Babylon 5, "Strange Relations", S05E06, OAD 2/25/98 *spoilers*

[gchance]

Guide page: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/094.html

- The Centauri Regent is ill. Once he dies, Mollari will be named Emperor. He's going to Centauri Prime for the deathwatch and to be there when he's named.
- There was once another Emperor Mollari.
- Gah! Haven't they learned that when C&C tells you not to use thrusters, don't use thrusters???
- Lyta stealing supplies for Skinny Fabio's (Fauxbio's?) telepaths? Heh. She "found" them.
- Delenn's going to have Franklin catalog alien biology for the Alliance.
- "Sleep isn't the issue. It's the love we don't make enough of!"
- Bester? D'oh! I didn't even see his name in the credits. Go get 'im, Garibaldi!
- Ooh, Lyta's jamming Bester! Come on, black eyes!
- "Be seeing you, Lyta."
- Byron was a little quick coming out of hiding.
- Aww, a kiss.
- WHA?! Sheridan & Lochley were married?
- Hoboy, Earthdome's followed Bester's lead and has started rounding up Skinny Fabio's peeps.
- "Zack sorry, Lyta. Him sad."
- G'Kar as Londo's bodyguard? Heh, that should be fun. And G'Kar's HAPPY about it!
- Koom bye yaaaaa my lord!

Just the thought of G'Kar as Londo's bodyguard makes me chuckle. It's still amazing how far they've come.

Greg

[Hunter Green]

Byron is the kind of guy that appears as an unsympathetic rival in Woody Allen movies. The second time through, he is even less sympathetic than the first time, and I find myself rooting for the Psi Cops, if only in hopes that they'll make this thread end. Any second now Byron's about to start making up poetry about blood and roses.

Also, the telepath cultcommune is just annoying. Ten minutes of them standing around not talking and being off-putting is good. It reminds us that there's no reason for them to talk, it establishes the idea that they're different and thus a little creepy in the way they are sharing something you can never be part of. Point made. After ten minutes of that, it starts to get annoying. At this point, I am sick to the teeth of them. This whole telepath colony storyline would have been fine as a standalone or maybe spread out over 2-3 episodes, but as is, it's just overdone to the point where its virtues become vices. (By the way, who pays their candle budget?)

It's just a shame Lyta's being dragged along, because she's been turning out to be one of my favorite characters this time through.

So, Lyta, when did you get your pharmacist degree, so you can safely prescribe all those supplies that you just stole from the lurkers? (It's okay to steal these, they're only earmarked for saving the lives of the poor and desperate!)

Interesting revelations about Londo, though one can't help wonder... if his enemies are ready to blow up entire ships of their own people, how much help will be a single bodyguard against that. It's a good start, but it has to be just a start. Let's assume there's a lot more going on behind the scenes. Was painful to see how long it took Lochley and Zack to work their way around to the obvious conclusion about the bomb, so I'm not hopeful.

Franklin's new job makes me wonder all kinds of things about who's paying for all of this, and how Dr. Hobbs is going to feel about her effective unpaid untitled promotion. But it also opens all kinds of doors for interesting storylines.

The most interesting thing in this largely very interesting episode is Sheridan being backed into a corner by his own principles. The least interesting thing is the ridiculous "solution" Lochley comes up with. Bester's gotten awfully complacent awfully fast. (And so has Lochley; Bester's hardly around the corner before she tells Zack her master plan of letting them escape. Would have served her right if he'd managed to overhear it. But I guess even he's limited by line-of-sight.)

[Craigbob]

Well this mean's that Sheridan has been married into all 3 of the Minbari Castes:

1: Lochley - Warrior
2: Anna - Worker
3: Delenn - Religious

Kinda interesting.

now I can say what I spoilerized earlier: I wonder how the teep arc would've played out with Ivanova rather than Lyta.

[aintnosin]

1: Lochley - Warrior
2: Anna - Worker
3: Delenn - Religious
I was at a convention where some girl pointed this out to JMS. He claimed he had never thought of that until that moment.

[JYoung]

I was at a convention where some girl pointed this out to JMS. He claimed he had never thought of that until that moment.

In one of the earlier DVD commentaries, Bruce Boxleitner mentions the marriage to Lochley and said he thought it was out of nowhere.

I kind of have to agree with him on that.
Other than the relation to Minbari castes being kind of interesting, I'm not sure what it adds.

And Sheriden not telling Delenn about his marriage to Lochley before hand?
Very bad, especially in light of the way he busted on Delenn for not telling him about Anna.

While it is nice to see Bester again and I loved Garabaldi's reaction, Lochley did the right thing by locking him up.
I do think that Bester gave up too easily though.

[Rob Helmerichs]

And Sheriden not telling Delenn about his marriage to Lochley before hand?
And the thought that the ambassador of a great power wouldn't have done a simple background check on the new commander of her post? Especially since he was a notorious enemy of her people?

Why do I have the feeling that this problem was pointed out at the time? And that JMS did some amusing contortions to "explain" why it not only made sense, but was the only possible way it could have happened? :D

[Hunter Green]

Other than the relation to Minbari castes being kind of interesting, I'm not sure what it adds.
Like a lot of the weaker parts of what we've seen so far of Season Five, it just smacks of "we need to have something happen!" Maybe that's the padding out of what was rushed to fit into season four, maybe not.

