Oh yeah. This episode. Whew. So much foreshadowing, so much unravelling. What a fantastic setup this was. I know that it's an impossible ask, because something like this episode needs the buildup to really land in all the ways that matter - but, if Babylon 5 had a pilot episode that packed a punch like this one...? But then, as solid as it was in many ways, "The Gathering" lacked some impact (IMHO) just because its characters were so fresh, and to throw them into such calamity and disarray immediately just...didn't (doesn't?) quite work? I don't know. This is why I want to try writing fiction, to learn how naive my critical opinions are about this stuff. But it does make me realise that so many great pilot episodes show everything falling apart and introducing characters as wannabe survivors of the times they live in, and what a terrific hook that can be when it's done well (and efficiently, because successfully going high-emotional-stakes in just one episode means you're doing a lot of character work very quickly)...
But - yeah. This episode. What confidence in its storytelling, to throw absolutely everything up into the air like that. May everything we write, fiction or non-fiction, have a little of this bravery and wisdom and exciting glimpses of things to come.
Yeah, it's frustrating that a lot of the most satisfying story moments have to be earned. You can't pull the rug out if you haven't bought the rug yet.
On this rewatch I found 'The Gathering' to be fairly woeful, to the point that I would certainly not show it to a new viewer as their entry point. But as you say, you couldn't really start with something like 'Chrysalis' because it only works due to familiarity.
I'm in the process of attempting a similar shake-up in Triverse at the moment, so getting to 'Chrysalis' at this point was quite fortuitous and a useful reminder of How To Do It.
The storytelling you do in your non-fiction stuff demonstrates all the skills you'd need to dig into fiction, so I say definitely give it a go. :)
Oof! This episode is utterly fantastic, and, if anyone is keeping track of production numbers, it's 112 - meaning it was shot halfway through the season. Now, "Signs and Portents" was production number 116, meaning the scenes in this episode between, say, Londo and Morden, where they refer back to "Portents" were shot before that episode. Must be fun for actors on an arc show to shoot continuations or resolutions before introductions and set-ups. Pity the continuity person who had to keep track of the various stages of completion on Delenn's "jigsaw puzzle" (Chrysalis machine) all year.
Most of the episode plot points I remembered - the surprise for me being Delenn walking into Sinclair's quarters, holding up a triluminary, and talking about the Battle of the Line. I'd forgotten that!
The episode structure just works so well. A tense opening with Petrov being stabbed, then a bit of awkward happiness with Sinclair's terrible proposal - "Look, do you wanna get married, or not?" then a bit of a slow build with Garibaldi's investigation, one comic relief moment with G'kar's *ahem* "dates," then Londo's chat with Morden...a big action sequence with the attack on Q37 - which really shows their power, since all of B5's battles so far have taken a full act. For the entire Narn outpost to be taken out so decisively, and so quickly, really drives home that those creepy spider-ships - only two - are vastly more powerful than anything else we've seen in the show. But here's the fun trick. The episode climax - Garibaldi shot and Earthforce One exploding - is halfway through. The entire back half of the episode is all about aftermath and set up for season 2!
The sequence with the destruction of Earthforce One is just so well staged, animated, and edited it's jaw-droppingly powerful. It's a fantastic choice to show the initial explosion of Earthforce One from the front, only seeing the lights flicker and sparks floating out from behind the centrifuge, before cutting to behind EF1 as it tumbles. Director Janet Greek gets great reactions from her extras and day players, while Claudia and O'Hare absolutely nail it. Everyone in C&C is utterly about to lose it, and Sinclair is only barely able to hold himself and the crew together. Even Maggie Egan, by far the most used ISN anchor, absolutely brings the horror.
Garibaldi being shot in the back remains utterly shocking. Again, due to impeccable shot choices (pun intended) and editing from Greek, not to mention Security Officer Jack has been floating around all season. He's not just some random actor brought in this week. His familiar face really makes the betrayal land... If anyone reading is a first time watcher, on a re-watch you'll see how when Jack is around, well, he's in a position to cause problems... Let's use "Sky Full of Stars" as an example. Who do you think helped Knight One throw Benson's body out an airlock without being caught on camera or having the airlock access logged? Oh, the NUMBER TWO GUY IN SECURITY!
