Keffer's flight recorder presents a whole host of questions. How, exactly, did a small module, set adrift in hyperspace, make it to ISN? We know hyperspace is full of eddies, turbulence and gravity gradients. We know ships need to be large to carry a powerful enough reactor to PUNCH A HOLE BETWEEN UNIVERSES. I'm pretty sure the odds against that recorder being found by chance are greater than 2^276,709:1 (possibly much higher).
I'm guessing the Shadows deliberately retrieved the beacon, and I'm guessing Justin or Morden arranged its release to ISN. Why?
Earth factions like IPX and Psi Corp already know about Shadow ships (have we ever discussed how the Psi Corp base at Syria Planum is also near the IPX excavation of a Shadow vessel on Syria Planum? No, because we haven't gotten to s3 "Messages from Earth" yet), and Earthforce is already building ships using reverse-engineered Shadow tech (we'll see Warlock-class in season 4, but the sequel series, "Crusade" has a flashback to the first test of a Shadow/Earthtech hybrid vessel, and that test occurs in 2258 - season 1).
Meanwhile, on Babylon 5 Kosh has revealed himself to a large group. By the millenia-old rules of engagement the Shadows and Vorlons operate under, the Vorlons have announced their presence to the galaxy at large. Hell, the episode ENDS with Sheridan and Ivanova talking about keeping things quiet for now, just before the ISN footage puts a "Dun-dun DUUUUNNNN!" on the season.
So - my hypothesis is the Shadows released the footage for two basic reasons. First, now Earth has a "new, external threat" to "discover [who they are]." The Shadow factions in Earthforce and Earthgov can use their "allies" as a threat to keep the populace nervous, so things like Nightwatch and Ministry of Peace are great ideas. Secondly, hey, the Vorlons just announced to those in the know they're back. The Shadows just returned the favor. Around the galaxy, certain people are now terrified.
ISN is not part of this plot. ISN will not be co-opted until "Severed Dreams." At least ISN anchor Jane will (eventually) make it out safely.
Speaking of Kosh, Simon hinted at, in his article, and the show will make explicit later on that Kosh, due to long contact with Minbari, humans, and other species, is the NICE Vorlon with some empathy. Kosh just fulfilled the remit given by Sebastian last episode - placing oneself in harm's way to save another. Kosh will do so again with his death. Make no mistake, season 4 will show Kosh and Kosh II/Ulkesh burning straight through B5's hull and destroying a Vorlon ship when fighting each other unsuited (and that's only the bits of Kosh hiding in Sheridan, not all of him. Shadows can absolutely be killed by PPG fire (see Season 4, "Into the Fire," or DVD Movie "The Road Home"), while Vorlons cannot. Individual Vorlons are more powerful than Shadows, while Shadows have superior tech (jump point vs hyperspace phasing). Kosh absolutely could fight off the Shadow assassins in s3 "Interludes and Examinations." Doing so would destroy the station and kill innocents. Kosh's death will be kept secret by the Vorlons (leaving, I suppose, most to just assume Kosh got a new, purple and red encounter suit), meaning Kosh dies alone with no glory, in the dark, to save others. Sebastian would be proud.
(Now you see why, last episode, I said I was holding back Sebastian commentary...)
Of course, it's most likely Kosh is the only Vorlon who would do so. The other Vorlons would cheerfully blow up Centauri Prime, just to get Londo. Because the Vorlons are assholes whose motivation is "WE'RE RIGHT, DAMMIT!"
And this is all foreshadowed, starting with Sebastian, and continuing this week.
The Shadows have Morden, attractive, charming, unassuming, and corrupted - one of the B5 novels (written from a JMS outline) shows how the Shadows corrupted him. Morden's wife and child were lost in a hyperspacial accident. The Shadows promised to get them back for him. Morden is corrupted by his love. Also note Morden wears a particular pendant. This was the request of actor Ed Wasser, who had the pendant as an object of meditation and contemplation. JMS added to this lore. Morden's pendant is an "Afran Love Stone." When Morden is playing with the pendant (and he will, on camera) he's thinking of his family. The stone was gifted to him by Anna Sheridan. Morden is a loving man corrupted into a "tool of chaos" by the Shadows. That said, most of the above comes from a novel unreleased when this episode first aired. At the time, all we knew was Morden was charming.
