I remember this one being my "Woah, okay, I'm in" episode. Every TV show needs one in its first season, and for me B5 really ran it to the wire, ratcheting up the foreshadowing (fore-Shadowshadowing?) until the last minute. ***EDIT: I forgot that I originally watched this episode on VHS videos and after this one I had to wait for months for my friend to loan me the next one, so I thought it was season's end - but it wasn't! Ah for the days where shows had 22 episodes...So, never mind me.***
It was the combo of that battle and the oily presence of Mr Morden (I read that name with Londo's snarl in my head) and then the mystery of why he fought Kosh *and how he's not a red puddle after doing so*. All of it together was a winning mix.
It gets me thinking about how other TV shows have delivered their "OK I AM IN" moments to me - which are highly subjective for everyone, I guess. But in my case, a sample:
- the second part of the Battlestar Galactica miniseries, specifically Adama's "SO SAY WE ALL" speech
- the episode of Breaking Bad where Walter White says "this is not meth" and blows the place up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dehuS7ZSOgk (The pilot episode was fantastic, but also felt self-contained in that way that truly great scripts can be, so it took me a while to feel like this was going to be a real journey)
- the first 10 minutes of "Carnivale"
- "Firefly", episode 5, "Out Of Gas", all of it, but the final shot of Mal seeing his ship for the first time absolutely sold me 100%: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ntYAJmpeUs
- episode 1 of "Lost" (oh, what it promised! and erm, oh, what it eventually delivered)
- and with B5, after the somewhat jarring interruption of Sheridan's arrival, episode 1 of season 2 did it to me again. Actually, B5 was filled with those moments. I so hope with the remake/reboot (if it happens) that JMS keeps us guessing and doesn't just rerun what we already know, because that feeling of being promised answers if we just keep watching...that's so powerful.
I fell behind on the rewatch, but, oh, yeah, this is a big one. G'Kar's reaction is fascinating to me: we've already seen signs that he's more complex than the standard bad guy he seemed to be in the first episode (I mean, the one where he breaks into song while by himself is just hilarious) but this one here is really interesting; you can practically seem him trying to reset as after Morden asks "and then what?" because he really hadn't thought about it.
Also, Londo and G'Kar's little quarrel at the beginning over pushing the transport tube buttons which quickly escalated into politics was hilarious as well. I felt so sorry for that poor fella in the middle.
However will I survive the episode with *distinguished British guest star redacted*, and *distinguished American guest star redacted,*, the development of the *plot points redacted*, and the amazing technical achievement of the *VFX spoiler redacted?* How couid that ever be better than *pointless A-plot redacted* and *character based B-plot redacted?*
(Spoilers)
TKO is IMHO one of the two worst episodes of the series, matched in banality only by "Grey 17 is Missing," which, at least, has some good Marcus/Neroon scenes. Even the interminable Byron arc has redeeming features.
Ah, Londo... What have you done? Only the first step on a path leading to the deaths of billions and your own enslavement to a parasite... Sure, the show will give you comic moments for the rest of the season - cheating at cards with your penis, and "Landing thrusters, landing thrusters, if I were a landing thruster where would I be?" but, of the principal characters, you just took G'Kar's place as the bad guy.
At least until season 5.
Look... Londo is complicated. It's also arguable Londo is the "narrator" of the entire show. If one wants elucidation on that assertion, ask, ye shall receive.
Oh, look, Delenn is building the machine into which she plugs the Triluminary at the end of the season to alter her DNA! She was working on that back in "Midnight on the Firing Line." How long does it take to assemble a genetic sequencer on your coffee table?
JMS originally intended the Shadows to be humanoid and played by actors in costume.. In fact during JMS's internet posts ąt the time, he called them "Shadownen." Artist Ron Thornton designed the Shadows on the sly, did some test animation, and showed it to JMS, who was thrilled. I BELIEVE, but could be wrong, the initial "Shadowman" costume was used as a "Soldier of Darkness" in s2 "The Long Dark." Based on how the "Soldier" looked in that episode, Thornton made the right call.
Shadow Battlecrabs are fucking terrifying and creepy as hell (like when one sees a damaged Battlecrab BLEEDING TO DEATH and shriveling up in "Shadow Dancing," but rarely as effectively as in "Signs and Portents." Phasing in (and we've not seen a B5 ship "cloak," and even Vorlons use conventional jumpgates/points) immediately sets them apart. Then the stark view of black spikes against a spiral galaxy, and the closeup of that undulating texture lit by plasma fire... I've shown Babylon 5 to multiple people - several ex-gfs, my wife, three friends, one ex-roommate... With the exception of the wife who didn't like the show (I want a divorce... Nah.), all of them, and myself the first time, we all sat upright and exclaimed "What the FUCK was THAT?"
The half season of world building paid off. Everyone understood this was something new, different, and deadly. "Something living in hyperspace," indeed... Hey, those newspaper articles from the prior two episodes paid off! Foreshadowing! Pun intended!
Shadow vessels... Ugh. I'm arachnophobic, so they trigger me. Oddly enough the redesign from "The Road Home," while effective and being different from the original but still respecting the design cues of the series, don't hit me in the same way. The visible eye and the waving motion of the spines take the Shadow ships out of spider territory into octopod/cthulhoid territory doesn't trigger me in the same way. I don't have an octopus phobia.
There is a popular myth, spread by JMS that the texture of the Shadow vessels is taken from a scan of a dog's nose. Untrue. It's a procedural texture CALLED "dog's nose" because that's what the artist thought it resembled.
Morden: Note the necklace he wears. It's something actor Ed Wasser asked for and it's something he added to Morden's backstory as he knew more about Morden than most. It's expanded on in one of the novels. Morden's wife was on Icarus, refused to submit, and was killed by the Shadows. Morden's necklace was a gift from his wife and his wearing of it represents Morden's last shred of empathy and humanity. Wasser was preparing his character, found the necklace in a store, bought it for himself, and begged JMS to allow it.
Ed Wasser played a C&C tech in the pilot. Guerra and Morden have no relation to each other, so don't try to think of one. It's just an actor given a few lines in the pilot, JMS decided he liked the guy, and wrote him a better part.
Kosh shouldn't pick a fight with Morden when it's three on one. At this point in the series they haven't been shown yet, but, when Delenn says in the episode, "They are here," she's absolutely talking about the two Shadows following Morden around. Chew on that...
"What do you want?" JMS has a degree in psychology and the repetition of "What do you want?" is a technique used in therapy to break down barriers. Ed Wasser has stories from right after the show first aired of being out and about and recognized by viewers who would "What do you want?" at him. Wasser said it was quite disconcerting.
Psychology group therapy is also where the Vorlon question from "Comes the Inquisitor," "Who are you?" is from.
Delenn, of course, tells Morden to STFU and GTFO. G'Kar's answer is too small for the Shadows. It's Londo who has the correct blend of anger, wistfulness, and greed to meet the Shadow's needs.
Ivanova asks the computer at the top of the episode why her mouth tastes like old carpet in the morning... Well, here comes the potentially offensive joke. *ahem*
"It depends on whether or not Talia had spent the night..." HEY-O! *rimshot*
Oof, what an episode! After half of season of world building and establishing the status quo, suddenly one friendly guy in a suit and a spiky black ship kick things into gear. Inciting incident, HOOOOOOO!
Mild surprise Simon chose, "Let me buy you a fleet of drinks!" as a representative quote. One might expect, "What do you want?" or "The Shadows have come for Lord Kiro... The Shadows have come for us all!" as the quote of the week.
Ok, so those may be on the nose and Simon chose another way....
Where to begin? How about the space battle?
