Group Watch: Born To Purple

[SmileOfTheShadow]

I remember my first time going through the first season, I wasn't so impressed with much up until some of the later episodes, and nothing really impacted me. Now, on my 4th watch through of the show (3rd time with the first season), I've found this season to be better than what I previously thought. Each time you go through you are more in touch with the characters, know their intricacies and arcs a little better, and more little things pop up.

This episode is so emotional with Londo...I don't know why it resonated with me heavily this time. But just to see him so vulnerable to a woman, a slave who was 'below him' like this was just so touching, and as the series progresses and Londo gets more calloused, you don't get to see too many moments like this with him. I think this is my favorite episode of the first few so far. I really like Adira as a character as well.

Notice how quickly Londo's willing to compromise or give up his position on treaties for his own personal pleasures, which no doubt causes him to go down the dark spiral he's going to be headed on as the show progresses. Such a tragic character. This episode helps us learn a lot about Centauri political structure also.

Any comments?

[Jacque Lee]

When I first watched Babylon 5 from beginning to end, I didn't really like this episode (except for the little B-Story with the Gremlin, I liked that a lot, but wasn't able to link it to this episode until I watched the whole series a few times).

I can't really say, why I didn't like it, maybe it was just a little early for me to believe in such deep emotions of a charakter I didn't know that much about at the time (and whom I essentially believed to be the comic relief and not a very important charakter) with a charakter I hadn't even seen until now (granted, Adira is quite cute, but I didn't now her). I never liked this kind of stories, where a main charakter falls in love with someone who is only there for one episode. Guess I never really understood how that could happen so fast and why they always had to leave after the end of the episode.

Now, in retrospect, knowing everything that happened to Londo and how his relationship with Adira played out in the course of the show, I have to say I like the episode a lot more.

It's still not my favourite one, but it has a lot more impact on me now than it had then.

And, not to forget, there are a few very funny quotes in Born to the Purple, just like: "Don't give away the homeworld!" or "What do you want you moon-faced assassin of joy?"

[moreorless]

When I first watched Babylon 5 from beginning to end, I didn't really like this episode (except for the little B-Story with the Gremlin, I liked that a lot, but wasn't able to link it to this episode until I watched the whole series a few times).

I can't really say, why I didn't like it, maybe it was just a little early for me to believe in such deep emotions of a charakter I didn't know that much about at the time (and whom I essentially believed to be the comic relief and not a very important charakter) with a charakter I hadn't even seen until now (granted, Adira is quite cute, but I didn't now her). I never liked this kind of stories, where a main charakter falls in love with someone who is only there for one episode. Guess I never really understood how that could happen so fast and why they always had to leave after the end of the episode.

Now, in retrospect, knowing everything that happened to Londo and how his relationship with Adira played out in the course of the show, I have to say I like the episode a lot more.

It's still not my favourite one, but it has a lot more impact on me now than it had then.

And, not to forget, there are a few very funny quotes in Born to the Purple, just like: "Don't give away the homeworld!" or "What do you want you moon-faced assassin of joy?"

Any sci fi episode with David Warner involved has at least some worth, seeing Jurasik get his own back for being "derezed" in Tron was nice too.

I think that jumping into personal stories right from the start was nesserary as almost all the characters had some kind of "turn" so needed to be defined as early as possible.

[SmileOfTheShadow]

Any sci fi episode with David Warner involved has at least some worth, seeing Jurasik get his own back for being "derezed" in Tron was nice too.

I think that jumping into personal stories right from the start was nesserary as almost all the characters had some kind of "turn" so needed to be defined as early as possible.

That is something I didn't think about. How early these personal stories started to come into play. If you look at other major sci-fi series like x-files, star trek...the personal elements don't really start showing up for a couple of seasons, almost as if they're afterthoughts for when they run out of plot ideas. JMS uses the personal elements as the main story in a lot of cases, which is an interesting perspective to view the B5 run through.

[moreorless]

That is something I didn't think about. How early these personal stories started to come into play. If you look at other major sci-fi series like x-files, star trek...the personal elements don't really start showing up for a couple of seasons, almost as if they're afterthoughts for when they run out of plot ideas. JMS uses the personal elements as the main story in a lot of cases, which is an interesting perspective to view the B5 run through.

In most other sci fi series the characters tend to go in a single direction aswell. If your going to have the likes of Londo, G'Kar, Franklin and Garabali go though the changes they do then I think you need to start building the characters early so they mean something when they happen.

[Garibaldi's Hair]

Any sci fi episode with David Warner involved has at least some worth, seeing Jurasik get his own back for being "derezed" in Tron was nice too.

Erm ... I am either missing something, or you have your wires crossed. David Warner was in Grail, not Born To The Purple.

[moreorless]

Erm ... I am either missing something, or you have your wires crossed. David Warner was in Grail, not Born To The Purple.

Doh your right of course, for some reason I had him down as playing Trakis rather than Clive Revill.

[Babylon5fan07]

Small spoilers below for readers not caught up yet.




Well I finally caught up. First I have to say that this is one of my favorite episodes of all time. One of the reasons is the fact that it has the color purple in the title which was my ex favorite color which I've grown fond of that color over the years. This is the 5th time I've seen this episode in my life and of course my wife's first time. She really thinks it's a cool show but she isn't very vocal about much yet and even though it's not a bad thing the only thing about the first season is that there is soo much character development that it's hard to figure out the favorite characters and what episodes are significant throughout the series.

I know she really likes Londo ever since the beep beep comment he made in The Gathering after Sinclair pretends to put the chip inside his drink. But oviously we all know that Londo is one of the most beloved characters in the show so for her to already find him one of her favs already will make it for a real treat down the road. I think the other reason I like this episode so much is the the love story between Londo and Adira who we all know later on has a significance throughout the 5 seasons. I also love the music very much which of course is on the first compilation cd released by C. Franke.

The pace of this episode is better than Soul Hunter. One last comment is that it's always nice to see the original Emperor play a role by Clive Rivell just over 14 years after Empire Strikes Back in the Star Wars universe. I know my wife loved him in Wizards and Warriors back in the 80's as wel without makeup that is.

But overall this is a gem for me...now Infection is next.