Not too much to add to what's been discussed above. Garibaldi gets a personal story, Homeguard gets a name check, and some more subtle seeds are planted for future developments.
The episode is able to have the proper buildup to Garibaldi taking that drink, but resolves the situation to quickly. As Simon noted the theme of addiction will arise on Babylon 5 again, with better long term storytelling.
Ivanova is particularly wonderful in this episode with her own little plans to subtly help Garabaldi. Her loyalty and friendship are good things to have.
President Santiago (who is voiced in a line or two) was portrayed by a photo of B5 Executive Producer Douglas Netter in "Midnight on the Firing Line," and voices again by Netter in this episode. Not to be confused with General Netter from the same episode.
B5 will mostly stop sneaking in references to its own production staff, but a future episode references a disease called "Netter's Syndrome." Not important to that episode's plot, so not a spoiler.
Of course this episode shows continuing issues, not only with Babylon 5 security, but Earthforce as a whole.
Earthforce One is a great design, but it shown on screen WAY too small, along with the Presidential shuttle. We can use the Starfury Cockpit for rough scale - we know the pilot is in a "standing" position ("lying on their back" under acceleration), and the full sized cockpit prop is about eight feet tall. From there we can see the centrifuge on Earthforce One is... Pretty narrow in any relevant dimension. It's a rare misstep from the artists at foundation.
But the shot of Kemmer entering the shuttle at the end is a truly amazing virtual set. Other than the actress and the ladder that entire set is a comp, and it's done really well with her cast shadows and cast reflections utterly selling the detailed matte painting. So far it's probably the single best VFX shot of the series so far.
The sequence with Ivanova and Garibaldi in the core shuttle is a nice try, but Ivanova's hair is fringing badly. This would have been a good episode for her to have her tight ponytail - just thinking from the VFX standpoint.
Speaking of the core shuttle, and the security issues, am I the only one who finds it odd that the shuttle AI announces "Cobra Bay Area?" This is the launch point for station fighters and shouldn't be accessible to anyone on the bus. After Garabaldi and Ivanova get off a random Centauri exits as well... Speaking for myself this sure as hell led me to wonder if there was Centauri involvement... Who is this random Centauri and why was he (apparently) wandering into a high security area unchallenged?
Mark Hendrickson appears as the drunk alien in the bar with the floppy hat. For this evoking of the B5 drinking game one drinks for and WITH Mark.
"Drink with Garabaldi" is another rule.
SPOILER STUFF
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.
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First appearance of Security Officer Lou Welch. I like Lou, and I like how he is instantly established as loyal to Garibaldi. Even when Kemmler is standing in front of Garibaldi's quarters after Garibaldi's suspension, yet Welch waits for Garibaldi's nods before following Kemmler's orders.
Again, I LIKE Lou, and wish he'd stuck around longer rather than have his role effectively pass to Jeff Conaway, but... For this episode I do wish we'd had another appearance of Macaulay Bruton as Garibaldi's (never named) aide. We'll just assume he's lurking around unseen helping Cutter. We certainly know "Officer Bruton" will have no problem shooting Garibaldi in the back.
Think this is only the second episode Maggie Egan's ISN anchor, Jane, appears. Always appreciated how, after clicking along in many episodes as a news reader how she eventually gets a very effective character arc in TWO SCENES. Just shows how by having a "nothing" character who keeps recurring for years you can cleverly twist them into someone with an internal life in very little time with efficient scripting. We'll talk about her again come "Severed Dreams" and "Endgame."
While it's never explicity stated, it's a reasonable assumption Lianna Kemmler is killed in the destruction of Earthforce One in Chrysalis. At the time Garibaldi is comatose after being shot. By the time he awakens, Sinclair is gone, Sheridan is in, Garibaldi is too busy trying to clean out his own forces, and that's also when Delenn emerges from her cocoon, G'Kar starts warning about the Shadows, Lennier drops the truth about the Battle of the Line and Sinclair, and a lot of other stuff. Dropping in the reference to the dead one-off guest character, despite her importance to Garibaldi, just doesn't fit anywhere. We'll assume Garibaldi raises a glass (of water) to her on his own time. Alone.
