HARD disagree with the statement Shari Shattuck avoids portraying Julie Musante as a "Bad Guy." Besides her discussion with Sheridan in the restaurant and her speeches during the Nightwatch meeting (cribbed and adapted from speeches made by Hitler, Stalin, and Billy Graham) having no subtlety at all, she's also got her blatant seduction attempt, and the "rewrote the dictionary" line. On top of that Shattuck very much shows scowling, sneering, and glaring to the camera when not "getting her way" all through the episode. Yes, she's not one-note, but she is VERY clearly playing "a Bad Guy."
The sad thing is, in the 1990's and prior re-watches I truly felt she was written TOO sneering. Surely rational people wouldn't go along when things like, "We're going to restrict Civil Liberties" are flat-out stated. For B5 crew I just figured they're military - they've been trained (I would go so far as to say brainwashed) to follow the orders of superiors without question, especially enlisted ranks like security. Unfortunately, over the last decade, we've seen this type of blatant, unsubtle propaganda - and blatant lies - works on enough people where the Bad Guys win. Now this episode hits hard and a regard the character of Musante with pure loathing and disgust. Musante knows EXACTLY what she is doing and has made that choice willingly, with eyes open. She is evil.
And she's high-level evil. Otherwise she wouldn't be recalled to Earth at the end of the episode. On the passenger liner "LOKI," just in case the audience needed more reminders...
Shattuck, of course, nailed her portrayal, or she'd not cause such a visceral reaction.
On G'Kar's inquiries into Rangers... Perhaps, if one is in a covert organization, said organization shouldn't have a UNIFORM.
Marcus is a nice breath of fresh air in a show where most of our main characters are pretty upright most of the time. Watching him drive Ivanova batty is fun.
Next week, "Dust to Dust," which, for a personal reason, is a special one for me. Glad it's also a Really Good Episode.
Yeah fair point - she’s clearly ‘a bad guy’, but there’s more to her than just the sneer. You feel like she’s a believer, but also that she’s aware of the ludicrous claims she’s making.
It’s that same debate we have today with some of the populists: do they REALLY believe this stuff, or are they just using it to cynically manipulate their followers? And I think it varies from person to person. Some of Trump’s lackeys clearly believe their own hype 100%, while others are just cynical manipulators.
My wife, who also very much likes B5, has generally criticised its politics for being a bit obvious and unsubtle. Fair enough, at times, but as you point out - history has rather overtaken that criticism.
We've also got the original context of airing - once a week, half a year. Sure we're doing one a week, but we're coming up on the halfway point already, when, in the original time frame we'd still be a few weeks out from the s2 premiere. There's a certain amount of repetition in B5 I don't think we'd get in a modern reboot with a 10-13 episode season, probably released all at once.
And, 90's shows in general were less subtle in politics and allegory. Not that current shows are paragons of subtlety.
Then, to our shock, something in our naive youth which came off as heavy handed is revealed to be PEOPLE REALLY ARE THAT STUPID!
Yeah, the video evidence against Clarke is total "Ivanova ex Machina." Moving on.
Yes, that is absolutely Morden's voice. Besides having Ed Wasser's tone and cadence, JMS has confirmed it.
The scene with Zach complaining about his uniform works on a metaphorical level, as Zach is being pulled in multiple directions. It's ALSO pulled from Jeff Conway complaining about his actual costume. Zach grows on me with each watch, but I still wish he'd been Lou Welch. Here's the thing - Garibaldi gets on Zach in this episode about his (Garibaldi's) trust issues after being shot in the back. Garibaldi goes on with, "You've been working for me a hell of a lot longer than Nightwatch." Well, a lot of the security extras go back to season 1. The guy behind Zach in the Nightwatch meeting for one. Lou Welch led the op that nabbed the guy who shot Garibaldi. He was obviously being set up as Garibaldi's second. But Jeff Conaway had name recognition. Zach took over Lou's arc - after all, you can't have THREE New York cops on B5. We need variety. But Zach Allen was introduced well after Jack was arrested. I just don't buy Zach as someone around since s1 or longer. Picky-picky... But a comment on this episode will have my pettiest nitpick to date - a new thing I just caught today...
The gag with Draal in the hallway of Epsilon 3 is a great use of practical lighting. The bit with the Great Machine? I thought maybe they'd put a dummy in the Machine with John Shuck's life cast as a head, and that's why there was a camera cut. Nope - they did a locked shot with Draal in the machine and another take where he's out, and did a composite (so JMS says). But there's another clever edit enhancing yet another gag - Draal appearing in Sheridan's office! As shot it's just a locked camera and a split screen crossfading blank wall to Draal as he enters, with some roto and glow. But... B5 was shot 16:9 and center-cropped to 4:3. For this shot they used the extra part of the frame and did a little pan and scan in post to fake a camera move as Delenn walks, while Draal begins fading in during the pan/scan. It's a nice touch which turns a simple split screen into something a lot more complicated looking.
