b5 rewatch update
Jun. 10th, 2010 02:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellroseThank goodness for The Lurker's Guide or I would be constantly forgetting episode names and what exactly happened in them. We've seen three episodes since my last update (episode DVDs make a handy timer for running laundry). I'll have limited things to say about some, a lot to say about others, and... a lot of spoilers, as usual, for both the current episodes and everything coming up.
Believers
I think a few years of aging has made this a slightly more disturbing episode for me than it was the first time around... or possibly I just don't remember how I felt the first time. Either way, I found this episode compelling, and also a bit uncomfortable, and therefore found myself lashing out at stupid things about it, such as the complete lack of sense of having a species constantly going on about eggs and The Great Egg and all that, when no effort is made in makeup to indicate they are anything other than mammalian. Too many makeup designers fall into the trap of assuming that if they make a species look like anything distinctly inhuman, people won't be able to sympathize with them. The rest of the show is a supreme indication that this is not the case. Everybody loves the Narn, even though they're (for 90s sci-fi) fairly inhuman in appearance. But of course if we're dealing with a big moral issue we have to have aliens who look as human as possible, or else the viewers won't sympathize! We can't have them looking like aliens! That would be weird!
...Anyway. I liked Franklin much more than I remembered in this episode, though I found Dr. Hernanzez occasionally seemed to be functioning more as a literary device, arguing for the sake of having someone to argue, than she was as a character. That tended to fade later on in the episode, but she was vicious enough at the start that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ninjascript commented "she's kind of a bitch." And I could not find it in myself to disagree, particularly.
I'm particularly fond of the bit where the parents go to each of the major ambassadors begging them to take their part in the argument, and the various responses.ninjascript commented that they obviously didn't know anything about G'Kar, going to him first, and I had a good little snicker to myself, thinking of him in the future and how he grows. Londo, of course, predictable as always. And of course "you're refusing to help us because of your beliefs!" ...Um, yeah, lady. This surprises you how? I do love when Delenn gets to show a bit of her steely side. ♥
And, another hazard of coming back after so long away... I have absolutely no memory of whether or not what happened with Ivanova and her squadron with the raiders will ever be explained.ninjascript was very "bwuh?" over that, and I had to admit that I think it gets explained later (the Guide seems to be indicating that people at the time thought / were meant to think that perhaps she was in league with the Raiders, which... I guess?), but it seemed more like bad editing than anything else, and was very jarring. I'm hoping my faint memory that it becomes clear later is actually a memory, not just me having forgotten or made something up or whatever.
Also, "Children of Time?" Rather funny, after several years of Doctor Who as my primary fandom.
Survivors
Alas, despite liking Garibaldi quite well as a character, I find his episodes hideously boring. This one is no exception. Not too bad, not too great, don't have a whole lot to say. Moving along...
By Any Means Necessary
I faintly remembered not caring so much for this episode the first time around, and I can't remember why. I liked it quite a bit this time, even the bits that were about the Humans (which is generally rare for me). The subplot about the G'Quan Eth is, of course, my favorite part of the episode, though. I'm a sucker, as always, for the alien plots, and this one, focusing on a side of G'Kar that we haven't seen much of yet in the series, is particularly charming. I was pleased to discover exactly how long we kept Caitlin Brown as Na'Toth, too - I adore her, and remember being terribly sorry when she left. She's got so much fire, so much passion, and she's got a lot going on in her eyes (important with that much makeup). She and Andreas also have fantastic chemistry together - so important when their scenes are primarily with each other. And I go into full anthropology-squee at the fact that - hooray! - we actually bother to establish in this episode that no, there is not only one Narn religion. Now if only I could convince them to make similar statements about all the other species, I'd be happy... for a while at least. Until the next time the Minbari castes don't seem to be working in realistic way or something like that, and then I'll be seething foolishly again.
Also, it somewhat disturbs me that after a year studying museum operations, I went "you can't just do that!" when Sinclair announced he'd just take funds out of their military budget and use them for the docking workers. Presumably the "any means necessary" clause in the Rush act is interpreted here as completely overriding the misappropriation of federal funds, but I am still slightly bemused that after years of muttering the same thing about operations at my university, I have suddenly, only a few years later, apparently completely absorbed the necessity of budgetary rules. This must be what being a grown-up feels like. I'm not sure I like it.
