DEVELOPMENT! For those of you out there who don't have HBO Max, all of Babylon 5 is now on IMDBtv! Watch the original series before they start putting out the remake for maximum in-joke appreciation! Straczynski said the new show is going to be a brand new take on the material, so you won't be spoiling yourself for the new one to watch the old one. Maybe I'll Pic an Episode the new series when it drops, too! Guess I better get this rewatch a-goin'

Things I liked and Didn't like about A Day in the Strife Below:

I will always remember the convo between Londo and Na'Far as what is, in my opinion, really Londo at his very ugliest during the entirety of the series. Londo is basically grinding his heel into the Narn to, apparently, rob them of their dignity so that they won't attack again in another 100 years, but this makes no sense at all. And, Londo clearly understands what he is doing because to protect Vir from this despicable side of politics, he sends him off to Minbar with the assistance of Delenn, who also questions Londo's motives and clearly communicates that she thinks he is a lost soul, and she thinks it is Londo that needs saving, not Vir (an opinion Vir shares). But Londo has already thrown himself down this path, damned be the consequences; although he does have enough left in his soul to try to prevent Vir from being caught in the crossfire. It is this tension that makes Londo such an interesting character, one who has given up all hope for himself but who still harbors some hope that others will not be exposed to the long, dark path he has walked. Sending Vir to Minbar was a genuinely good-hearted thing to do, but it is at the cost of a friend and confidant, leaving Londo even more alone than before.

The Narn on the station make up the Narn insurgence, and their unified effort to protect G'Kar is very moving, just as he is trying to protect their families from the Centauri. He's not afraid of the Centauri or putting his life in danger to help his people, and we have seen him really come into his own as a leader who is not just losing his temper and letting his emotions get the best of him anymore.

Ta'Lon is such a great character who deserved more screen time, I loved seeing him return, and we get the first mention of the Narn bodyguard theme we see reoccurring.

The stims subplot regarding Stephen is really interesting, and on paper seems like it should work, but for whatever reason, this subplot never really hit home like it should have. Yet, I did really appreciate Garibaldi's discussion about his problem in this episode, as he tries to help Stephen confront his own.

Season 3 episode 2: Convictions

Its been a while since I updated the Pic an Ep series. I won't give you a bunch of excuses, you can figure it out when I say that I'm steering the art back to the more doodly look I started this series with.

Convictions - explosions rock the station. Is it terrorism? Is it the Narn or the Centauri? It's concerning for the command staff, that's for sure. Stakes rise as fear, damage, and injury mount until it comes down to Sheridan going face to face with the responsible party.

But re the plot of this particular episode, every time I watch it, I am impressed with Patrick Kilpatrick's fantastic portrayal of the unhinged bomber. And we are introduced to Brother Theo, who has grown on me in rewatching the series.

Babylon 5 Rewatch Season 3 Ep 01 Matters of Honor

It's a new season for our heroes. The war between the Narn and Centauri is over but the war with the Shadows is just beginning and a new player, Marcus of the Rangers, has arrived to kick off the conflict.

Again, I’m just struck by Sheridan’s ballsy maneuvers -- Earth has a new treaty with the Centauri, an old and powerful race, and Sheridan risks the whole situation by trying to save a small group of Rangers, a situation that could easily cause a war. Not that what he did isn’t laudable because he’s “responsible” for the Rangers, but to be honest, he’s running his own covert paramilitary group (!) and he’s risking earth’s diplomatic and military position by his unilateral acts, and he steals away from his command post to surreptitiously  participate in a space battle. I suppose we can be glad he’s generally on the good guys side but mostly because we know Earthdome ends up being the bad guys in the long run...................

As for Londo, I felt like he was a bit naïve in this episode -- like he couldn’t possibly believe that Mr. Morden’s associates would not want anything in return for their help. I did like how he finally decided to cut his relationship with Morden and his associates short but maybe he should have felt out what Morden was going to require, long-term, in return for all of their help. I mean, I wouldn’t for a minute believe that all they want is the little territory drawn on the map. Like they are clearly out for a longer term prize, and Londo generally seems a little wiser than his straight forward acceptance that all they want is some territory and that’s it (I suppose this is shown when Londo asks what assurance he has that Morden’s associates won’t turn on the Centauri). Londo’s face when he mentions Refa is fantastic.

I showed this post to my boyfriend and he tried to take his shirt off like a girl and 

uh

and it made me realize that girls and boys pull their shirt off differently. /amazed

Its not science unless you write it down so 

Well done, i guess…

Second:

I fucked up

It’s all in the way that girl/boys shirts are made.

Girls shirts have less armpit room then boy’s do and are generally shorter so pulling it off over your head is more practical because by lifting your arms all the way up you make enough room for the sleeves to just slip off.

Boys shirts have more room and are generally longer so it is easy to slip them off over your head.

but if you take a girls shirt off like a boys shirt you will get your arms caught because there isn’t much armpit space.

and if you take a boys shirt off like a girls shit you will still have your head in it when you’ve lifted your arms all the way up because of the shirt’s length.

Babylon 5 rewatch Episode 2.22: The Fall of Night

Babylon 5 is at the center of not one but three conflicts as John Sheridan agrees to shelter a wounded Narn cruiser. The Centauri don’t like this. Earth doesn’t like this. The Shadows don’t like this. But Sheridan has a strong moral compass and what he doesn’t like is how much the institutions around him are willing to sacrifice in the name of forging some kind of cursory peace.

