B5, episodes 17-19
Jan. 26th, 2012 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyAlmost at the end of the first season! And it keeps getting better and more plot-heavy and with more explosions.
Legacies was very much Bechdel-win. I don’t think most genre TV these days has as much Bechdel-win as B5 (or later Star Trek, or Buffy, to be fair) did in the 90s. It focuses on Ivanova and Talia (who finally have a date, even if it’s a half-hour date) butting heads over an urchin girl whose telepathic ability spontaneously and traumatically erupts at puberty. Talia wants to send her straight to the Psy-Corps; Ivanova has other ideas. Na’toth (hi! I missed you!) wants to use her for cross-breeding purposes, for which she will be handsomely compensated. Delenn wants her to come to Minbar, where she will basically be some kind of psychic monk. The girl, for her part, is a great one-off character, and uses both her own stubbornness and her newfound psychic abilities to force everyone else to be honest about their motives. In the end, she agrees to go with the Minbari, which ties in nicely with the other plot.
In the other plot, a Minbari warrior leader has died and his followers are parading around his body in state. After some diplomatic misunderstandings, they plan a visitation at B5, but the body goes missing, and the long-suffering Garibaldi has to find it. This involves interviewing a carrion-eater that looks like an Ood from Doctor Who, and an even worse job for Doctor Boring, who has to examine the creature’s stomach contents to see if there are any bits of semi-digested Minbari in it. The conflict between the religious caste, of which Delenn is a high-ranking member, and the warrior caste, is rather nicely drawn and there is a minimum of space-elvishness. The main antagonist, Neroon, is rather chillingly intense and great to watch.
A Voice in the Wilderness, Part I: So that “all alone in the night” thing? Apparently not so accurate, because there is at least one guy (capable of astral projection, no less) on the planet that B5 is orbiting. Oh, and a guided missile system. And lots and lots of earthquakes. Seriously, what is the point of having systems that can’t detect life signs if they never work properly? Also, shouldn’t you have systems that can detect, I don’t know, planetary instability and missiles? Not to mention gigantic underground cities full of technology so advanced that no one has ever seen anything like it.
Delenn’s mentor shows up on the station, which means that clearly he wants to either turn evil or die (those being the only two things that can happen to mentors on sci-fi shows). I think it’s the latter, because he’s a nice old man who keeps talking about “going to the sea.” Somehow, I don’t think he’s planning to lie on a beach somewhere—though it would be a cool twist if he did.
Just when you think there’s already enough plot happening, ZOMG REVOLT ON MARS. Free Mars takes up arms and plans to make the “sands run red with Earther blood.” Hardcore. Garibaldi’s ex-girlfriend is still there, but Earth’s government won’t open a communication channel, so he goes a bit nuts trying to find out if she’s okay. Finally, Talia manages to confirm that she is not on the list of people who are okay.
Ivanova and Sinclair find the astral projection guy in a science fictional Jesus Christ Pose, and rescue him, then escape the planet via a cut in editing.
Other fun things: “Ivanova is always right, Ivanova is God,” Londo singing the Hokey Pokey, and the worst booby traps ever.
Oh, and a cliffhanger as “something big” comes through the jumpgate.
That something turns out to be an Earth Alliance cruiser captained by a dude named Captain Pierce who is every military stereotype ever. He’s been told by Earth Force that B5 has found some cool technology down on the planet; B5 jurisdiction is Earth jurisdiction, and therefore, whatever they’ve discovered belongs only to Earth. It’s a little late to keep it a secret, since Londo knows already.
Sinclair tries to get Hidoshi, the jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold senator from the union episode, to confirm that he and B5 have final jurisdiction, not Captain Asshole, but Hidoshi can’t do much beyond asking them both to play nice. Hah. I love that there are so many squabbling layers of bureaucracy on this show. Anyway, Captain Asshole tries to land his dudes on the planet, only to be met with SURPRISE MISSILES. Sinclair stalls him, but there’s bad news—the attempt to land has somehow increased the seismic activity. If someone tries to land again, the planet will blow up. If no one tries to land, the planet will still blow up, but not as quickly. At any rate, there is no way to evacuate the entire station before the planet blows up. Ivanova gets to say “boom” a lot. Captain Asshole tries to land again; Sinclair threatens to blow him up, and Captain Asshole backs down.
Garibaldi is still angsting over his ex, so he gets in a bar fight with some space rednecks who are talking about nuking the Martians. For a recovering alcoholic with rage issues, Garibaldi really spends a lot of time in bars.
Meanwhile, astral projection guy, whose name is Varn, is in the med lab, comatose. This doesn’t stop him astral-projecting to Mentor McWhy Bother To Learn His Name Because He Obviously Dies. Okay, Draal, but just because it’s shorter. He and Delenn pretty much figure out what Varn is after—he’s dying and he needs a replacement to run the What Do You Mean It’s Not Symbolic machine he was strapped to on the planet.
