there is a hole in your mind

[aria]

Some of you may recall that last summer I did an epic due South rewatch (tagged here, with a couple of extras); it took me a diligent month and a half, with breaks for things like WisCon in the middle.

What I would like to do now is a bit madder.

I'd like to rewatch a show that is a self-contained world five miles long, weighing two million, five hundred thousand tons, and spanning a hundred and ten fucking episodes plus a ridiculous pilot film. It is the dawn of the third age of mankind, I've only got a handful of episodes with me at any given point, and if I'm remotely sane (and don't give up partway through) it should take me at least all summer. Today, Aria presents: a Babylon 5 rewatch!

I'll do more than one episode in each post (usually two to four, depending on how long my commentary gets); the pilot film gets its own, though. I should probably give some general header warnings going in, the most important of which is that this is going to be spoilery like a spoilery thing, and that if you have not seen this show, plan to, and are remotely allergic to spoilers, you should stay very far away. Less important warnings: I have massive alien favouritism (ie I will spend much more time deconstructing G'Kar, Londo, and Delenn than I will anyone else, and Londo is maybe one of my favourite characters ever); I will not hesitate to bewail anything that is 'acting' instead of proper acting; I will probably sometimes be blinded by my love for this show, and not pick out the problematic things I should.

Also, I want to keep track of how well each episode passes the Bechdel Test, so if I start forgetting to do that, poke me and I'll resume.


We open with a monologue by Londo, declaring with some pride that he was there when it all began. I am not trawling deep into archives or other resources that will tell me about JMS's writing process, but I really do wonder if he had Londo's arc planned or at least sketched at the time of the pilot. Because if he did -- I may be a little choked up already. I am absurdly emotional about this show. I also think it is slightly evil of the writing to open with Londo's narration, because some of us (ie me) glom onto him as someone to pay attention to and like.

Sinclair's first lines, to some guy flirting with a hot alien: "I wouldn't. You know the rules about crossing species. Stick with the list." I am curious about this list! Who drew it up? Are the restrictions entirely biological considerations, or also cultural taboos? I ask this because I want to know if the Minbari allow any cross-species courting/sex/&c to happen -- Delenn is obviously a special case, and her clan seems more concerned with the reflection on them than honestly squicked, and I assume Valen had to have some influence re: interspecies sexuality (which of course means that making it Sinclair's opening line is strangely brilliant). I also want to know what the Narn think of it, considering their ambassador will try to seduce almost anything that is female and not Narn; I also also want to know if the Centauri would ratify a list like that. I am definitely overthinking this, but cross-species relations of all sorts are one of the most important considerations on this show, so the mention makes me want all sorts of deep political elaborations.

On the other hand, it might not be a political list in any way. It might be entirely biological, and mostly meant for things like "Warning: the female of this species eats its mate," which is the way Sinclair cites it here. I also love this little bit of scene because it tells us [a] the weird futuristicness of the world we're in, and [b] that Sinclair knows his stuff, and is at least in some ways absolutely the right person to run B5.

OH MY GOD GARIBALDI HAS ALL HIS HAIR.

G'Kar's makeup in the pilot is ... kind of cool, actually! More to the point, he comes in raging, deeply affronted that a Narn ship requesting docking must submit to a weapons search. I promptly got a huge stupid grin on my face. Lt. Commander Takashima meanwhile did not, and instead said something sarcastic about the peace-loving Narns we've all come to know and love except for those times when they invade border worlds. I don't remember if they kept that particular plot element, because while I assume the Narn homeworld was freed from Centauri rule long enough ago for the Narn to become major players, it worries me to discover that they're apparently acting like abused children who imitate their parents. I'm not surprised, though.

Delenn! How your makeup has drastically improved. I am liking the way that the humans get almost non-introductions (Sinclair is an Action Hero -- hah oh Straczynski I hope you caught on fairly quickly that he has a Hero Voice but that he's better at the introspective stuff -- Garibaldi does security, &c) like there's a sort of assumption that they'll get filled in, that they don't need something defining to begin with, because the audience already knows about humans and now has to play catch-up on everyone else. So we get the blustering militant Narn a couple scenes ago, and we get Delenn, sitting in the garden, contemplating the Zen pool. As you do.

And our introduction to Londo is in the casino, of course, trying to wheedle credits out of Garibaldi. Oh Londo. I do like that, aside from a certain messiness of his hair crest, Londo's design is mostly in order. Actually, the thing that seems most off is his accent; I don't think Peter Jurasik had it quite ironed out yet, and it's sort of cute if a little cognitive-dissonancy. I also adore the way they do his costuming, especially coming back to this fairly soon after having finished s5 -- he's covered in bright colors, and his various brooches are tacky, and not very spiky. Is he actually happier here? I don't know. Probably not.

This exchange is interesting:

LONDO. Garibaldi! My good, close friend, Garibaldi!
GARIBALDI. Oh no. No you don't. Not again.
LONDO. Lend me your support! Your good cheer!
GARIBALDI. My wallet?

Because apparently Garibaldi has lent Londo money before. Oh Mike, what? I bet he hates hanging out in the casino, too. This is directly followed by something that breaks my heart a little: Londo going off about how his beloved Centauri Republic conquered the Beta System in nine days! Came out of the sky like a veritable cloud of starships! And Garibaldi just cuts him off, and tells him N-O, no, stop, and to be a good little ambassador and go down to the docking bay in two hours. From this it's obvious enough that Garibaldi is babysitting him, and Londo blusters but Londo accepts it.

Aside from makeup, things I am desperately glad got changed: Lyta to Talia, until Patricia Tallman magically learned how to act by mid-s2; the switching of Sinclair's pilot girlfriend Carolyn Sykes with the GODAWFUL HAIR for Catherine Sakai, who is AWESOME; the lighting, dear god, people, your bridge is in the DARK; and Laurel Takashima for Susan Ivanova, not so much because I don't think Takashima's actress couldn't have become better than because Ivanova is a hole in my heart when she's not in the show. Things I am kind of sad they changed: the Earth Alliance uniforms. The pilot ones are kind of snazzy.

(Something that keeps on freaking me out is that techie in C&C, who IMDb lists as a character named Guerra, is played by Ed Wasser. You do not belong in C&C, Ed Wasser, you're Mr. Morden!)

Here is the infamous G'Kar-propositioning-Lyta scene! I can barely watch it, because it's so fucking skeevy, but I think it's sort of great if you put it back-to-back with the same scene between them in s5. Both of their character arcs are incredible. (Also, apparently G'Kar has gill implants? He and Lyta can be friends who breathe weird atmospheres on new planets! \o/ Or something.)

Delenn breaks my brain in this. Even back in the pilot, G'Kar says things to the effect of "Mollari was the only one who wasn't there to meet Kosh! Mollari must have done it!" which is totally par the course. But Delenn responds that G'Kar's view of the Centauri is colored by the fact that the Narn used to be their slaves, and when G'Kar rightly takes offense, she merely smiles and says, "The word was ... ill-chosen." And then she starts CRUSHING G'KAR WITH A GRAVITY RING. Which is ... less subtle than usual. Pilot!Delenn is weirdly like a mirror universe Delenn from the warrior caste, and she scares me even more than normal Delenn does.

Early G'Kar, as I said, makes me squirmy and uncomfortable. Back when he was sort of a plot device to make everyone's lives difficult, I didn't mind so much, but now I am attached, I want him to be better than he yet is. Seriously, in the pilot G'Kar is motivated by a sheer bloody-minded determination to make trouble and break fledgling alliances between anyone who might be a threat to the Narn. He also apparently has the power to intimidate Londo into voting the way G'Kar wants him to, which fascinates me. Of course it's via the medium of blackmail, which is how both of them get a lot of shit done, but I also find it interesting that "Certain atrocities were committed by my grandfather" actually would have any besmirching effect on the Mollari name.

