Wow, great episode. And a major cliffhanger! I’m writing this while waiting for Jeff to get back from an errand so we can watch Part 2.
Mega-weirdness happening deep inside Epsilon 3. And it seems to be stemming from the fellow at the top of this page.
VERY cool set, by the way. My questions at this point (which I don’t want anyone to answer, of course): Who IS this guy? Why does need help? How did he manage to project his ghosty self onto B5? And why did he just appear to certain people, like Sinclair and Londo?
Ivanova: Confirmed Survey 1. Upon arrival you WILL report for debriefing … And just one more thing. On your trip back I’d like you to take the time to learn the Babylon 5 mantra. “Ivanova is always right. I will listen to Ivanova. I will not ignore Ivanova’s recommendations. Ivanova is God.” And if this ever happens again, Ivanova will PERSONALLY RIP YOUR LUNGS OUT! Babylon Control out.
Funny scene when Talia Winters complains to Sinclair about Garibaldi always being in the transport tube when she’s using it. Funny except for the fact that Garibaldi should be going after Ivanova, not Talia! LOOK IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE, MR. G!
Talia’s character is intriguing, but is still too much of an ice-queen for me. I lovedLOVED Ivanova in this episode. Especially how she reams out Dr. Tagasaki when he ignores her instructions not to wander.
Draal is an interesting character. He talked about “going to the sea” in a speech I found incredibly moving but also somewhat confusing. he talks about journeying out into the sea of stars in hope of finding a place where he’s needed. Where he’s needed? I assume this means he’s not going to die, though from Delenn’s reaction it certainly seems like a final stage. Don’t tell me; I’m assuming I’m going to find out.
Loved the scene where Londo attempts to cheer up Garibaldi at the bar.
Also loved the scene where Londo sings the Hokey Pokey. 
LONDO ROCKS! Nothing bad better happen to him. I’m serious. Don’t tell me.
Londo: Now, I go to spread happiness to the rest of the station. It is a terrible responsibility but I have learned to live with it.
Interesting to find out more about Psi-Corps, when Talis speaks with someone at the Mars facility in an attempt to help Garibaldi. Also interesting to get more background on Garibaldi, hearing him tell Talia about how he botched up that relationship. And how he refuses to believe that anything has happened to his ex-love, Lise Hampton.
The whole Free Mars movement is fascinating. In fact, so much stuff happened in this episode that I can’t possibly talk about it all here and WHERE’S JEFF?!?? I WANT TO WATCH PART 2 ARGH!!
And of course the mega-question at the end of this episode: WHAT IS GARIBALDI LOOKING AT WHEN HE GLANCES DOWN AT HIS COMPUTER DISPLAY AND SAYS, ‘WHAT THE HELL?’??!!?
Next episode: A Voice In The Wilderness (part 2)
Woohoo, Jeff’s here! Apologies for any typos in this report, no time to proofread…
[For those who comment below: As the title of my blog indicates, I'm watching B5 for the very first time so PLEASE refrain from posting plot/character spoilers about upcoming episodes, or including links to pages with spoilers (unless you warn readers that they contain spoilers). Thanks so much! - Debbie]
18 comments ↓
(Londo voice)
Back in the day, we had to wait a week for the next episode…and you’re frustrated by an hour?
(/Londo voice)
re: Ivanova: see my comment in ep 14
The Londo bit with The Hokey Pokey spawned a fannish bumper sticker “What if the Hokey Pokey is really what it is all about”. Flash forward, Jimmy Buffett sees one of those bumper stickers, he writes a song for his Far Side of The World album, without knowing Londo’s commentary. The single track might be available on a digital download service or lyrics at maragrittaville.com
“Funny scene when Talia Winters complains to Sinclair about Garibaldi always being in the transport tube when she’s using it. ”
And if you go back to the previous episodes you will find that Mr. G indeed WAS always around Talia in the transport tubes.
The B5 Mantra was a fan favorite the first time around, too. Ivanova gets some great lines.
As for the Hokey Pokey, I loved that little aside along the lines of “You know, I rather liked it” with the response “DON’T tell him. Trust me on this.”
Oh yes - isn’t this episode 18? You had 17 for Legacies and now 17 here.
No, no, no, a true Centauri answer would be:
“You may have had to wait for an hour, but in the glorious days of the old Republic, with the merest gesture, thousands of slaves would perform the next week’s episode in the Great Halls of the Centaurum, complete with special effects, while we were fed with finely spiced delicacies from the Rim Worlds.”
In case you weren’t aware, Andrea Thompson (Talia) and Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi) were married from 1995-1997 (the period roughly covering the 2nd to 4th seasons).
A_Tim: Wow, thanks for that Hokey Pokey trivia - I had no idea. And now I’m going to have to find that song.
Hvideo: re: transport tubes - Heh, I hadn’t noticed that but now that you mention it, I do recall that Talia and Garibaldi always seem to run into each other around the transport tube. Thanks also for the episode number correction; I’ve fixed it!
Terence: LOL! And thanks for the trivia about the actors who played Talia and Garibaldi. That will enhance my watching of the 2nd-4th seasons. Hm, so they split up after that?
I’ll be posting my Part 2 report later today, by the way.
Debbie
There something wierd going on with your CSS. When I try to read these pages on my Palm TX PDA the background is black and the letters seem to be dork brown so it’s unreadable.