The other thing that strikes me is that the episode shows some poor decision-making on Sheridan's part. He cannot think that his action to hide the Narn cruiser, if found out, might cause anything less than potential war between Earth and the Centauri. He would have been better off, if he is going to offer sanctuary to protect these Narn, to allow the Narn onto the station and then hand over the heavy cruiser (an object of war) to the Centauri who are the whatever-you-might-think-of-them-victors in the recent war. I really think he could have saved some lives, but instead he doubles down and has a monologue about how he was happy to send the Centauri to hell. He just doesn't come off as a very sympathetic character in this sequence, even if he is built up to be standing this ground of protecting the Narn. He could have protected the Narn and still defused the altercation. The fact that he has no remorse for killing a bunch of people.....it just doesn't make him out to be the golden boy he is clearly supposed to be.

I like how the little bomb is just a dead giveaway that it is Centauri. Like the fan symbol is the whole bomb? Really? No bomb maker thought, "welp, maybe should hide the identity of who made this a little bit..."

Keffler died. Was I meant to care very much about him? Obviously not what with JMS not wanting that role around anyway, but anyway, I didn't mostly because there was no real connection with his character in his brief appearances, as you noted @jenniferstolzer so whatever emotional appeal his death was meant to have was a bit lost on me. But the Shadows are terrifying, good use of a natural aversion most people have to spiders. They are still creepy.

I enjoyed Vir & Lennier's exchange -- the idea of the aides getting together and talking shit about their bosses is pretty perfect. I also considered that would probably be frowned upon since you don't want two diplomatic lackeys getting together and sharing diplomatic secrets, but we know these two and we know they wouldn't abuse the trust of their governments like that. Good for us, because if the governments found out, they probably wouldn't be as forgiving.

Babylon 5 Rewatch Season 2 episode 21: Comes the Inquisitor

The Vorlons send an inquisitor to investigate Delenn. Meanwhile, G’Kar must do his own investigation in order to restore the faith and morale of the defeated Narns on Babylon 5

I thought I perceived some sort of pride thread throughout the A and B storylines, from Sebastian, to Delenn, to G'Kar, but again, I didn't feel like there was any payoff by the end of the episode, mainly because the A storyline just fell flat.

However, I also really thought G'Kar and Vir's elevator scene was intense. Just the intensity burning out of G'Kar and Vir being visibly terrified but with enough gumption to recognize what happened was wong. The dripping blood. That I thought was the most effective use of the episode and was a moment of brevity in an otherwise passable episode for me.

Babylon 5 Rewatch ep 2.20 The Long, Twilight Struggle

Sheridan and Delenn receive an invitation to Epsilon III where Draal pledges the Great Machine to the campaign against the Shadows. Meanwhile Londo commits his Shadow allies to one more attack against the Narn, allowing the Centauri to commit war crimes and end the Narn conflict.

Despite Londo's grave doubts about continuing to use his allies, Refa ultimately convinces him to use them to help Refa end the war with Narn. What I think is interesting is that people condemn the Centauri for this action and yet seem to be perfectly content with the fact that the US did the exact same thing by bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WWII. Watching B5, it is easy to and sit in a place of moral judgment over Londo and Refa, but it is clear that many have viewed the recourse to extremely damaging military technology, as long as it is "necessary" and "justified", as a perfectly acceptable courses of action to win a war of attrition. In fact, the United States has yet to apologize for its actions during WWII, which in two fell swoops, killed more than 100,000 (and that is a conservative estimate) of populations that admittedly were largely made up of civilians. I think B5, like the best of scifi, gives us an opportunity to examine our own actions of the past, including why the United States still refuses to take a purely diplomatic step of apologizing for the great deal of death and destruction caused by the atomic bombs, and to reevaluate whether the Allies were right to take that step to end WWII.

The heart of this episode is the Council meeting where Londo announces the Centauri terms of the unconditional surrender, which are excruciating and awful, and we see G'Kar's humiliation, agony, and powerlessness at hearing what will happen to his people and to his position. This episode is really a turning point for G'Kar's character, who up to this point has been full of pride and ego himself, and his utter humiliation at Londo's hands is just heart-breaking to watch. Oh, but that speech G'Kar makes is just.so.damn.good. His quiet hope for his people and his dedication to their cause after seeing the killing of so many of his people, not even being allowed to go home to see his family, and hearing of the death of his uncle, G'Sten, at the hands of Londo's allies. It is wrenching to watch, not only with G'Kar's suffering but with one of the times Londo comes across as truly cruel, delivering the brutal terms of the Centauri and demanding G'Kar's exit from the council chambers in public, all while we see the doubts he harbors in private about the Centauri's trajectory, the true aims of his allies, Refa's actions, and his own complicity.

Interestingly, G'Sten is played by WM Shephard, who also played the Soul Hunter and, apparently, was a close runner-up for the original casting of the role of G'Kar (nobody can argue that they made the right choice with Andreas though).

I really appreciated Garibaldi's thinly veiled anger when he tells Londo he is providing him with round-the-clock security until the incident is over. Jerry Doyle played that bubbling anger to perfection.

I wasn't a fan of the way Delenn sort of abdicates her position relative to the rangers to Sheridan (I mean, in a sense -- it is equal, of course, but it comes quite out of the blue) -- I think this sort of sets up a problem I have with Delenn's characterization through the end of the series, which is once she becomes a love interest of Sheridan, she is relegated to a support position in terms of the plot, rather than as a primary and powerful individual in her own right. I found the way her arc is dealt with disappointing in this sense.

Draal and the Great Machine are interesting, but I always felt they were never used to their potential. It just seemed that when Draal offers the alliance ("there will be more to come") that there was a great deal more that was meant to be written concerning Draal. I know he shows up later but it it just seems he had more potential than what is to come.

and exomis: