Intense episode. Atmosphere is certainly turning grimmer, and I strongly suspect this is just the beginning.
25,000 Earthforce soldiers on B5! Holy cow. So strange to see the place turned into a military installation, at least temporarily.
And we get to find out more about Dr. Stephen Franklin and his complex relationship relationship with his father:
As soon as I saw Paul Winfield, I recognized him from Wrath Of Khan and found it distracting during the first few minutes.
I found the scenes between the doctor and Ivanova interesting; I hadn’t realized their friendship was such that he felt comfortable confiding in her about his frustration with his father. I don’t find the doctor so irritating anymore. I’m even starting to quite like him.
The soldiers’ harassment of Delenn was disturbing, and I couldn’t help but see the parallels with some real-life racial discrimination.
Sheridan: There’s only one truth about war. People die.
LOVE Dodger’s character (the feisty female soldier) and was hugely dismayed that she was killed by the end of the episode. Jeff said it was obvious that she was a “red shirt” but I had hoped otherwise. 
Garibaldi: “For once in my life, I want to think things through.”
I couldn’t help but be glad that Garibaldi chose to “slow things down” with Dodger. I’m liking Garibaldi more and more.
Great conversation between Sheridan and General Richard Franklin as they discuss the meaning of war and father/son relationships.
B5’s new defense grid looks impressive and scary. And I have a bad feeling that they’re going to need it, despite Sheridan’s hopes that they won’t.
I’m glad that Stephen told his dad he loved him. But it was the kind of speech that makes me suspect that he’s not going to see his father again. Don’t tell me.
I was deeply moved by the last scene, of the dead soldiers…most of whom I had grown to like during this episode.
And that scared the heck out of me. Because if I’m getting teary-eyed over the deaths of a few characters I’ve never seen before, what’s it going to be like if any of the main characters die? How on earth have I gotten so attached to the characters of a series I originally ignored as being too campy and overwrought? I am SO in trouble.
For as much as I’m hoping that ALL the main characters survive to the end of the season and live happily ever after, I’m suspecting that I’m probably wrong.
And please….DON’T tell me. Not even a hint.
Next episode: All Alone In The Night.
[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/hints about upcoming episodes, or including links to pages with spoilers (unless you warn readers that they contain spoilers). More info about spoilers here. Thanks so much! - Debbie]
15 comments ↓
There are episodes of B5 I’ve never seen, and I’m pretty sure this is one of them. I should really find three friends locally and agree that we’ll each buy one of the first four seasons of B5 (I was less impressed with the fifth) and swap them around.
This is one of my favorite episodes, ever. And I love the job that Joss does of having us get to know the soldiers in just a few minutes, so that we do feel the horror of their deaths.
The ending subverted the usual expectation that one of them is the “red shirt” who gets killed off to show the horrors of war — instead, they *all* get killed off.
I’m glad you’re getting to like Franklin. I said give him time, didn’t I?
“How on earth have I gotten so attached to the characters of a series I originally ignored as being too campy and overwrought?”
That’s what happened to me, too. I had written off Babylon 5 halfway through “The Gathering,” and didn’t pick it up again until late in the second season. Didn’t take long for it to become my Favorite TV Show of All Time, and it has remained that way ever since.
A large part of B5’s secret is that it really *is* campy and overwrought, but to the exclusion of anything that matters. An interesting point of comparison is with Battlestar Galactica, which is similar in that it has a tightly scripted story arc, where every action has genuine consequences. I love that show too — but I wouldn’t really call it “fun”. It’s rarely silly or endearing in the way that, say, Londo’s birthday party or wives or G’Kar’s singing or even the technomages are.
What Babylon 5 does so well is find this perfect balancing point between being straight-up fun entertainment, while stabbing you right through the heart with characters that you care about in situations that are really, really, really, consequential. The one other show which has pulled this trick off was Firefly, which if the ########ing ######-######ed #### #####y ############ers at Fox had given time to fully develop its story arc, might have even managed to displace Babylon 5 at the top of my personal pantheon. But even in that case, it would have been standing on the shoulders of giants.
“I am SO in trouble.”
Heh! You have NO idea. The story is still just ramping up…
Er, my last post should say “but *not* to the exclusion of anything else that matters”…. whoops!