Those who have read my prior comments know I love the Starfury, and this battle shows them off well. Sure, there are some really cool shots where ships fly between the cobra bays and forward hull trading fire, and shots which are absolutely homages to the 1978 Battlestar Galactica (if you didn't spot them, I'll tell you where they are, but I'm online buddies with a s1-s3 animator, and he's confirmed it), but let's talk about Garibaldi flying forwards then suddenly kicking his front and bottom thrusters slowing and moving straight "up" to let his target pass and shoot it from "above." 30+ fucking years later and you haven't seen another space battle choreographed like that. SO GOOD! How about the staging of "the gauntlet" where the raiders are trapped between Alpha and Delta wing and the station defense grid and it's that panning shot of the rear of the station by the heat radiators where the radiator fins (and they are heat radiators, not solar panels) block most of the weapons fire and exploding ships. SO GOOD!
It's the best battle of season 1, and it's not the last. There are other good ones.
Morden. Ed Wasser was the reader for the casting director. He's a C&C tech in the pilot, but JMS liked him and decided to write him a better part. Morden gets to make a real impression here, rather than get "Jump point opening." Hope that guy comes back, because, as Simon noted, at this point the Vorlons are the scary badasses who no one messes with, and Morden stared Kosh down with a grin as the lights blew and his face fell into shadow.
Come to think of it, his face fell into shadow during his scene with Delenn.
Hmmm... "The Shadows have come for Lord Kiro. The Shadows have come for us all!"
One might suspect foreshadowing!
There's a C&C tech with a mullet who debuts in this episode. Technically, this is a spoiler, but I don't care. That's tech "David Corwin," and he'll be around for the rest of the show. Great - now you know he's back. But what does he do? Why do we care about "random tech guy?" You'll find out. Actor Joshua Cox gets a few great moments with Corwin.
Sinclair bringing Garibaldi in on the Battle of the Line? Some forward motion on a mystery dating to the pilot, mentioned in two other episodes, and is the major thread of a third. Gotta love continuing plots in 90's TV. They're so rare.
Lady Ladira - either that actress shaved her head, or it's the best bald cap of the season so far. It's flawless! It's got stubble!
Unfortunately, the Blu-Ray clearly shows one of the lights in Ivanova's room is a par can with a gel cutout taped to the lens. Ugh. Boy that looked cheap. Still. "It's always dark in space." "I know." great little bit.
I wonder how long the discussions were between director Janet Greek and Dp John Flynn were on the Kiro/Londo scenes. They chose to frame their respective closeups with their full crests in frame. This places their eyes pretty low in the frame, and Kiro's eyes BELOW Londo's in his close ups. Which is a bit jarring when cutting to the medium and seeing Gerrit Graham is half a head taller than Peter Jurasik.
As a side note, B5 was shot "open matte." this means you're shooting using the 4:3 negative for 1990's SD broadcast standard, but are squeezing your framing for a possible movie re-edit for overseas release. If you've seen the 1978 Battlestar Galactica (two parters), or any of the two hour Columbo episodes those were shot open hate for theatrical release on Europe and South America. B5 was shot open gate - intended for a 16:9 crop when HDTV became a thing. For technical reasons beyond this response that didn't happen - ok, it DID for the DVDs, but those were done off the PAL master (resampled from the NTSC master, then sped up from 24 to 25 fps), meaning they were resampled from an NTSC master at X resolution and pixel aspect ratio which had been converted to a different resolution and aspect ratio, resampled back to the original resolution and aspect ratio, slowed back from 25 to 24 fps, then cropped HORIZONTALLY and VERTICALLY to 16:9 and blown back up to fill the frame. The DVD is a mess. I've shown Simon a video done by someone re-rendering an original Lightwave project straight to 1080p vs a DVD shot, and... Well the DVD is cutting over half the frame. The Blu-ray being an AI upscale of the original 4:3 master is much better.
That said, I'm noting this time the open gate framing. The signs (should you choose to look for them) are too much headroom in a shot (allowing for a simple center crop without a reframe) and awkward bottom edges - like cutting an actor off mid calf.
There's much to unpack in this episode but most needs to go to spoiler discussion...
Oh. When Lady Ladira is in Customs near the top of the episode there's the B5 daily schedule on a screen behind her. The Black Market still opens in Brown Sector at 1600 hours, but that night is "Mojo's Mind Rave." I'm going to assume artist Adam "Mojo" Lebowitz created that asset....
