B5 Rewatch: "A Distant Star"
Jun. 24th, 2010 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieFor those flisters/circleites on roughly the same rewatch schedule--or who would like to start a watch or rewatch--![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
alto2 has started a re/watch community on LJ: ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
beyond_the_rim. We're starting with "Midnight on the Firing Line" this Sunday, and continuing with two a week. There's going to be one spoiler-free and one spoiler-friendly post for each episode, so you're welcome whether you've seen the show before or not. Our tactic so far is to let members claim episodes to post about, be it discussion questions, meta/essays, picspams, fic recs, whatever, so there will be different POVs "leading the discussion" as we go on. (Of course, anything goes in the comments.)
Jooooooooooiiiiiin uuuuuuuuuuus.
A Distant Star
aka "The episode where Delenn starts flirting hardcore with Sheridan because she is going to make that prophecy come true OR DIE TRYING." *snerk*
Also aka "The episode where I can't decide whether I want Ivanova/Garibaldi/Sheridan or Ivanova/Garibaldi/Franklin more as an OT3." I mean, there's the hilarity of the first three uniting against their "food plans" (I love Ivanova and Sheridan's chorus of "Whatever!"s there), but there's also Franklin's "With very nice borders" to Ivanova, and sharing the bagna cauda with Garibaldi, so. (I think that line about borders was what made me fall all the way in love with Franklin. Possibly this entire episode did it--I mean, he was awesome before, but now he's awesome and kind of evil, too. Hee.)
I have to wonder how Susan has "fought against Russian imperialism all [her] life." I guess Russia technically still exists, but...aren't the colonies run by Earth as a whole? Maybe individual federations make their own colonizing efforts and we just don't hear about it, and the Russian Federation did something particularly egregious on some world somewhere. *shrug* I guess perhaps the federations could have fluid/contested borders back on Earth or something, but the planetary government seems a bit too effective for that kind of thing to occur. IDK.
So JMS really, really wanted to get rid of Keffer, didn't he? Him being able to get out of hyperspace via the Shadow ship's signal or whatever reeked of "THE NETWORK MADE ME DO THIS, SO I AM DOING IT, BUT VERY GRUDGINGLY." Awww.
Speaking of that maneuver, should it even have worked? I'm feeling like no, since space is 3D. I guess they might have had the Cortez's flight plan in their computer and could estimate where they'd be by that point, and so send the fighters out along that same course. (And Sheridan, way to scare the crap out of your fighter pilots by giving them that blessing.)
On the subject of things that don't entirely make sense: Delenn's hair. If that headbone is attached to her skull everywhere, rather than at just those two points near her temples, her hair should really not be doing what it's doing. Obviously they just stuck it over Mira's hair, but I'm pretty sure it ought not be able to start growing on the top of her head and then come out under that bone.
Speaking of hair: whoa, Susan, that last hairstyle was...less than attractive. Looks like it took more time in the morning than you would usually want to spend, too, seeing as you like to sleep.
I'm trying to find something serious to comment on, but I keep getting distracted by silly little bits. Ummm...okay, the Shadow ships! Yeah, they're creepy. I got a chill down my spine when Maynard talked about seeing weird things out on the Rim.
Delenn really does get stuck as JMS's philosophy mouthpiece most of the time, doesn't she? I do think the idea of "we are the universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out" is extremely appealing. I find little use for spiritualism in my life, but I could get behind that; religion grounded in physics definitely gets some points. On the other hand, her spiel about how wherever we are is the right place to be seems...naive. Also, it strikes me as manipulative, especially if she knew Sheridan was thinking about requesting a transfer. "Noooo, but I must marry this one! I have to figure out a way to make him stay and make him think it's his idea!" Bless.
alto2 has started a re/watch community on LJ: beyond_the_rim. We're starting with "Midnight on the Firing Line" this Sunday, and continuing with two a week. There's going to be one spoiler-free and one spoiler-friendly post for each episode, so you're welcome whether you've seen the show before or not. Our tactic so far is to let members claim episodes to post about, be it discussion questions, meta/essays, picspams, fic recs, whatever, so there will be different POVs "leading the discussion" as we go on. (Of course, anything goes in the comments.)Jooooooooooiiiiiin uuuuuuuuuuus.
A Distant Star
aka "The episode where Delenn starts flirting hardcore with Sheridan because she is going to make that prophecy come true OR DIE TRYING." *snerk*
Also aka "The episode where I can't decide whether I want Ivanova/Garibaldi/Sheridan or Ivanova/Garibaldi/Franklin more as an OT3." I mean, there's the hilarity of the first three uniting against their "food plans" (I love Ivanova and Sheridan's chorus of "Whatever!"s there), but there's also Franklin's "With very nice borders" to Ivanova, and sharing the bagna cauda with Garibaldi, so. (I think that line about borders was what made me fall all the way in love with Franklin. Possibly this entire episode did it--I mean, he was awesome before, but now he's awesome and kind of evil, too. Hee.)
I have to wonder how Susan has "fought against Russian imperialism all [her] life." I guess Russia technically still exists, but...aren't the colonies run by Earth as a whole? Maybe individual federations make their own colonizing efforts and we just don't hear about it, and the Russian Federation did something particularly egregious on some world somewhere. *shrug* I guess perhaps the federations could have fluid/contested borders back on Earth or something, but the planetary government seems a bit too effective for that kind of thing to occur. IDK.
So JMS really, really wanted to get rid of Keffer, didn't he? Him being able to get out of hyperspace via the Shadow ship's signal or whatever reeked of "THE NETWORK MADE ME DO THIS, SO I AM DOING IT, BUT VERY GRUDGINGLY." Awww.
Speaking of that maneuver, should it even have worked? I'm feeling like no, since space is 3D. I guess they might have had the Cortez's flight plan in their computer and could estimate where they'd be by that point, and so send the fighters out along that same course. (And Sheridan, way to scare the crap out of your fighter pilots by giving them that blessing.)
On the subject of things that don't entirely make sense: Delenn's hair. If that headbone is attached to her skull everywhere, rather than at just those two points near her temples, her hair should really not be doing what it's doing. Obviously they just stuck it over Mira's hair, but I'm pretty sure it ought not be able to start growing on the top of her head and then come out under that bone.
Speaking of hair: whoa, Susan, that last hairstyle was...less than attractive. Looks like it took more time in the morning than you would usually want to spend, too, seeing as you like to sleep.
I'm trying to find something serious to comment on, but I keep getting distracted by silly little bits. Ummm...okay, the Shadow ships! Yeah, they're creepy. I got a chill down my spine when Maynard talked about seeing weird things out on the Rim.
Delenn really does get stuck as JMS's philosophy mouthpiece most of the time, doesn't she? I do think the idea of "we are the universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out" is extremely appealing. I find little use for spiritualism in my life, but I could get behind that; religion grounded in physics definitely gets some points. On the other hand, her spiel about how wherever we are is the right place to be seems...naive. Also, it strikes me as manipulative, especially if she knew Sheridan was thinking about requesting a transfer. "Noooo, but I must marry this one! I have to figure out a way to make him stay and make him think it's his idea!" Bless.
