What a good episode for Vir and Lennier. Lennier had already had hidden depths, but here we see him taking questionable actions, being concerned about them, yet utterly willing to face consequences for them. Also, he shows great restraint in not making Ashaan pay for his disrespect to Delenn. I love me some Lennier.
Vir FINALLY gets depth beyond being a bumbling comic relief character who occasionally says "Don't do this!" to Londo. We get to understand his pain, rejection, and low self-esteem, and Steven Furst FINALLY gets to demonstrate he is capable of great subtlety. It's one of the best scripts for Vir. It's very Londo to go out of his way to do something somewhat selfless for Vir (threaten ty resign), while still being a total jerk to Vir at the same time ("Your replacement arrived, how fast can you pack?" "I invited your family to stay with you for a month.").
Sheridan's lawyer feels like she should be more significant than she is. I feel like this was an excuse to bring Julie Catlin Brown back for an episode to thank her for stepping in at the last second as Na'Toth, and give her additional footage for her reel that wasn't under heavy makeup. While ultimately the character is a bit of a fizzle out, she does get a couple of potentous scenes for her agent to send out.
The presence of the lawyer character does do one important thing: it emphasises that Sheridan does NOT have the backing of Earth Gov/President Clarke, and the forces back on Earth have clearly realised that they’ve made a mistake in appointing Sheridan to B5. While the lawyer character doesn’t really go anywhere, the long-term implications for Sheridan and his authority on B5 are pretty major.
And yes, let’s take a moment to recognise Bill Mumy, too. He does so much in this episode. He’s a deceptively versatile actor, able to be funny, timid and nerdy, martial arts badass, Machiavellian schemer — all in the same scene. He keeps you on your toes as a viewer throughout.
There are lots of REALLY great (and non-obvious) line deliveries in this episode, which I can’t help but think is also Vejar’s deft touch, matching dialogue to excellent staging of actors and camera.
I've been rewatching with a young friend who had never seen the show (we're somewhere in season 3 now).
We had been discussing Vir, and how even his relatively restrained style of dress shows his difference from other Centauri, just before this episode. And there he is, telling us all about it himself!
B5 does tend to get those little details just right!
How old is the young friend? I’m trying to figure out a good time to introduce my son to the show. I must have been about 14 when I started watching it, I think.
I'm actually surprised you didn't introduce him at the top of this run. I mean, I'm not a parent, but can't really think of objectionable material in terms of swearing, graphic violence, and nudity (other than Londo, but a t(w)een will either giggle or pretend they didn't see it).
Themes can be complex, but young people can grasp it. Especially growing up in a post-Brexit/post-Covid world.
Plus it would help this newsletter as you'd have a built-in new-viewer perspective to compliment your re-watch.
What I'm saying is, start catching him up, and see if you can get him current-week by s3, ep 8, so we can vicariously watch his head explode when "Severed Dreams" blows everything up come s3, ep 10.
Non Spoilers 3 (aka, when you hit "Post" too early)
Let's talk about that garden shot. Simon is incorrect when stating that's the first CG set extention with a camera move. There's one in the opening credits - the second shot of the intro - which composites two levels of set with CG extentions, and, in "Acts of Sacrifice," there's a camera push into the Captain of the doomed Narn battle cruiser, where the bridge is a virtual set.
By 1995 CG DID have 1-to-4-point tracking as a tool, although it was cutting edge. For those who don't know most tracking looks at a "point of contrast." with one point I can track a position in the X/Y axes. With two or three points I can get position rotation and scale relative to tracks. With four points I can "corner pin" (which is often used to do screen and sign inserts). With three or more points I can define a 3D triangle ty extract 3D position data - although 3D tracks typically use hundreds of points...
This episode was produced in 1995. Full 3D tracking wasn't a thing then, but the artists COULD have had 2 point tracking, and that's enough for the shot...
Now - it's actually possible the shot wasn't CG at all. Simon incorrectly described the shot as showing the vast, curved interior of the inner hull. Well, I went back and re-watched it multiple times (as I was specifically asked if I had thoughts). What's in the background is... The wall of a building which is several stories high.
It couid be a 100% practical shot with a painted backdrop. It could be a CG composite. The shot is a little fuzzy compared to the two surrounding shots, so it's most likely a virtual extension. Two point tracking is enough to give the position information (to lock the set extension in frame), and scale information (so the BG elements get bigger as the camera dollies in). Tracking the top edge of the practical set would be the best place to track for correct perspective. However, since tracking at this point typically used dedicated SGI systems or Quantel hardware (both much more expensive than the Amiga render farm used by Foundation), I have no idea if Lightwave could track in 1995, if the shot was farmed out to get the tracking data, or... If the CG element was just placed, animated and scaled by hand by eyeballing it. The move isn't too complex.
What really makes the shot stand out it's the foreground elements. Vejar is fantastic as creating depth in frame (in future episodes he'll hang things in front of his camera simply to have something out of focus to shoot through - like random Christmas Tree lights in the interior of a Minbari vessel. It's the trees the camera pushes through that really make the garden shot special and ties it all together. It's not just shooting across an open set, the foreground trees now have us shooting through a garden. It makes the space feel bigger by implying vegetation.
Bravo Mike Vejar and the CG team.
Incidentally, much of this I discussed with Simon via direct messaging before even watching the episode. His question led me down a bit of a research hole, and I discovered an interesting series (to me, at least) of articles on the history of tracking in CG I'll link here. Just noting a couple of weeks ago, in a Monday newsletter, I tossed out a description of myself as "ANALytical." Yeah, Simon asks a question and I think about it for an hour, and research possible techniques in 1995 before watching the episode itself, then write down the relevant time code so I can go back and re-watch the shot several times to make my guesses? Yay me!
I was supposed to clean off a shelving unit for my wife. Oops. I'll do that once I'm done rambling here.
HA, amazing. I knew you’d have some good insights on that one, Mike. And yeah, the foreground trees make a huge difference, creating the impression that the garden extends significantly BEHIND camera as well.
In fact, I though this episode did multiple interesting things with reverse angles on sets we’ve not really seen before, and some clever silhouettes of plants outside Delenn’s quarters (again, making it feel more rooted in the station core area, with an actual ‘exterior’ beyond that window).
Yeah, I noticed the plants out the window of Delenn's quarters, too. Made me wonder if she overlooked the garden, and if she had magic sci-fi windows which could toggle to transparent.
Vejar, and Janet Greek in particular always find interesting angles. Johnson, depends on the episode.
As a camera op myself I get this. Even dumb things, like a couple of local musicians who play out regular pub. A couple weeks ago I pressed Laura into service to give me a static shot so I couid run around and get "cool" shots. Well, I want one more crack at it, and, last week I was busy exploring the space as they played, kind of doing a camera rehearsal to see if I could find any new angles which were particularly interesting... On the next time I try that, if no one is sitting by this central column, there's an interesting low angle. Otherwise, I'm more or less out of new angles unless I go behind the musicians. Which I wouldn't do in that space while they're playing... But if I pull out an old phone and tripod it behind them before they play that number - well, pop to the wide lens and shoot 4k (for 1080p output), and I can reframe something interesting in post.
I'm sure over the past 11.5 years you've figured out I enjoy moving cameras around and finding cool angles.
Also - your question led me down a research hole and I've learned things about the industry I didn't know. Learning is cool.
Maybe I'll ask Mojo about the shot. It might not be his, but he may know. I just wanted to make a guess before asking for an answer. I'm inclined to say one live plate with one BG layer either 2-point tracked or hand animated. Mojo can, at least, tell me if Lightwave had point tracking in 1995.
One more observation, taken from the "JMS Speaks" section of the Lurker's Guide entry on "And Now for a Word..."
"We've done a couple of steady-cam/CGI composite shots, but not that much; in "And Now For a Word," you'll sometimes see a floating recorder in C&C moving around...that was a steady-cam in use, and we composited in the CGI. It is, however, time-consuming, so we only do that sort of thing as required."
This absolutely verifies B5 had the ability to track for compositing. I still think it's probably 2-point tracking rather than a true 3D camera track, but, if you go back to your own tutorial series for Iron Man: Heads Up, you demonstrated the technique Josh (?) developed for faking a 3D track with a 1-point track, so a 2-point track would give enough data for that garden composite. It's still just a push and tilt.
I love that track technique for Heads Up, but, around Hitfilm 13 or 14 the way 2d and 3D points interact was changed and I think the update broke a brilliant hack...
