"Misery Loves Company" would last for 8 episodes. But Vir's absence works so well for his character one would still think it was part of the primary plan. It's good for Vir, since a little Minbari influence can give him a little wisdom, and it was probably a lot easier for Vir to do his own resistance work away from B5. I mean he's still caught out, and I think that plot point WAS part of the primary plan, but it plays out better having Vir on Minbar.
Oh, when Vir returns, pay attention to his costume. The Minbari tunic he'll be wearing is - literally - a "Minbari Hawaiian shirt," and has characters on it spelling out "Aloha" in Minbari characters.
Ta'Lon will go on to great things.
Mark Hendrickson's Narn's mini arc - from Narn observer working with Raiders in "Midnight on the Firing Line," to G'Kar's most fanatical disciple.
Despite efforts by security I'm fairly certain illegal weapons are still getting on B5. I'm pretty sure the last Nightwatch on the station in "Ceremonies of Light and Dark" didn't raid B5's armory. But my memory could be wrong.
Speaking of my memory, if it serves, the Garibaldi/Franklin discussion in this episode regarding alcohol and stim abuse will get flipped in season 5 when Garibaldi starts drinking again.
I don't think the Probe is related to the Vorlons. Sure, there are a couple of similarities in the design, and the seamless hull implies organic tech, but it also shares design similarities with Drazi ships. Sure, Vorlons have planet killers, but this doesn't seem their style. Or the Shadows for that matter. The rest of the First Ones are doing their own thing and ignoring the galaxy, so I think we have an unknown species, somewhere on par with the Minbari.
JMS has written of the Streib that they are not Shadow allies, just an independent species doing their own thing (which isn't very nice), so I think we can assume the probe builders are another independent species of assholes. Like the aliens in s5 "A View from the Gallery," who we never see before or after the episode.
It's a big galaxy, and I find it wonderful there are random species out there that don't impact the main narrative. One thing about B5 - hyperspace is very difficult to navigate, and basically all traffic from all races follows the jumpgate network. But this means most of B5 space is unknown. As an inexact metaphor, let's take a highway/motorway system and take out everything except Motorway Services/Rest Stops. B5 space means one travels on the motorways and only visits motorway services. Everything between the motorway services just doesn't exist. Well, it does exist, but, in this bad analogy only the people in the cities drive surface streets, and we never see them. Cuz we only get Motorway Services. Oh, sometimes someone takes the surface streets to motorway services - and those are our unknown aliens.
Londo finally calls in his favor from "Voice in the Wilderness part 2." Delenn has fulfilled her promise. It's interesting to Londo first admit to being fond of Vir, then immediately turning around and insulting him. Of course Londo is burying much in that scene, but it highlights how, as he continues to descend into darkness (yes, he's just cruel to Na'Far, just because he can), how his relationship with Vir holds his few remaining embers of empathy and decency.
Vir's departure works wonders, but happens here for production reasons - JMS noted he wrote "trap doors" for every character in case he lost an actor - trap doors have been triggered for Cmr. Takashima, Dr. Kyle, Lyta Alexander (all in the switch from pilot to series), Sinclair, and Talia. Add Vir to the list.
Stephen Furst had the opportunity to be the lead in the Fox sitcom "Misery Loves Company." As an actor, a lead in a sitcom is better on the resume than a supporting role in a sci-fi series (along with more money, as he'd have been contracted for all 22 episodes of the sitcom, rather than 12 episodes of Babylon 5). JMS released Furst so he could take the new job. Obviously, with Vir on Minbar, there could still be opportunities to bring him back as a guest star, possibly as pre-recorded video segments like Sinclair's message in "The Coming of Shadows."
Yet moving Vir off the station feels like an organic plot point - it isolates Londo right when he needs a true friend, and resolves an outstanding plot thread from season 1 (Delenn's favor). If one has to trigger the emergency trap door, it couldn't have come at a better point in the narrative. It's like it was always part of the primary plan!
It also shows the advantages of pre-planning, as opposed to, say, randomly deciding during a writer's room meeting for a season finale, "Screw it, Galactica crew are really the 'Final Five' Cylons, and let's throw darts at a cast list to figure out who they are, because we haven't made progress in the past two hours of discussion." (It's quite fair to say the BSG "Final Five" revelation doesn't actually make sense, and makes many prior plot points utterly nonsensical.)