Because the plot is not already complicated enough, yet another ship comes through the jumpgate, also captained by an asshole, this one of the same species as Varn. He claims the planet for his own. Captain Asshole and Sinclair team up in a tense standoff against these new aliens, who Varn says are violent outcasts without any claim to the planet or its shiny technology.
Now for a twist I didn’t see coming: Delenn, Draal, and Londo, of all people, team up on a secret martyrdom mission to replace Varn on the planet. Apparently Londo wants to go out in a heroic sacrifice. His character just keeps getting more and more fascinating. So they steal Varn and head off to the planet, with Garibaldi chasing them.
Meanwhile, SPACE FIGHT!
It’s not very suspenseful as to who takes Varn’s place, because obviously it’s not going to be one of the main cast members. Draal can now astral-project, so he tells Sinclair and the alien dudes to cool it. The alien dudes don’t listen and try to land on the planet, so I get three more explosions. Yay! I love explosions.
HOLY CRAP DOES DRAAL LOOK JESUS-Y. He has a halo and everything. I was wrong about him dying, but it’s pretty much the same thing, and there is a lot of talk about the virtues of self-sacrifice and so on. It’s quite lovely.
As for Garibaldi and the Mars situation, he finally gets a channel to the ex-girlfriend, Lise, who got caught in the fighting but is okay. He starts a heartfelt confession only to be shot down—she’s married to a guy named Franz and they’re expecting a baby. Oh. Well then. That was anti-climactic.
In other news, Rome (the neofolk band, not the show or the city) are quite excellent. I have been listening to them while packing and painting all day.
Legacies was very much Bechdel-win. I don’t think most genre TV these days has as much Bechdel-win as B5 (or later Star Trek, or Buffy, to be fair) did in the 90s. It focuses on Ivanova and Talia (who finally have a date, even if it’s a half-hour date) butting heads over an urchin girl whose telepathic ability spontaneously and traumatically erupts at puberty. Talia wants to send her straight to the Psy-Corps; Ivanova has other ideas. Na’toth (hi! I missed you!) wants to use her for cross-breeding purposes, for which she will be handsomely compensated. Delenn wants her to come to Minbar, where she will basically be some kind of psychic monk. The girl, for her part, is a great one-off character, and uses both her own stubbornness and her newfound psychic abilities to force everyone else to be honest about their motives. In the end, she agrees to go with the Minbari, which ties in nicely with the other plot.
In the other plot, a Minbari warrior leader has died and his followers are parading around his body in state. After some diplomatic misunderstandings, they plan a visitation at B5, but the body goes missing, and the long-suffering Garibaldi has to find it. This involves interviewing a carrion-eater that looks like an Ood from Doctor Who, and an even worse job for Doctor Boring, who has to examine the creature’s stomach contents to see if there are any bits of semi-digested Minbari in it. The conflict between the religious caste, of which Delenn is a high-ranking member, and the warrior caste, is rather nicely drawn and there is a minimum of space-elvishness. The main antagonist, Neroon, is rather chillingly intense and great to watch.
A Voice in the Wilderness, Part I: So that “all alone in the night” thing? Apparently not so accurate, because there is at least one guy (capable of astral projection, no less) on the planet that B5 is orbiting. Oh, and a guided missile system. And lots and lots of earthquakes. Seriously, what is the point of having systems that can’t detect life signs if they never work properly? Also, shouldn’t you have systems that can detect, I don’t know, planetary instability and missiles? Not to mention gigantic underground cities full of technology so advanced that no one has ever seen anything like it.
Delenn’s mentor shows up on the station, which means that clearly he wants to either turn evil or die (those being the only two things that can happen to mentors on sci-fi shows). I think it’s the latter, because he’s a nice old man who keeps talking about “going to the sea.” Somehow, I don’t think he’s planning to lie on a beach somewhere—though it would be a cool twist if he did.
Just when you think there’s already enough plot happening, ZOMG REVOLT ON MARS. Free Mars takes up arms and plans to make the “sands run red with Earther blood.” Hardcore. Garibaldi’s ex-girlfriend is still there, but Earth’s government won’t open a communication channel, so he goes a bit nuts trying to find out if she’s okay. Finally, Talia manages to confirm that she is not on the list of people who are okay.
Ivanova and Sinclair find the astral projection guy in a science fictional Jesus Christ Pose, and rescue him, then escape the planet via a cut in editing.
Other fun things: “Ivanova is always right, Ivanova is God,” Londo singing the Hokey Pokey, and the worst booby traps ever.
Oh, and a cliffhanger as “something big” comes through the jumpgate.