Truth is, most of what we groan about in season five would have been rocking back in season one. We've been spoiled rotten with seasons three and four.

But that doesn't change that season five has lots of things like this that just seem to be marking time. It has a few gems when breaking out of the arc story allowed an interesting side story to be told (a few of those are coming up, in fact) but ironically it's the arc episodes in season five which seem weakest. Season five is just the scouring of the Shire all over again.

[gchance]

Truth is, most of what we groan about in season five would have been rocking back in season one. We've been spoiled rotten with seasons three and four.

I fully agree here, and about the weak arc stuff. I honestly think that had JMS not worried about a season-long (or half-season) arc, S5 probably would have been much better. He might have even been able to get away with a more episodic structure.

Most of the episodes I remember and liked most in S5 were the standalone storylines

Such as Day of the Dead coming up, but even with that one, it relies heavily on what we've seen before. It's also fun to see Morden in a different light.

Greg

[Mindflux]

I always wanted to watch this series. Is it in syndication on any channels?

[Mr_Bester]

Not on TV any more, but I think a lot is available on Hulu.

[doom1701]

I think there's a few rules that get really fleshed out here:

1. If you need to introduce complexity to the plot, have Sheridan marry it
2. If you are unsure how the audience will react to confusing stuff, have characters that are usually really smug give big s%@#-eating grins to the camera at every opportunity.
3. Nobody seems to be able to properly fly a space ship
4. When all else fails, end it with a song!

This episode really wasn't too bad, although it was more transitional than anything. But it continues to reinforce what has become my biggest problem with the series on future viewings--the show was never able to realize it's full scale. You're on a 5 mile long space station with 250,000 sentients, yet every room feels like it was filmed in someone's basement. I know that the budget and technology weren't there, but it still just doesn't hold up well.

[gchance]

This episode really wasn't too bad, although it was more transitional than anything. But it continues to reinforce what has become my biggest problem with the series on future viewings--the show was never able to realize it's full scale. You're on a 5 mile long space station with 250,000 sentients, yet every room feels like it was filmed in someone's basement. I know that the budget and technology weren't there, but it still just doesn't hold up well.

They did a better job than anything on TV at the time, although DS9 certainly made up for it at the end. The big thing was the CGI capabilities. Views such as the camera being a mile from the station, flying in up close to C&C, where you see the people in the window had never been seen on TV.

That said, you're right about the interior shots, and in rewatching S5 for the first time since its original airing, it's more noticeable than the rest of the series. When The Lost Tales came out I remember thinking how low budget it looks with the tiny sets, but honestly, S5 is the same way. The sets aren't as big as previous seasons, there aren't as many extras, etc.

The weird thing is I didn't notice it when it originally aired.

Greg

[doom1701]

They did a better job than anything on TV at the time, although DS9 certainly made up for it at the end. The big thing was the CGI capabilities. Views such as the camera being a mile from the station, flying in up close to C&C, where you see the people in the window had never been seen on TV.

That said, you're right about the interior shots, and in rewatching S5 for the first time since its original airing, it's more noticeable than the rest of the series. When The Lost Tales came out I remember thinking how low budget it looks with the tiny sets, but honestly, S5 is the same way. The sets aren't as big as previous seasons, there aren't as many extras, etc.

The weird thing is I didn't notice it when it originally aired.

Greg

Maybe that's why it seems to stand out more now than it did when we were watching other episodes. I have only been participating sporatically, and it seems like, in the 3 episodes I watched last night, everything was inside of a cardboard box. I didn't think to compare to previous seasons.

[Rob Helmerichs]

Yeah, IIRC the budget dropped rather precipitously when it was finally picked up by a new network for the fifth season (perhaps budget negotiations were at least in part behind the delay in the pick-up?).

[Hunter Green]

Part of why it's more noticeable now is the changing standards of TV generally, and SF TV especially. And part of it is we were too caught up in the story back then.

[busyba]

And Sheriden not telling Delenn about his marriage to Lochley before hand?
Very bad, especially in light of the way he busted on Delenn for not telling him about Anna.

They were married for just a month or two, right? That's not a wife, that's a girlfriend. I give him a pass on that.

[aintnosin]

And Sheriden not telling Delenn about his marriage to Lochley before hand?
Very bad, especially in light of the way he busted on Delenn for not telling him about Anna.
I dunno, "I was married to this chick for about a week twenty years ago" is small potatoes compared to "That dead wife you've been mourning for years? She's not so dead."

Sheridan could fall back on, "Hey, Delenn, when we got married, Claudia hadn't bailed on the show so I didn't even know I'd been married before Anna!"

[gchance]

They were married for just a month or two, right? That's not a wife, that's a girlfriend. I give him a pass on that.

He gets a pass until he appoints her to his old position. Then, I believe he should at least tell First Lady Bonehead about it.

If Barack Obama appointed the ex-wife that Michelle Obama didn't know he had to his old Senate seat, she might be a bit upset.

Greg

[Rob Helmerichs]

If Barack Obama appointed the ex-wife that Michelle Obama didn't know he had to his old Senate seat, she might be a bit upset.
Don't be absurd.

That seat's not Obama's to sell.

:D

[busyba]

Don't be absurd.

That seat's not Obama's to sell.

:D

IBTL.



:p