Dodger was a fan favorite the first time around, too. But the “Choices have consequences” theme is not something they pussyfoot around with on B5. Sheridan knew it was a meatgrinder, so did General Franklin. EA chose to order them in and the GROPOS went in - and the losses were horrible.
This was one of my favorites.
Paul Winfield was a genre stalwart; you would also recognize him from 2010: The Year We Make Contact as the space-agency head who sits with Dr. Floyd on the White House grounds; and if he hadn’t been under tons of alien makeup, you might also have recognized him from the Hugo-winning “Darmok” episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Picard is marooned on a world with an alien captain who speaks only in native metaphors). His death not long ago makes watching him now more poignant for me.
Richard Biggs, who plays Dr. Franklin, also died a couple years ago from a brain aneurysm, and I feel the same watching him now. Same for Andreas Katsulas, who plays G’Kar (and was also Capt. Tomalak in ST: TNG). Three amazing talents now gone from us…but their performances will live forever.
Just to clarify — the fact that Richard Biggs and Andreas Katsulas are sadly no longer with us doesn’t constitute a spoiler of any sort.
And that scared the heck out of me. Because if I’m getting teary-eyed over the deaths of a few characters I’ve never seen before, what’s it going to be like if any of the main characters die? How on earth have I gotten so attached to the characters of a series I originally ignored as being too campy and overwrought? I am SO in trouble.
*grin* Welcome to the fold.
And Gary: I find that whenever I talk to someone about Season 5 who “doesn’t like it” and I go “Butbutbut what about [event] and [event] and [thing]?!”, they go “Oh, yeah, I totally forgot about the second half of that season.” So, uh, I suppose what I’m saying is give it another chance?
Aris: I’m with you on Season 5. When I first watched the series two years back several people told me not to bother with Season 5. Naturally by the end of Season 4 I wanted to see it anyway and I found myself astonished during many episodes to think B5 fans had recommended I -not- see Season 5, due to a character or a story arc they may not have liked. There is such wonderful character development in Season 5 and lots of very intense and emotional moments, I wouldn’t have missed it.
Interesting that my husband saw the show in first-run and he dismissed Season 5, too, but when he sat down to watch it with me he agreed that it was much better than he had originally given it credit for. Season 5 may benefit from the ability to watch several episodes back-to-back on DVD.
Allison: I think it’s just one or two things that happen at the beginning of Season 5 that a lot of fans didn’t like which made this fan consensus, and that’s all that people remember. And I’ve found that not everyone dislikes those things! Plotlines that I was with the general consensus of “Oh, man, that episode, not so good” I’ve had friends going “No, I really bought that emotional connection, I really liked that.” So I always recommend sticktoitiveness when it comes to that part of the show, even if the person I’m pushing the show on complains “It’s not as good as last season!”
Besides, one of the last few episodes has one of my “cinema guaranteed to make me start crying” moments. Of which B5 has several–EarthForce 1 going up in Chrysalis and G’Kar raising a toast to the Emperor in The Coming of Shadows being two that Debbie has already seen
>>”I think it’s just one or two things that happen at the beginning of Season 5 that a lot of fans didn’t like which made this fan consensus, and that’s all that people remember.”
I agree. It’s also that those one or two things had many people enter Season 5 with the expectation that this has *got* to have disastrous results, and as jms said, we see what we look for, and we look for what we want to see.
Plus, people often tend to equate “I don’t like this event or that character” with “it’s badly done”.
Re Season 5: I think the network politics had much to do with it, as well. JMS always said that the uncertainty about whether there would BE a Season 5 meant he had to provide sufficient ending to Season4, just in case. So he was forced to make the pace of Season 4 much more intense than he originally planned, by moving many events from Season 5 to Season 4. That left Season 5 to feel flat by comparison. I agree with the sentiment here, those who skipped out on Season 5 missed out big time.
Already in awe of JMS as a writer, I had to bow my head in humble obeisance at the way he provided an ending to Season 4 that was a perfect ending for the series, and yet was able to build yet another Season from it as well, with an equally perfect ending.
Debbie - none of this is spoiler. The external network politics were not reflected in the series in any way.
(External realpolitick is altogether a different story.)