Franklin's got a problem. How much worse can it get? It's been a nice, slow burn of the issue. Franklin will never forgive himself for being just a little too late to save the Markab, will he? As a minor side note, we'll never see the cute Earthforce officer Franklin danced with again, because the show still won't let him have a love interest for more than one episode!
Londo's favour from Delenn is interesting: you'd fully imagine that to be something he'd use for his political or personal advantage. I imagine Delenn was bracing herself for the worst when he called it in. And yet he uses it not for himself, but for Vir. It's a strangely noble and selfless act for Londo.
In the scene with Delenn Londo does state at times Vir reminds him of a "younger version of [himself]" - unstated is "when I was innocent and hopeful."
Basically, at this point in the narrative Londo's only saving grace is he wants Vir to be better than himself. It's not just sending Vir away so Vir won't keep having "don't do this" talks - it's so Londo won't drag Vir down to his level.
Garibaldi may be gruff, slightly paranoid, and a bit of a jerk at times, but he's a very loyal friend. Franklin and G'Kar are both lucky to have him.
The meeting with the Transport Pilot's Association may be a callback to "By Any Means Necessary," but it's also the type of scene we need to see once in awhile. After all, B5 has been trying to restrict weapon's trade, explicitly, since mid-season 2 (around the time of "And Now for a Word"). It's one thing to have the command staff saying, "Ok, we want to make sure no weapons get smuggled through Babylon 5," it's another to see the problems this causes (delays) and the fallout (pissed off truckers who don't want to pay more to cover additional personnel to expedite checks). It's also pretty badass of Sheridan to face down the big guy, although one wonders why he was allowed to bring a weapon into a meeting. Oh, yes - because B5 is underfunded, and understaffed, and security probably wasn't available.
Corwin gets a few good lines and reaction shots this week. Joshua Cox really is an excellent actor, so I'm always happy when Corwin gets a little more in an episode than "Jumpgate sequence activated." Cox will go on to bigger and better things after B5, but B5 gave him a few great bits for his actor's reel. "There goes my faith in the Almighty" is one of the better laugh lines in the series to date.
I won't pick on Na'Far. He is a genuine patriot, who truly believes if he works within the system the Centauri have set up, they can be lulled, setting up the potential for rebellion later. He's wrong, mind you, but I believe he's genuine, not a sell out, sympathizer, or quisling.
TA'LON is back! Yay! We like him! "They will say, 'There is a man who will live to be 150,'" and "I carry my sword in my hand, you [in] your heart and mind [therefore it's] two-to-one," are great lines. Unfortunately he's given a terrible trope-y moment at the end - stupid cutting of the palm. ESPECIALLY through the glove. The tendons in a palm you DON'T want to cut. Hell, just cutting the palm is super painful. Plus, now he's got to repair a glove or buy a new one. Whenever wifey and I see a TV show/movie with the palm-cut trope, we roll our eyes. If you're gonna cut yourself (sez the former cutter), back of the forearm. Now you're not damaging the palm tendons, and pulling that wound open every time you use your hand. Film/TV use the palm for two reasons - speed (for a forearm we'd have to see Ta'Lon take off a glove and roll up his sleeve - which, for a Narn, is also time and money on makeup), and ease of the effect. Marshall Teague, of course, just had a blood bag in his hand (you can hear it pop), ready to squeeze onto the blade, rather than having to rig a prop sword with a tube, reservoir, and squeezebulb. But I hate that trope. One must assume that's the second glove Ta'Lon sliced up in the episode, because he draws that ka'tok in the scene where the Narn mob come close to murdering Na'Fal.
Hey, that's my one nitpick for the episode, not a litany so long even the author of this newsletter didn't bother to "Like" the relevant comments.
I lie - effects glitches. Both times in the episode when "Securebots" examine the probe the telemetry feeds are from "Maintbots." Much of the VFX footage for the episode was done in pre-production (so relevant footage could be displayed on screens in C&C, so no one caught the error in time, I'm guessing.
That's the last nitpick, I promise.
G'Kar has come a long way in a short time. Last time another Narn on B5 challenged his authority there was a silly fight. This time G'Kar capitulates, for what he sees as the greater good. It's the same Narns* who G'Kar had to fight who, this time, quietly stand by him, and refuse to let him sacrifice himself. G'Kar isn't the only Narn changing and growing.
