2260

[DigiFluid]

Another year, another post...

• Brother Theo, the leader of the Human religious group, is played by Louis Turenne--the same guy who played Draal in Season 1's two-parter A Voice in the Wilderness. Given that he returns for a small arc here, and Draal only has a few appearances in the show overall, I can't help but wonder why they didn't just bring Turenne back as Draal in the first place
• Moreshi, the Asian security officer in Convictions, is the same guy who was the jerk Mongol leader in SG-1's Emancipation And Natan of the Lucian Alliance in Exogenesis!
• The excuse that Lennier uses to get the talkative (and seemingly inebriated) traveler away from him in Convictions is that he's contracted "Netter's Syndrome"--undoubtedly a reference to series exec. producer Douglas Netter
• 3.05 Voices of Authority: Ah yes....the reveal that Mr Morden was involved in Clark's assassination of President Santiago. I've never considered this before, but I wonder if--for a time--Clark found himself in Londo's shoes. Undoubtedly he ended up being an evil man himself (what with turning the defense satellites on Earth), but I also wonder if maybe there was a time in which Clark was the one who was hanging on to the bucking horse for dear life.
• 3.05 Voices of Authority: I wonder what exactly the Vorlons did to piss off te First Ones of Sigma 957. They obviously dislike the Shadows enough to get involved on the side of Light, but do so reluctantly because they obviously don't like the Vorlons. I wonder what happened.
• "Some must be sacrificed, if all are to be saved." That's just one of the best lines in any TV show, isn't it?
• 3.10 Severed Dreams: One of the best episodes of the series. Period.
• 3.13 A Late Delivery from Avalon: Oh boy do I ever hate this one.
• 3.14 Ship of Tears: The pilot of the ship being escorted by the Shadow fighters killed himself with acid and then sent off to be autopsied by Franklin--where he was promptly forgotten about in light of the discovery of the telepaths. What was he? Could it have been a Drakh? Streib? Wurt? Surgeon?
• War Without End: Masterful resolution of Babylon Squared. Undoubtedly one of the best time travel stories/trilogies ever told on television. I wonder--was Babylon Squared written when they knew that Michael O'Hare was leaving the series? If not--what was the original intended resolution, had he remained station commander for all five seasons?
• The Passing of the Techno-mages III: Invoking Darkness[/i] -- Lots of interesting things going on here, once Galen gets out of the hiding place. I particularly love that Galen is constantly doing mental exercises to keep himself in control; adds a wonderful new dimension to his character. And then, later on, his proper 'union' with the tech is very interesting. I'll appreciate his character all the more once I get back to Crusade
• The Passing of the Techno-mages III: Invoking Darkness[/i] -- Oh wow! The obelisks on Z'ha'dum with the glowing inscriptions on them--that's the language as the Taratimude, the ancient founders of the Techno-mages!
• 3.22 Z'ha'dum: Interesting that Justin, the older guy on Z'ha'dum, balks at the question "who are you?" when Sheridan asks him. He skirts around it, offering cryptic vagueries before finally coming up with his name. More of that masterfully well-mapped Vorlon/Shadow business
• The Passing of the Techno-mages III: Invoking Darkness[/i] -- This business of the Eye organic machine defending Z'ha'dum is intriguing. When Anna tries to merge with it, it pushes her out saying that this is its machine. And then...Wierden herself is at the heart? How did Wierden found and run the Techno-mages if she was the heart of Z'ha'dum?
• The Passing of the Techno-mages III: Invoking Darkness[/i] -- I'm both amused and put off by the resolution of Galen's trip to Z'ha'dum.... On one hand, I love (and find hilarious) that the ultraconservative Blaylock was essentially right all along with the idea of opening up to the tech. But on the other, all this time and effort is spent talking about single-term spell equations and then the resolution is....a no-term equation? What the hell?
• The Passing of the Techno-mages III: Invoking Darkness[/i] -- I do really love the serenity that Galen has gotten out of the whole experience though. His union with the tech, the freedom with which he uses it now, that he actually liberates a Shadow vessel(!) Very satisfying.
• Chiefly among the things I find strange during 2260 is that Mr Morden operating openly on the station with minimal harassment by station personnel. They mention once in Invoking Darkness that he bribes the right people, but then a few pages later he has several run-ins with Garibaldi. Why is a Shadow agent being allowed to run amok in the heart of the Army of Light, during the heat of the Shadow War?

