B5: Season 4, Episodes 9-12
May. 6th, 2009 01:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieAtonement
- Hee, Lennier is sneaky.
- Susan is green leader again!
- Ooooh, G'Kar's new eye is blue. Looks good. And he can see with it when it's turned on, even if it's not in his head. I wonder how this will be used in a future episode?
- Heh. That must've been some kind of Drazi Mardi Gras, Susan. (Tell me someone ficced it!)
- Delenn and Sheridan haven't spent any time alone since Anna Sheridan showed up? Wow.
- *snerk* Sheridan is totally pouting there in the background because Delenn's going to be gone.
- Should they be leaving the station without a Chief Medical Officer for more than a month? This strikes me as unwise. Although I suppose no one else could go--although maybe Lennier might've? Eh, whatever.
- Ignoring the creepy watching-Sheridan-sleep moment there...
- Oh, Lennier. So loyal. So devoted. So much the puppy dog. Is it wrong that I ship Delenn/Lennier so much more than Delenn/Sheridan? Because I totally do.
- Wow. The Minbari are a lot more xenophobic than I realized.
- Oof. Bad greenscreening there.
- Heh, Dukat. I know, I know, but I have to laugh anyway. Any ideas on what sort of accent he's supposed to have?
- Aw, Delenn gave that same advice about looking up to avoid runninng into things to Lennier!
- Oh, wow. So Delenn started the war--sort of. Wow. And now she's trying to atone by turning human and marrying John?
- Yep.
- So the Minbari are a bit like the Vulcans--their incredible passion and capacity for rage is controlled by religion rather than logic, but the same principle applies.
- So...do they keep this dry iced chamber ready all the time or something?
- Haha! So in that ceremony with the red fruit, Sinclair may have mistakenly married his great-great-great-whatever-granddaughter! HA!
- Ohhhh. Thousands of Minbari have human DNA. Wow. And here they are all concerned about racial purity. Whoops. (I assume there's meant to be a parallel here between the Minbari's quest for racial purity and Clark/Earth's quest for ideological purity? And of course neither can achieve these unachievable things, or even really manage to define them in the case of the ideological one? I might possibly like the S3 ep introducing the ideological purity thing more now.)
- Delenn is now...some kind of prize? I know she was already going to marry him, she's doing it of her own free will, they don't necessarily have the women = chattel associations we have, etc. etc., but I'm still a little icked out.
- BWAHAHAHAHA! Of COURSE Marcus would sing selections from Gilbert & Sullivan! And of course it would be "Modern Major General"! (Shouldn't it be "Modern Minbari Ranger"?) He and G'Kar should get together and a do a revue or something.
- I'm glad to see some non-gallows humor coming back. It wouldn't have fit in the last ten or twelve episodes, but I'm happy it's back. I missed it.
Racing Mars
- Sheridan and Ivanova are so cute at the beginning. With the sarcastic waving! Ha!
- And then Marcus and Franklin out-funny them with "I spy." "Even more boxes." Hee!
- Hmmm. You know, fandom struck out mightily on ficcing in the blank of Susan teaching Delenn the finer points of human hygiene, but surely someone, somewhere has written "Susan takes Franklin's place on the mission to Mars, and she and Marcus spend the trip bantering and snarking and snipingand making out." Haven't they?
- Heh, Sheridan called on Garibaldi's loyalty to Ivanova. *fans tiny shipper flame*
- Other than that, that scene was painful. Oh, Michael. I hope everyone finds out about your alternate personality very soon and you can come back to your job.
- "Lyta had a little Vorlon." Ha!
- BWAHAHAHA! I hope someone out there slashes Marcus and Franklin, because that person just had her dreams come true. Hee!
- And of course Marcus has a field day with their newlywed status. He's totally Castle with better fighting skills and less money.
- "Since it never rains on Babylon 5, that should encourage you to spend more time here!" Susan Ivanova = Worst Diplomat Ever. But Also the Funniest.