Still, the Vorlons took JACK THE FUCKING RIPPER and made him a servitor. They took a man of hate and turned him into a "tool of order." Oh, his existence is a crappy limbo, since they thaw him out to do a job, then stick him back in the freezer again until they need him.
On first watch, this disturbed me. As was intended.
Then we get to "The Fall of Night." Here we learn the Vorlons have, more millions of years, genetically programmed dozens of species to perceive a Vorlon as a holy being. Sheridan has it exactly right when he says "manipulates." Delenn, of course, raised in a religious caste, taught a prophecy (which is, of course, Sinclair's notes, probably vetted by Kosh) which has led her to alter her own DNA because it's the right time. She is a true believer in the Vorlons, and will overlook a little thing like her religion being a lie, because she, personally, knows an avatar of her deity. It'll take cynical Sheridan to see the truth.
Kosh taught Sheridan to fight legends. But the Vorlons are legends.
At the time of first airing, after this episode, I was distrustful of the Vorlons. Most of my friends were not, and were shocked and surprised when the planet killers came out. I was shocked - the narrative hadn't introduced that level of weapon yet - but not surprised.
The friends who remained trusting of the Vorlons were my friends of faith. We atheists twigged to it. Make of that what you will.
Another shame in PTEN holding back the final four episodes until fall comes from Ivanova's monolog. She ends the season with "Babylon 5 was our last, best hope for peace. By the end of 2259...it failed...[but]...became something greater - our last, best hope for victory." Would have been nice to let that speech sit for a few months before it returned as the s3 opening narration.
Oh. Outside the opening credits, this Ivanova voice over is the first time we've had a character narrating TO THE AUDIENCE. We've had voice over sequences before, but as digetic elements where it was clear a character was talking to another character. Of course this style break is also foreshadowing - for, at the very end of the series what do we learn? The TV show "Babylon 5" is, in fact, the TV show "Babylon 5" in-universe, as the entire series was an ISN docudrama. (How ISN learns about humanity a million years in the future will be ignored, because JMS had to pull that script out of his ass REAL fast when they suddenly got a season 5 renewal, and season 5 production slot #1 had to make the season 4 finale!)
Correction to above. The Shadow hybrid prototype test is 2259. Gideon is outside his Omega when it's destroyed by the Shadow hybrid. His drifting EVA suit his picked up by the Techno-Mage Galen as the Techno-Mage fleet leaves known space (at an. improbability factor of 2^276,709:1 against, possibly much higher). Yet to test in early 2259, they were building in 2258. Point stands.
Addendum to above: Speaking of s3, I hope you remember(ed) to add a compare/contrast re: opening titles. This year is my favorite of the lot. It's a gut puncher on first watch *cue "Gorash 7" and "Requiem for the Battle of the Line" music*
You have a story of the s2 finale premiere. Yours is worse. But mine for the s3 premiere with give you a chuckle.
It's tough this week to discuss the themes of the episode. On past viewings this has been a thrilling episode with a really well staged space battle, a thrilling (an ambitious) core shuttle sequence, we FINALLY get to see Kosh leave his encounter suit after over two and a half years (counting from initial airing of the pilot), and advancement of multiple threads of the political and war threads of the tapestry.
But it's 2024, and the country of my birth just decided Nightwatch is a good thing, and the Centauri should be allowed to take over all the Non-Aligned Worlds. The bullshit of the real world US isn't going to be solved by *SPOILERS REDACTED*.
I was CRYING during Ivanova's closing monolog. B5 is no longer a Sci-fi show using WWII references in a future setting to create a narrative. It's hitting close to home, now. Usually I joke we've been in a "goatee Spock" timeline since 2016, but the US elected someone WORSE than Morgan Clarke, who *SPOILERS REDACTED*, *SPOILERS REDACTED*, not to mention in *SPOILERS REDACTED* when he *SPOILERS REDACTED*. It's hard to be worse than the guy who would *SPOILERS REDACTED*. Then again, Donnie would also *SPOILERS REDACTED*, although he'd never *SPOILERS REDACTED*.