That something turns out to be an Earth Alliance cruiser captained by a dude named Captain Pierce who is every military stereotype ever. He’s been told by Earth Force that B5 has found some cool technology down on the planet; B5 jurisdiction is Earth jurisdiction, and therefore, whatever they’ve discovered belongs only to Earth. It’s a little late to keep it a secret, since Londo knows already.
Sinclair tries to get Hidoshi, the jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold senator from the union episode, to confirm that he and B5 have final jurisdiction, not Captain Asshole, but Hidoshi can’t do much beyond asking them both to play nice. Hah. I love that there are so many squabbling layers of bureaucracy on this show. Anyway, Captain Asshole tries to land his dudes on the planet, only to be met with SURPRISE MISSILES. Sinclair stalls him, but there’s bad news—the attempt to land has somehow increased the seismic activity. If someone tries to land again, the planet will blow up. If no one tries to land, the planet will still blow up, but not as quickly. At any rate, there is no way to evacuate the entire station before the planet blows up. Ivanova gets to say “boom” a lot. Captain Asshole tries to land again; Sinclair threatens to blow him up, and Captain Asshole backs down.
Garibaldi is still angsting over his ex, so he gets in a bar fight with some space rednecks who are talking about nuking the Martians. For a recovering alcoholic with rage issues, Garibaldi really spends a lot of time in bars.
Meanwhile, astral projection guy, whose name is Varn, is in the med lab, comatose. This doesn’t stop him astral-projecting to Mentor McWhy Bother To Learn His Name Because He Obviously Dies. Okay, Draal, but just because it’s shorter. He and Delenn pretty much figure out what Varn is after—he’s dying and he needs a replacement to run the What Do You Mean It’s Not Symbolic machine he was strapped to on the planet.
Because the plot is not already complicated enough, yet another ship comes through the jumpgate, also captained by an asshole, this one of the same species as Varn. He claims the planet for his own. Captain Asshole and Sinclair team up in a tense standoff against these new aliens, who Varn says are violent outcasts without any claim to the planet or its shiny technology.
Now for a twist I didn’t see coming: Delenn, Draal, and Londo, of all people, team up on a secret martyrdom mission to replace Varn on the planet. Apparently Londo wants to go out in a heroic sacrifice. His character just keeps getting more and more fascinating. So they steal Varn and head off to the planet, with Garibaldi chasing them.
Meanwhile, SPACE FIGHT!
It’s not very suspenseful as to who takes Varn’s place, because obviously it’s not going to be one of the main cast members. Draal can now astral-project, so he tells Sinclair and the alien dudes to cool it. The alien dudes don’t listen and try to land on the planet, so I get three more explosions. Yay! I love explosions.
HOLY CRAP DOES DRAAL LOOK JESUS-Y. He has a halo and everything. I was wrong about him dying, but it’s pretty much the same thing, and there is a lot of talk about the virtues of self-sacrifice and so on. It’s quite lovely.
As for Garibaldi and the Mars situation, he finally gets a channel to the ex-girlfriend, Lise, who got caught in the fighting but is okay. He starts a heartfelt confession only to be shot down—she’s married to a guy named Franz and they’re expecting a baby. Oh. Well then. That was anti-climactic.
In other news, Rome (the neofolk band, not the show or the city) are quite excellent. I have been listening to them while packing and painting all day.
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no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 01:24 am (UTC)I like Garibaldi but I wish he was more—consistent. Like he's stalking Talia in the elevator one moment and then he's moping over the Only Woman He Ever Loved and WTF? Why drink water in a bar if you're an alcoholic.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-30 07:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 02:23 am (UTC)I was wondering how far off that was and hesitated posting the clip.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 02:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 04:26 am (UTC)I've been enjoying your observations about the show so much, I started rewatching. I just finished the big, Hugo-winning crucial episode of season 2. It's been fun seeing all these characters, knowing where their arcs all go.
*Snort*
I got a chuckle out of "landing thrusters.... landing thrusters?"
no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 01:27 pm (UTC)I'm amused that despite the show having aired in the 90s, and despite many of my friends being into it, I'm very un-spoiled for what's going to happen. I've even been staying off TVTropes.
...then escape the planet via a cut in editing.
*Snort*
Their escape route was sealed off! And they were like, "how are we going to get back to the ship?" The solution? Jump cut.
I got a chuckle out of "landing thrusters.... landing thrusters?"
They should let Londo pilot more often. He drives like my grandmother.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 08:02 am (UTC)why does this make me
so
happy
no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 01:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 09:53 am (UTC)For a recovering alcoholic with rage issues, Garibaldi really spends a lot of time in bars.
ahahahaha
no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 01:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 04:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-28 01:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-31 12:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-20 11:45 pm (UTC)