- Ivanova is now the Godfather. Um, it kind of suits her?
- HEE! And they explained away Garibaldi's sudden hair loss!
- "I'm a Ranger." / "You have the wrong accent." Uhhhh, did JMS once write for Walker, Texas Ranger, I wonder?
- "[Garibaldi's] like a complete stranger." GEE, I WONDER WHY. Oh, someone deactivate him soon!
- So...Delenn would like to have sex now.
- That thing on poor Captain Jack's neck wasn't another Drakh, was it? It looked more reptilian than they do. Is it a one-off creature of evil? [Also, Captain Jack. Heh.]
- Ha! They have a female pope! Wow, JMS is an idealist.
- Delenn, I'm pretty sure you can't compare wearing a ring to ten Minbari eavesdropping on your first time together. Just saying.
- Single funniest moment in the entire series to date: "'Woo-hoo'?" *dies laughing*
- Oh, Michael. :(
Lines of Communication
- I like how in this episode, and all of the others on this disc, there's such concentration on showing how life went on on the various planets during the war, and trouble brewed, as it is wont to do. It's like the narrative equivalent of land mines left in places like Bosnia for decades after the ceasfire.
- The leader of the Mars resistance scratched her neck in the opening scene, and I spent the whole rest of the episode wondering if she had one of those things Captain Jack did. They should watch that kind of thing better! Ack!
- So...basically they need some kind of interstellar UN. Like...an Interstellar Alliance, perhaps? With Sheridan as president? *cough*
- Delenn: "I will not be a 1950s housewife." Heh.
- See, I like the brief focus on the propaganda ISN is putting out. I would've been happier to just have this kind of focus on it rather than the entire episode they spent on the last disc.
- Poor, sleepy Susan. In her nightgown. Wondering if she's chopped flarn.
- Heh, she'd rather have a face people fear. Of course she would.
- Aw, she gets stuck with newscaster duties again? That would suck. She obviously hated being interviewed in that first episode they did back in S2 with the news crew. I feel really bad for her.
- ACK, IT'S THE DRAKH! They were allies of the Shadows! In a couple years, they're going to give a nice big plague to Earth! RUN AWAY! (This is why you don't watch the spin-offs before you watch the original series, children.)
- Is every attractive human female guest star going to end up in bed with Franklin for a one-night stand? I guess that's a good thing for him...
- Hmmm. If things are becoming "as they were in the days before Valen," is Delenn, Valen's heir, going to become the new Valen?
- Ohhhh, Minbari, you have screwed up BIG TIME.
- "Touch that button and pray very very fast." Heh. Lennier gets almost as many one-liners as Susan. (I...no, actually, I don't ship it. It's kind of tempting, though.)
- Shouldn't Delenn have recognized in "Atonement" that she acted in error in striking out for vengeance last time? Or is this some kind of tragic cycle thing?
- Meep. Delenn is scary when she's angry.
- ...Perhaps you might consider ditching this caste system you've got going on?
- Time apart is good? You just said you never spend any time together!
- Humans: the best people skills in the galaxy. Can I be an honorary Minbari or something?
- Sheridan has to be dangerous to rebuild? Uh, how, exactly...?
- Poor, poor Marcus.
Conflicts of Interest
- Hmmm. Garibaldi seems really happy with his new job. Please, please don't tell me that he won't be coming back as station security once he regains his true personality. Please? I want him back.
- Ohhhh, poor Susan. I think you probably need more sleep.
- Dude, that cartoon. So meta. Bugs is drawing and erasing Daffy and through control of his world is controlling him, and someone is pulling Garibaldi's strings just as much.
- Zathras!
- "Just covering all possibilities. Zathras does not want you being confoozed." *pat pat* ICON.
- Oh, my. Multiple Zathri.
- "Everyone always coming to Zathras with problems. Great responsibility. But Zathras does not mind. Zathras trained in crisis management!" Also ICON.