I’m really enjoying hearing how you’ve been enjoying B5, makes me wonder if I should try to re-watch in my copious spare time!
Thanks for the kind comments about my reports, Michael. Hm…I’m not sure what to do about the CSS; I’m using a Chris Pearson template and don’t really know enough CSS to be able to fix it.
If anyone there has any advice, please let me know!
Debbie
Not so much apropos of the episode, but I am amused by your typo: “when Talis speaks with someone at the Mars facility”. Lovely way to work filk into the review
The thing about Talia, and about telepaths (at least that we’ve seen so far) is that they largely seem aloof because of the requirements of self-control and their training. The gloves (and the badge) set them apart in their everyday interactions with other people, lest they succumb to the overwhelming amount of STUFF in the minds around them.
Some telepaths are better at dealing with people than others, of course. Bester, for example, is outwardly charming and socially adept — if, as we’ve seen, a snake inside. Talia’s not as powerful a telepath as he, but she also seems to be really quite rigidly under control (maybe it takes more effort for her).
Remember that mantra. Particularly the “Ivanova is God” part. Not going to tell you why.
“Ivanova is God” was one of the many Ivanova koans I had in mind in the last comment.
Enjoy.
Per JMS:
Re: the elevator/transport tube gag…yes, we set this stuff up WAY in advance. The first time is in the tube where he tells Talia about his second favorite thing in the universe. The second time is in “Mind War” when he gives her the mental once-over and she belts him. And then we paid it off later with her line about him always being there.
One nice thing about the way we’re doing this show is that we don’t just have to set up gags within an episode; we can set them up *weeks* ahead of time, as long as the payoff is self-contained, but then when you see the earlier shows, now you get more out of it.
Deb, r.e. css — the css for printing seems very primitive. I was going to look into it a bit, since I like to print out your postings and read them on the GO train.
But that’s more of an issue of *missing* css, rather than the *bad* css Michael’s seeing on his device..
Bruce: Oops, must remember to fix that Talis/Talia typo.
And thanks for the insight into telepaths. I’m looking forward to finding out more about Talia!
Hvideo: Thanks so much for posting this! Did you get it from the Lurker site? I’ve been avoiding the Lurker episode summaries because people tell me they have spoilers, so I do appreciate any episode-by-episode insights like this that don’t give away spoilers.
Reid: Do you know CSS well enough to help me fix it? (fingers crossed)
Yes, that one was from the Lurker’s Guide - though I think I may also have the original on that one from the days when JMS was actively posting to the B5 newsgroup. (Those quotes have to come from SOMEWHERE - but of course they also include things said at conventions and various other sorts of things.) The Lurker’s Guide is a lot HANDIER for retrieving the quotes than my old “Save Files”. The Lurker’s Guide is actually organized. I will listen to the Lurker’s Fuild. I will not ignore what the Lurker Guide says. The Lurker’s Guide is G… wait a second, wrong mantra. But yes, they have spoilers all over the place. I take care only to retrieve a few things that deal with what you’ve seen so far, not what’s coming.
It may even be possible that my Save File notes actually explain that sign somewhere - I know it explained ONE type of sign somewhere -but I have no memory of actually knowing anything about this particular one, so my guess above is strictly a guess. One of the few aspects where I can speculate. Plot points I know pretty well, the little stuff I’m a bit erratic on.
Mostly it’s been you choosing which aspects of the show you are interested in and speculating on various points, while the rest of us chorus along “Don’t Tell Me That”. With regard to that -
1. If you would like, I could post a few of the speculations from the days on the newsgroup when everyone was a first time viewer and things hadn’t been revealed. This would mean several theories that were wrong and MAYBE one that was right (our skills at guessing what JMS was up to were not very good.) This WOULD give you more possibilities to consider. But you probably have plenty of theories of your own to work on even with only one other “first time” viewer to work with.
The other thing, however, you might like to get more of. There were a number of “hot topics” from back then that you haven’t mentioned. It may be that you don’t consider them very interesting, or it may be that you simply didn’t have the background to catch a particular “possible reference/homage”.
For example - crossing the big bridge made many fans think that it was a homage to a rather similar scene in FORBIDDEN PLANET. JMS talks a bit about the choices he had, why he didn’t choose the other 2, and why he chose that one. He KNEW that many people would think it was a reference to the Krell Machine, but it wasn’t. It was simply that that shot gave him what he needed and the alternatives didn’t. So he went with what he knew was right and just rode out the wave of speculation.
It might also be that the sign is simply indicating the sector and level in Interlac.
From JMS:
“Re: language…English is the basic language of B5, since it’s run by the Earth Alliance. But it’s also multi-lingual; there are signs in English, Interlac, and Centauri, and as we get into later stories, the question of language and communication will play a larger role (and the non-language signs are designed to be cross-species in nature).”
(endquote)
“There are several primary languages used on B5: Earth English, Centauri and Interlac, the latter being a kind of Esperanto (all of the important signs are in all three languages).”
PS: you may find a lot of information in the message archive http://www.jmsnews.com, which contains all messages by JMS posted to newsgroups from 1991 till today. The site has a keyword search engine. But beware - spoilers are guaranteed
so that’s more an info for the future, when you’ve watched through the show.
Thanks for the offer of posting speculations from newsgroups about episodes I’ve watched, but I think I’d rather read those AFTER I’ve finished the series and am re-watching.