B5 Rewatch: 1x06 "Mind War"

[icepixie]

New drinking game:
Talia wavers and puts a hand to her head, my-corset-is-too-tight-but-I-shall-suffer-in-silence style: 1 sip
Talia complains about being subjected to strong emotions or other teepy stuff: 2 sips
Talia nearly faints: 3 sips
Talia actually faints: 4 sips
Talia actually faints and someone (usually Sinclair) catches her: chug

Watch about five episodes, and you'd be blind drunk. Oh, Talia. I want to like you, actually, but you persist in irritating the crap out of me.

However. That is not to overshadow the fact that this episode was about five billion times more awesome than I remembered.

Holy crap, I'd forgotten we get the Sigma-957 Walkers so early. Not to mention we get G'Kar telling Catherine (and us) that no one is what he/she appears on B5, which is so true. (Ha, "even Sinclair"! NO KIDDING, FRIEND.) That last scene with G'Kar and Catherine (whom I kind of ship right now please don't hate me) was even more amaaaaazing in the context of the Shadow War. And G'Kar! The seeds of what he becomes are all there--his teaching/lecturing, his incredible analogies, his sense of there being more things in heaven and earth than he can understand. I love his speech here, even though I know "Whatever they are, Miss Sakai, they walk near Sigma 957, and they must walk there alone" is soon going to be followed up with "Until their compatriots start blowing up our planets; then all bets are off."

(That reminds me, I need to brush up on my William Blake before I get to season 3/4. I feel like there's a lot of mileage to be gotten out of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell in regards to the Shadow/Vorlon chaos/order dichotomy.)

Not only do we get the first intimations of the First Ones, but we also get teepy goodness in the form of Ironheart's monologue about how the Psi Corps is trying to control Earth, and Bester and Lady Psi Cop's dialogue about how they're just protecting it. Machinations upon machinations. And then he tells the humans that they aren't ready for this power, which also seems incredibly foreshadowy. (There's a short story or maybe a novel out there somewhere that his description of assassinating someone by mentally crushing their windpipe brought to mind. It includes a scene where a girl with telekinetic powers stops the heart of a robin, I think maybe for a test or something, but then manages to bring it back in the nick of time. Does this ring any bells for anyone? I feel like it might be Jane Yolen's work, but that's really a guess.)

Andrea Thompson wasn't as wooden as she usually is in Talia's scenes with Jason, which is also a plus. (Ummm, except for the showdown with Bester and Lady Psi Cop, where she was all, "You're hurting him! Oh noes! Hey, did I just break a nail?" Although sadly, Claudia Christian matches her in that scene where she has to spout the excellent dialogue about juggling babies, and basically sounds like she's reading it off the page. ...I'm going to stop talking about the acting now, because it just leads to sadness.)

Bester was a creepy little bastard, as he usually is. You know, he really doesn't seem to have a lot of power in this episode. I wonder how many promotions he got in between this and, say, S3. I am still completely unintentionally amused by the mind scan he and the other psi cop performed on Talia. It just...I...JAZZ HANDS! BWAHAHAHAHA! Way to not make it look serious at all, guys.

(One last thing and then I swear I will stop complaining, because this was actually a really good episode: THE MUSIC. I hate, hate, hate, hate the music on this show. It is so unimaginative, what little drama it creates pretty much comes through increased volume. Perhaps I've been spoiled by The Awesomeness That Is Bear McCreary, but man, this music. Bleh.)

It's interesting that Talia brought up mirrors again when she described having sex with a telepath. The soul hunter mentioned seeing mirrors and infinities of reflections in Minbari eyes. Connection? Maybe it's JMS just likes mirrors.

In conclusion: I now, somehow, ship Sinclair/Catherine, Sinclair/Talia (...because I HATE MYSELF, APPARENTLY), and G'Kar/Catherine.

Comments

[bessemerprocess]

Bester is my favorite creepy bad guy (and I ship him with EVERYBODY.) I just wish the telepahty war arc had been better because I know there was a good story buried under there and it was one I would've really enjoyed.

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

EVERYONE/EVERYONE.

If I keep reading these I am going to stop liking Talia and that just CANNOT BE! I'll make a deal with you. You don't have to like her on the show, as long as you promise to like her in any fics I post, because the Talia in my head is awesome, which is apparently the Talia I have been lobbying for all along. :-P You won't get a better offer! ;)

:-o

Sinclair/Talia! He could TOTALLY RESCUE HER and take her to Minbar and then she'd be all "O HAI, I AM A RANGER" and everyone else would be all !?.

This show makes me kind of dumb, I think, because everything sounds like it would be AWESOME and probably very little of it would be. ;)

However, "Do you know what it's like when telepaths make love, Commander?" started a lifelong telepath fic kink for me. And possibly also married me to this show.

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

JAZZ HANDS!

Theory - Bester gets his kicks out of doing wacky gestures and seeing how far he can push things before the mundanes realise none of it's necessary and he's just screwing with them.

G'Kar/Catherine

G'kar does have a human fetish... Crap, now I'm going to be shipping it...