- "But Zathras have no one to talk to. So Zathras talks to dirt....Sometimes dirt has insects in it. Zathras likes insects. Not so good for conversation, but much protein for diet." *giggle* Oh, can we have emo!Zathras every week?
- Contact being Lise in 3...2...1...
- The Rangers are the new UN Peacekeepers. Or, since they "only go where they're invited," they're like Sebacean Peacekeepers who actually uphold their motto.
- And now they're setting up the All Telepaths All the Time I've heard of in S5, aren't they?
- Hmmm. How evil is Edgars going to turn out to be, I wonder? I'm pretty sure he can't be good...
- Hee, Lennier is sneaky.
- Susan is green leader again!
- Ooooh, G'Kar's new eye is blue. Looks good. And he can see with it when it's turned on, even if it's not in his head. I wonder how this will be used in a future episode?
- Heh. That must've been some kind of Drazi Mardi Gras, Susan. (Tell me someone ficced it!)
- Delenn and Sheridan haven't spent any time alone since Anna Sheridan showed up? Wow.
- *snerk* Sheridan is totally pouting there in the background because Delenn's going to be gone.
- Should they be leaving the station without a Chief Medical Officer for more than a month? This strikes me as unwise. Although I suppose no one else could go--although maybe Lennier might've? Eh, whatever.
- Ignoring the creepy watching-Sheridan-sleep moment there...
- Oh, Lennier. So loyal. So devoted. So much the puppy dog. Is it wrong that I ship Delenn/Lennier so much more than Delenn/Sheridan? Because I totally do.
- Wow. The Minbari are a lot more xenophobic than I realized.
- Oof. Bad greenscreening there.
- Heh, Dukat. I know, I know, but I have to laugh anyway. Any ideas on what sort of accent he's supposed to have?
- Aw, Delenn gave that same advice about looking up to avoid runninng into things to Lennier!
- Oh, wow. So Delenn started the war--sort of. Wow. And now she's trying to atone by turning human and marrying John?
- Yep.
- So the Minbari are a bit like the Vulcans--their incredible passion and capacity for rage is controlled by religion rather than logic, but the same principle applies.
- So...do they keep this dry iced chamber ready all the time or something?
- Haha! So in that ceremony with the red fruit, Sinclair may have mistakenly married his great-great-great-whatever-granddaughter! HA!
- Ohhhh. Thousands of Minbari have human DNA. Wow. And here they are all concerned about racial purity. Whoops. (I assume there's meant to be a parallel here between the Minbari's quest for racial purity and Clark/Earth's quest for ideological purity? And of course neither can achieve these unachievable things, or even really manage to define them in the case of the ideological one? I might possibly like the S3 ep introducing the ideological purity thing more now.)
- Delenn is now...some kind of prize? I know she was already going to marry him, she's doing it of her own free will, they don't necessarily have the women = chattel associations we have, etc. etc., but I'm still a little icked out.
- BWAHAHAHAHA! Of COURSE Marcus would sing selections from Gilbert & Sullivan! And of course it would be "Modern Major General"! (Shouldn't it be "Modern Minbari Ranger"?) He and G'Kar should get together and a do a revue or something.
- I'm glad to see some non-gallows humor coming back. It wouldn't have fit in the last ten or twelve episodes, but I'm happy it's back. I missed it.
Racing Mars
- Sheridan and Ivanova are so cute at the beginning. With the sarcastic waving! Ha!
- And then Marcus and Franklin out-funny them with "I spy." "Even more boxes." Hee!
- Hmmm. You know, fandom struck out mightily on ficcing in the blank of Susan teaching Delenn the finer points of human hygiene, but surely someone, somewhere has written "Susan takes Franklin's place on the mission to Mars, and she and Marcus spend the trip bantering and snarking and sniping
- Heh, Sheridan called on Garibaldi's loyalty to Ivanova. *fans tiny shipper flame*
- Other than that, that scene was painful. Oh, Michael. I hope everyone finds out about your alternate personality very soon and you can come back to your job.