On that end shot: I knew it was a comp, obviously, but my assumption was that the floor and the wall on the right was set, the ladder was a prop, with the ship and the ceiling being a matte. Had no idea the ladder was the only real element other than the actor. It's an unnaturally good comp for the year it was made.
Hadn't thought about the scale of EF1, although there was a moment when I was trying to figure out the interior of the rotating section and couldn't quite work it out based on the windows. In retrospect, I think my confusion was probably due to the scaling throwing me off.
It's the reflection work on the floor which really sells it.
Since it's a locked shot, I'd assume someone was able to do photo editing work over the base render for detail work, like the reflections.
Other virtual sets on B5 include the Sanctuary, any shot of the docking bays, the bridge of a Narn cruiser, and the Drazi homeworld.
Yeah, it was also my trying to figure out the interior of the centrifuge on Earthforce One which led me to notice the scale issue.
While B5 did pay some attention to physics and did certain things very well (Starfuries in s1-3 first come to mind, of course), sometimes they design things which don't work. As mentioned in a prior comment C&C isn't in a rotating section and, even if it was it's still upside down.
The entrance to the core shuttle is a bit wonky, too. Sure, dialog says "low gravity area, hold onto the rail," but, as is dicussed in "The Fall of Night," it's actually basically weightless, with the hull/floor rotating around it.
Earthforce One's saucer shaped centrifuge looks laid out to where, under acceleration, the "floor" would be back towards the engines. EF1 could maintain constant (low) acceleration for the first half of the trip, go zero-G for a flip manuver, then return to gravity again accelerating ass backwards to counter current velocity. And we see ships do this (emerge backwards) in the pilot. This got dropped for looking silly, but I'm not sure who the objection came from, Copeland, Netter, or someone at WB or PTEN (we'd need "The Expanse" to show that).
But, if EF1's gravity were tied to acceleration the windows on the saucer would make sense as overhead windows with those on the slant at the edge having a side(ish) view.
The rotation, however, implies gravity comes from centripetal force, which puts the "floor" on the outer edge of the centrifuge. Now the windows are badly placed. Moreover, using a Starfury for scale the entire centrifuge becomes a couple of quite narrow hallways...
So EF1 looks pretty cool, but don't think about it too much, or the design falls apart. Plus it's still too small.
Ultimately, it's a TV show, so don't worry about it too much (especially as a TV show inside a TV show) made in the early/mid 1990's. Even in 2024 it would be prohibitively expensive to do, say, Ivanova's luscious mane moving in low-G. Even the aforementioned Expanse only did accurate low/zero-G hair a couple of times.
But, really, I'm still wondering about the Centauri wandering around the Cobra Bays.
Yeah, The Expanse is the master at all this sort of thing. It was very good at having a couple of key shots to sell the zero-G, and then cheating the rest.
As for the Centauri - there are several moments in the show whereby people (usually ambassadors) storm into Sinclair's office, or even into the observation dome, seemingly without being announced, which is really quite silly. I think we've had Talia walk in already to introduce herself. Or perhaps security really is THAT bad, and everyone was right about Garibaldi being useless.
Well, one can argue the Ambassadors have that kind of access as a perk - making them feel welcome and all that jazz. Sinclair (and Sheridan, or even Ivanova, or the OOD when Commander and XO are off duty) certainly have authority to kick anyone out, but, as diplomats, rarely use such power - especially when Season 1 G'Kar would just immediately start complaining that the vauntedd Earth Alliance wasn't letting him speak.
Assume an Ambassador's ID card basically grants access through all station checkpoints.
Talia... Well, station regs did require she check in. She could have used that to get past a theoretical guard.
Is it Lianna Kemmer or Kemmler? I feel like I heard it as Kemmer during most of the episode, but once I thought I heard her say Kemmler right at the end. Anyhow.
I also thought that moment with Garibaldi in the bar was very effective. I'd forgotten about Earth Force being destroyed specifically, but I did remember something happening to Santiago and I had a feeling that we wouldn't be hearing from Lianna again. Looks like I was right.
Non spoiler stuff.