And here we have the first instance of Londo's recurring, self-dooming mantra: "I had no choice." Oh Londo. He's astonishingly self-aware already, though: Garibaldi asks him whether he'd have voted differently if he'd known the vote wasn't deadlocked, and Londo says, "No. No, I'm afraid not. Commander Sinclair is a good man; I would hate to lose him. It is my weakness, my failure, and I'm sorry. Truly sorry." He doesn't have anything to gain from the admittance, and it doesn't make him any happier to know these things about himself, but Londo is terribly honest, and even has a perfectly good moral compass. He's already breaking my damn heart and it's still the stupid pilot.

I'm not actually sure how well the Kosh-gets-poisoned plot holds up, given what we come to know of Vorlons later. Kosh probably doesn't need to be put in the isolab, because he can sure as hell take whatever atmosphere he's given (including none at all) -- but Vorlons are kind of dicks, so that holds; if I was the Vorlon government, I'd be pretty pissed off that one of the Younger Races managed to take down my ambassador, so that holds; but the idea of Kosh being poisoned is kind of absurd. It's hard for Shadows to kill him. I suppose of all the races to know what would poison a Vorlon, it'd be the Minbari, but that still seems astronomically unlikely. And, here's the big one: why would Kosh appear to Sinclair unveiled? I mean, I don't necessarily disbelieve it, and in fact I think it might be excellent foreshadowing; it's the Kosh-let-himself-get-poisoned where I lose the sense.

Something I have never caught before: when fake!Sinclair goes to greet Kosh, Kosh's words of greeting to him are Entil'Zha Valen. I -- I don't even. Were they really planning that? How were they planning that? Actually, all the foreshadowing here is excellent: Delenn's statement that she's only here to observe Sinclair, his story of the Battle of the Line -- it's all here already. There is a hole in your mind.

The aesthetic of the pilot is very different from the rest of the show; it's probably tied in with the way that the alien ambassadors all get very specific introduction scenes, but the humans don't -- in the pilot, the alien is very alien. Delenn is distant, G'Kar is dangerous, and Londo doesn't mean anything anymore, and all of them have decently complex motivations but none of them are Us. Yet. In a lot of ways, Babylon 5 is a show about ... un-othering, maybe, in making you care about the Minbari and the Centauri and the Narn just as much as you do for the humans, and even eventually demystifying the Vorlons and the Shadows -- by the time they're kicked out of the galaxy, they can still blow up your planet but you know exactly why, and the danger is still there but a lot of the fear is gone. In the pilot, everything is a lot darker and more removed than it'll ever be again. And in some ways I think it's a lot less powerful for that.

Lastly, Bechdel score: didn't pass that one. Lyta and Takashima interact with Dr. Kyle in the conversation, Takashima and Delenn are only even in the same room at Council, and though Carolyn does go to talk to Delenn alone, they talk about Sinclair. Be better next time when you have Ivanova, show!


Okay, what have I let myself in for? I'm going to bed. /o\

Comments

[meganbmoore]

Part of me really, really wishes that I'd seen the pilot before watching the whole series (I was unaware that there was a separate pilot atthe time) if only to see what I'd think of Delenn as "male transitionin to female" without 5 seasons of wholly-female Delenn in my head.

I don't think pilot!Londo was happier, but I do think he was less unhappy.

[juliekarasik]

I think the original intention was to have Delenn not actually be female but neuter, and that idea was scrapped between the pilot and regular series.

[selenak]

Londo's arc was one of the first ones to be sketched out, which doesn't really surprise me. JMS has gone on record to say the only three characters whom he really couldn't have replaced, and whose actors leaving the show for whatever reason (dropping dead, serious sickness, money) would have completely screwed up the narrative were Londo, G'Kar and Delenn. Everyone else needing to be written out and replaced because of real life accidents could be done, but not these three.