*Neil Bradley's Narn has a different spots pattern this time - especially his face. I think the makeup team realized he played a Narn who is now dead (killed at Gorash 7), so they altered the paint on his mask to help us believe it's a different character. Mark Hendrickson, on the other hand, I maintain he plays the same Narn through all five seasons, giving him a little arc as well, as he moves from "Narn weapons specialist working with raiders" to *SPOILERS REDACTED*.
Sheridan has obviously read his Fred Saberhagen... Or, at least JMS gave a shoutout. Saberhagen wrote a lot about "berserkers" - AI dreadnoughts left over from an ancient war who sent probes to planets with life to assess their tech. JMS's probe was nicer than Saberhagen's berserkers. Saberhagen's would blow up a world if the populace had threat levels of tech, but primitives? Invaded, enslaved, put to workikikg) work mining resources for the berserkers, and, eventually, killed an recycled into organic sludge. Pretty good writing on Saberhagen's part, and, with the first story in the series dating to 1963, among the first to deal with the perils of AI.
And yet, despite the official description of the episode listing the probe as the "A-plot," Simon's right. That's the filler around a character based/infodump/exposition episodes to provide some action and excitement.
Side note: The US government held meetings in the mid 1970's under the CETI program (yes, "CETI," "Contact with Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence," layer changed to "SETI" - "SEARCH for ET Intelligence."). Long story short, the official position of the US is to not talk to a hypothetical alien ship, just in case it's a berserker.
When you get to "Severed Dreams," that's when I'll dump a series-worth of love on Corwin and his actor, Joshua Cox. So far, Corwin has been the guy who's been able to deliver technical exposition with flair, and gets the occasional comic relief bit - but early-mid s3 is when he finally gets some meat, and Cox just nails all of it. He's a far better actor than required for most of his scenes.
For most his career he's had guest spots and minor characters, but he did get lead status on the show "Strong Medicine" for 6 seasons.
Londo's treatment of Na'Far really was grim. I don't remember from the one time I watched B5 before whether he has a darker moment than this, besides the asteroid-bombing montage one we've already seen, but even so.
Londo has many more dark and grim moments coming up, but his treatment of Na'Far here may be the most pointlessly cruel moment of the series. Londo does many horrible things - for "patriotism," greed and revenge, but I think this is the only time he's just a bully.
SPOILERS
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"Misery Loves Company" would last for 8 episodes. But Vir's absence works so well for his character one would still think it was part of the primary plan. It's good for Vir, since a little Minbari influence can give him a little wisdom, and it was probably a lot easier for Vir to do his own resistance work away from B5. I mean he's still caught out, and I think that plot point WAS part of the primary plan, but it plays out better having Vir on Minbar.
Oh, when Vir returns, pay attention to his costume. The Minbari tunic he'll be wearing is - literally - a "Minbari Hawaiian shirt," and has characters on it spelling out "Aloha" in Minbari characters.
Ta'Lon will go on to great things.
Mark Hendrickson's Narn's mini arc - from Narn observer working with Raiders in "Midnight on the Firing Line," to G'Kar's most fanatical disciple.
Despite efforts by security I'm fairly certain illegal weapons are still getting on B5. I'm pretty sure the last Nightwatch on the station in "Ceremonies of Light and Dark" didn't raid B5's armory. But my memory could be wrong.
Speaking of my memory, if it serves, the Garibaldi/Franklin discussion in this episode regarding alcohol and stim abuse will get flipped in season 5 when Garibaldi starts drinking again.
I don't think the Probe is related to the Vorlons. Sure, there are a couple of similarities in the design, and the seamless hull implies organic tech, but it also shares design similarities with Drazi ships. Sure, Vorlons have planet killers, but this doesn't seem their style. Or the Shadows for that matter. The rest of the First Ones are doing their own thing and ignoring the galaxy, so I think we have an unknown species, somewhere on par with the Minbari.
JMS has written of the Streib that they are not Shadow allies, just an independent species doing their own thing (which isn't very nice), so I think we can assume the probe builders are another independent species of assholes. Like the aliens in s5 "A View from the Gallery," who we never see before or after the episode.
It's a big galaxy, and I find it wonderful there are random species out there that don't impact the main narrative. One thing about B5 - hyperspace is very difficult to navigate, and basically all traffic from all races follows the jumpgate network. But this means most of B5 space is unknown. As an inexact metaphor, let's take a highway/motorway system and take out everything except Motorway Services/Rest Stops. B5 space means one travels on the motorways and only visits motorway services. Everything between the motorway services just doesn't exist. Well, it does exist, but, in this bad analogy only the people in the cities drive surface streets, and we never see them. Cuz we only get Motorway Services. Oh, sometimes someone takes the surface streets to motorway services - and those are our unknown aliens.