I'd forgotten about the Londo scene in Medbay. It's a nice empathizing moment for Londo after we've seen him do something tragic and horrible.
As a historical note, B5 is among the first "arc shows," and likely the first with a multi-season arc planned in advance. At the time (in the US) TV live action SF was Trek: TNG, Gerry Anderson's Space Precinct, and the 6-episode Space Rangers. Space: Above and Beyond would come next year. I guess we can count Brisco County Jr. Hercules and Xena, though all three were more fantasy. And none of them were arc shows. When Sinclair said at the end of "Chrysalis," "Nothing's the same anymore..." He MEANT that, and so did JMS in a way American SF just didn't do then. It was mind blowing to have the show pull the rug from under us like that. Changes? Hah! Wait for season 2!
Final note - that last shot of Lennier holding the candle and sitting vigil for Delenn... The makeup looks SO good. I don't know if the appliance was thin enough for Bill Mumy to wrinkle his brow and emote like that, or if a special appliance was sculpted with some "extra emotion." Also, it's always fun to see G'kar's chest.
I hadn’t realised it was shot so early. Explains why they didn’t make any tweaks to the story to set up O’Hare leaving (e.g. they might have dumped the Sakai subplot, knowing it would go nowhere — though I’d argue that stuff is integral to the impact of the episode AND, retrospectively, the impact of Sinclair leaving and everything going rather wrong in his life. At least, until he becomes….you know).
I’m also surprised it’s as solid as it is overall: I get the sense this season that the latter half of the episodes were generally more competently constructed than the first half, just from a production standpoint.
As would be expected since they'd had half a season to refine things, as well as the time to make more costumes, props, masks, etc, not to mention how much easier it is to produce the CG once assets have been created, textured and rigged up. We'll use Earthforce One itself as a digital example - for "Survivors" (production 111) it had to be designed, approved, modeled, textured, rigged, and the centrifuge animated. For "Chrysalis" (112), the extant file couid be opened and they could go right to staging the scene. Obviously the same applies to things like matte paintings of the core, etc.
The more props, costumes, masks and other assets already exist, the more can reused. The first time Delenn's quarters get redressed to Londo's art and props department have to figure out the looks, figure out where they go, everything has to be labeled, storage allocated, and the crew are just doing it for the first time, etc. Later switch overs go faster because the continuity photos show where everything goes, everything is labeled, has a home in storage, and the crew have already done it. All that just adds up to being able to switch over the set FASTER, leaving more of the day for shooting, meaning the directors can compose more interesting and complex shots.
I'd forgotten about Delenn talking to Sinclair about the Battle of the Line. "Chrysalis" was shot shortly before Michael O'Hare's issues became apparent requiring re-jjgger of the story. Obviously Sinclair would have been told the truth within the first few episodes of season 2... But would Lennier have told him while Delenn was in the Chrysalis or would Delenn have told him after emerging with her new hair? I speculate Delenn. Instead we'll get a slightly clunky exposition dump. Why would Lennier suddenly spill the beans to Ivanova and a stranger (Sheridan) about something the Gray Council ordered Delenn to kill Sinclair over should he remember? The audience needed to know.
Initial US viewings were, unaccountably, fucked up by PTEN/Warner Bros. "Chrysalis" was held back over the summer and shown the week before "Points of Departure." Why the distributor would choose to blow the best TV SF cliffhanger since "Locutus of Borg" is a mystery. That shit would have driven audience speculation for MONTHS!
Otherwise, I think Simon hit all my other points already. On to season 2!
I had no idea they held ‘Chrysalis’ back for so long. That’s madness. So was the effective ‘last’ episode of season 1 actually ‘Quality of Mercy’ for US viewers?
