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Still doing this! I remain completely nuts.
1x01, Midnight on the Firing Line
Despite cosmetic & costuming changes, this episode really is a continuation of The Gathering -- it doesn't necessarily assume you've seen it, but nor does it do any of the character legwork the pilot did, except of course with Ivanova and Talia, since they're new. It's a bit of a shame, because the Gathering is basically a ridiculous shambles, but it's nice to go in knowing why G'Kar is so militant, why he and Londo are literally at each other's throats, why Ivanova's surprised to hear Sinclair call the Minbari honorable, &c.
Reasons Londo is my favourite:
GARIBALDI. A clerical error?
LONDO. Yes! We thought your world was Beta Nine; it was actually Beta Twelve. Okay, we made a mistake. I'm sorry. Here, open my wrists.
GARIBALDI. Centauri don't have major arteries in their wrists.
LONDO. Of course we don't. What do you think, I'm stupid?
It's funny, of course, and tells us a wacky fun fact about Centauri biology, but it's also about Londo's dramatics and lack of follow-through. This is not the man who will ask Vir to kill him to save Centauri Prime.
Speaking of Vir, here he is! He comes in bustling, anxious, and stating the obvious; "Have you met my diplomatic staff? Just arrived from the Homeworld. This is it!" Londo says, not even concealing his scorn. I think it's disgust with himself for the most part, though: the only assistance he merits is Vir. Of course it turns out that Vir is one of the best things that could possibly happen to him, and quite soon I'll probably want to talk about their seriously excellent relationship, but for the moment suffice it to say that Vir does not yet feel like a gift. (Sidebar: Vir already calls Londo "Londo." That seems to be the general rule, actually: everyone calls him Londo, or Ambassador if they're being formal; "Mollari" is reserved for official state occasions, or to be used like an insult every time G'Kar says it. It's just interesting that even Londo's nervous little aide is so informal with him. Maybe Londo told Vir to call him that in an attempt to make Vir less panicked?)
And here we have the near-simultaneous introduction of Talia and Ivanova. Talia's quite friendly and Ivanova completely brushes her off, which would be a braver move re: a new character if the audience'd had time to attach itself to the old lieutenant commander; as is, the first clear Ivanova impression we get involves her basically telling Talia to fuck off. To my vague recollection, this didn't make me dislike her, since I knew nothing about either of them; instead, I just assumed Ivanova had a reason to dislike telepaths, which is of course true.
Also, I ship them, but not yet.
Also also, we're five minutes in and the show has already passed the Bechdel test in this scene.
"Ambassador Mollari! Care to join me? I have some spoo; it's quite fresh this week." Rewatching makes these scenes golden, because of course Centauri hate fresh spoo, so a surface-jovial dining invitation is quite insulting already. Actually the entire scene is excellent: Londo and G'Kar are already placing personal blame on one another for everything their species do to one another; the wheel turns, does it not, Ambassador, G'Kar says in smug satisfaction; and they're already literally trying to strangle one another. You guys desperately need couples' therapy. Take two personal revelations and call me in the morning.
We hear about the Londo-and-G'Kar-will-strangle-each-other dream this early on! I love how weirdly pleased Londo is to know he's going to kill G'Kar (in much the same way that G'Kar will be happy to die if he watches Londo die too, two seasons from now in an elevator); I love Sinclair's assertion that a lot can change in twenty years, and that maybe it won't come to pass; I love that the dream can be a metaphor if Londo dies of a heart attack, and exactly what Londo thinks it is now if things stay in a holding pattern, and a mercy killing when it actually happens.
Londo in the series proper is a lot less of a joke than he is in the pilot, or at least he has more ... self-respect, maybe? He understands it's his personal responsibility that his nephew he assigned to Ragesh Three is in danger or possibly dead; he understands that peace with the Narn is virtually impossible; and so he decides there will be war. He has no power to make it so, but he's decided it anyway. The interesting thing about Londo is that when he decides to make something so, it often is so, and when he chooses to fight back it usually works; it's just that he often tricks himself into believing it doesn't, and so does nothing, and he hardly ever makes that decision when he should.
Kosh is a flashlight on a stained-glass dressing screen! That seems hilariously appropriate. Incidentally, I love how his voice is done; it's like a whole distant choir of people talking. And then of course he breaks out one of his first Koshisms:
KOSH. They are alone. They are a dying people. We should let them pass.
SINCLAIR. Who, the Narn or the Centauri?
KOSH. Yes.
I think I am going to love listening to the things Kosh says in retrospect, now that I know what's going on. Here, for instance, it's less that he's being deliberately obtuse than that who the Shadows pick, and how G'Kar and Londo (and Na'Toth and Ta'Lon and Cartagia and Vir and the Regent and &c) choose to act, will determine just who is alone and dying.