(Incidentally, have you watched In the Beginning yet? Londo is the narrator there, too. Of course B5 is an ensemble story, but if you have to narrow it down to one particular character's arc as the heart of it, it would be Londo, imo of course.)

Re: cross species sex and attitudes to same in the 'verse: apparantly there is a floroushing porn industry specializing in that. A character in the B5 spin-off Crusade watches the vids in his spare time. What the different species make of it; actually I think G'Kar's sexual xenophilia is a psychological minefield, because as you say, we never see him hit on someone who is a Narn. And the only other species he could have imprinted on as a young boy and man on his homeworld were the Centauri. Given the occupation & G'Kar joining the resistance early on in general and his executed father in particular, there is no way those early encounters could have been voluntary; rape or at least strong coercion on one side must have been involved. Now I imagine Narn/Centauri sex is a big taboo for Narns for obvious reasons, and that's one reason why G'Kar's affair with Mariel is secret (otherwise he'd have lorded it over Londo), and why G'Kar goes for humans, who look much like Centauri but aren't so won't evoke the same reaction from fellow Narn as Centauri would do. (Personal fanon which I used in my fanfic.)

As for the Centauri, given how much they were modelled on the Romans, I think their general attitude is probably in that imperialist vein: sex with people from other species is fine and can be fun but it doesn't really count, and you definitely do not have serious relationships but do your duty and marry a fellow Centauri to procreate with.

Re: Londo and Garibaldi: the heartbreaking pay-off for the money lending scene is in s2's Acts of Sacrifice when Londo wants to pay Garibaldi back (and Garibaldi accepts the money but not the friendship anymore.)

Re: G'Kar blackmailing Londo with his grandfather's deeds, andraste wrote a great story about that, War Crimes, and I used the infamous grandfather as well in Lost in Translation. IMO the reason why G'Kar is able to do that is that Turhan is Emperor. Turhan was responsible for the withdrawal from Narn, and as is the case in such situations, I wouldn't be surprised if a few of the Centauri who behaved most viciously during the occupation were singled out for blame, such as Londo's grandfather, which contributes to the low standing of House Mollari at the start of the show. (I.e. Londo has a job nobody else at court wants, he's regarded as a joke, and he has no insider connections to the Royal Court until the Shadows give him the chance to impress Refa in early s2.)

Delenn's make-up: Delenn in the pilot was written and played on the basis of the Minbari being androgynous; the original plan was for Delenn to become female only after her transformation into a half-human hybrid, but the network wouldn't go for it and Mira Furlan wasn't too keen on the voice alteration, either, so JMS revised the concept and made the Minbari with two genders like the humans.

[aria]

This comment fills me with joy. :D

(I have not watched In the Beginning yet! The only one of the films I've seen is the pilot movie, although of the others, In the Beginning is the one I know most about. I just couldn't quite bring myself to watch old, kind of broken Londo.)

YES, re: both the Centauri and the Narn and cross-species sex. Your theory of the Centauri attitude jives perfectly. Meanwhile I am a bit ... worried for G'Kar, because, as you say, his sexuality is a psychological minefield. I feel that in part it also has to be just that he spends so much time worrying about and caring for his own people that most of them end up being like his children, and can't be objects of potential desire. Which doesn't mean he didn't also imprint on the Centauri, and that it isn't deeply problematic in lots of ways.

Re: G'Kar blackmailing Londo, I forgot about Emperor Turhan! (Cartagia tends to make such an overwhelming impression that lots of other things seem sort of irrelevant, y'know?) If Turhan is Emperor, all of Londo's problems and his family connections make a lot more sense. :)

Yes, I noticed that Delenn and the Minbari assassin had pretty much all the same gender markers! I'm glad they changed her makeup, but I think Minbari without gender binary is cool in concept, even if it didn't work out in execution.