I remember when I was a kid, watching B5 for the first time, I was blown away by how awesome the graphics were. About a decade later, my wife and I enjoyed the show together. By that time, computer graphics had come a long way, so it didn’t carry quite the same weight, but we enjoyed watching it for the story.
Yeah, that story holds up even when the visuals don't, much like any good sci-fi film from the pre-Star Wars era.
It's also interesting how your brain adapts quite quickly to visual elements: after a few episodes of rewatching season 1 my brain largely switched off from critiquing the age of the CG and just accepted it as part of the story.
In university in the 1990's I remember multiple professors across multiple disciplines brining up at one point that the US hadn't really faced what I'll call a "unifying tragedy" (like 9/11) since the assassination of JFK, and THAT is the touchstone JMS was using in "Chrysalis." The clearest nod is the swearing in of President Clark... The staging echoes that of JFK's VP Lyndon Baines Johnson.
The two links below illustrate this. The Wiki article has the picture of LBJ, the other a screen cap of Clark. Figure this way one wouldn't have to return to the Blu-ray to compare images.
JFK is what I was thinking - I did put that into the first draft of this write-up, then removed it for fear of looking like an arse. Interesting, though! I wondered if the various post-WW2 conflicts, or the Cold War, or even Nixon, or maybe the Challenger explosion could have done it, but none are quite as viscerally immediate AND politically vast as 9/11 and JFK.
You'd forgotten about Morden and the Quadrant 37 "F-plot?" (There's a LOT going on in this episode)? I think that means your reaction may have been better this time than on initial viewing, as the first time it would have been, "Oh, that guy is back!," while now you've got Morden's import burned into you by having seen the entire show!
I'm about to watch "Legacies," so I'm still one back, but I'm really looking forward to this one. It's so good.
Oh yeah. This episode. Whew. So much foreshadowing, so much unravelling. What a fantastic setup this was. I know that it's an impossible ask, because something like this episode needs the buildup to really land in all the ways that matter - but, if Babylon 5 had a pilot episode that packed a punch like this one...? But then, as solid as it was in many ways, "The Gathering" lacked some impact (IMHO) just because its characters were so fresh, and to throw them into such calamity and disarray immediately just...didn't (doesn't?) quite work? I don't know. This is why I want to try writing fiction, to learn how naive my critical opinions are about this stuff. But it does make me realise that so many great pilot episodes show everything falling apart and introducing characters as wannabe survivors of the times they live in, and what a terrific hook that can be when it's done well (and efficiently, because successfully going high-emotional-stakes in just one episode means you're doing a lot of character work very quickly)...
But - yeah. This episode. What confidence in its storytelling, to throw absolutely everything up into the air like that. May everything we write, fiction or non-fiction, have a little of this bravery and wisdom and exciting glimpses of things to come.
Yeah, it's frustrating that a lot of the most satisfying story moments have to be earned. You can't pull the rug out if you haven't bought the rug yet.
On this rewatch I found 'The Gathering' to be fairly woeful, to the point that I would certainly not show it to a new viewer as their entry point. But as you say, you couldn't really start with something like 'Chrysalis' because it only works due to familiarity.
I'm in the process of attempting a similar shake-up in Triverse at the moment, so getting to 'Chrysalis' at this point was quite fortuitous and a useful reminder of How To Do It.
The storytelling you do in your non-fiction stuff demonstrates all the skills you'd need to dig into fiction, so I say definitely give it a go. :)
And we're back!
Oof! This episode is utterly fantastic, and, if anyone is keeping track of production numbers, it's 112 - meaning it was shot halfway through the season. Now, "Signs and Portents" was production number 116, meaning the scenes in this episode between, say, Londo and Morden, where they refer back to "Portents" were shot before that episode. Must be fun for actors on an arc show to shoot continuations or resolutions before introductions and set-ups. Pity the continuity person who had to keep track of the various stages of completion on Delenn's "jigsaw puzzle" (Chrysalis machine) all year.