Hmmm. Let's do the pettiest nitpick ever to end this comment, and I'll do themes in a new post:
On the White Star, during the Marcus/Ivanova scene where she's pacing, not only is the cable running power to the command chair (which has lights) clearly visible, so is the gaffe tape holding it down. Now I'll never unsee that.
At this point in the narrative Nightwatch is shaping up as a nice threat. One would think a political officer could be reassigned at any time. Via Zach we're looking at the possible "corruption" of one of our B-tier characters (Corwin in C&C will shortly bring us the viewpoint of the confused and innocent outsiders). And much of this setup will be blown out of the arc by "Severed Dreams."
Sadly, at the end of "Severed Dreams" we'll get Sheridan saying sabotage will be a problem for awhile, and JMS will then - inexplicably - wrap up the entire Nightwatch problem on the station one episode later in "Ceremonies of Light and Dark." That said, there are 110 episodes of B5 the series, plus the pilot. We'll call that 112 episodes of plot, and "Severed Dreams," and "Ceremonies of Light and Dark" are the exact halfway point. If one treated B5 as a two-act play, "Messages from Earth," "Point of No Return," and "Severed Dreams" are the Act I climax with "Ceremonies" being the Act II opener, wrapping up an Act I plot thread, then defining the new status quo.
G'Kar giving Garibaldi the book of G'Quan is a wonderful little scene... The first major step to getting G'Kar back into the main action, and a major step in his character evolution. Not to put too fine a point on it, but we've been told the book of G'Quan is hand-copied, even in the 2200's. G'Kar's copy is an heirloom, and, possibly, centuries old. It's NOT a casual gesture for him to hand that to Garibaldi, and it sets them on a path to be true friends by the end of the season. Let's face it, G'Kar will ultimately lose an eye because he went on a search to find and rescue Garibaldi.
ISN is broadcasting the Clarke footage before Sheridan and Ivanova debrief her First One mission. General Hague worked damn fast! Too fast, given we're only a couple of episodes from Hague being in firefights with other Earthforce ships... Yup, this episode really does kick off what's coming. First we need the early-season Londo/G'Kar episode to transform them a smidgen (especially G'Kar), then Exogenesis to give us something seemingly creepy, but ultimately wistful and lyrical before "Messages from Earth" kicks off three episodes of all the shit hitting every fan.
Oh, this could go in Non-Spoilers but I forgot at the time. A line of dialog cut for time JMS has discussed: the "recognition signal" Marcus and Ivanova sent at Sigma 957 was the name of the "Walkers." Their name transliterated into a string of characters over 15,000 long.
After DOGE and everything else, the Ms. Masante plot comes across way differently now.
I’m finding that with all of season 3, so far.
Non-Spoilers 2:
HARD disagree with the statement Shari Shattuck avoids portraying Julie Musante as a "Bad Guy." Besides her discussion with Sheridan in the restaurant and her speeches during the Nightwatch meeting (cribbed and adapted from speeches made by Hitler, Stalin, and Billy Graham) having no subtlety at all, she's also got her blatant seduction attempt, and the "rewrote the dictionary" line. On top of that Shattuck very much shows scowling, sneering, and glaring to the camera when not "getting her way" all through the episode. Yes, she's not one-note, but she is VERY clearly playing "a Bad Guy."
The sad thing is, in the 1990's and prior re-watches I truly felt she was written TOO sneering. Surely rational people wouldn't go along when things like, "We're going to restrict Civil Liberties" are flat-out stated. For B5 crew I just figured they're military - they've been trained (I would go so far as to say brainwashed) to follow the orders of superiors without question, especially enlisted ranks like security. Unfortunately, over the last decade, we've seen this type of blatant, unsubtle propaganda - and blatant lies - works on enough people where the Bad Guys win. Now this episode hits hard and a regard the character of Musante with pure loathing and disgust. Musante knows EXACTLY what she is doing and has made that choice willingly, with eyes open. She is evil.
And she's high-level evil. Otherwise she wouldn't be recalled to Earth at the end of the episode. On the passenger liner "LOKI," just in case the audience needed more reminders...
Shattuck, of course, nailed her portrayal, or she'd not cause such a visceral reaction.
On G'Kar's inquiries into Rangers... Perhaps, if one is in a covert organization, said organization shouldn't have a UNIFORM.
Marcus is a nice breath of fresh air in a show where most of our main characters are pretty upright most of the time. Watching him drive Ivanova batty is fun.
Next week, "Dust to Dust," which, for a personal reason, is a special one for me. Glad it's also a Really Good Episode.
Yeah fair point - she’s clearly ‘a bad guy’, but there’s more to her than just the sneer. You feel like she’s a believer, but also that she’s aware of the ludicrous claims she’s making.
It’s that same debate we have today with some of the populists: do they REALLY believe this stuff, or are they just using it to cynically manipulate their followers? And I think it varies from person to person. Some of Trump’s lackeys clearly believe their own hype 100%, while others are just cynical manipulators.
My wife, who also very much likes B5, has generally criticised its politics for being a bit obvious and unsubtle. Fair enough, at times, but as you point out - history has rather overtaken that criticism.
