Kudos to director Jim Johnston and the stunt team on the Zocalo brawl at the climax of the episode. B5 doesn't have many riots, brawls, what have you, and most of them just don't work that well - it's a TV show on a tight budget, and just didn't have much time to stage, rehearse, and shoot the sequence. Johnston went handheld, which speeds turnaround time (not moving rigs), and gave the entire fight a gritty, in your face energy. There's even time for a joke (the civilian woman who hits a GROPO over the head with the bottle, then covers her mouth) and a few excellent stunts (the GROPO who kicks another GROPO off the upper level then jumps down after him right as Sheridan, Gen. Franklin, and the Sarge enter).
This large scale brawl is infinitely better staged, and feels much more raw and violent than, say, anything in TKO.
So, yeah, this cliché-constructed episode works. It's different from what we've seen before, gives us the world building by showing us more about EFMC, hints at shifting Earth policies, and shows us the surface of a new world. Lots going on.
Jerry Doyle joked around set for over a year it was unfair Londo got laid first and Garibaldi should get some, too.
So, Larry DiTillio wrote it in.
Now... Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi) and Andrea Thompson (Talia) had just gotten married - and there'd been a few scenes of Garibaldi standing around being a little odd - the s1 scene where Talia says wherever she goes Garibaldi pops up, the transport tube opens, and Garibaldi is standing there smiling comes to mind...
So, Doyle decided Garibaldi was madly in love with Talia and that Garibaldi wouldn't risk throwing that away on a one-night stabs. Thus, JMS made the change. Not because of "Standards and Practices," or because JMS randomly changed the script, but because the actor involved said "My character wouldn't do that," and the showrunner chose to honor the actor's interpretation of the character.
JMS tries to respect actor interpretation. Famously, Londo's hair crest was supposed to be much shorter. The wig had been glued on at full-length to begin a process of trimming to find the final length. Jurasik said "No, I love this. It's so bold, let's keep it long!" JMS complied. Jurasik... Had been making a joke.
There's another actor request made JMS honored which would shape their entire arc. But that's a spoiler for another time.
Back to Garibaldi/Dodger - I'm not sure if it helped or hindered Jerry Doyle's views on the script that Dodger was played by Marie Marshall - Doyle's ex from just before his relationship with Andrea Thompson.
Anyway, yeah, we're all agreed Garibaldi should have jumped the hot redhead.
Yeah, I agree about Garibaldi and Dodger. That felt very "standards and practices" to me; "our hero can't betray his unrequited love!" Surprising to hear that it was JMS that insisted on it.
Also, I forgot to note, yet another blink-and-miss-it reference to the Markab, re the fruit juice drink that Franklin shares with his dad the general. I'm beginning to suspect this is a pattern.
"Chekov's Weapons Grid." We'll get to see that in action soon enough.
In "Severed Dreams" we will see Delenn grab the staff of the Gray Council and snap something almost as thick as her arm in half. In season 3 we'll see Lennier pick up Marcus with one hand, and Lennier has already shown us Religious Minbari have awesome martial arts training. I'm just saying some GROPOS are damn lucky Delenn was playing nice, because, if forced, she'd have hit those guys a LOT harder than Dodger.
Think Jerry Doyle would have asked for script changes if he'd known Andrea Thompson was leaving the show? Garibaldi missed out, and, even more inexplicably, will miss out again. Garibaldi fucks up in turning down a good fuck.
I got the sense (maybe just head canon) that Delenn was holding back, to avoid a diplomatic incident and making her situation even harder. If it had come to it, she'd have taken them all down by herself.
And this is the episode I still remember from the first time I saw the series back in Charlotte in the 90s. I don't remember anything else, but *MAN* that ending. That ending.
Yeah, for all the cheese and tropey characters, it makes up for it with that ending. In fact, the hard ending almost makes me feel guilty for judging the characters as caricatures.
The entire episode is constructed from clichés, but it (mostly) works. It's a good choice after last week's "Coming of Shadows" with its shattering revelations and plot movement to pull back to a character based episodic that hints at outside changes.
This episode has three "MVP's," and two of them are guest stars:
Richard Biggs. As Simon mentioned, Paul Winfeld came on that set with contempt. He needed cue cards - and this is the first time I've watched this episode since learning the entire story. Director Jim Johnston has to pull some editing tricks with Winfeld. In the first briefing scene with Gen. Franklin, Sheridan, and Ivanova discussing the mission on Akdor, Johnston cuts away from Winfeld every time he starts unaccountably glancing to the side - AT HIS CUE CARDS. Winfeld, in all the "military" scenes is a little stilted. He occasionally has an odd influence or strange pause - CUZ HE'S LOOKING AT CUE CARDS. Now, the scenes with General and Doctor Franklin, those work. Richard Biggs is throwing so much emotion and nuance into his performances Windfeld had no choice but to step up his game and stop phoning it in.
