beginning season 4
Aug. 3rd, 2006 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellroseHad dinner with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
narsilion this evening, and then settled in for the first disc of Babylon 5, Season 4.
First off, I can no longer hold off on commenting about the references to Lord of the Rings. I thought it was coincidence at first - a Ranger or two here, a similarity of circumstance there... nothing significant. But Lorien? This... gives me pause. Every time someone says his name, I get an odd double mental-image.
Speaking of names, I find it amusing that Delenn still swears by Valen's name. Me, I would find it hard to do that once I realized that I was really talking about someone I'd personally known, someone who most likely had... I don't know, done all the usual human things around me. Gotten irritable, said stupid things... overacted, perhaps. As an example. But really, who would notice? Gods love them all, the whole cast does tend to be a bit... enthusiastic. I don't notice it for long stretches, and then suddenly someone (usually Patricia Tallman or Bruce Boxleitner, but Mira Furlan is guilty of this as well) just pushes something too far for my taste. I like subtle acting. I still love the show, but every now and then, I do wish they'd back off a little.
And my goodness, we really are finding that gods are dangerous things, aren't we? It seems that Sinclair is the only religious or semi-religious figure we aren't doubting or fearing. Well, him and Lorien. Who occasionally gives me the oogies.
Major oogies of the night, however, go to poor Garibaldi. Program activated, weren't those the words? He's another damned Talia, and this is not going to be pretty when it finally comes to a head. And, of course, who can forget the king of all oogies... poor G'Kar's situation literally made me avert my eyes several times, not because I thought they'd show too much (syndicated television, after all), but because I just didn't think I could stand the look in his eyes. He and Londo have both come so far, and they've been shown fabulously in this season so far.
Oh. And one more thing. Marcus. The poor, bloody-minded, adorable bastard is a virgin. No wonder... on so many levels. I love him all the more, and... I kind of get why unicorns keep turning up in summaries of fic about him, now. Not enough that I'd ever do it, mind you - perish the thought - but... one can at least understand where they got the idea? I laughed so. very. hard. when I saw that scene. And then got very sad in preparation, of course. Alas for the inadvertant distant-past spoilers, and especially for poor Marcus. ♥
narsilion this evening, and then settled in for the first disc of Babylon 5, Season 4.First off, I can no longer hold off on commenting about the references to Lord of the Rings. I thought it was coincidence at first - a Ranger or two here, a similarity of circumstance there... nothing significant. But Lorien? This... gives me pause. Every time someone says his name, I get an odd double mental-image.
Speaking of names, I find it amusing that Delenn still swears by Valen's name. Me, I would find it hard to do that once I realized that I was really talking about someone I'd personally known, someone who most likely had... I don't know, done all the usual human things around me. Gotten irritable, said stupid things... overacted, perhaps. As an example. But really, who would notice? Gods love them all, the whole cast does tend to be a bit... enthusiastic. I don't notice it for long stretches, and then suddenly someone (usually Patricia Tallman or Bruce Boxleitner, but Mira Furlan is guilty of this as well) just pushes something too far for my taste. I like subtle acting. I still love the show, but every now and then, I do wish they'd back off a little.
And my goodness, we really are finding that gods are dangerous things, aren't we? It seems that Sinclair is the only religious or semi-religious figure we aren't doubting or fearing. Well, him and Lorien. Who occasionally gives me the oogies.
Major oogies of the night, however, go to poor Garibaldi. Program activated, weren't those the words? He's another damned Talia, and this is not going to be pretty when it finally comes to a head. And, of course, who can forget the king of all oogies... poor G'Kar's situation literally made me avert my eyes several times, not because I thought they'd show too much (syndicated television, after all), but because I just didn't think I could stand the look in his eyes. He and Londo have both come so far, and they've been shown fabulously in this season so far.
Oh. And one more thing. Marcus. The poor, bloody-minded, adorable bastard is a virgin. No wonder... on so many levels. I love him all the more, and... I kind of get why unicorns keep turning up in summaries of fic about him, now. Not enough that I'd ever do it, mind you - perish the thought - but... one can at least understand where they got the idea? I laughed so. very. hard. when I saw that scene. And then got very sad in preparation, of course. Alas for the inadvertant distant-past spoilers, and especially for poor Marcus. ♥
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Date: 2006-08-04 06:16 am (UTC)Marcus is wonderful.
Marcus is Hot.
Marcus would be a virgin no more if he a: existed and b: got within 300 feet of me.
Lo-reeee-en.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-04 03:13 pm (UTC)Up until the moment he walked onto the show, I had eyes only for Ivanova. After he walked on, I decided that a threesome was clearly the way to go. X
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Date: 2006-08-04 07:09 pm (UTC)A woman after my own heart.
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Date: 2006-08-04 07:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-04 01:31 pm (UTC)Program activated reminds me of the halographic programs from Star Trek. Sounds like lots of DOOM on that first disk.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-04 04:15 pm (UTC)Lots of doom. Lots and lots of doom.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-04 03:06 pm (UTC)Except, I was on GEnie back in the day when B5 was just a dream JMS had, and he would tell us all about the trials and tribulations of getting it written, produced, cast, and filmed. I know those references were intentional because JMS told us so. He told us a lot of things about what he'd meant to do when it looked like the show wouldn't live past the pilot, much less get a first season.
Babylon 5 is a flawed work. And you have to remember, when 4th season came around, JMS had been told he would not have a 5th, so he crammed two seasons worth of material into one. There's good stuff in 4th season, yes, but it also lacks the slow unfurling and steady development of the previous 3 because, as far as JMS knew, he was out of time.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-04 04:35 pm (UTC)See, that amuses me, because there's no possible way all these little references could be accident. One or two, yeah, I'd pull the "collective unconsciousness" type explanation. But all of it? Hell no. And honestly, there's smaller stuff even that I wasn't going to mention - "the eye is looking for us," etc. Everytime Delenn does her bit about "where no shadows lie" I start wanting to chant the ring poem. Alone, all that proves is that I'm a geek. But pile it all up, and there's just no way to make it vanish.
Borrowings are okay! If it was a complete rewrite, with all the characters shoehorned perfectly, I'd be pissed. But it's not! I mean, Marcus and Sheridan neatly split the Aragorn bits, and Sheridan's got plenty of Gandalf going (*coughs* "I fell..." *coughs*), Kosh has a very Saruman thing going, except there's two of him, and then there's plenty of stuff that just doesn't fit at all. At least not yet. But to claim there's no connection? That's just silly. A little literary allusion never hurt anybody.
It is flawed, but what creation isn't? I've noticed the pacing stuff (ohgod have I - it feels like I should be in the last few weeks, but I've got almost two full seasons left!) And I have no problem with the things I love having major flaws. I can gleefully poke holes in Tolkien's writing style, gripe about his crummy characterization of women, and then happily read the trilogy for the tenth time, and make a work of love out of doing calligraphy for one of the pages of the Sil. Same with B5, or anything else I love. I may hate the overacting, unrealistic dialogue, and occasionally-predictable plot devices, but I love the whole. That's how I know I really love something - if I can bitch about it, and then still sit down for four eps in a row. ;)