- "Lyta had a little Vorlon." Ha!
- BWAHAHAHA! I hope someone out there slashes Marcus and Franklin, because that person just had her dreams come true. Hee!
- And of course Marcus has a field day with their newlywed status. He's totally Castle with better fighting skills and less money.
- "Since it never rains on Babylon 5, that should encourage you to spend more time here!" Susan Ivanova = Worst Diplomat Ever. But Also the Funniest.
- Ivanova is now the Godfather. Um, it kind of suits her?
- HEE! And they explained away Garibaldi's sudden hair loss!
- "I'm a Ranger." / "You have the wrong accent." Uhhhh, did JMS once write for Walker, Texas Ranger, I wonder?
- "[Garibaldi's] like a complete stranger." GEE, I WONDER WHY. Oh, someone deactivate him soon!
- So...Delenn would like to have sex now.
- That thing on poor Captain Jack's neck wasn't another Drakh, was it? It looked more reptilian than they do. Is it a one-off creature of evil? [Also, Captain Jack. Heh.]
- Ha! They have a female pope! Wow, JMS is an idealist.
- Delenn, I'm pretty sure you can't compare wearing a ring to ten Minbari eavesdropping on your first time together. Just saying.
- Single funniest moment in the entire series to date: "'Woo-hoo'?" *dies laughing*
- Oh, Michael. :(
Lines of Communication
- I like how in this episode, and all of the others on this disc, there's such concentration on showing how life went on on the various planets during the war, and trouble brewed, as it is wont to do. It's like the narrative equivalent of land mines left in places like Bosnia for decades after the ceasfire.
- The leader of the Mars resistance scratched her neck in the opening scene, and I spent the whole rest of the episode wondering if she had one of those things Captain Jack did. They should watch that kind of thing better! Ack!
- So...basically they need some kind of interstellar UN. Like...an Interstellar Alliance, perhaps? With Sheridan as president? *cough*
- Delenn: "I will not be a 1950s housewife." Heh.
- See, I like the brief focus on the propaganda ISN is putting out. I would've been happier to just have this kind of focus on it rather than the entire episode they spent on the last disc.
- Poor, sleepy Susan. In her nightgown. Wondering if she's chopped flarn.
- Heh, she'd rather have a face people fear. Of course she would.
- Aw, she gets stuck with newscaster duties again? That would suck. She obviously hated being interviewed in that first episode they did back in S2 with the news crew. I feel really bad for her.
- ACK, IT'S THE DRAKH! They were allies of the Shadows! In a couple years, they're going to give a nice big plague to Earth! RUN AWAY! (This is why you don't watch the spin-offs before you watch the original series, children.)
- Is every attractive human female guest star going to end up in bed with Franklin for a one-night stand? I guess that's a good thing for him...
- Hmmm. If things are becoming "as they were in the days before Valen," is Delenn, Valen's heir, going to become the new Valen?
- Ohhhh, Minbari, you have screwed up BIG TIME.
- "Touch that button and pray very very fast." Heh. Lennier gets almost as many one-liners as Susan. (I...no, actually, I don't ship it. It's kind of tempting, though.)
- Shouldn't Delenn have recognized in "Atonement" that she acted in error in striking out for vengeance last time? Or is this some kind of tragic cycle thing?
- Meep. Delenn is scary when she's angry.
- ...Perhaps you might consider ditching this caste system you've got going on?
- Time apart is good? You just said you never spend any time together!
- Humans: the best people skills in the galaxy. Can I be an honorary Minbari or something?
- Sheridan has to be dangerous to rebuild? Uh, how, exactly...?
- Poor, poor Marcus.