Marie Marshall. Stroking H, she brings the heat. Dodger is absolutely badass and passionate, and utterly believable as the soldier who has figured out she's being sent into combat, and wants a good night to remind herself she's alive. Everyone wants Garibaldi to give her a tumble, and we're all disappointed he doesn't.
Ken Foree as PFC Large. The second biggest cliche of the entire episode (1st is the Sarge, of course). Yet he imbues the stereotype career grunt who can't let go of his dead buddy, who took the FNG (fuckin' new guy) under his wing with humor and humanity, and an utterly chilling death pose. He even makes Keffer almost briefly entertaining.
Except Robert Russler is still a bland actor. Jerry Doyle and David Crowley (Officer Welch) communicate volumes over the casualty list in this episode while Russler is... He's there.
According to JMS this is one of three episodes of the entire run to go over budget and has one of three shoot DAYS that ran into overtime. (Three days of OT over 110 episodes is amazing time management by all.)JMS noted he had to do two smaller scale episodes to make up for this one.
In the 90's those comp shots of all the soldiers was difficult and expensive.
We see three new bits of Earthforce hardware. Gen. Franklin's flagship is a Nova Class, not Omega (no centrifuge, bigger spine turrets). Then there are the Troop Transports and the assault VTOLs.
That battle on Akdor is impressive. It's very well staged, might be the first time someone animated handheld camera in a CG sequence, and holds up pretty well, except for the practical fire plates being at the wrong scale and some alpha wonk on the explosions.
here speculating the assault ship we see shot down carried all the grunts we met, and that's why they all lie dead within feet of each other with no enemy corpses, but, the racist twat's knife is out and bloodied, so, yeah, I guess they deployed on the ground after all.)
We will never hear about Akdor again.
Episode raises questions about EFMC training, bases, and deployment. B5 is a long way from Earth. Where were these guys stationed before? They're heading "to Io" in Earth's solar system, so, obviously not Earth. Still, I wonder if that (along with Gen. Franklin in command) tipped Dodger off?
Non spoilers, continued.
Kudos to director Jim Johnston and the stunt team on the Zocalo brawl at the climax of the episode. B5 doesn't have many riots, brawls, what have you, and most of them just don't work that well - it's a TV show on a tight budget, and just didn't have much time to stage, rehearse, and shoot the sequence. Johnston went handheld, which speeds turnaround time (not moving rigs), and gave the entire fight a gritty, in your face energy. There's even time for a joke (the civilian woman who hits a GROPO over the head with the bottle, then covers her mouth) and a few excellent stunts (the GROPO who kicks another GROPO off the upper level then jumps down after him right as Sheridan, Gen. Franklin, and the Sarge enter).
This large scale brawl is infinitely better staged, and feels much more raw and violent than, say, anything in TKO.
So, yeah, this cliché-constructed episode works. It's different from what we've seen before, gives us the world building by showing us more about EFMC, hints at shifting Earth policies, and shows us the surface of a new world. Lots going on.
Yeah, I suspect Johnston worked some miracles on this one, given how well it holds together despite the tropey script and production complications.
"WELL ACK-SHKY" post (non spoiler)
The Garibaldi/Dodger thing...
Jerry Doyle joked around set for over a year it was unfair Londo got laid first and Garibaldi should get some, too.
So, Larry DiTillio wrote it in.
Now... Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi) and Andrea Thompson (Talia) had just gotten married - and there'd been a few scenes of Garibaldi standing around being a little odd - the s1 scene where Talia says wherever she goes Garibaldi pops up, the transport tube opens, and Garibaldi is standing there smiling comes to mind...
So, Doyle decided Garibaldi was madly in love with Talia and that Garibaldi wouldn't risk throwing that away on a one-night stabs. Thus, JMS made the change. Not because of "Standards and Practices," or because JMS randomly changed the script, but because the actor involved said "My character wouldn't do that," and the showrunner chose to honor the actor's interpretation of the character.
JMS tries to respect actor interpretation. Famously, Londo's hair crest was supposed to be much shorter. The wig had been glued on at full-length to begin a process of trimming to find the final length. Jurasik said "No, I love this. It's so bold, let's keep it long!" JMS complied. Jurasik... Had been making a joke.
There's another actor request made JMS honored which would shape their entire arc. But that's a spoiler for another time.
Back to Garibaldi/Dodger - I'm not sure if it helped or hindered Jerry Doyle's views on the script that Dodger was played by Marie Marshall - Doyle's ex from just before his relationship with Andrea Thompson.
Anyway, yeah, we're all agreed Garibaldi should have jumped the hot redhead.
The remaining question, I think, is: was there anyone on B5 that Jerry Doyle DIDN'T date??
Pat Tallman. She was with Jeffrey Willerth (a PA who also wore the Kosh suit).
Tallman is now JMS's partner.
Pretty sure Jerry Doyle dating Bruce Boxlightner is what led to Boxlightner's divorce from Melissa Gilbert.