[SaberBlade]

Brother Theo, the leader of the Human religious group, is played by Louis Turenne--the same guy who played Draal in Season 1's two-parter A Voice in the Wilderness. Given that he returns for a small arc here, and Draal only has a few appearances in the show overall, I can't help but wonder why they didn't just bring Turenne back as Draal in the first place

Perhaps he didn't like the make-up. Makes a bit of sense to me, as he comes back as a guy who's costume is a robe.

3.14 Ship of Tears: The pilot of the ship being escorted by the Shadow fighters killed himself with acid and then sent off to be autopsied by Franklin--where he was promptly forgotten about in light of the discovery of the telepaths. What was he? Could it have been a Drakh? Streib? Wurt? Surgeon?

I've always thought of it being one of the aliens whicht those infected with Keepers remember after they wake up.

3.13 A Late Delivery from Avalon: Oh boy do I ever hate this one.

I hate this one too. It's interesting seeing what happened to the guy who fired the first shots during the war, and good to see Michael York but it's a real stinker of an episode.

Chiefly among the things I find strange during 2260 is that Mr Morden operating openly on the station with minimal harassment by station personnel. They mention once in Invoking Darkness that he bribes the right people, but then a few pages later he has several run-ins with Garibaldi. Why is a Shadow agent being allowed to run amok in the heart of the Army of Light, during the heat of the Shadow War?

I think he's allowed to do whatever he wants in order to make the Shadows with him feel like nothing is going on. It's why Sheridan let him out of the brig when he discovered he had survived the Icarus. Who knows what could have happened if the Shadows had figured out everyone was onto them.

3.10 Severed Dreams: One of the best episodes of the series. Period.

I love Delenn's speech in this towards the end. "Only one human captain has ever survived an encounter (I love how she calls it "an encounter") with a Minbari ship. He is behind me, you are in front of me. Leave now if you value your lives". The only thing missing from that scene is the Earth ships having a tail that's curled away somewhere. This episode also answers one of your previous season questions (I think the first) about the other triluminaries as one is in the staff she breaks (and we've seen a council member carry from time to time). So she had one, a second was in the staff, just leaves the first one.

In Exogenesis, 3x07, I could swear that the pilot at the start of the episode is doing a Sean Connery impersonation.

War Without End is perhaps my favourite time travel episode(s) that any TV series has ever done. What I find interesting is there seemed to be three possible futures going on.

1. Sinclair and Garibaldi on the station fighting an unknown enemy (I came to believe it was a Shadow War)
2. Sheridan is Captain but dead, while Shadows attack the station (with Ivanova in the command centre). Oddly enough, both involve Garibaldi rigging the fusion reactor.
3. The current timeline future, where everything goes as plan.

I was very disappointed that Sheridan seemed to forget his future experiences very quickly. Poor writing on JMS' part I believe, as Sheridan should have known that Londo would be given a Keeper, that the Drakh would go after Centauri Prime and that something bad would happen to it (as seen by all the destruction).

[Cold Fuzz]

[*]3.05 Voices of Authority: I wonder what exactly the Vorlons did to piss off te First Ones of Sigma 957. They obviously dislike the Shadows enough to get involved on the side of Light, but do so reluctantly because they obviously don't like the Vorlons. I wonder what happened.

The last conversation between the Walkers of Sigma 957 and the Vorlons probably went something like this:


Walkers: What do you need from us this time?
Vorlons: Need? We need nothing from you. We are the Vorlons. We're badass. blah blah blah lords of Order blah.
Walkers: Whatever.
Vorlons: Oops. We forgot to tell you. We need your help in a certain sector. The Shadows have too many ships--
Walkers: ZOG. Now piss off before we show you real order.

[Jae'a]

Ah, all this hate for my favourite episode...
Also, Lennier's imaginary Netter's Syndrome cracks me up every time.

In Exogenesis, 3x07, I could swear that the pilot at the start of the episode is doing a Sean Connery impersonation.

Yes! Every time I see it, for a split second I think "Is that Sean Connery??"