Conflicts of Interest
- Hmmm. Garibaldi seems really happy with his new job. Please, please don't tell me that he won't be coming back as station security once he regains his true personality. Please? I want him back.
- Ohhhh, poor Susan. I think you probably need more sleep.
- Dude, that cartoon. So meta. Bugs is drawing and erasing Daffy and through control of his world is controlling him, and someone is pulling Garibaldi's strings just as much.
- Zathras!
- "Just covering all possibilities. Zathras does not want you being confoozed." *pat pat* ICON.
- Oh, my. Multiple Zathri.
- "Everyone always coming to Zathras with problems. Great responsibility. But Zathras does not mind. Zathras trained in crisis management!" Also ICON.
- "But Zathras have no one to talk to. So Zathras talks to dirt....Sometimes dirt has insects in it. Zathras likes insects. Not so good for conversation, but much protein for diet." *giggle* Oh, can we have emo!Zathras every week?
- Contact being Lise in 3...2...1...
- The Rangers are the new UN Peacekeepers. Or, since they "only go where they're invited," they're like Sebacean Peacekeepers who actually uphold their motto.
- And now they're setting up the All Telepaths All the Time I've heard of in S5, aren't they?
- Hmmm. How evil is Edgars going to turn out to be, I wonder? I'm pretty sure he can't be good...
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no subject
Date: 2009-05-06 03:09 pm (UTC)Really, Sinclair is = WINNNNNN. He and Catherine Sakai get their own awesome novel called "To Dream in the City of Sorrows" at one point, which is AWESOME, because it is all ZOMG MINBAR, and ZOMG ENTILZHA and Catherine Sakai HIS FIANCE doesn't get, you know, TOTALLY FORGOTTEN.
It's kind of fun to watch the series thinking "what if JMS hadn't replaced Sinclair with Sheridan?" I'm pretty sure that they were setting up Catherine Sakai to be Anna Sheridan, and I would have shrieked with aaaaaaaaaaaangst.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-06 06:07 pm (UTC)Yep. And I posted to a multifandom board back in the day when S5 was airing, so I osmosed much of what was going on on the show, even though I didn't watch it. Not a whole lot has been a surprise; mostly it's the way things are being revealed rather than the things themselves.
Really, Sinclair is = WINNNNNN. He and Catherine Sakai get their own awesome novel called "To Dream in the City of Sorrows" at one point, which is AWESOME, because it is all ZOMG MINBAR, and ZOMG ENTILZHA and Catherine Sakai HIS FIANCE doesn't get, you know, TOTALLY FORGOTTEN.
I recall reading the books during the brief interval of time around S3 when I was trying to watch as it aired, but I have no memory of that one at all. I would indeed like to find out what happened to her. (Um, I may have recently bought a used copy of book two, Accusations, because for thirteen years I have remembered it as being Susan/Michael shippy. And it kind of is. In one spot. She's distraught, he hugs her, and then he's all, "Oh. She's a GIRL," and then tamps right down on those thoughts because he knows she'll castrate him if he acts on them. It's cute.)
It's kind of fun to watch the series thinking "what if JMS hadn't replaced Sinclair with Sheridan?"
Uhhhh, I'm not sure I could've continued watching unless Michael O'Hare got a whole lot better at acting.
I'm pretty sure that they were setting up Catherine Sakai to be Anna Sheridan, and I would have shrieked with aaaaaaaaaaaangst.
They so were! I hadn't realized it until you said that, but they totally were!!
no subject
Date: 2009-05-06 06:58 pm (UTC)You know, I think that book is actually relatively recent. It's apparently "JMS approved canon" about what happened to Sinclair before WWE, and what happened to Catherine, etc. I won't spoil you for the book, but I will tell you that I WAS VERY HAPPY to have read it and gotten my answers. :) Oh, Sinclair. He just makes so much more sense when you think of him as "Valen who is not Valen yet."