The scene in the bathroom... There's a long running joke in Star Trek Fandom about where the bathrooms are on Enterprise (they're the door at the front of the bridge to the left of the main viewscreen). So, trust Babylon 5 to "break barriers" by starting a scene with Sinclair and Garibaldi talking business over a good pee. That said, as they exit the toilet with a clearly marked "male" sign, a crewmember enters the toilet. The crewmember's face is not shown, but they are significantly shorter than both men, and has a ponytail. B5 fans have joked about the woman walking into the men's room for decades... So... Did the director err in having a woman walk into men's room, or is JMS sneaking a transgender character into the world without comment? Discuss.
Simon mentioned the virtual set/extension for Morden in the docking bay, a certain exterior of the station, and the battle in general as examples of the improving CG on the show. I'd like to shout out the shot where Ladira looks into the coffee cup and has the vision of the raider ship emerging from hyperspace. That's very well done, since the composite needs an animated edge mask to match the movement of the coffee, needed to be hand tracked, because the cup moves during the shot AND has been displacement mapped so the CG ripples with the coffee. This is a VERY well done shot, and may be the VFX highlight of the season to date.
Speaking of VFX some very good work with the practical lighting on Ivanova, Garibaldi, Delta Seven, and the fourth Starfury pilot seen in the episode, and some great OTS composites of the view outside cockpits. Just a shame the texture maps for Epsilon 3 are so low res. Foundation is working miracles with the CG in the days before physically accurate BDRF rendering, not to mention before the invention of UV mapping, normal maps, illumination maps, transparency maps... I'll keep it simple - they've only got diffuse, specular, and bump maps which are all indexed 256 color maps. Holding up as well as it does is mind blowing. Starfuries, star fields, the station, most ships, etc, look pretty damn good, but Epsilon 3 itself is a highly pixelated mess. Simon, all the shots you've pointed out of B5 looking almost as good as 2023/24 renders? Notice none of them have the planet? The planet is the giveaway.
I remember this one being my "Woah, okay, I'm in" episode. Every TV show needs one in its first season, and for me B5 really ran it to the wire, ratcheting up the foreshadowing (fore-Shadowshadowing?) until the last minute. ***EDIT: I forgot that I originally watched this episode on VHS videos and after this one I had to wait for months for my friend to loan me the next one, so I thought it was season's end - but it wasn't! Ah for the days where shows had 22 episodes...So, never mind me.***
It was the combo of that battle and the oily presence of Mr Morden (I read that name with Londo's snarl in my head) and then the mystery of why he fought Kosh *and how he's not a red puddle after doing so*. All of it together was a winning mix.
It gets me thinking about how other TV shows have delivered their "OK I AM IN" moments to me - which are highly subjective for everyone, I guess. But in my case, a sample:
- the second part of the Battlestar Galactica miniseries, specifically Adama's "SO SAY WE ALL" speech
- the episode of Breaking Bad where Walter White says "this is not meth" and blows the place up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dehuS7ZSOgk (The pilot episode was fantastic, but also felt self-contained in that way that truly great scripts can be, so it took me a while to feel like this was going to be a real journey)
- the first 10 minutes of "Carnivale"
- "Firefly", episode 5, "Out Of Gas", all of it, but the final shot of Mal seeing his ship for the first time absolutely sold me 100%: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ntYAJmpeUs
- episode 1 of "Lost" (oh, what it promised! and erm, oh, what it eventually delivered)
- and with B5, after the somewhat jarring interruption of Sheridan's arrival, episode 1 of season 2 did it to me again. Actually, B5 was filled with those moments. I so hope with the remake/reboot (if it happens) that JMS keeps us guessing and doesn't just rerun what we already know, because that feeling of being promised answers if we just keep watching...that's so powerful.
I fell behind on the rewatch, but, oh, yeah, this is a big one. G'Kar's reaction is fascinating to me: we've already seen signs that he's more complex than the standard bad guy he seemed to be in the first episode (I mean, the one where he breaks into song while by himself is just hilarious) but this one here is really interesting; you can practically seem him trying to reset as after Morden asks "and then what?" because he really hadn't thought about it.