So, yeah. 30 years later this show became something different.
Fine, off to SPOILERS for the last word on Keffer, and some stuff about Vorlons.
This rewatch has surprised me throughout at how relevant and timely the themes and plots remain - more so, in some cases. Some of that is me being more politically aware than I was as a teenager, but it's also testament to the strong thematic work laced through the show, which continues to illuminate modern events.
Let's give it up to B5 director Janet Greek. Mike Vejar is the king of the visuals, but Greek is almost as good (Greek did s1 "And the Sky Full of Stars," which is visually excellent), and also a whiz at coaxing nuanced work from her guest artists. She hadn't helmed an episode since the s2 premiere as she had some series health issues that year. She'll be back next season, ready to shape JMS's scripts into tight programs.
Simon - did you even notice that Mr. Wells is portrayed by John "Neroon" Vickery, or did his higher vocal tone, relaxed body language, and American accent disguise him? Another top tier guest star.
Speaking of guest stars, Roy Dotrice (Mr. Lance) should have stayed on Moonbase Alpha for all the help he was (Space: 1999 joke). In seriousness, while Lance is craven, his tragedy is he REALLY THINKS he's doing what's best for Earth. Wells is the power broker. Lance is the well-meaning idiot/dupe who idolizes Nevelle Chamberlain.
But, hey, the episode starts off light and fluffy with Keffer being utterly humiliated. Too bad he'll never get that maneuver correct, because a Shadow melted his face! No joke. If you frame-by-frame his last shot you'll see the flesh of Keffer's face burning away. Should have listened to Mitch, dude. While Keffer as a character was basically a one-note nothing (except for GROPOS, where a better actor could have given Keffer a sympathetic personality), as a plot device, he gets a hell of a send-off. Sadly, we'll have to talk about him one last time, over in Spoilers.
Otherwise, this is one amazing season finale, and it's a shame PTEN, in dubious "wisdom," decided to hold back the final four of the season until fall, so, rather than having summer repeats to mull and speculate, and OMG, we just had a week before the s3 premiere.
The politics are all up front, so let's gush about how awesome Starfuries are. The opening sequence where Delta 7 kicks in her vertical thrusters, rises, stops dead, brakes, and lets Zeta Leader fly into her fire is wonderful. Nothing in Sci-fi flew like a Starfury before, and even since the RCS thruster arrays on BSG Vipers and Expanse ships don't look as plausible, or look as cool when maneuvering. Then there's Sheridan's spin when returning to the station.
Look at the battle with the Centauri cruiser. The half of Zeta Squadron which breaks to pound the cruiser is animated to perfection. I can tell you the relative skills of the varied pilots by their attack pattern. One fighter comes in, his vertical thrusters, and spins on the X-axis, grouping several shots of plasma within feet of each other - the most skilled pilot (I think with the nose art of the pilot who splatted Keffer in the teaser). Another kicks lateral thrusters, and ends up arcing around the cruiser, placing plasma in a fairly tight grouping - a highly skilled pilot. A third Starfury flies straight in and just stitches a line of shots down the hull. If I was petty I'd say this least skilled pilot was Keffer, but he's on escort, not attack. Points being 1) It looks really cool when the capabilites of the fighter allow different attack strategies, 2) and we can infer relative skill levels of non-existant pilots based on these strategies. The pilots who grouped their fire certainly punched through the hull armor and did interior systems damage (to the engines, no less, which is probably what led to the cruiser's destruction, since that area blows out first). The pilot who did a straight strafe damaged the armor, but didn't do significant damage to the target.
Look, Starfuries remain my favorite fighter in all of Sci-Fi, and it's going to be a real challenge for anyone to come up with a design which (appears) is more plausible, and has such visual interest when properly animated.
Properly animated? Yeah. Behind the scenes the current 3D animation team (Foundation Imaging) will be replaced in season 4 (the exec producer, Doug Netter, being a bit of a jerk), and the replacement team (Netter Digital - I did say jerk, right?) gets lazy with the Starfury thrusters.