Not too much to add to what's been discussed above. Garibaldi gets a personal story, Homeguard gets a name check, and some more subtle seeds are planted for future developments.
The episode is able to have the proper buildup to Garibaldi taking that drink, but resolves the situation to quickly. As Simon noted the theme of addiction will arise on Babylon 5 again, with better long term storytelling.
Ivanova is particularly wonderful in this episode with her own little plans to subtly help Garabaldi. Her loyalty and friendship are good things to have.
President Santiago (who is voiced in a line or two) was portrayed by a photo of B5 Executive Producer Douglas Netter in "Midnight on the Firing Line," and voices again by Netter in this episode. Not to be confused with General Netter from the same episode.
B5 will mostly stop sneaking in references to its own production staff, but a future episode references a disease called "Netter's Syndrome." Not important to that episode's plot, so not a spoiler.
Of course this episode shows continuing issues, not only with Babylon 5 security, but Earthforce as a whole.
Earthforce One is a great design, but it shown on screen WAY too small, along with the Presidential shuttle. We can use the Starfury Cockpit for rough scale - we know the pilot is in a "standing" position ("lying on their back" under acceleration), and the full sized cockpit prop is about eight feet tall. From there we can see the centrifuge on Earthforce One is... Pretty narrow in any relevant dimension. It's a rare misstep from the artists at foundation.
But the shot of Kemmer entering the shuttle at the end is a truly amazing virtual set. Other than the actress and the ladder that entire set is a comp, and it's done really well with her cast shadows and cast reflections utterly selling the detailed matte painting. So far it's probably the single best VFX shot of the series so far.
The sequence with Ivanova and Garibaldi in the core shuttle is a nice try, but Ivanova's hair is fringing badly. This would have been a good episode for her to have her tight ponytail - just thinking from the VFX standpoint.
Speaking of the core shuttle, and the security issues, am I the only one who finds it odd that the shuttle AI announces "Cobra Bay Area?" This is the launch point for station fighters and shouldn't be accessible to anyone on the bus. After Garabaldi and Ivanova get off a random Centauri exits as well... Speaking for myself this sure as hell led me to wonder if there was Centauri involvement... Who is this random Centauri and why was he (apparently) wandering into a high security area unchallenged?
Mark Hendrickson appears as the drunk alien in the bar with the floppy hat. For this evoking of the B5 drinking game one drinks for and WITH Mark.
"Drink with Garabaldi" is another rule.
SPOILER STUFF
.
.
.
.
.
First appearance of Security Officer Lou Welch. I like Lou, and I like how he is instantly established as loyal to Garibaldi. Even when Kemmler is standing in front of Garibaldi's quarters after Garibaldi's suspension, yet Welch waits for Garibaldi's nods before following Kemmler's orders.
Again, I LIKE Lou, and wish he'd stuck around longer rather than have his role effectively pass to Jeff Conaway, but... For this episode I do wish we'd had another appearance of Macaulay Bruton as Garibaldi's (never named) aide. We'll just assume he's lurking around unseen helping Cutter. We certainly know "Officer Bruton" will have no problem shooting Garibaldi in the back.
Think this is only the second episode Maggie Egan's ISN anchor, Jane, appears. Always appreciated how, after clicking along in many episodes as a news reader how she eventually gets a very effective character arc in TWO SCENES. Just shows how by having a "nothing" character who keeps recurring for years you can cleverly twist them into someone with an internal life in very little time with efficient scripting. We'll talk about her again come "Severed Dreams" and "Endgame."
While it's never explicity stated, it's a reasonable assumption Lianna Kemmler is killed in the destruction of Earthforce One in Chrysalis. At the time Garibaldi is comatose after being shot. By the time he awakens, Sinclair is gone, Sheridan is in, Garibaldi is too busy trying to clean out his own forces, and that's also when Delenn emerges from her cocoon, G'Kar starts warning about the Shadows, Lennier drops the truth about the Battle of the Line and Sinclair, and a lot of other stuff. Dropping in the reference to the dead one-off guest character, despite her importance to Garibaldi, just doesn't fit anywhere. We'll assume Garibaldi raises a glass (of water) to her on his own time. Alone.