I remember that from book two!!!! Book one for me is just epic effing squeee, of course, because Michael hearting Talia is, like, a DRIVING FACTOR of how the plot unfolds. And KOSH. All in all, total yay.
As far as Catherine Sakai as Anna Sheridan goes... seriously, I would have FREAKED OUT. Because I don't care about Anna one way or the other, you know? This game is fun, to imagine how a Sinclair-only series would have worked. I wonder if the original idea was for something like "WWE" to be the last episode? And Sinclair and Delenn finish all their real-time business and then go "OK guys, we're off to be Valen and Valen's-wife"? (In that case, if Sheridan is Jesus? AU-Sinclair would be EXTRA SUPER JESUS.)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-07 12:23 am (UTC)Spiffeh. I know I saw it in my local used bookstore this week; I should go ahead and buy it.
Oh, Sinclair. He just makes so much more sense when you think of him as "Valen who is not Valen yet."
He does.
I remember that from book two!!!!
*hearts* I feel like there was another book that had a vaguely shippy scene between them in it, but I don't remember which it was. Hmmm.
Book one for me is just epic effing squeee, of course, because Michael hearting Talia is, like, a DRIVING FACTOR of how the plot unfolds.
Haha, awesome!
This game is fun, to imagine how a Sinclair-only series would have worked. I wonder if the original idea was for something like "WWE" to be the last episode? And Sinclair and Delenn finish all their real-time business and then go "OK guys, we're off to be Valen and Valen's-wife"?
Hmmm. I dunno; I think JMS kept the broad arcs he had planned already, and switching Sheridan for Sinclair just gave him the opportunity to add in the Valen plotline. But maybe not? This is all half-remembered from online stuff circa 1996.
(In that case, if Sheridan is Jesus? AU-Sinclair would be EXTRA SUPER JESUS.)
TIME TRAVELIN' JESUS! (Band name of the day!)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-07 12:54 am (UTC)I was trying to explain the awesomeness of this to my boyfriend, who hasn't seen B5 (he refuses to because the acting, Claudia Christian's in particular, makes him want to throw himself off tall buildings, so this means I haven't seen B5 in forever EITHER). Anyway, he was like "I have no idea what you just said or who you just said it about." I MUST BRING HIM FROM THE DARKNESS INTO THE LIGHT.
I had heard that Valen was always the plan? And that he was like "no, that's too much for one character," and then the Sheridan switch happened, and he was all SCORE, DUDE.
Grasping for shippy meaning in other random scenes of novels reminds me so much of the days when I was inhaling Star Trek novels and squeeeing a lot!!! This was totally before Worf and Dax got together, so I rarely got to see people Hooking Up On My TV, so this was VERY EXCITING to see hints of ship in books.
Regardless: SO OUR NEW BAND NAME.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-07 03:15 pm (UTC)Awwww. I actually think she's pretty good--not as good as Peter Jurasik, Andreas, Mira, and possibly Stephen Furst and Bill Mumy, but she's head and shoulders above all the humans. (Two words: MICHAEL O'HARE.)
Anyway, he was like "I have no idea what you just said or who you just said it about." I MUST BRING HIM FROM THE DARKNESS INTO THE LIGHT.
YOU MUST.
I had heard that Valen was always the plan? And that he was like "no, that's too much for one character," and then the Sheridan switch happened, and he was all SCORE, DUDE.
Heeeee.
Grasping for shippy meaning in other random scenes of novels reminds me so much of the days when I was inhaling Star Trek novels and squeeeing a lot!!!
...Is it bad that even though it's been fifteen years, and even though they're all on my bookshelf back at my parents' house, I can still name the three J/J-iest DS9 books, and tell you which scenes are shippy and why?
This was totally before Worf and Dax got together, so I rarely got to see people Hooking Up On My TV, so this was VERY EXCITING to see hints of ship in books.
*shudders at Worf/Dax* But yes, I agree.
Regardless: SO OUR NEW BAND NAME.
Mwahahaha!