Also, Londo and G'Kar's little quarrel at the beginning over pushing the transport tube buttons which quickly escalated into politics was hilarious as well. I felt so sorry for that poor fella in the middle.
Oh, no, we're doing "Grail" next week, not "TKO!"
(non-spoiler)
However will I survive the episode with *distinguished British guest star redacted*, and *distinguished American guest star redacted,*, the development of the *plot points redacted*, and the amazing technical achievement of the *VFX spoiler redacted?* How couid that ever be better than *pointless A-plot redacted* and *character based B-plot redacted?*
(Spoilers)
TKO is IMHO one of the two worst episodes of the series, matched in banality only by "Grey 17 is Missing," which, at least, has some good Marcus/Neroon scenes. Even the interminable Byron arc has redeeming features.
Spoilers like raw fish left in the sun...
Ah, Londo... What have you done? Only the first step on a path leading to the deaths of billions and your own enslavement to a parasite... Sure, the show will give you comic moments for the rest of the season - cheating at cards with your penis, and "Landing thrusters, landing thrusters, if I were a landing thruster where would I be?" but, of the principal characters, you just took G'Kar's place as the bad guy.
At least until season 5.
Look... Londo is complicated. It's also arguable Londo is the "narrator" of the entire show. If one wants elucidation on that assertion, ask, ye shall receive.
Oh, look, Delenn is building the machine into which she plugs the Triluminary at the end of the season to alter her DNA! She was working on that back in "Midnight on the Firing Line." How long does it take to assemble a genetic sequencer on your coffee table?
JMS originally intended the Shadows to be humanoid and played by actors in costume.. In fact during JMS's internet posts ąt the time, he called them "Shadownen." Artist Ron Thornton designed the Shadows on the sly, did some test animation, and showed it to JMS, who was thrilled. I BELIEVE, but could be wrong, the initial "Shadowman" costume was used as a "Soldier of Darkness" in s2 "The Long Dark." Based on how the "Soldier" looked in that episode, Thornton made the right call.
Shadow Battlecrabs are fucking terrifying and creepy as hell (like when one sees a damaged Battlecrab BLEEDING TO DEATH and shriveling up in "Shadow Dancing," but rarely as effectively as in "Signs and Portents." Phasing in (and we've not seen a B5 ship "cloak," and even Vorlons use conventional jumpgates/points) immediately sets them apart. Then the stark view of black spikes against a spiral galaxy, and the closeup of that undulating texture lit by plasma fire... I've shown Babylon 5 to multiple people - several ex-gfs, my wife, three friends, one ex-roommate... With the exception of the wife who didn't like the show (I want a divorce... Nah.), all of them, and myself the first time, we all sat upright and exclaimed "What the FUCK was THAT?"
The half season of world building paid off. Everyone understood this was something new, different, and deadly. "Something living in hyperspace," indeed... Hey, those newspaper articles from the prior two episodes paid off! Foreshadowing! Pun intended!
Shadow vessels... Ugh. I'm arachnophobic, so they trigger me. Oddly enough the redesign from "The Road Home," while effective and being different from the original but still respecting the design cues of the series, don't hit me in the same way. The visible eye and the waving motion of the spines take the Shadow ships out of spider territory into octopod/cthulhoid territory doesn't trigger me in the same way. I don't have an octopus phobia.
There is a popular myth, spread by JMS that the texture of the Shadow vessels is taken from a scan of a dog's nose. Untrue. It's a procedural texture CALLED "dog's nose" because that's what the artist thought it resembled.
Morden: Note the necklace he wears. It's something actor Ed Wasser asked for and it's something he added to Morden's backstory as he knew more about Morden than most. It's expanded on in one of the novels. Morden's wife was on Icarus, refused to submit, and was killed by the Shadows. Morden's necklace was a gift from his wife and his wearing of it represents Morden's last shred of empathy and humanity. Wasser was preparing his character, found the necklace in a store, bought it for himself, and begged JMS to allow it.