Non Spoiler:
Londo finally calls in his favor from "Voice in the Wilderness part 2." Delenn has fulfilled her promise. It's interesting to Londo first admit to being fond of Vir, then immediately turning around and insulting him. Of course Londo is burying much in that scene, but it highlights how, as he continues to descend into darkness (yes, he's just cruel to Na'Far, just because he can), how his relationship with Vir holds his few remaining embers of empathy and decency.
Vir's departure works wonders, but happens here for production reasons - JMS noted he wrote "trap doors" for every character in case he lost an actor - trap doors have been triggered for Cmr. Takashima, Dr. Kyle, Lyta Alexander (all in the switch from pilot to series), Sinclair, and Talia. Add Vir to the list.
Stephen Furst had the opportunity to be the lead in the Fox sitcom "Misery Loves Company." As an actor, a lead in a sitcom is better on the resume than a supporting role in a sci-fi series (along with more money, as he'd have been contracted for all 22 episodes of the sitcom, rather than 12 episodes of Babylon 5). JMS released Furst so he could take the new job. Obviously, with Vir on Minbar, there could still be opportunities to bring him back as a guest star, possibly as pre-recorded video segments like Sinclair's message in "The Coming of Shadows."
Yet moving Vir off the station feels like an organic plot point - it isolates Londo right when he needs a true friend, and resolves an outstanding plot thread from season 1 (Delenn's favor). If one has to trigger the emergency trap door, it couldn't have come at a better point in the narrative. It's like it was always part of the primary plan!
It also shows the advantages of pre-planning, as opposed to, say, randomly deciding during a writer's room meeting for a season finale, "Screw it, Galactica crew are really the 'Final Five' Cylons, and let's throw darts at a cast list to figure out who they are, because we haven't made progress in the past two hours of discussion." (It's quite fair to say the BSG "Final Five" revelation doesn't actually make sense, and makes many prior plot points utterly nonsensical.)
Franklin's got a problem. How much worse can it get? It's been a nice, slow burn of the issue. Franklin will never forgive himself for being just a little too late to save the Markab, will he? As a minor side note, we'll never see the cute Earthforce officer Franklin danced with again, because the show still won't let him have a love interest for more than one episode!
Londo's favour from Delenn is interesting: you'd fully imagine that to be something he'd use for his political or personal advantage. I imagine Delenn was bracing herself for the worst when he called it in. And yet he uses it not for himself, but for Vir. It's a strangely noble and selfless act for Londo.
"Last few embers of decency," sez I.
In the scene with Delenn Londo does state at times Vir reminds him of a "younger version of [himself]" - unstated is "when I was innocent and hopeful."
Basically, at this point in the narrative Londo's only saving grace is he wants Vir to be better than himself. It's not just sending Vir away so Vir won't keep having "don't do this" talks - it's so Londo won't drag Vir down to his level.
Non Spoiler 2:
Garibaldi may be gruff, slightly paranoid, and a bit of a jerk at times, but he's a very loyal friend. Franklin and G'Kar are both lucky to have him.
The meeting with the Transport Pilot's Association may be a callback to "By Any Means Necessary," but it's also the type of scene we need to see once in awhile. After all, B5 has been trying to restrict weapon's trade, explicitly, since mid-season 2 (around the time of "And Now for a Word"). It's one thing to have the command staff saying, "Ok, we want to make sure no weapons get smuggled through Babylon 5," it's another to see the problems this causes (delays) and the fallout (pissed off truckers who don't want to pay more to cover additional personnel to expedite checks). It's also pretty badass of Sheridan to face down the big guy, although one wonders why he was allowed to bring a weapon into a meeting. Oh, yes - because B5 is underfunded, and understaffed, and security probably wasn't available.
Corwin gets a few good lines and reaction shots this week. Joshua Cox really is an excellent actor, so I'm always happy when Corwin gets a little more in an episode than "Jumpgate sequence activated." Cox will go on to bigger and better things after B5, but B5 gave him a few great bits for his actor's reel. "There goes my faith in the Almighty" is one of the better laugh lines in the series to date.
I won't pick on Na'Far. He is a genuine patriot, who truly believes if he works within the system the Centauri have set up, they can be lulled, setting up the potential for rebellion later. He's wrong, mind you, but I believe he's genuine, not a sell out, sympathizer, or quisling.