I also really love "And Now for a Word," and have really been looking forward to catching up with it.
Mike Vejar and Rachel Talalay are my two favorite TV directors. Both can wring nuanced performances from their casts, both are brilliant with composition, camera movement, and pacing. Both can make a decent script shine and a great script epic.
I couid (and will) wax poetic on Vejar at length (as this re-watch goes on), but for this episode we'll focus on the pre-title sequence, particularly the fight, since there's been a recurring theme in the last month on B5 fight scenes.
The thief takes Sheridan's link, we tilt up to the grating above and follow the thief as he runs (showing the set is finished to two levels and a ceiling, not just one level/no ceiling). Sheridan follows him, runs into the Minbari, who is in shadow. We don't get a clear look at him as he assaults Sheridan. Then the low angle with PPG in foreground with a good stunt fall where Sheridan slides across the floor. Finally, the grab and shoot - where Vejar quick cuts three shots: From the low angle the Minbari staggers back, (cut to) an second low angle as the stuntman falls down the stairs into the camera, (cut to), a high angle shot, down the stairs as the Minbari slams into the wall. Quick cuts in fights can often be messy - too quick, too shaky, confusing geography. Vejar's camera is grounded on sticks, and each shot is long enough to read clear action and geography, but quick enough to keep it fast-paced and violent feeling. Well done.
Of course the "Perfect Beauty" sequence is well done. The low ceilings and fractured lighting making that section of DownBelow feel cramped and spooky... Then the entire place lights up in this warm yellow, while the mysterious robed figures seem to appear from nowhere. It really is beautiful...
The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 page for this episode has lengthy analysis of the perfect beauty sequence, including a translation of the Gregorian chant. It's worth time to peruse. All I'll take from there is a thought I had independently - given that we already know Kosh can project telepathically to Sheridan, and given Kosh asks moments before "What is this place?," which implies Kosh is NOT already familiar with DownBelow or its residents, are there really mysterious monks there, or did Kosh plant a vision? Note the only thing Sheridan has to give is his stat bar. Part of his uniform with rank and service markings. Sheridan can SAY he's got a dozen and it's not worth much, but that's not true. Sheridan is a dedicated soldier and true believer in his oath of service, as well as a patriot. Giving up a stat bar is giving up something EARNED with great meaning to Sheridan. Symbolically, he gives away part of himself. Just saying...
Let's see... Vejar uses wide angle lenses on pissed off Londo. It's rare for B5 to use a lens that wide (it looks like a 16-18mm?). Really gives a good look at the action figure... "Symbolically cast... In a bad light" is one of the best one liners in the series to date.
Let's note the utterly insane moment in the gift shop where a human removes a Markab mask and a Drazi removes a human mask (with an excellent Texas Switch on the pan to Ivanova and the mirror). This COULD destroy the integrity of the makeup for the series. Yet it works so well.
The Starfury featured in the gift shop was confiscated at a convention, as well as the Babylon 5 model. Both were unlicensed merch. The B5 model was bronzed and ends up in Sheridan's office.
Bab-BEAR-lon John Sheridan was a gift from writer Peter David to JMS. JMS will say he "hates cute," so he jumped into David's script and added the sequence with the spaced bear. JMS chortled as the bear having a stick up its ass for the bluescreen shoot. It's also one of Keffer's best moments (which, again, shows how useless Keffer is). Robert Russler, I'll admit, does well with his perplexed look, and "not on a bet."
Still shouldn't leave the stuffed toy floating as a potential thing to hit, but, for a joke, what the hell?
While JMS was adding in the bear, he also inserted the "Perfect Beauty" sequence to Peter David's script.
Peter David and Bill Mumy produced a kid's TV SF show for Nickelodeon called "Space Cases." In an episode of that show the heroes find Bab-BEAR-lon floating in space and wonder what kind of monster would space a cute teddy bear...
I laughed aloud at Ivanova's "cast... in a bad light" line; that whole bit was hilarious. Although, if one is Garibaldi-level suspicious, one could also wonder if the store itself was set up to undermine Sheridan as well. I mean, they had models of Londo: surely they would've had to clear that with someone, right? What if they'd made models of the Minbari? That's so much a diplomatic incident waiting to happen (and indeed almost DID happen) that I really do wonder.
