Moving right along and skipping a bunch of non-JMS episodes that really aren't going to impact the overall arc all that much. I watched a couple of them not-remembering that JMS didn't write every ep in season 2 before I saw the very large quality difference between the episdoes he's done and the ones written by others. I know he still had a hand on all of them, but it's really not the same.
Even my girlfriend made a comment when we were getting into the stretch of non-JMS episodes that the show was really losing a lot of its luster, which was pretty astute of her, I think. That's what caused me to look at the dvds and see who wrote the episodes. Sure enough, I skipped the rest.
Onto this episode, we have the return of Bester! We may or may not have expected his return by this point, I really had only begun watching the show so I wasn't anticipating his return. Was it announced that Walter Koenig would be back or not prior to this?
Anyway, the corps are coming around, tracking down run away telepaths who are forming an underground resistance. Bester is shown as very cruel at the beginning of this, even moreso than the last time he showed up. Honestyl, if you haven't read the Psi-corps trilogy, read it before delving into the epsiodes like this. It gives you a way different perspective of Bester, and almost makes you feel sorry for him when you know his backstory.
The opening sequence made me laugh because when Bester starts rambling about the man's last thoughts and the music picks up, you can just hear the next words coming. JMS likes to do his title sequences like this, and the formula goes. Music starts to pick up and the actor starts to get this profound revelation look on his face and he says "So-and-so is happening, and I've just discovered it's happening on..." pause for dramatic effect... "Babylon 5!" Cut to the title.
I love it. But, it's used so much it cracks me up.
Here's where we start to get a little more of mundanes distaste for teeps and vice versa, as everyone's always paranoid about scans, and it turns out for good reason with someone like Bester around. Garabaldi doesn't like what's going on but he is Mr. by the books.
I like the mystery of who's helping the underground, though the answer's a pretty obvious one. Franklin seems to love to get into these situations with his underground clinic, this, the mars resistance.
Sheridan agrees to buck the proper protocol and save the underground. He's not fully commital telling them to get off of Babylon 5, but this is a definite moment where he changes from pure military grunt to the leader who leads the resistance. At least that's what I got out of it. A foreshadow of things to come.
I also like that a lot of the telepath resistance are people who are in the background as lurkers or whatnot in previous episodes. Props to that kind of attention to detail in continuity that makes this show great.
Oh yeah..and Talia's a stronger telepath. Gee, didn't see that coming. JMS had to come up with ANOTHER excuse to make Lyta a stronger telepath later as he transfered the arcs to her.
Missed one more point - start of the Sheridan/Delenn relationship. Makes me happy.
Thoughts?
Even my girlfriend made a comment when we were getting into the stretch of non-JMS episodes that the show was really losing a lot of its luster, which was pretty astute of her, I think. That's what caused me to look at the dvds and see who wrote the episodes. Sure enough, I skipped the rest.
Onto this episode, we have the return of Bester! We may or may not have expected his return by this point, I really had only begun watching the show so I wasn't anticipating his return. Was it announced that Walter Koenig would be back or not prior to this?
Anyway, the corps are coming around, tracking down run away telepaths who are forming an underground resistance. Bester is shown as very cruel at the beginning of this, even moreso than the last time he showed up. Honestyl, if you haven't read the Psi-corps trilogy, read it before delving into the epsiodes like this. It gives you a way different perspective of Bester, and almost makes you feel sorry for him when you know his backstory.
The opening sequence made me laugh because when Bester starts rambling about the man's last thoughts and the music picks up, you can just hear the next words coming. JMS likes to do his title sequences like this, and the formula goes. Music starts to pick up and the actor starts to get this profound revelation look on his face and he says "So-and-so is happening, and I've just discovered it's happening on..." pause for dramatic effect... "Babylon 5!" Cut to the title.
I love it. But, it's used so much it cracks me up.
Here's where we start to get a little more of mundanes distaste for teeps and vice versa, as everyone's always paranoid about scans, and it turns out for good reason with someone like Bester around. Garabaldi doesn't like what's going on but he is Mr. by the books.
I like the mystery of who's helping the underground, though the answer's a pretty obvious one. Franklin seems to love to get into these situations with his underground clinic, this, the mars resistance.
Sheridan agrees to buck the proper protocol and save the underground. He's not fully commital telling them to get off of Babylon 5, but this is a definite moment where he changes from pure military grunt to the leader who leads the resistance. At least that's what I got out of it. A foreshadow of things to come.
I also like that a lot of the telepath resistance are people who are in the background as lurkers or whatnot in previous episodes. Props to that kind of attention to detail in continuity that makes this show great.
Oh yeah..and Talia's a stronger telepath. Gee, didn't see that coming. JMS had to come up with ANOTHER excuse to make Lyta a stronger telepath later as he transfered the arcs to her.
Missed one more point - start of the Sheridan/Delenn relationship. Makes me happy.

Thoughts?
Comment