Into music to season 4 sends chills down my spine. Can't say I can listen to it separately from the show (though I never tried), but it always does great job supporting story beats, from comedy to intense drama. There are many moments where music is a huge part of emotional impact. Overall, it's an interesting blend of orchestra and synths, which is a good fit for the show, that tries to be both fantasy space opera and gritty sci-fi. It has it's own identity. Yet I can see some similarities to Blade Runner indeed.
And Ron Moore should know better, he served in the Navy!
Holy crap, I totally forgot that Jessica Walter was in that episode. Awesome.
What is it about the Shadows that has you uncertain? Just their goals? Or their whole role as antagonists? Interestingly, based on the HBO episode order, you were one episode away from some big Shadows revelations.
I really enjoy Knives. Competitively drinking of fine wine and sword fighting just appeals to me so much on a core level.
What did you think of the revelation of why Sheridan was chosen to replace Sinclair? It lined up pretty well with your instincts.
With respect to B5's Earth, I personally don't see it as being Robocoplike. I don't see it as a true dystopia. I kinda see it as a heightened version of Trump's America. It is still a liberal democracy and most people are good and have positive values (hence the Babylon Project to begin with), but corporations have obtained too much power and influence and are running unchecked. Combined with that, due to recent traumas (Earth-Minbari War or current economic change due to globalization), there growing currents of xenophobia and isolationism that allow dark forces to start preying on people's worst instincts.
With respect to Delenn, a romantic relationship with the human hero was always part of the original plan. The character was actually originally conceived of as trans when they made the pilot. Delenn was supposed to be male as a full Minbari (hence Mira's masculine prosthetics in The Gathering) and then was supposed to become female when she used the triluminary. They used a voice changer effect on the original version of The Gathering, but it was not great and covered up Mira's wonderful acting. The Gathering aired with Delenn as male. The version released in the remastered is a special edition from 1998 that they re-edited and tweaked to bring it more in line with the main series.
So JMS decided to simplify and just have Delenn be female before and after the change. I am still astounded by how progressive and challenging of a move that would have been in 1993 America... Make your female lead and romantic interest of the main character transgender. Kudos to JMS.
Yeah, Ivanova is awesome. Remember the B5 mantra:
You have some serious meat involving her and Talia coming up soon.
It also took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize that Zack was f***ing Kenikie from Grease. I also hate that political advisor lady and do not look forward to her inevitable return.
My main thing with the Shadows was that their Deus Ex Bad Guy routine was getting stale quickly, but you were right, the next episode pretty much cleared up that problem, lol.
The motives behind Sheridan's appointment were pretty much exactly what I was expecting. It's funny - the last time I saw Bruce Boxleitner, he was playing the Trump-esque pro-fascism US President installed in his position by Lex Luthor as a puppet to forward his anti-alien agenda on Supergirl, so the contrast is highly amusing to me, and now I think someone on the SG staff may have been a B5 fan.
I'm still waiting for a trace of those positive values from Earth because right now they're coming across as full-on fascist bigots.
That's really cool about Delenn. I wish he had pulled the trigger. I can't help but wonder if the network influenced his decision to not go through with it. I can't imagine many networks would've been too enthusiastic about that in the '90's.
So now I'm on episode 7 of S3 ("Exogenesis").
Ok when I said I wanted them to do more with Talia, this was not what I meant! Boo! And was it me, or did they not really sell the weight of Talia's "death"? I mean, Ivanova was clearly bummed, but everyone else was talking about it basically like "oh well, that's a shame." It's like damn, a woman you all cared about basically just ceased to exist and her body was permanently taken over by an evil person! Be more upset!! I guess I'm just thinking about what happened to Fred on Angel with her being taken over by Illyria and how tragic that whole thing (rightfully) was treated with everyone's reactions, and these reactions by comparison were just so...blasé, lol. I mean, I know Whedon's style is far more melodramatic but still. This WAS a tragedy, yet the only person who seemed to act like that even little bit was Ivanova. Oh well.
That Jack the Ripper twist with the inquisitor was such a comic book writer thing, I love it.
Heh, New Draal - that's one fun way to address a recast.
Loving the concept of the Vorlons and how they appear to everyone. Kosh was pwetty.
Thank God Garibaldi finally cut that hair. Just. Thank you.
Forgot to mention last time that it was cool to see Sinclair again, however briefly, and likewise it was cool to see Lyta again. So I guess she's becoming Vorlon herself or something?
Ah yes, the "Shadow War" - because it's against the Shadows, and also a war being conducted in secret. I see what you did there, JMS!
Always nice to see Brad Dourif.
Damn, they've REALLY made me feel for G'Kar. Never would've expected that in S1. Londo can rot.
Gonna take me a while to be able to take Marcus seriously because literally the only other thing I've seen that actor in was Lois & Clark, where he played this sniveling whiner who sued Superman because his hand was "injured" while being saved by him.