Non Spoilers 4 (aka one last thing that came to mind typing this post)
The scene with Sheridan, Ivanova and Kosh in the transport tube being shot from behind everyone... It's a brave move to shoot an extended dialog scene, mostly showing everyone's shoulders. Again, Vejar just has style.
SPOILERS
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..
...
....
.....
......
.....
....
...
..
.
It's going to take at least two more seasons before the Minbari stop being racist at Delenn. That sucks.
One can tell how this hurts Delenn. Right now she's flouncing away looking hurt when one Minbari says something horrible to her. It'll be a relief in season 3 when she starts taking back her power. Right now she's got to be vulnerable so, when starts doing things like breaking the Gray Council, sacrificing herself (at least trying) to stop a civil war, and blowing the shit out of Drakh, all are proper "punch the air" moments.
It's nice to a bit of Londo's decent side. It will be increasingly rare as the season goes on, into s3 and S4.
In non-Spoilers we discussed Lennier's honor. Of course part of his motivation is his besotted love for Delenn. She is insulted by another of his clan. He must expunge said shame. If he can do that by falling on his sword to help Sheridan - well, that helps Delenn as well. Sheridan is a reasonable man and Lennier knows having him on B5 helps Delenn with her tasks. Remember, Lennier knows about the Shadows and has carried messages between Delenn and Kosh. It's utterly possible Lennier knows Kosh is preparing Sheridan as an ally.
Londo's aiding Vir... Oof. This status boost will get Vir married off to a cute, but sociopathic woman soon enough. Vir's second wife is much better, but you need to have read the Centauri Prime novels for that tale.
Non Spoilers 2:
What a good episode for Vir and Lennier. Lennier had already had hidden depths, but here we see him taking questionable actions, being concerned about them, yet utterly willing to face consequences for them. Also, he shows great restraint in not making Ashaan pay for his disrespect to Delenn. I love me some Lennier.
Vir FINALLY gets depth beyond being a bumbling comic relief character who occasionally says "Don't do this!" to Londo. We get to understand his pain, rejection, and low self-esteem, and Steven Furst FINALLY gets to demonstrate he is capable of great subtlety. It's one of the best scripts for Vir. It's very Londo to go out of his way to do something somewhat selfless for Vir (threaten ty resign), while still being a total jerk to Vir at the same time ("Your replacement arrived, how fast can you pack?" "I invited your family to stay with you for a month.").
Sheridan's lawyer feels like she should be more significant than she is. I feel like this was an excuse to bring Julie Catlin Brown back for an episode to thank her for stepping in at the last second as Na'Toth, and give her additional footage for her reel that wasn't under heavy makeup. While ultimately the character is a bit of a fizzle out, she does get a couple of potentous scenes for her agent to send out.
On the shallow level, she's a striking woman.
The presence of the lawyer character does do one important thing: it emphasises that Sheridan does NOT have the backing of Earth Gov/President Clarke, and the forces back on Earth have clearly realised that they’ve made a mistake in appointing Sheridan to B5. While the lawyer character doesn’t really go anywhere, the long-term implications for Sheridan and his authority on B5 are pretty major.
And yes, let’s take a moment to recognise Bill Mumy, too. He does so much in this episode. He’s a deceptively versatile actor, able to be funny, timid and nerdy, martial arts badass, Machiavellian schemer — all in the same scene. He keeps you on your toes as a viewer throughout.
There are lots of REALLY great (and non-obvious) line deliveries in this episode, which I can’t help but think is also Vejar’s deft touch, matching dialogue to excellent staging of actors and camera.
I overlooked the implication with the lawyer that Earthforce (Clarke) realized they "made a mistake" with Sheridan. Good insight!
Bill Mumy is awesome.
Mike Vejar is awesome.
I've been rewatching with a young friend who had never seen the show (we're somewhere in season 3 now).
We had been discussing Vir, and how even his relatively restrained style of dress shows his difference from other Centauri, just before this episode. And there he is, telling us all about it himself!
B5 does tend to get those little details just right!
How old is the young friend? I’m trying to figure out a good time to introduce my son to the show. I must have been about 14 when I started watching it, I think.