Most of the episode plot points I remembered - the surprise for me being Delenn walking into Sinclair's quarters, holding up a triluminary, and talking about the Battle of the Line. I'd forgotten that!
The episode structure just works so well. A tense opening with Petrov being stabbed, then a bit of awkward happiness with Sinclair's terrible proposal - "Look, do you wanna get married, or not?" then a bit of a slow build with Garibaldi's investigation, one comic relief moment with G'kar's *ahem* "dates," then Londo's chat with Morden...a big action sequence with the attack on Q37 - which really shows their power, since all of B5's battles so far have taken a full act. For the entire Narn outpost to be taken out so decisively, and so quickly, really drives home that those creepy spider-ships - only two - are vastly more powerful than anything else we've seen in the show. But here's the fun trick. The episode climax - Garibaldi shot and Earthforce One exploding - is halfway through. The entire back half of the episode is all about aftermath and set up for season 2!
The sequence with the destruction of Earthforce One is just so well staged, animated, and edited it's jaw-droppingly powerful. It's a fantastic choice to show the initial explosion of Earthforce One from the front, only seeing the lights flicker and sparks floating out from behind the centrifuge, before cutting to behind EF1 as it tumbles. Director Janet Greek gets great reactions from her extras and day players, while Claudia and O'Hare absolutely nail it. Everyone in C&C is utterly about to lose it, and Sinclair is only barely able to hold himself and the crew together. Even Maggie Egan, by far the most used ISN anchor, absolutely brings the horror.
Garibaldi being shot in the back remains utterly shocking. Again, due to impeccable shot choices (pun intended) and editing from Greek, not to mention Security Officer Jack has been floating around all season. He's not just some random actor brought in this week. His familiar face really makes the betrayal land... If anyone reading is a first time watcher, on a re-watch you'll see how when Jack is around, well, he's in a position to cause problems... Let's use "Sky Full of Stars" as an example. Who do you think helped Knight One throw Benson's body out an airlock without being caught on camera or having the airlock access logged? Oh, the NUMBER TWO GUY IN SECURITY!
I'd forgotten about the Londo scene in Medbay. It's a nice empathizing moment for Londo after we've seen him do something tragic and horrible.
As a historical note, B5 is among the first "arc shows," and likely the first with a multi-season arc planned in advance. At the time (in the US) TV live action SF was Trek: TNG, Gerry Anderson's Space Precinct, and the 6-episode Space Rangers. Space: Above and Beyond would come next year. I guess we can count Brisco County Jr. Hercules and Xena, though all three were more fantasy. And none of them were arc shows. When Sinclair said at the end of "Chrysalis," "Nothing's the same anymore..." He MEANT that, and so did JMS in a way American SF just didn't do then. It was mind blowing to have the show pull the rug from under us like that. Changes? Hah! Wait for season 2!
Final note - that last shot of Lennier holding the candle and sitting vigil for Delenn... The makeup looks SO good. I don't know if the appliance was thin enough for Bill Mumy to wrinkle his brow and emote like that, or if a special appliance was sculpted with some "extra emotion." Also, it's always fun to see G'kar's chest.
I hadn’t realised it was shot so early. Explains why they didn’t make any tweaks to the story to set up O’Hare leaving (e.g. they might have dumped the Sakai subplot, knowing it would go nowhere — though I’d argue that stuff is integral to the impact of the episode AND, retrospectively, the impact of Sinclair leaving and everything going rather wrong in his life. At least, until he becomes….you know).
I’m also surprised it’s as solid as it is overall: I get the sense this season that the latter half of the episodes were generally more competently constructed than the first half, just from a production standpoint.
As would be expected since they'd had half a season to refine things, as well as the time to make more costumes, props, masks, etc, not to mention how much easier it is to produce the CG once assets have been created, textured and rigged up. We'll use Earthforce One itself as a digital example - for "Survivors" (production 111) it had to be designed, approved, modeled, textured, rigged, and the centrifuge animated. For "Chrysalis" (112), the extant file couid be opened and they could go right to staging the scene. Obviously the same applies to things like matte paintings of the core, etc.