SPOILERS
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Keffer's flight recorder presents a whole host of questions. How, exactly, did a small module, set adrift in hyperspace, make it to ISN? We know hyperspace is full of eddies, turbulence and gravity gradients. We know ships need to be large to carry a powerful enough reactor to PUNCH A HOLE BETWEEN UNIVERSES. I'm pretty sure the odds against that recorder being found by chance are greater than 2^276,709:1 (possibly much higher).
I'm guessing the Shadows deliberately retrieved the beacon, and I'm guessing Justin or Morden arranged its release to ISN. Why?
Earth factions like IPX and Psi Corp already know about Shadow ships (have we ever discussed how the Psi Corp base at Syria Planum is also near the IPX excavation of a Shadow vessel on Syria Planum? No, because we haven't gotten to s3 "Messages from Earth" yet), and Earthforce is already building ships using reverse-engineered Shadow tech (we'll see Warlock-class in season 4, but the sequel series, "Crusade" has a flashback to the first test of a Shadow/Earthtech hybrid vessel, and that test occurs in 2258 - season 1).
Meanwhile, on Babylon 5 Kosh has revealed himself to a large group. By the millenia-old rules of engagement the Shadows and Vorlons operate under, the Vorlons have announced their presence to the galaxy at large. Hell, the episode ENDS with Sheridan and Ivanova talking about keeping things quiet for now, just before the ISN footage puts a "Dun-dun DUUUUNNNN!" on the season.
So - my hypothesis is the Shadows released the footage for two basic reasons. First, now Earth has a "new, external threat" to "discover [who they are]." The Shadow factions in Earthforce and Earthgov can use their "allies" as a threat to keep the populace nervous, so things like Nightwatch and Ministry of Peace are great ideas. Secondly, hey, the Vorlons just announced to those in the know they're back. The Shadows just returned the favor. Around the galaxy, certain people are now terrified.
ISN is not part of this plot. ISN will not be co-opted until "Severed Dreams." At least ISN anchor Jane will (eventually) make it out safely.
Speaking of Kosh, Simon hinted at, in his article, and the show will make explicit later on that Kosh, due to long contact with Minbari, humans, and other species, is the NICE Vorlon with some empathy. Kosh just fulfilled the remit given by Sebastian last episode - placing oneself in harm's way to save another. Kosh will do so again with his death. Make no mistake, season 4 will show Kosh and Kosh II/Ulkesh burning straight through B5's hull and destroying a Vorlon ship when fighting each other unsuited (and that's only the bits of Kosh hiding in Sheridan, not all of him. Shadows can absolutely be killed by PPG fire (see Season 4, "Into the Fire," or DVD Movie "The Road Home"), while Vorlons cannot. Individual Vorlons are more powerful than Shadows, while Shadows have superior tech (jump point vs hyperspace phasing). Kosh absolutely could fight off the Shadow assassins in s3 "Interludes and Examinations." Doing so would destroy the station and kill innocents. Kosh's death will be kept secret by the Vorlons (leaving, I suppose, most to just assume Kosh got a new, purple and red encounter suit), meaning Kosh dies alone with no glory, in the dark, to save others. Sebastian would be proud.
(Now you see why, last episode, I said I was holding back Sebastian commentary...)
Of course, it's most likely Kosh is the only Vorlon who would do so. The other Vorlons would cheerfully blow up Centauri Prime, just to get Londo. Because the Vorlons are assholes whose motivation is "WE'RE RIGHT, DAMMIT!"
And this is all foreshadowed, starting with Sebastian, and continuing this week.
The Shadows have Morden, attractive, charming, unassuming, and corrupted - one of the B5 novels (written from a JMS outline) shows how the Shadows corrupted him. Morden's wife and child were lost in a hyperspacial accident. The Shadows promised to get them back for him. Morden is corrupted by his love. Also note Morden wears a particular pendant. This was the request of actor Ed Wasser, who had the pendant as an object of meditation and contemplation. JMS added to this lore. Morden's pendant is an "Afran Love Stone." When Morden is playing with the pendant (and he will, on camera) he's thinking of his family. The stone was gifted to him by Anna Sheridan. Morden is a loving man corrupted into a "tool of chaos" by the Shadows. That said, most of the above comes from a novel unreleased when this episode first aired. At the time, all we knew was Morden was charming.
