tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post672402473087683182..comments2024-03-27T08:49:38.786-03:00Comments on Siskoid's Blog of Geekery: Babylon 5 #41: Confessions and LamentationsSiskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-43913878378905110002014-08-21T17:36:47.944-03:002014-08-21T17:36:47.944-03:001. The meal. I believe this was a special meal cer...1. The meal. I believe this was a special meal ceremony for honored guests. Think of it as the Thanksgiving turkey. You don't make it every day.<br /><br />2. The Drazi are getting more well-spoken with time anyway. I think what we saw in their feature episode was biological. Their internal clock turns them into fighting morons every 5 cycles, and then they grow more intelligent and civilized, hit a peak, then go back down. Crap, are they a metaphor for B5's 5-act structure?<br /><br />3. Delenn's make-up. I was thinking less of time in the chair than getting your ears unblocked, having less latex glued on and irritating skin, etc.<br /><br />4. The silent scream. Probably reinforced by the fact it's in the 3rd season opening sequence, right? (At least, I think it is.)Siskoidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-2285476308822244362014-08-21T17:26:04.765-03:002014-08-21T17:26:04.765-03:00It almost sounds like Delenn and Lennier are takin...It almost sounds like Delenn and Lennier are taking the piss out of Sheridan when talking about the two day ritual (without sleep) for preparing a meal. Otherwise, how does this race get anything done? (I do love Lennier's expression when Delenn says "we must do this again", as if he's thinking "I spent two who days making that and the ungrateful human just fell <i>asleep</i>? Was <i>I</i> allowed to fall asleep? Nooooo!" I'm pretty sure this moment explains something Lennier does in a few years time. But we'll get there, eventually.) <br />I guess the conversation they had when Sheridan left was something like "He didn't like the flarn" "Oh, you're always worrying about the bloody flarn. Get over it, Will Robinson."<br /><br />Hey, the Markab ambassador is That Guy Who Usually Plays An Angry Drazi. He finally gets to speak in complete sentences! Still angry, though.<br /><br />I know the scene where none of the non-speaking extras want to go into the isolab is pretty standard, but no-one wonder Franklin starts taking stims. Apparently he's the only doctor on his team with any compassionm integrity, or vocal chords.<br /><br />I don't know when it happened, but Delenn's makeup has improved. It actually merges into her head, whereas at the start of the season it seemed to not be fully attached. It'll get better again when we hit season 3. (Contrary to what you said when you reviewed "Revelations", apparently it took longer for Furlan to get the partial makeup that the full Minbari, as it was lots of little pieces rather than one big piece.<br /><br />In some ways, Franklin's personality makes him a terrible doctor. I know a fair few doctors, and ALL of them say that if you don't learn to cultivate a degree of detachment, you'd go mad. It's not to say that you stop caring, but you can't put 100% of yourself into every patient. Franklin seems to do exactly that. It's astonishing that he hasn't already had a breakdown.<br /><br />Finally, there are a series of images from Babylon 5 that have struck me over the years. Delenn's silent scream when she hugs Sheridan is one of them. It's horrible and painful and gut-wrenching and everything.LiamKavhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01996095233681105682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-86295708601497978052014-08-17T13:09:56.371-03:002014-08-17T13:09:56.371-03:00This was naturally a hard episode for everyone to ...This was naturally a hard episode for everyone to make, but the hardest part of all for JMS personally was having to break it to the costuming people that the Markab were really gone for good, and all the great work they'd done on the species' prosthetics and costumes would never be seen on the show again. And that actually does add to the episode's theme: when a species is wiped out, it's a loss for the whole universe.<br /><br />I suspect the Minbari dinner scene was thrown in for a similar reason as much of the comedy scenes in The Wire: without it, the story would be too grim for anyone to want to watch. And it works even better for being placed at the beginning, putting us off our guard for what's to come. In a more subtle way, the search for the missing Markab ship also serves this role, first appearing to be nothing more than another "find the bad guy and stop them" story until it weaves into what's happening on the station in a big way.<br /><br />Not really anything else to say here; the story really speaks for itself as to what everyone was trying to do, though I will note that despite the network naturally being a bit worried about the audience response, there was not one negative reaction about it (at least, no public ones).Ryan Lohnernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-7768019956328683122014-08-17T12:10:02.383-03:002014-08-17T12:10:02.383-03:00Good thing it wasn't the Drazi, because we mig...Good thing it wasn't the Drazi, because we might actually have been happy about that, and it would have detracted from the episode. Besides, one dangerous superstition per species is enough.Siskoidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-11775592942839131172014-08-17T12:04:03.189-03:002014-08-17T12:04:03.189-03:00Another episode where Babylon 5 demonstrates the k...Another episode where Babylon 5 demonstrates the kind of story that, at the time, only B5 could do. I remember at the time half expecting the Markab would turn up again later, somehow, even though by this point it's clear that when something like this happens in B5, it's for keeps, no reset.<br /><br />If I recall, JMS almost had the Drazi be the race to be wiped out, but decided the angry makeup wasn't flexible enough to show all the necessary emotions.<br /><br />Oh, also, and chalk this up to being an oblivious teenager, despite all the earlier hints first time round I didn't realise Sheridan and Delenn were being set up as a couple until this episode.Madeleynoreply@blogger.com