The more props, costumes, masks and other assets already exist, the more can reused. The first time Delenn's quarters get redressed to Londo's art and props department have to figure out the looks, figure out where they go, everything has to be labeled, storage allocated, and the crew are just doing it for the first time, etc. Later switch overs go faster because the continuity photos show where everything goes, everything is labeled, has a home in storage, and the crew have already done it. All that just adds up to being able to switch over the set FASTER, leaving more of the day for shooting, meaning the directors can compose more interesting and complex shots.
SPOILERS.
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I'd forgotten about Delenn talking to Sinclair about the Battle of the Line. "Chrysalis" was shot shortly before Michael O'Hare's issues became apparent requiring re-jjgger of the story. Obviously Sinclair would have been told the truth within the first few episodes of season 2... But would Lennier have told him while Delenn was in the Chrysalis or would Delenn have told him after emerging with her new hair? I speculate Delenn. Instead we'll get a slightly clunky exposition dump. Why would Lennier suddenly spill the beans to Ivanova and a stranger (Sheridan) about something the Gray Council ordered Delenn to kill Sinclair over should he remember? The audience needed to know.
Initial US viewings were, unaccountably, fucked up by PTEN/Warner Bros. "Chrysalis" was held back over the summer and shown the week before "Points of Departure." Why the distributor would choose to blow the best TV SF cliffhanger since "Locutus of Borg" is a mystery. That shit would have driven audience speculation for MONTHS!
Otherwise, I think Simon hit all my other points already. On to season 2!
I had no idea they held ‘Chrysalis’ back for so long. That’s madness. So was the effective ‘last’ episode of season 1 actually ‘Quality of Mercy’ for US viewers?
Yup.
.Oh, it's worse! The final FOUR of the season were held back, for all of seasons 2-4! Utter madness!
I remember when I was a kid, watching B5 for the first time, I was blown away by how awesome the graphics were. About a decade later, my wife and I enjoyed the show together. By that time, computer graphics had come a long way, so it didn’t carry quite the same weight, but we enjoyed watching it for the story.
Yeah, that story holds up even when the visuals don't, much like any good sci-fi film from the pre-Star Wars era.
It's also interesting how your brain adapts quite quickly to visual elements: after a few episodes of rewatching season 1 my brain largely switched off from critiquing the age of the CG and just accepted it as part of the story.
*American Context on pre-1990s history*
In university in the 1990's I remember multiple professors across multiple disciplines brining up at one point that the US hadn't really faced what I'll call a "unifying tragedy" (like 9/11) since the assassination of JFK, and THAT is the touchstone JMS was using in "Chrysalis." The clearest nod is the swearing in of President Clark... The staging echoes that of JFK's VP Lyndon Baines Johnson.
The two links below illustrate this. The Wiki article has the picture of LBJ, the other a screen cap of Clark. Figure this way one wouldn't have to return to the Blu-ray to compare images.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_inauguration_of_Lyndon_B._Johnson
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/188736/babylon-5-was-mr-morden-involved-in-the-killing-of-president-santiago
JFK is what I was thinking - I did put that into the first draft of this write-up, then removed it for fear of looking like an arse. Interesting, though! I wondered if the various post-WW2 conflicts, or the Cold War, or even Nixon, or maybe the Challenger explosion could have done it, but none are quite as viscerally immediate AND politically vast as 9/11 and JFK.
*SPOILER ADJACENT*
You'd forgotten about Morden and the Quadrant 37 "F-plot?" (There's a LOT going on in this episode)? I think that means your reaction may have been better this time than on initial viewing, as the first time it would have been, "Oh, that guy is back!," while now you've got Morden's import burned into you by having seen the entire show!
I'm about to watch "Legacies," so I'm still one back, but I'm really looking forward to this one. It's so good.
I'd forgotten how shattering this episode was. The music from the Battle of the Line coming back when Earth Force One exploded...Holy moly.