tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post2349811370577736978..comments2024-03-27T08:49:38.786-03:00Comments on Siskoid's Blog of Geekery: Babylon 5 #79: Conflicts of InterestSiskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-70632706315717743822014-09-24T13:55:51.889-03:002014-09-24T13:55:51.889-03:00I've always figured that Garibaldi was going t...I've always figured that Garibaldi was going to rag out Zack no matter what. Zack does it himself, he should have sent a grunt so he at least wouldn't be doing it himself. Zack sends a grunt, he didn't respect him enough to come himself.Cradoknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-36516809749394004252014-09-24T11:38:52.279-03:002014-09-24T11:38:52.279-03:00One thing that frustrated me at the time and conti...One thing that frustrated me at the time and continues to annoy me on this rewatch is when talking about Garibaldi, everyone keeps saying "he's been funny ever since he got back" or "when he got back he couldn't wait to get back on the job", as if he'd just been on a skiing holiday. He disappeared! While the station was surrounded by Shadow vessels! Then you found him in an escape pod jettisoned from a ship that blew itself up moments later! Are you not going to investigate <i>any</i> of this? You've dealt with the Shadows, you haven't started against Earth yet... you've got the time. At least ask Lyta if she can do a covert scan, or something.<br /><br />Also, the whole situation is being written as Sheridan vs Garibaldi. What about Franklin, the guy he had multiple dinners with and who bonded over their addiction issues? What about Susan, who's been a friend of his for 4 years? Haven't either of them tried to have a talk with them? (And, seriously, how butthurt is Garibaldi when Zack takes his gun away? He should have been expecting that for weeks. Instead, we get "at least it wouldn't have come from you". Suck it up, man.)<br /><br />The Duck Amuck cartoon proves one thing... at least Garibaldi owns some DVDs. That's at least one thing he has over Sheridan. Also, as a fan of classic WB animation, he should be thrilled when he gets a call from Batman's butler at the end of the episode.<br /><br /><i>'The whole duct sequence comes from JMS overhearing that Jerry Doyle is claustrophobic, and given his love of using real bits of the actors' personalities to add to their performance, he immediately jotted down on a napkin "Shove Garibaldi into an air duct at the first opportunity."'</i><br /><br />Jesus Christ! Stop being a psychopath, Joe!<br /><br />"What about Epsilon 3?" is rapidly becoming Franklin's go-to answer for everything. I hope he's not planning on getting married anytime soon. I can't imaging his wife loving getting married while Draal stands by overacting.<br /><br />I also quite like the Ivanova/Zathras scene. The humour is nice enough and the "single-take" aspect is impressive. Bit annoying it begins on a fade in though so that the whole thing is done in blurry-o-vision. It also reminds me of one of my friends, who's Malaysian-Chinese. He claimed that him and his 3 sisters all had the same name. When we asked how his family called for him when they wanted him specifically, he said they just referred to him as "boy". (We also found out that they have different middle names, and he was just being obtuse/funny. Still, it makes Facebook navigating a nightmare.)<br /><br />FACT ALERT: This is Lise's third appearence, after "Babylon Squared" (also featuring Zathras) and "A Voice in the Wilderness" (also featuring Epsilon 3).<br /><br />LiamKavhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01996095233681105682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-34282157883369146142014-09-24T10:15:25.634-03:002014-09-24T10:15:25.634-03:00Also, the episode features Garibaldi watching Duck...Also, the episode features Garibaldi watching Duck Amuck, the classic Looney Tunes short where Daffy is tormented by a sadistic godlike animator. Hmm...Ryan Lohnernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-56895507474799920822014-09-24T09:23:30.146-03:002014-09-24T09:23:30.146-03:00I find Mark Schneider to look uncannily like Campb...I find Mark Schneider to look uncannily like Campbell Scott, myself. Probably comes from being a huge fan of The Spanish Prisoner. The character has potential, but he shlurs all his s'hes like Sean Connery on a bad day, and I don't get the feeling it's a natural speech impediment so it just ends up annoying.<br /><br />The whole duct sequence comes from JMS overhearing that Jerry Doyle is claustrophobic, and given his love of using real bits of the actors' personalities to add to their performance, he immediately jotted down on a napkin "Shove Garibaldi into an air duct at the first opportunity." And even with only three sides of the ducts actually existing, he zoomed out of the thing at the end of every take and you can definitely feel his discomfort. Another bit not noted in the review is the weird moment where Garibaldi spots the Psi-Corps agent but just sits there not shooting, and the agent in turn simply lets him go. At this point there's a bunch of random pieces to this story that don't seem to fit together, and if this was Joss Whedon I'd definitely be worried at this point, but even on first viewing I was confident JMS knew where he was going with all this.<br /><br />I like the Ivanova/Zathras scene myself, and it largely comes down to what I said earlier about the success of comedy largely being down to the actors. In a four minute long single take, Christian and Choate nail every one of their lines, and Choate does a quite impressive job of doing the same kind of personality as the B4 Zathras while still clearly making this one a separate character.Ryan Lohnernoreply@blogger.com