Ed Wasser played a C&C tech in the pilot. Guerra and Morden have no relation to each other, so don't try to think of one. It's just an actor given a few lines in the pilot, JMS decided he liked the guy, and wrote him a better part.
Kosh shouldn't pick a fight with Morden when it's three on one. At this point in the series they haven't been shown yet, but, when Delenn says in the episode, "They are here," she's absolutely talking about the two Shadows following Morden around. Chew on that...
"What do you want?" JMS has a degree in psychology and the repetition of "What do you want?" is a technique used in therapy to break down barriers. Ed Wasser has stories from right after the show first aired of being out and about and recognized by viewers who would "What do you want?" at him. Wasser said it was quite disconcerting.
Psychology group therapy is also where the Vorlon question from "Comes the Inquisitor," "Who are you?" is from.
Delenn, of course, tells Morden to STFU and GTFO. G'Kar's answer is too small for the Shadows. It's Londo who has the correct blend of anger, wistfulness, and greed to meet the Shadow's needs.
Ivanova asks the computer at the top of the episode why her mouth tastes like old carpet in the morning... Well, here comes the potentially offensive joke. *ahem*
"It depends on whether or not Talia had spent the night..." HEY-O! *rimshot*
Sans Spoilers...
Oof, what an episode! After half of season of world building and establishing the status quo, suddenly one friendly guy in a suit and a spiky black ship kick things into gear. Inciting incident, HOOOOOOO!
Mild surprise Simon chose, "Let me buy you a fleet of drinks!" as a representative quote. One might expect, "What do you want?" or "The Shadows have come for Lord Kiro... The Shadows have come for us all!" as the quote of the week.
Ok, so those may be on the nose and Simon chose another way....
Where to begin? How about the space battle?
Those who have read my prior comments know I love the Starfury, and this battle shows them off well. Sure, there are some really cool shots where ships fly between the cobra bays and forward hull trading fire, and shots which are absolutely homages to the 1978 Battlestar Galactica (if you didn't spot them, I'll tell you where they are, but I'm online buddies with a s1-s3 animator, and he's confirmed it), but let's talk about Garibaldi flying forwards then suddenly kicking his front and bottom thrusters slowing and moving straight "up" to let his target pass and shoot it from "above." 30+ fucking years later and you haven't seen another space battle choreographed like that. SO GOOD! How about the staging of "the gauntlet" where the raiders are trapped between Alpha and Delta wing and the station defense grid and it's that panning shot of the rear of the station by the heat radiators where the radiator fins (and they are heat radiators, not solar panels) block most of the weapons fire and exploding ships. SO GOOD!
It's the best battle of season 1, and it's not the last. There are other good ones.
Morden. Ed Wasser was the reader for the casting director. He's a C&C tech in the pilot, but JMS liked him and decided to write him a better part. Morden gets to make a real impression here, rather than get "Jump point opening." Hope that guy comes back, because, as Simon noted, at this point the Vorlons are the scary badasses who no one messes with, and Morden stared Kosh down with a grin as the lights blew and his face fell into shadow.
Come to think of it, his face fell into shadow during his scene with Delenn.
Hmmm... "The Shadows have come for Lord Kiro. The Shadows have come for us all!"
One might suspect foreshadowing!
There's a C&C tech with a mullet who debuts in this episode. Technically, this is a spoiler, but I don't care. That's tech "David Corwin," and he'll be around for the rest of the show. Great - now you know he's back. But what does he do? Why do we care about "random tech guy?" You'll find out. Actor Joshua Cox gets a few great moments with Corwin.
Sinclair bringing Garibaldi in on the Battle of the Line? Some forward motion on a mystery dating to the pilot, mentioned in two other episodes, and is the major thread of a third. Gotta love continuing plots in 90's TV. They're so rare.
Lady Ladira - either that actress shaved her head, or it's the best bald cap of the season so far. It's flawless! It's got stubble!
Unfortunately, the Blu-Ray clearly shows one of the lights in Ivanova's room is a par can with a gel cutout taped to the lens. Ugh. Boy that looked cheap. Still. "It's always dark in space." "I know." great little bit.