Believers
I think a few years of aging has made this a slightly more disturbing episode for me than it was the first time around... or possibly I just don't remember how I felt the first time. Either way, I found this episode compelling, and also a bit uncomfortable, and therefore found myself lashing out at stupid things about it, such as the complete lack of sense of having a species constantly going on about eggs and The Great Egg and all that, when no effort is made in makeup to indicate they are anything other than mammalian. Too many makeup designers fall into the trap of assuming that if they make a species look like anything distinctly inhuman, people won't be able to sympathize with them. The rest of the show is a supreme indication that this is not the case. Everybody loves the Narn, even though they're (for 90s sci-fi) fairly inhuman in appearance. But of course if we're dealing with a big moral issue we have to have aliens who look as human as possible, or else the viewers won't sympathize! We can't have them looking like aliens! That would be weird!
...Anyway. I liked Franklin much more than I remembered in this episode, though I found Dr. Hernanzez occasionally seemed to be functioning more as a literary device, arguing for the sake of having someone to argue, than she was as a character. That tended to fade later on in the episode, but she was vicious enough at the start that
ninjascript commented "she's kind of a bitch." And I could not find it in myself to disagree, particularly.I'm particularly fond of the bit where the parents go to each of the major ambassadors begging them to take their part in the argument, and the various responses.
ninjascript commented that they obviously didn't know anything about G'Kar, going to him first, and I had a good little snicker to myself, thinking of him in the future and how he grows. Londo, of course, predictable as always. And of course "you're refusing to help us because of your beliefs!" ...Um, yeah, lady. This surprises you how? I do love when Delenn gets to show a bit of her steely side. ♥And, another hazard of coming back after so long away... I have absolutely no memory of whether or not what happened with Ivanova and her squadron with the raiders will ever be explained.
ninjascript was very "bwuh?" over that, and I had to admit that I think it gets explained later (the Guide seems to be indicating that people at the time thought / were meant to think that perhaps she was in league with the Raiders, which... I guess?), but it seemed more like bad editing than anything else, and was very jarring. I'm hoping my faint memory that it becomes clear later is actually a memory, not just me having forgotten or made something up or whatever.Also, "Children of Time?" Rather funny, after several years of Doctor Who as my primary fandom.
Survivors
Alas, despite liking Garibaldi quite well as a character, I find his episodes hideously boring. This one is no exception. Not too bad, not too great, don't have a whole lot to say. Moving along...
By Any Means Necessary
I faintly remembered not caring so much for this episode the first time around, and I can't remember why. I liked it quite a bit this time, even the bits that were about the Humans (which is generally rare for me). The subplot about the G'Quan Eth is, of course, my favorite part of the episode, though. I'm a sucker, as always, for the alien plots, and this one, focusing on a side of G'Kar that we haven't seen much of yet in the series, is particularly charming. I was pleased to discover exactly how long we kept Caitlin Brown as Na'Toth, too - I adore her, and remember being terribly sorry when she left. She's got so much fire, so much passion, and she's got a lot going on in her eyes (important with that much makeup). She and Andreas also have fantastic chemistry together - so important when their scenes are primarily with each other. And I go into full anthropology-squee at the fact that - hooray! - we actually bother to establish in this episode that no, there is not only one Narn religion. Now if only I could convince them to make similar statements about all the other species, I'd be happy... for a while at least. Until the next time the Minbari castes don't seem to be working in realistic way or something like that, and then I'll be seething foolishly again.
Also, it somewhat disturbs me that after a year studying museum operations, I went "you can't just do that!" when Sinclair announced he'd just take funds out of their military budget and use them for the docking workers. Presumably the "any means necessary" clause in the Rush act is interpreted here as completely overriding the misappropriation of federal funds, but I am still slightly bemused that after years of muttering the same thing about operations at my university, I have suddenly, only a few years later, apparently completely absorbed the necessity of budgetary rules. This must be what being a grown-up feels like. I'm not sure I like it.
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no subject
Date: 2010-06-15 01:14 pm (UTC)Obviously, they're meant to be monotremes!
(To go with the Narn apparently being marsupials...)
Re: Religion - to be fair, the Minbari are a semi-theocracy, while the Centauri are presumably like the Romans, and either incorporate minority religions into their pantheon or suppress them as threats to the Imperial cult. It kinda makes sense they're less diverse than Earth or Narn.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-15 02:51 pm (UTC)True on both counts re: religion. In the context of their larger cultures, it does make sense (and I seem to recall that we get residuals of Minbari religion prior to Valen at a few points through the series, as well as mention of other prophets or whatever you want to call them, so that's something). My complaint comes more out of a long-standing pet peeve in sci-fi regarding monolithic alien cultures with seemingly world-wide traits and a single, unvarying culture.