[selenak]

In the Beginning is like fanfiction in that it's backstory (and post-story) which makes no sense to anyone not familiar with the show but very watchable for fans. (The other movies you can skip.) The scenes with old Londo are sad but not without hope; he's still himself, and while he breaks my heart with one particular statement, I find it oddly soothing that in the last hours of his life, he found the time to tell children a story and flirt a bit with their pretty nurse while waiting for the right time to get drunk in order to release Sheridan & Delenn. (Also, as indicated in the script, the children are grandchildren of Urza, his old friend, because Londo kept his promise to take care of Urza's family.)

Re: Emperor Turhan and the implications for Londo, my other bit of fanon concerns Londo's nephew Karn who is important in the first episode of season 1, Midnight on the Firing Line, and never referenced again, which is rare because JMS is really good with continuity. Considering what Karn is made to do in that episode and considering, again, the Romans as model, my fanon is that Karn more or less is forced to commit suicide afterwards, which in combination with the fact that during s1 Londo is directed to concede during every Narn/Centauri confrontation (notably in the s1 finale) contributes to House Mollari's low standing and Londo's growing bitterness towards Turhan's policies and willingness to join Refa's faction.

[aria]

Okay, In the Beginning is now officially on my to-watch list. :D

Also, I love your delightfully complex theories of Centauri society, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[lizbee]

One of the things that amuses me about androgynous!Delenn is that it seems to have made no difference whatsoever to Mira Furlan's mannerisms or presentation. (I don't know why it amuses me. Just the dissonance, I suppose.)

And then she starts CRUSHING G'KAR WITH A GRAVITY RING. Which is ... less subtle than usual.

And apparently she has a whole closet full of plastic Rings of Power, presumably acquired when the Minbari mugged Tolkien's Elves en route to the West. I DON'T EVEN KNOW, PILOT!JMS.

Something I have never caught before: when fake!Sinclair goes to greet Kosh, Kosh's words of greeting to him are Entil'Zha Valen. I -- I don't even. Were they really planning that?

I'm pretty sure that that, along with Londo's narration and some scenes, were added to the re-edit that was aired on TNT between seasons four and five. It also had new music, and this was the version that was released on DVD. To get the original, I think you have to seek it out on VHS or laserdisc. (I've seen it. It's not worth it.)

[aria]

I know! Oh Delenn. <3 Mostly I am happy they changed the makeup because she's gorgeous, and the harshness of her pilot prosthetic hide that. Also the bone crests in the pilot are ugly. I ... didn't realize I had aesthetic standards for Minbari bone crests before now.

And apparently she has a whole closet full of plastic Rings of Power, presumably acquired when the Minbari mugged Tolkien's Elves en route to the West.

Brb, LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY. I mean, I already knew that the Minbari were basically Elves and that Delenn is Luthien only even awesomer, which breaks the awesome barrier but I am SO GLAD they did not keep those plastic Rings of Power. /o\

I am sort of relieved to know that the Entil'Zha Valen line wasn't in the original pilot. My brain already wants to explode with how they handled the recasting and Sinclair's Valen plotline, and if they really were that specific, that early on, I'd actually have to respect JMS in the morning.

[lizbee]

My brain already wants to explode with how they handled the recasting and Sinclair's Valen plotline, and if they really were that specific, that early on, I'd actually have to respect JMS in the morning.

At this stage in the production, the plan was that Sinclair and Delenn's son would be Valen.

Think about that for a while. I'll be over here.

ETA: Okay, so the link below tells me that my third-hand data was not totally accurate, BUT STILL.

[aria]

I don't care how potentially-canon that idea is; it remains TERRIFYING in any iteration.