TA'LON is back! Yay! We like him! "They will say, 'There is a man who will live to be 150,'" and "I carry my sword in my hand, you [in] your heart and mind [therefore it's] two-to-one," are great lines. Unfortunately he's given a terrible trope-y moment at the end - stupid cutting of the palm. ESPECIALLY through the glove. The tendons in a palm you DON'T want to cut. Hell, just cutting the palm is super painful. Plus, now he's got to repair a glove or buy a new one. Whenever wifey and I see a TV show/movie with the palm-cut trope, we roll our eyes. If you're gonna cut yourself (sez the former cutter), back of the forearm. Now you're not damaging the palm tendons, and pulling that wound open every time you use your hand. Film/TV use the palm for two reasons - speed (for a forearm we'd have to see Ta'Lon take off a glove and roll up his sleeve - which, for a Narn, is also time and money on makeup), and ease of the effect. Marshall Teague, of course, just had a blood bag in his hand (you can hear it pop), ready to squeeze onto the blade, rather than having to rig a prop sword with a tube, reservoir, and squeezebulb. But I hate that trope. One must assume that's the second glove Ta'Lon sliced up in the episode, because he draws that ka'tok in the scene where the Narn mob come close to murdering Na'Fal.
Hey, that's my one nitpick for the episode, not a litany so long even the author of this newsletter didn't bother to "Like" the relevant comments.
I lie - effects glitches. Both times in the episode when "Securebots" examine the probe the telemetry feeds are from "Maintbots." Much of the VFX footage for the episode was done in pre-production (so relevant footage could be displayed on screens in C&C, so no one caught the error in time, I'm guessing.
That's the last nitpick, I promise.
G'Kar has come a long way in a short time. Last time another Narn on B5 challenged his authority there was a silly fight. This time G'Kar capitulates, for what he sees as the greater good. It's the same Narns* who G'Kar had to fight who, this time, quietly stand by him, and refuse to let him sacrifice himself. G'Kar isn't the only Narn changing and growing.
*Neil Bradley's Narn has a different spots pattern this time - especially his face. I think the makeup team realized he played a Narn who is now dead (killed at Gorash 7), so they altered the paint on his mask to help us believe it's a different character. Mark Hendrickson, on the other hand, I maintain he plays the same Narn through all five seasons, giving him a little arc as well, as he moves from "Narn weapons specialist working with raiders" to *SPOILERS REDACTED*.
Sheridan has obviously read his Fred Saberhagen... Or, at least JMS gave a shoutout. Saberhagen wrote a lot about "berserkers" - AI dreadnoughts left over from an ancient war who sent probes to planets with life to assess their tech. JMS's probe was nicer than Saberhagen's berserkers. Saberhagen's would blow up a world if the populace had threat levels of tech, but primitives? Invaded, enslaved, put to workikikg) work mining resources for the berserkers, and, eventually, killed an recycled into organic sludge. Pretty good writing on Saberhagen's part, and, with the first story in the series dating to 1963, among the first to deal with the perils of AI.
And yet, despite the official description of the episode listing the probe as the "A-plot," Simon's right. That's the filler around a character based/infodump/exposition episodes to provide some action and excitement.
Side note: The US government held meetings in the mid 1970's under the CETI program (yes, "CETI," "Contact with Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence," layer changed to "SETI" - "SEARCH for ET Intelligence."). Long story short, the official position of the US is to not talk to a hypothetical alien ship, just in case it's a berserker.
Corwin's line about the Almighty at the end really was a perfect deadpan snark line. Cracked me up.
When you get to "Severed Dreams," that's when I'll dump a series-worth of love on Corwin and his actor, Joshua Cox. So far, Corwin has been the guy who's been able to deliver technical exposition with flair, and gets the occasional comic relief bit - but early-mid s3 is when he finally gets some meat, and Cox just nails all of it. He's a far better actor than required for most of his scenes.
For most his career he's had guest spots and minor characters, but he did get lead status on the show "Strong Medicine" for 6 seasons.
Londo's treatment of Na'Far really was grim. I don't remember from the one time I watched B5 before whether he has a darker moment than this, besides the asteroid-bombing montage one we've already seen, but even so.
Londo has many more dark and grim moments coming up, but his treatment of Na'Far here may be the most pointlessly cruel moment of the series. Londo does many horrible things - for "patriotism," greed and revenge, but I think this is the only time he's just a bully.