And that's how you combine true trivia with false sarcasm!
Yeah, I agree about Garibaldi and Dodger. That felt very "standards and practices" to me; "our hero can't betray his unrequited love!" Surprising to hear that it was JMS that insisted on it.
Well... Simon didn't tell the whole story - see my, "WELL ACK-SHLY" post in thread.
Also, I forgot to note, yet another blink-and-miss-it reference to the Markab, re the fruit juice drink that Franklin shares with his dad the general. I'm beginning to suspect this is a pattern.
Yeah, I caught that one as well. Can’t be far from THAT episode, now…
Spoilers.
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"Chekov's Weapons Grid." We'll get to see that in action soon enough.
In "Severed Dreams" we will see Delenn grab the staff of the Gray Council and snap something almost as thick as her arm in half. In season 3 we'll see Lennier pick up Marcus with one hand, and Lennier has already shown us Religious Minbari have awesome martial arts training. I'm just saying some GROPOS are damn lucky Delenn was playing nice, because, if forced, she'd have hit those guys a LOT harder than Dodger.
Think Jerry Doyle would have asked for script changes if he'd known Andrea Thompson was leaving the show? Garibaldi missed out, and, even more inexplicably, will miss out again. Garibaldi fucks up in turning down a good fuck.
I got the sense (maybe just head canon) that Delenn was holding back, to avoid a diplomatic incident and making her situation even harder. If it had come to it, she'd have taken them all down by herself.
And this is the episode I still remember from the first time I saw the series back in Charlotte in the 90s. I don't remember anything else, but *MAN* that ending. That ending.
Yeah, for all the cheese and tropey characters, it makes up for it with that ending. In fact, the hard ending almost makes me feel guilty for judging the characters as caricatures.
Now that I've watched it.
Non Spoiler:
The entire episode is constructed from clichés, but it (mostly) works. It's a good choice after last week's "Coming of Shadows" with its shattering revelations and plot movement to pull back to a character based episodic that hints at outside changes.
This episode has three "MVP's," and two of them are guest stars:
Richard Biggs. As Simon mentioned, Paul Winfeld came on that set with contempt. He needed cue cards - and this is the first time I've watched this episode since learning the entire story. Director Jim Johnston has to pull some editing tricks with Winfeld. In the first briefing scene with Gen. Franklin, Sheridan, and Ivanova discussing the mission on Akdor, Johnston cuts away from Winfeld every time he starts unaccountably glancing to the side - AT HIS CUE CARDS. Winfeld, in all the "military" scenes is a little stilted. He occasionally has an odd influence or strange pause - CUZ HE'S LOOKING AT CUE CARDS. Now, the scenes with General and Doctor Franklin, those work. Richard Biggs is throwing so much emotion and nuance into his performances Windfeld had no choice but to step up his game and stop phoning it in.
Marie Marshall. Stroking H, she brings the heat. Dodger is absolutely badass and passionate, and utterly believable as the soldier who has figured out she's being sent into combat, and wants a good night to remind herself she's alive. Everyone wants Garibaldi to give her a tumble, and we're all disappointed he doesn't.
Ken Foree as PFC Large. The second biggest cliche of the entire episode (1st is the Sarge, of course). Yet he imbues the stereotype career grunt who can't let go of his dead buddy, who took the FNG (fuckin' new guy) under his wing with humor and humanity, and an utterly chilling death pose. He even makes Keffer almost briefly entertaining.
Except Robert Russler is still a bland actor. Jerry Doyle and David Crowley (Officer Welch) communicate volumes over the casualty list in this episode while Russler is... He's there.
According to JMS this is one of three episodes of the entire run to go over budget and has one of three shoot DAYS that ran into overtime. (Three days of OT over 110 episodes is amazing time management by all.)JMS noted he had to do two smaller scale episodes to make up for this one.
In the 90's those comp shots of all the soldiers was difficult and expensive.
We see three new bits of Earthforce hardware. Gen. Franklin's flagship is a Nova Class, not Omega (no centrifuge, bigger spine turrets). Then there are the Troop Transports and the assault VTOLs.
That battle on Akdor is impressive. It's very well staged, might be the first time someone animated handheld camera in a CG sequence, and holds up pretty well, except for the practical fire plates being at the wrong scale and some alpha wonk on the explosions.
here speculating the assault ship we see shot down carried all the grunts we met, and that's why they all lie dead within feet of each other with no enemy corpses, but, the racist twat's knife is out and bloodied, so, yeah, I guess they deployed on the ground after all.)
We will never hear about Akdor again.
Episode raises questions about EFMC training, bases, and deployment. B5 is a long way from Earth. Where were these guys stationed before? They're heading "to Io" in Earth's solar system, so, obviously not Earth. Still, I wonder if that (along with Gen. Franklin in command) tipped Dodger off?
B5 just got "Chekov's Weapons Grid."