I'm actually surprised you didn't introduce him at the top of this run. I mean, I'm not a parent, but can't really think of objectionable material in terms of swearing, graphic violence, and nudity (other than Londo, but a t(w)een will either giggle or pretend they didn't see it).
Themes can be complex, but young people can grasp it. Especially growing up in a post-Brexit/post-Covid world.
Plus it would help this newsletter as you'd have a built-in new-viewer perspective to compliment your re-watch.
What I'm saying is, start catching him up, and see if you can get him current-week by s3, ep 8, so we can vicariously watch his head explode when "Severed Dreams" blows everything up come s3, ep 10.
Oh, not that young. Early 30s.
My daughters were watching it with us when they were mid-teens.
Non Spoilers 3 (aka, when you hit "Post" too early)
Let's talk about that garden shot. Simon is incorrect when stating that's the first CG set extention with a camera move. There's one in the opening credits - the second shot of the intro - which composites two levels of set with CG extentions, and, in "Acts of Sacrifice," there's a camera push into the Captain of the doomed Narn battle cruiser, where the bridge is a virtual set.
By 1995 CG DID have 1-to-4-point tracking as a tool, although it was cutting edge. For those who don't know most tracking looks at a "point of contrast." with one point I can track a position in the X/Y axes. With two or three points I can get position rotation and scale relative to tracks. With four points I can "corner pin" (which is often used to do screen and sign inserts). With three or more points I can define a 3D triangle ty extract 3D position data - although 3D tracks typically use hundreds of points...
This episode was produced in 1995. Full 3D tracking wasn't a thing then, but the artists COULD have had 2 point tracking, and that's enough for the shot...
Now - it's actually possible the shot wasn't CG at all. Simon incorrectly described the shot as showing the vast, curved interior of the inner hull. Well, I went back and re-watched it multiple times (as I was specifically asked if I had thoughts). What's in the background is... The wall of a building which is several stories high.
It couid be a 100% practical shot with a painted backdrop. It could be a CG composite. The shot is a little fuzzy compared to the two surrounding shots, so it's most likely a virtual extension. Two point tracking is enough to give the position information (to lock the set extension in frame), and scale information (so the BG elements get bigger as the camera dollies in). Tracking the top edge of the practical set would be the best place to track for correct perspective. However, since tracking at this point typically used dedicated SGI systems or Quantel hardware (both much more expensive than the Amiga render farm used by Foundation), I have no idea if Lightwave could track in 1995, if the shot was farmed out to get the tracking data, or... If the CG element was just placed, animated and scaled by hand by eyeballing it. The move isn't too complex.
What really makes the shot stand out it's the foreground elements. Vejar is fantastic as creating depth in frame (in future episodes he'll hang things in front of his camera simply to have something out of focus to shoot through - like random Christmas Tree lights in the interior of a Minbari vessel. It's the trees the camera pushes through that really make the garden shot special and ties it all together. It's not just shooting across an open set, the foreground trees now have us shooting through a garden. It makes the space feel bigger by implying vegetation.
Bravo Mike Vejar and the CG team.
Incidentally, much of this I discussed with Simon via direct messaging before even watching the episode. His question led me down a bit of a research hole, and I discovered an interesting series (to me, at least) of articles on the history of tracking in CG I'll link here. Just noting a couple of weeks ago, in a Monday newsletter, I tossed out a description of myself as "ANALytical." Yeah, Simon asks a question and I think about it for an hour, and research possible techniques in 1995 before watching the episode itself, then write down the relevant time code so I can go back and re-watch the shot several times to make my guesses? Yay me!
I was supposed to clean off a shelving unit for my wife. Oops. I'll do that once I'm done rambling here.
History of tracking in CG: https://www.fxguide.com/fxfeatured/art_of_tracking_part_1_history_of_tracking/
HA, amazing. I knew you’d have some good insights on that one, Mike. And yeah, the foreground trees make a huge difference, creating the impression that the garden extends significantly BEHIND camera as well.
In fact, I though this episode did multiple interesting things with reverse angles on sets we’ve not really seen before, and some clever silhouettes of plants outside Delenn’s quarters (again, making it feel more rooted in the station core area, with an actual ‘exterior’ beyond that window).
Yeah, I noticed the plants out the window of Delenn's quarters, too. Made me wonder if she overlooked the garden, and if she had magic sci-fi windows which could toggle to transparent.