[icepixie]

Oh, "The Gathering." I didn't even know of its existence when I started watching the show (I think maybe Hulu didn't have it available or something), so I didn't actually see it until I was in season three or four. And by "see it," I mean "watch about twenty minutes and finally say I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE" and turn it off. :D (I just...ow, the acting. And the dialogue. And I figured if I'd made it that far without missing it, I could safely survive the rest of the series.) But if I get to see Delenn being less subtly badass, perhaps I need to watch it now.

I was contemplating a rewatch this summer, since I have time on my hands. I think you've just pushed me over the edge into doing it.

By the way, have you ever seen JMS's original plot outline for the series? It is CRACKTASTIC.

[aria]

From this I assume that it is possible to piece together the history of both the human-Minbari and the Centauri-Narn conflicts without the pilot! I imagine it'd just be a bit more piecemeal. I do not blame you at all for skipping the Gathering. And it really isn't worth it just for mirror-universe-warrior-caste!Delenn, seriously. It's mostly just amazingly disconcerting to see.

DO A REWATCH. :D

fkdskfdkj oh god the original plot outline. I cannot actually register the extent of my relief that they didn't go that direction.

[icepixie]

Yeah, I managed to put together all the pieces pretty quickly. I seem to recall a lot of recapping going on at the beginning of S2, which is probably where I got most of it.

I cannot actually register the extent of my relief that they didn't go that direction.

Dear god, yes. The rapid aging of the baby in particular made me go D: D: D: (not to mention the SAVIOUR BABY aspect), but the whole thing is just insane.

[starlady]

oo, i'm excited to read these. maybe I should actually watch, you know, the 3/5 of the show that i never saw...

[aria]

You definitely should! Also, depending on which 2/5 you did see, you should probably watch them before you read my recaps, because they are going to be massively spoilery. Assuming the internet hasn't spoiled you already, of course.

[starlady]

I…mostly don't care about spoilers. I sort of care if there's an active visual media fandom I'm following, but even then not really.

Put it this way, I always figure it's safer to bet on enjoying whatever people are writing/saying about media XYZ now rather than betting on my eventually consuming said media and then going back to read the conversation. ^_~

[skipthedemon]

Oh god, aria. 11 year old me thought this pilot was made of AWESOME. I was so excited for this show, and disappointed to had to wait a year for more. Of course, being 11, this was an eternity.

I recall my dad also being excited. Oh, bless. Will always love him and his geekitude. He did not have the most discerning of tastes.

[aria]

To be fair, I was first shown the pilot my freshmen year of college, and with nothing later in the series to compare it to, I was suitably intrigued and thought it was un-awful enough to continue watching. Taste is relative. :D

[polarisnorth]

Watching commences now!

... They actually start with London calling it the dawn of the third age. Anvilicious LotR reference is anvilicious! (And then I went "Holy shit, Takashima is Kim from Eureka!" Oh, the tiny sci-fi pool of actors.)

Everything Sinclair says is SO PORTENTOUS. Even when he's warning tourists away from scary alien sex. It's especially bad when he's infodumping, though.

Oh, Londo. D: I forgot how sad he made me. I want to hug him all the time.

I do love that Sinclair quotes Ulysses.

[aria]

I <3 your typoing of Londo as London, btw. I am completely unclear on why I don't make that typo myself. Also, omg, if you think that the dawn of the third age of mankind is anvilicious, wait until you get to the Rangers with their green stone pins, and to Za'ha'dum, and and and. XD

Sinclair's Hero Voice cracks me the fuck up, actually. NOTHING YOU SAY IS ACTUALLY THAT IMPORTANT, SINCLAIR SWEETIE.

I ... am not sure how you're going to get past early s2 if Londo is this heartbreaking to you already. I spent most of the last two seasons sobbing for him.

[polarisnorth]

... You know, the sad thing is I made that mistake both times I typed his name, but I only noticed and corrected it the second time.

We will see!

Your icon is extremely wrong looking.

[aria]

It is not a surprising typo to make, especially from you. :D

My icon should be wrong-looking! It's from an episode that takes place almost entirely inside Londo's head. :DDD