We've also got the original context of airing - once a week, half a year. Sure we're doing one a week, but we're coming up on the halfway point already, when, in the original time frame we'd still be a few weeks out from the s2 premiere. There's a certain amount of repetition in B5 I don't think we'd get in a modern reboot with a 10-13 episode season, probably released all at once.
And, 90's shows in general were less subtle in politics and allegory. Not that current shows are paragons of subtlety.
Then, to our shock, something in our naive youth which came off as heavy handed is revealed to be PEOPLE REALLY ARE THAT STUPID!
Non-Spoilers:
Yeah, the video evidence against Clarke is total "Ivanova ex Machina." Moving on.
Yes, that is absolutely Morden's voice. Besides having Ed Wasser's tone and cadence, JMS has confirmed it.
The scene with Zach complaining about his uniform works on a metaphorical level, as Zach is being pulled in multiple directions. It's ALSO pulled from Jeff Conway complaining about his actual costume. Zach grows on me with each watch, but I still wish he'd been Lou Welch. Here's the thing - Garibaldi gets on Zach in this episode about his (Garibaldi's) trust issues after being shot in the back. Garibaldi goes on with, "You've been working for me a hell of a lot longer than Nightwatch." Well, a lot of the security extras go back to season 1. The guy behind Zach in the Nightwatch meeting for one. Lou Welch led the op that nabbed the guy who shot Garibaldi. He was obviously being set up as Garibaldi's second. But Jeff Conaway had name recognition. Zach took over Lou's arc - after all, you can't have THREE New York cops on B5. We need variety. But Zach Allen was introduced well after Jack was arrested. I just don't buy Zach as someone around since s1 or longer. Picky-picky... But a comment on this episode will have my pettiest nitpick to date - a new thing I just caught today...
The gag with Draal in the hallway of Epsilon 3 is a great use of practical lighting. The bit with the Great Machine? I thought maybe they'd put a dummy in the Machine with John Shuck's life cast as a head, and that's why there was a camera cut. Nope - they did a locked shot with Draal in the machine and another take where he's out, and did a composite (so JMS says). But there's another clever edit enhancing yet another gag - Draal appearing in Sheridan's office! As shot it's just a locked camera and a split screen crossfading blank wall to Draal as he enters, with some roto and glow. But... B5 was shot 16:9 and center-cropped to 4:3. For this shot they used the extra part of the frame and did a little pan and scan in post to fake a camera move as Delenn walks, while Draal begins fading in during the pan/scan. It's a nice touch which turns a simple split screen into something a lot more complicated looking.
Hmmm. Let's do the pettiest nitpick ever to end this comment, and I'll do themes in a new post:
On the White Star, during the Marcus/Ivanova scene where she's pacing, not only is the cable running power to the command chair (which has lights) clearly visible, so is the gaffe tape holding it down. Now I'll never unsee that.
Spoilers.
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At this point in the narrative Nightwatch is shaping up as a nice threat. One would think a political officer could be reassigned at any time. Via Zach we're looking at the possible "corruption" of one of our B-tier characters (Corwin in C&C will shortly bring us the viewpoint of the confused and innocent outsiders). And much of this setup will be blown out of the arc by "Severed Dreams."
Sadly, at the end of "Severed Dreams" we'll get Sheridan saying sabotage will be a problem for awhile, and JMS will then - inexplicably - wrap up the entire Nightwatch problem on the station one episode later in "Ceremonies of Light and Dark." That said, there are 110 episodes of B5 the series, plus the pilot. We'll call that 112 episodes of plot, and "Severed Dreams," and "Ceremonies of Light and Dark" are the exact halfway point. If one treated B5 as a two-act play, "Messages from Earth," "Point of No Return," and "Severed Dreams" are the Act I climax with "Ceremonies" being the Act II opener, wrapping up an Act I plot thread, then defining the new status quo.
G'Kar giving Garibaldi the book of G'Quan is a wonderful little scene... The first major step to getting G'Kar back into the main action, and a major step in his character evolution. Not to put too fine a point on it, but we've been told the book of G'Quan is hand-copied, even in the 2200's. G'Kar's copy is an heirloom, and, possibly, centuries old. It's NOT a casual gesture for him to hand that to Garibaldi, and it sets them on a path to be true friends by the end of the season. Let's face it, G'Kar will ultimately lose an eye because he went on a search to find and rescue Garibaldi.
ISN is broadcasting the Clarke footage before Sheridan and Ivanova debrief her First One mission. General Hague worked damn fast! Too fast, given we're only a couple of episodes from Hague being in firefights with other Earthforce ships... Yup, this episode really does kick off what's coming. First we need the early-season Londo/G'Kar episode to transform them a smidgen (especially G'Kar), then Exogenesis to give us something seemingly creepy, but ultimately wistful and lyrical before "Messages from Earth" kicks off three episodes of all the shit hitting every fan.
Oh, this could go in Non-Spoilers but I forgot at the time. A line of dialog cut for time JMS has discussed: the "recognition signal" Marcus and Ivanova sent at Sigma 957 was the name of the "Walkers." Their name transliterated into a string of characters over 15,000 long.