Vejar, and Janet Greek in particular always find interesting angles. Johnson, depends on the episode.
As a camera op myself I get this. Even dumb things, like a couple of local musicians who play out regular pub. A couple weeks ago I pressed Laura into service to give me a static shot so I couid run around and get "cool" shots. Well, I want one more crack at it, and, last week I was busy exploring the space as they played, kind of doing a camera rehearsal to see if I could find any new angles which were particularly interesting... On the next time I try that, if no one is sitting by this central column, there's an interesting low angle. Otherwise, I'm more or less out of new angles unless I go behind the musicians. Which I wouldn't do in that space while they're playing... But if I pull out an old phone and tripod it behind them before they play that number - well, pop to the wide lens and shoot 4k (for 1080p output), and I can reframe something interesting in post.
I'm sure over the past 11.5 years you've figured out I enjoy moving cameras around and finding cool angles.
Also - your question led me down a research hole and I've learned things about the industry I didn't know. Learning is cool.
Maybe I'll ask Mojo about the shot. It might not be his, but he may know. I just wanted to make a guess before asking for an answer. I'm inclined to say one live plate with one BG layer either 2-point tracked or hand animated. Mojo can, at least, tell me if Lightwave had point tracking in 1995.
One more observation, taken from the "JMS Speaks" section of the Lurker's Guide entry on "And Now for a Word..."
"We've done a couple of steady-cam/CGI composite shots, but not that much; in "And Now For a Word," you'll sometimes see a floating recorder in C&C moving around...that was a steady-cam in use, and we composited in the CGI. It is, however, time-consuming, so we only do that sort of thing as required."
This absolutely verifies B5 had the ability to track for compositing. I still think it's probably 2-point tracking rather than a true 3D camera track, but, if you go back to your own tutorial series for Iron Man: Heads Up, you demonstrated the technique Josh (?) developed for faking a 3D track with a 1-point track, so a 2-point track would give enough data for that garden composite. It's still just a push and tilt.
I love that track technique for Heads Up, but, around Hitfilm 13 or 14 the way 2d and 3D points interact was changed and I think the update broke a brilliant hack...
I also really love "And Now for a Word," and have really been looking forward to catching up with it.
Non Spoilers:
Mike Vejar and Rachel Talalay are my two favorite TV directors. Both can wring nuanced performances from their casts, both are brilliant with composition, camera movement, and pacing. Both can make a decent script shine and a great script epic.
I couid (and will) wax poetic on Vejar at length (as this re-watch goes on), but for this episode we'll focus on the pre-title sequence, particularly the fight, since there's been a recurring theme in the last month on B5 fight scenes.
The thief takes Sheridan's link, we tilt up to the grating above and follow the thief as he runs (showing the set is finished to two levels and a ceiling, not just one level/no ceiling). Sheridan follows him, runs into the Minbari, who is in shadow. We don't get a clear look at him as he assaults Sheridan. Then the low angle with PPG in foreground with a good stunt fall where Sheridan slides across the floor. Finally, the grab and shoot - where Vejar quick cuts three shots: From the low angle the Minbari staggers back, (cut to) an second low angle as the stuntman falls down the stairs into the camera, (cut to), a high angle shot, down the stairs as the Minbari slams into the wall. Quick cuts in fights can often be messy - too quick, too shaky, confusing geography. Vejar's camera is grounded on sticks, and each shot is long enough to read clear action and geography, but quick enough to keep it fast-paced and violent feeling. Well done.
Of course the "Perfect Beauty" sequence is well done. The low ceilings and fractured lighting making that section of DownBelow feel cramped and spooky... Then the entire place lights up in this warm yellow, while the mysterious robed figures seem to appear from nowhere. It really is beautiful...
The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 page for this episode has lengthy analysis of the perfect beauty sequence, including a translation of the Gregorian chant. It's worth time to peruse. All I'll take from there is a thought I had independently - given that we already know Kosh can project telepathically to Sheridan, and given Kosh asks moments before "What is this place?," which implies Kosh is NOT already familiar with DownBelow or its residents, are there really mysterious monks there, or did Kosh plant a vision? Note the only thing Sheridan has to give is his stat bar. Part of his uniform with rank and service markings. Sheridan can SAY he's got a dozen and it's not worth much, but that's not true. Sheridan is a dedicated soldier and true believer in his oath of service, as well as a patriot. Giving up a stat bar is giving up something EARNED with great meaning to Sheridan. Symbolically, he gives away part of himself. Just saying...