On that end shot: I knew it was a comp, obviously, but my assumption was that the floor and the wall on the right was set, the ladder was a prop, with the ship and the ceiling being a matte. Had no idea the ladder was the only real element other than the actor. It's an unnaturally good comp for the year it was made.
Hadn't thought about the scale of EF1, although there was a moment when I was trying to figure out the interior of the rotating section and couldn't quite work it out based on the windows. In retrospect, I think my confusion was probably due to the scaling throwing me off.
It's the reflection work on the floor which really sells it.
Since it's a locked shot, I'd assume someone was able to do photo editing work over the base render for detail work, like the reflections.
Other virtual sets on B5 include the Sanctuary, any shot of the docking bays, the bridge of a Narn cruiser, and the Drazi homeworld.
Yeah, it was also my trying to figure out the interior of the centrifuge on Earthforce One which led me to notice the scale issue.
While B5 did pay some attention to physics and did certain things very well (Starfuries in s1-3 first come to mind, of course), sometimes they design things which don't work. As mentioned in a prior comment C&C isn't in a rotating section and, even if it was it's still upside down.
The entrance to the core shuttle is a bit wonky, too. Sure, dialog says "low gravity area, hold onto the rail," but, as is dicussed in "The Fall of Night," it's actually basically weightless, with the hull/floor rotating around it.
Earthforce One's saucer shaped centrifuge looks laid out to where, under acceleration, the "floor" would be back towards the engines. EF1 could maintain constant (low) acceleration for the first half of the trip, go zero-G for a flip manuver, then return to gravity again accelerating ass backwards to counter current velocity. And we see ships do this (emerge backwards) in the pilot. This got dropped for looking silly, but I'm not sure who the objection came from, Copeland, Netter, or someone at WB or PTEN (we'd need "The Expanse" to show that).
But, if EF1's gravity were tied to acceleration the windows on the saucer would make sense as overhead windows with those on the slant at the edge having a side(ish) view.
The rotation, however, implies gravity comes from centripetal force, which puts the "floor" on the outer edge of the centrifuge. Now the windows are badly placed. Moreover, using a Starfury for scale the entire centrifuge becomes a couple of quite narrow hallways...
So EF1 looks pretty cool, but don't think about it too much, or the design falls apart. Plus it's still too small.
Ultimately, it's a TV show, so don't worry about it too much (especially as a TV show inside a TV show) made in the early/mid 1990's. Even in 2024 it would be prohibitively expensive to do, say, Ivanova's luscious mane moving in low-G. Even the aforementioned Expanse only did accurate low/zero-G hair a couple of times.
But, really, I'm still wondering about the Centauri wandering around the Cobra Bays.
Yeah, The Expanse is the master at all this sort of thing. It was very good at having a couple of key shots to sell the zero-G, and then cheating the rest.
As for the Centauri - there are several moments in the show whereby people (usually ambassadors) storm into Sinclair's office, or even into the observation dome, seemingly without being announced, which is really quite silly. I think we've had Talia walk in already to introduce herself. Or perhaps security really is THAT bad, and everyone was right about Garibaldi being useless.
Well, one can argue the Ambassadors have that kind of access as a perk - making them feel welcome and all that jazz. Sinclair (and Sheridan, or even Ivanova, or the OOD when Commander and XO are off duty) certainly have authority to kick anyone out, but, as diplomats, rarely use such power - especially when Season 1 G'Kar would just immediately start complaining that the vauntedd Earth Alliance wasn't letting him speak.
Assume an Ambassador's ID card basically grants access through all station checkpoints.
Talia... Well, station regs did require she check in. She could have used that to get past a theoretical guard.
So "silly" but justifiable.
Is it Lianna Kemmer or Kemmler? I feel like I heard it as Kemmer during most of the episode, but once I thought I heard her say Kemmler right at the end. Anyhow.
I also thought that moment with Garibaldi in the bar was very effective. I'd forgotten about Earth Force being destroyed specifically, but I did remember something happening to Santiago and I had a feeling that we wouldn't be hearing from Lianna again. Looks like I was right.