Still, the Vorlons took JACK THE FUCKING RIPPER and made him a servitor. They took a man of hate and turned him into a "tool of order." Oh, his existence is a crappy limbo, since they thaw him out to do a job, then stick him back in the freezer again until they need him.
On first watch, this disturbed me. As was intended.
Then we get to "The Fall of Night." Here we learn the Vorlons have, more millions of years, genetically programmed dozens of species to perceive a Vorlon as a holy being. Sheridan has it exactly right when he says "manipulates." Delenn, of course, raised in a religious caste, taught a prophecy (which is, of course, Sinclair's notes, probably vetted by Kosh) which has led her to alter her own DNA because it's the right time. She is a true believer in the Vorlons, and will overlook a little thing like her religion being a lie, because she, personally, knows an avatar of her deity. It'll take cynical Sheridan to see the truth.
Kosh taught Sheridan to fight legends. But the Vorlons are legends.
At the time of first airing, after this episode, I was distrustful of the Vorlons. Most of my friends were not, and were shocked and surprised when the planet killers came out. I was shocked - the narrative hadn't introduced that level of weapon yet - but not surprised.
The friends who remained trusting of the Vorlons were my friends of faith. We atheists twigged to it. Make of that what you will.
Another shame in PTEN holding back the final four episodes until fall comes from Ivanova's monolog. She ends the season with "Babylon 5 was our last, best hope for peace. By the end of 2259...it failed...[but]...became something greater - our last, best hope for victory." Would have been nice to let that speech sit for a few months before it returned as the s3 opening narration.
Oh. Outside the opening credits, this Ivanova voice over is the first time we've had a character narrating TO THE AUDIENCE. We've had voice over sequences before, but as digetic elements where it was clear a character was talking to another character. Of course this style break is also foreshadowing - for, at the very end of the series what do we learn? The TV show "Babylon 5" is, in fact, the TV show "Babylon 5" in-universe, as the entire series was an ISN docudrama. (How ISN learns about humanity a million years in the future will be ignored, because JMS had to pull that script out of his ass REAL fast when they suddenly got a season 5 renewal, and season 5 production slot #1 had to make the season 4 finale!)
Correction to above. The Shadow hybrid prototype test is 2259. Gideon is outside his Omega when it's destroyed by the Shadow hybrid. His drifting EVA suit his picked up by the Techno-Mage Galen as the Techno-Mage fleet leaves known space (at an. improbability factor of 2^276,709:1 against, possibly much higher). Yet to test in early 2259, they were building in 2258. Point stands.
Addendum to above: Speaking of s3, I hope you remember(ed) to add a compare/contrast re: opening titles. This year is my favorite of the lot. It's a gut puncher on first watch *cue "Gorash 7" and "Requiem for the Battle of the Line" music*
You have a story of the s2 finale premiere. Yours is worse. But mine for the s3 premiere with give you a chuckle.
Non Spoilers 2:
It's tough this week to discuss the themes of the episode. On past viewings this has been a thrilling episode with a really well staged space battle, a thrilling (an ambitious) core shuttle sequence, we FINALLY get to see Kosh leave his encounter suit after over two and a half years (counting from initial airing of the pilot), and advancement of multiple threads of the political and war threads of the tapestry.
But it's 2024, and the country of my birth just decided Nightwatch is a good thing, and the Centauri should be allowed to take over all the Non-Aligned Worlds. The bullshit of the real world US isn't going to be solved by *SPOILERS REDACTED*.
I was CRYING during Ivanova's closing monolog. B5 is no longer a Sci-fi show using WWII references in a future setting to create a narrative. It's hitting close to home, now. Usually I joke we've been in a "goatee Spock" timeline since 2016, but the US elected someone WORSE than Morgan Clarke, who *SPOILERS REDACTED*, *SPOILERS REDACTED*, not to mention in *SPOILERS REDACTED* when he *SPOILERS REDACTED*. It's hard to be worse than the guy who would *SPOILERS REDACTED*. Then again, Donnie would also *SPOILERS REDACTED*, although he'd never *SPOILERS REDACTED*.
So, yeah. 30 years later this show became something different.