Let's see... Vejar uses wide angle lenses on pissed off Londo. It's rare for B5 to use a lens that wide (it looks like a 16-18mm?). Really gives a good look at the action figure... "Symbolically cast... In a bad light" is one of the best one liners in the series to date.
Let's note the utterly insane moment in the gift shop where a human removes a Markab mask and a Drazi removes a human mask (with an excellent Texas Switch on the pan to Ivanova and the mirror). This COULD destroy the integrity of the makeup for the series. Yet it works so well.
The Starfury featured in the gift shop was confiscated at a convention, as well as the Babylon 5 model. Both were unlicensed merch. The B5 model was bronzed and ends up in Sheridan's office.
Bab-BEAR-lon John Sheridan was a gift from writer Peter David to JMS. JMS will say he "hates cute," so he jumped into David's script and added the sequence with the spaced bear. JMS chortled as the bear having a stick up its ass for the bluescreen shoot. It's also one of Keffer's best moments (which, again, shows how useless Keffer is). Robert Russler, I'll admit, does well with his perplexed look, and "not on a bet."
Still shouldn't leave the stuffed toy floating as a potential thing to hit, but, for a joke, what the hell?
While JMS was adding in the bear, he also inserted the "Perfect Beauty" sequence to Peter David's script.
Peter David and Bill Mumy produced a kid's TV SF show for Nickelodeon called "Space Cases." In an episode of that show the heroes find Bab-BEAR-lon floating in space and wonder what kind of monster would space a cute teddy bear...
Yeah, that action sequence opener stood out simply because it worked — which is more than can be said for most live action action this season.
I forgot to talk about the mask sequence in the merch shop! That’s a proper jaw-on-the-floor show-off moment, and is entirely brilliant.
"This isn't some Deep Space franchise..." is also a very cheeky line.
That mask bit really is a brilliant bit. The execution of the actor swap on the pan just works so well.
In-universe, though, it's a good thing they got rid of that store, because in a few episodes that Markab mask would've been REALLY tasteless...
Oof. I didn't think of that!
I laughed aloud at Ivanova's "cast... in a bad light" line; that whole bit was hilarious. Although, if one is Garibaldi-level suspicious, one could also wonder if the store itself was set up to undermine Sheridan as well. I mean, they had models of Londo: surely they would've had to clear that with someone, right? What if they'd made models of the Minbari? That's so much a diplomatic incident waiting to happen (and indeed almost DID happen) that I really do wonder.
Non Spoilers 4 (aka one last thing that came to mind typing this post)
The scene with Sheridan, Ivanova and Kosh in the transport tube being shot from behind everyone... It's a brave move to shoot an extended dialog scene, mostly showing everyone's shoulders. Again, Vejar just has style.
SPOILERS
.
..
...
....
.....
......
.....
....
...
..
.
It's going to take at least two more seasons before the Minbari stop being racist at Delenn. That sucks.
One can tell how this hurts Delenn. Right now she's flouncing away looking hurt when one Minbari says something horrible to her. It'll be a relief in season 3 when she starts taking back her power. Right now she's got to be vulnerable so, when starts doing things like breaking the Gray Council, sacrificing herself (at least trying) to stop a civil war, and blowing the shit out of Drakh, all are proper "punch the air" moments.
It's nice to a bit of Londo's decent side. It will be increasingly rare as the season goes on, into s3 and S4.
In non-Spoilers we discussed Lennier's honor. Of course part of his motivation is his besotted love for Delenn. She is insulted by another of his clan. He must expunge said shame. If he can do that by falling on his sword to help Sheridan - well, that helps Delenn as well. Sheridan is a reasonable man and Lennier knows having him on B5 helps Delenn with her tasks. Remember, Lennier knows about the Shadows and has carried messages between Delenn and Kosh. It's utterly possible Lennier knows Kosh is preparing Sheridan as an ally.
Londo's aiding Vir... Oof. This status boost will get Vir married off to a cute, but sociopathic woman soon enough. Vir's second wife is much better, but you need to have read the Centauri Prime novels for that tale.