. The first Patreon commentary from JMS begins with him commenting that you can always tell what season it is by how much hair Jerry Doyle had left.
Ha.
Yeah, been a while since I saw this one. Beautiful indeed. Didn't know he was in Tangerine Dream. Thief, Legend, Near Dark... Influences are there for sure.
You just referring to the episode title (given the Game of Thrones connection) or the content of the episode? Cuz yeah, the content is phenomenal.S4 E5. The Long Night
Content.....and saw the next episode.
Yes and No... The cycle of violence never fully ends and wars always beget more wars. Victory only lasts so long... Servants of evil become the masters, etc.
Yup. Or The Rangers... that one sticks out pretty big. There is a lot of Tolkien influences as well as influences from a lot of other sources.
What did you think of Morden's end? And Vir's actions lately?
However, my favourite moment of early season 4 is probably Sheridan's return in The Summoning. Just such a wonderfully orchestrated moment.
Just one of my all-time favourite fist pumping hero moments, moreso than even the big battles:
"Captain, we thought you were dead."
"I was. I'm better now."
It was a good thing you stopped at 3x07 because 3x08 onwards does not let up for quite some time. You are about to enter where JMS got his second Hugo.
What happened?
The trio of "Messages from Earth"/"Point of No Return"/"Severed Dreams" happened.
You mean they weren’t there 2 days ago?@flickchick85 and @InCali, heads-up, the missing scenes from the end of Babylon Squared and the start of The Hour of the Wolf have been restored on HBO Max! Just have to wait for it to filter down to the rest of us on iTunes, YouTube, and Microsoft!
Maybe there is some wisdom in @DarthSkywalker and @Snow Queen more leisurely pace, they get to watch the full, corrected episodes!
Nope, it is brand new news on the B5 subreddit, seems to have occurred in the last 24 hours. So Hour of the Wolf should be as it's supposed to be when you get to it tonight.
Well, whatever they did, they screwed it up. At least on my end. The audio is wildly out of sync (like, the video starts with the "previouslies," but the audio starts with intro narrations), making it unwatchable. I've restarted the app 3 times and same thing. It's just that episode, though, I've checked. Thank goodness for my Vudu copy!
Ah okay, yeah. It was a slow build with them and Mollari, but as you have seen now, they have been up to even more.
That's hilarious with respect to Bruce on Supergirl. Definitely sounds like the sort of casting a B5 fan would do.
To clarify my comments about Earth, yeah, Clark's party has gone full-on fascist bigots, but it is a recent development. I meant that I do not see Earth society as a whole as a dystopia like RoboCop. It is more of a mixed bag. Like Trump's America, there are still many Earthers who are on the side of good and decent people (the B5 crew, General Hague, family members back home, the people on Mars fighting inequality, etc.), but there is general slide where many are giving into their worst nature.
Yeah, with respect to Delenn, there is a good chance that the studio wasn't supportive of it as well. But they did shoot and air the pilot with Delenn as a man. There used to be a couple of clips on YouTube showing Delenn how she looked and sounded original as aired.
But JMS does not take kindly to studio notes. I'm sure you noticed that Warren Keffer, the hot shot fighter pilot, felt like a studio or network request... As you saw JMS introduced him, just to kill him off... The studio stopped giving JMS notes after that.
Yeah, Talia's departure took JMS by surprise a little. Andrea Thompson decided to leave the show because she got a role on NYPD Blue. That trap door was built-in but it was actually supposed to be a go away and come back storyline. The whole thing with Kosh and Abbutt in Deathwalker was that Kosh knew about the programming and used the Vicker to record Talia's original personality so it could be restored.
You are likely right that the rest of the cast does not mourn sufficiently. I'll keep an eye out for that when I get to season 2. I know it continues to have lasting effect on Ivanova...
Also, I'm a big Lyta fan, so I might let the failure to pay off Talia's death of personality fully because it meant Lyra's return. She has a great story ahead.
Yeah, I love all of the great American characters they got for the show: Spirit, William Sanderson from Blade Runner, Paul Winfield, Paul Williams, and... a Very Special Guest in season 4.
Yeah, I love the Vorlons and Kosh in particular. There is still much to learn about them.
Yeah, G'Kar is a great character with a wonderful arc. As is Londo, especially with his Jiminy Cricket in Vir. The two of them are probably JMS' greatest creations.
With respect to Garibaldi's hair, you didn't love the Space John McClane cut?
I didn't realize Jason Carter was on Lois&Clark. That is hilarious. I only ever remember him on B5. Speaking of fictional lawsuits, we watch Grail last night (finished on Eyes), and the scene in the courtroom where the guy is trying to sue the alien, whose great-grandfather abducted his own, for damages makes me laugh way more than it should.
It was a good thing you stopped at 3x07 because 3x08 onwards does not let up for quite some time. You are about to enter where JMS got his second Hugo.
New Kosh isn't nearly as lovable so far, lol. Interesting way of viewing what the Vorlons are doing, though. And perhaps not entirely inaccurate. 