Fine, off to SPOILERS for the last word on Keffer, and some stuff about Vorlons.
This rewatch has surprised me throughout at how relevant and timely the themes and plots remain - more so, in some cases. Some of that is me being more politically aware than I was as a teenager, but it's also testament to the strong thematic work laced through the show, which continues to illuminate modern events.
And a depressing tendency for everything to go wrong every 30-50 years, or so.
Non Spoilers:.
Let's give it up to B5 director Janet Greek. Mike Vejar is the king of the visuals, but Greek is almost as good (Greek did s1 "And the Sky Full of Stars," which is visually excellent), and also a whiz at coaxing nuanced work from her guest artists. She hadn't helmed an episode since the s2 premiere as she had some series health issues that year. She'll be back next season, ready to shape JMS's scripts into tight programs.
Simon - did you even notice that Mr. Wells is portrayed by John "Neroon" Vickery, or did his higher vocal tone, relaxed body language, and American accent disguise him? Another top tier guest star.
Speaking of guest stars, Roy Dotrice (Mr. Lance) should have stayed on Moonbase Alpha for all the help he was (Space: 1999 joke). In seriousness, while Lance is craven, his tragedy is he REALLY THINKS he's doing what's best for Earth. Wells is the power broker. Lance is the well-meaning idiot/dupe who idolizes Nevelle Chamberlain.
But, hey, the episode starts off light and fluffy with Keffer being utterly humiliated. Too bad he'll never get that maneuver correct, because a Shadow melted his face! No joke. If you frame-by-frame his last shot you'll see the flesh of Keffer's face burning away. Should have listened to Mitch, dude. While Keffer as a character was basically a one-note nothing (except for GROPOS, where a better actor could have given Keffer a sympathetic personality), as a plot device, he gets a hell of a send-off. Sadly, we'll have to talk about him one last time, over in Spoilers.
Otherwise, this is one amazing season finale, and it's a shame PTEN, in dubious "wisdom," decided to hold back the final four of the season until fall, so, rather than having summer repeats to mull and speculate, and OMG, we just had a week before the s3 premiere.
The politics are all up front, so let's gush about how awesome Starfuries are. The opening sequence where Delta 7 kicks in her vertical thrusters, rises, stops dead, brakes, and lets Zeta Leader fly into her fire is wonderful. Nothing in Sci-fi flew like a Starfury before, and even since the RCS thruster arrays on BSG Vipers and Expanse ships don't look as plausible, or look as cool when maneuvering. Then there's Sheridan's spin when returning to the station.
Look at the battle with the Centauri cruiser. The half of Zeta Squadron which breaks to pound the cruiser is animated to perfection. I can tell you the relative skills of the varied pilots by their attack pattern. One fighter comes in, his vertical thrusters, and spins on the X-axis, grouping several shots of plasma within feet of each other - the most skilled pilot (I think with the nose art of the pilot who splatted Keffer in the teaser). Another kicks lateral thrusters, and ends up arcing around the cruiser, placing plasma in a fairly tight grouping - a highly skilled pilot. A third Starfury flies straight in and just stitches a line of shots down the hull. If I was petty I'd say this least skilled pilot was Keffer, but he's on escort, not attack. Points being 1) It looks really cool when the capabilites of the fighter allow different attack strategies, 2) and we can infer relative skill levels of non-existant pilots based on these strategies. The pilots who grouped their fire certainly punched through the hull armor and did interior systems damage (to the engines, no less, which is probably what led to the cruiser's destruction, since that area blows out first). The pilot who did a straight strafe damaged the armor, but didn't do significant damage to the target.
Look, Starfuries remain my favorite fighter in all of Sci-Fi, and it's going to be a real challenge for anyone to come up with a design which (appears) is more plausible, and has such visual interest when properly animated.
Properly animated? Yeah. Behind the scenes the current 3D animation team (Foundation Imaging) will be replaced in season 4 (the exec producer, Doug Netter, being a bit of a jerk), and the replacement team (Netter Digital - I did say jerk, right?) gets lazy with the Starfury thrusters.
Okay, I think you're going to convince me to rewatch the series. Loved it when it was on. (Well, everything after the pilot, anyway!)
Do it! :)