I wonder how long the discussions were between director Janet Greek and Dp John Flynn were on the Kiro/Londo scenes. They chose to frame their respective closeups with their full crests in frame. This places their eyes pretty low in the frame, and Kiro's eyes BELOW Londo's in his close ups. Which is a bit jarring when cutting to the medium and seeing Gerrit Graham is half a head taller than Peter Jurasik.
As a side note, B5 was shot "open matte." this means you're shooting using the 4:3 negative for 1990's SD broadcast standard, but are squeezing your framing for a possible movie re-edit for overseas release. If you've seen the 1978 Battlestar Galactica (two parters), or any of the two hour Columbo episodes those were shot open hate for theatrical release on Europe and South America. B5 was shot open gate - intended for a 16:9 crop when HDTV became a thing. For technical reasons beyond this response that didn't happen - ok, it DID for the DVDs, but those were done off the PAL master (resampled from the NTSC master, then sped up from 24 to 25 fps), meaning they were resampled from an NTSC master at X resolution and pixel aspect ratio which had been converted to a different resolution and aspect ratio, resampled back to the original resolution and aspect ratio, slowed back from 25 to 24 fps, then cropped HORIZONTALLY and VERTICALLY to 16:9 and blown back up to fill the frame. The DVD is a mess. I've shown Simon a video done by someone re-rendering an original Lightwave project straight to 1080p vs a DVD shot, and... Well the DVD is cutting over half the frame. The Blu-ray being an AI upscale of the original 4:3 master is much better.
That said, I'm noting this time the open gate framing. The signs (should you choose to look for them) are too much headroom in a shot (allowing for a simple center crop without a reframe) and awkward bottom edges - like cutting an actor off mid calf.
There's much to unpack in this episode but most needs to go to spoiler discussion...
Oh. When Lady Ladira is in Customs near the top of the episode there's the B5 daily schedule on a screen behind her. The Black Market still opens in Brown Sector at 1600 hours, but that night is "Mojo's Mind Rave." I'm going to assume artist Adam "Mojo" Lebowitz created that asset....
The scene in the bathroom... There's a long running joke in Star Trek Fandom about where the bathrooms are on Enterprise (they're the door at the front of the bridge to the left of the main viewscreen). So, trust Babylon 5 to "break barriers" by starting a scene with Sinclair and Garibaldi talking business over a good pee. That said, as they exit the toilet with a clearly marked "male" sign, a crewmember enters the toilet. The crewmember's face is not shown, but they are significantly shorter than both men, and has a ponytail. B5 fans have joked about the woman walking into the men's room for decades... So... Did the director err in having a woman walk into men's room, or is JMS sneaking a transgender character into the world without comment? Discuss.
Simon mentioned the virtual set/extension for Morden in the docking bay, a certain exterior of the station, and the battle in general as examples of the improving CG on the show. I'd like to shout out the shot where Ladira looks into the coffee cup and has the vision of the raider ship emerging from hyperspace. That's very well done, since the composite needs an animated edge mask to match the movement of the coffee, needed to be hand tracked, because the cup moves during the shot AND has been displacement mapped so the CG ripples with the coffee. This is a VERY well done shot, and may be the VFX highlight of the season to date.
Speaking of VFX some very good work with the practical lighting on Ivanova, Garibaldi, Delta Seven, and the fourth Starfury pilot seen in the episode, and some great OTS composites of the view outside cockpits. Just a shame the texture maps for Epsilon 3 are so low res. Foundation is working miracles with the CG in the days before physically accurate BDRF rendering, not to mention before the invention of UV mapping, normal maps, illumination maps, transparency maps... I'll keep it simple - they've only got diffuse, specular, and bump maps which are all indexed 256 color maps. Holding up as well as it does is mind blowing. Starfuries, star fields, the station, most ships, etc, look pretty damn good, but Epsilon 3 itself is a highly pixelated mess. Simon, all the shots you've pointed out of B5 looking almost as good as 2023/24 renders? Notice none of them have the planet? The planet is the giveaway.