Of course, the real answer is the Vorlons, but I'm not sure even Kosh knows that yet.
G'Kar says that they've recently managed to restore a few forests on Narn, and that before the Centauri stripped it, it was all green. I'm picturing a glorious low-lit rainforest planet now, and my heart is breaking a bit, given what we see of Narn later. "I confess I look forward to the day when we have cleansed the universe of the Centauri and carved their bones into little flutes for Narn children," G'Kar adds, and dgkdsjkfd. I want to take his character arc home with me and feed it cookies and tell it how much I love it.
"The Earth Alliance can't go around being the galaxy's policemen!" a senator snaps at Sinclair, and boom, thus was born the Rangers. I don't know quite how serious I am about that, because technically the Rangers are deliciously recursive -- Sinclair joins the Rangers knowing that Valen founded them, discovers he's Valen, and goes to found the Rangers -- but I suspect that even if he didn't know, he'd still found them on principle.
At the end, in the bar, Ivanova and Talia talk about themselves to each other! Again! Ivanova apologizes, they sort of connect, and even though they're talking about a third party, they're discussing Ivanova's mommy issues. (I love that Ivanova has mommy issues! I also love that not too many people on this show even have very loud parental issues.) And I love that Talia willingly takes on Ivanova's story, and apologises for it; I love that Ivanova knows that what happened wasn't Talia's fault, but still can't yet forgive her. The two of them are excellent, and just typing this paragraph is making me want to go out in search of the fix-it fic I know is out there.
I LOVE GARIBALDI'S DAFFY DUCK OBSESSION. I also love that, while they didn't give Delenn much to do in this episode, she hangs out with Garibaldi and tries so hard to understand Earth humor. <3
1x02, Soul Hunter
This, on the other hand, is a Delenn-heavy episode!
We start with Franklin, though. One of the things that this show does that I love is maintain internal consistency: one black doctor is not interchangeable with another, thank god, and we get to find out what happened to Ben Kyle. More than that, though, these people know each other: Sinclair and Garibaldi are friends, Sinclair and Franklin apparently knew one another from before he transferred, Ivanova's been following Franklin's work, and later we learn she's had previous assignments with Sheridan. Everyone still has to get to know one another as friends, but they all know (of) each other in a professional capacity, and that's smart, insofar as it makes audience acceptance a bit easier.
I love the costuming on this show! I mean, I love in particular the way the various alien ambassadors' costumes change through the series, because the Earthforce uniform to the free Babylon 5 uniform is in-your-face striking, but the other clothing changes -- Londo's coats getting darker, G'Kar's outfits becoming ... more elegant, is maybe the way to put it? and Delenn's complete blue-to-red palette change -- are subtle and awesome. Right now I am appreciating Delenn's teal silk things.
I think I like soul hunters in concept. The soul hunter himself has a cool voice synthesizer thing -- but then, I also love how Sea Devils sound. The rubbishy bits of sci-fi: I'm weirdly fond of them. But I'm also fond of the bit where we establish, quite early on, that souls are real, tangible objects, although I still sort of think they're ... conceptual objects? They're not a matter of belief, though, and I find that fascinating. I do think that at this point the theology/spirituality/what-have-you of the show isn't fully formed or laid out in a definite way, and I find myself incredibly spoiled by some of the things G'Kar says in later seasons, but I do like that the show is playing around with beliefs and truths and realities already.
I also love that, having established the truth of the soul, no one can agree what to do with them. My inner archivist thinks that soul hunters are actually kind of awesome in the sense that, well, if a soul will leave the world if you don't catch it in a ball, you should probably work to preserve it. On the other hand, reincarnation is also one of those belief-facts, and keeping a soul from where it should go is a bit horrific. I also love what the soul hunter says: "Minbari! Pale, bloodless, look in their eyes and see nothing but mirrors, infinities of reflection." I love that -- infinities of reflection. That's a rather delightful visual for reincarnation.
...Apparently soul hunters came to take Dukhat at the beginning of the Earth-Minbari war; they made a wall of bodies to stop us. Having now met Dukhat, the idea of him being imprisoned is viscerally horrifying. I love rewatches! The old stuff is somewhat less good, but you can also retroactively assign extraordinary meaning to it.
"Understand this: before you leave, I will search your ship, rip every panel, tear up every floor; I will gut it from end to end until I find the souls you have stolen from us." There's the Delenn I know and love! The Delenn I know and love is badass and terrifying. On the other hand, she's not quite done becoming Delenn, because later on in the series, I'm fairly sure she'd have kicked the soul hunter's ass and not allowed herself to be captured for soul-harvesting. I do love how I have to think really hard to remember those times when she's actually damsel-in-distress-y rather than just threatened-but-competent.
I am desperately glad that Sinclair/Delenn did not end up happening in canon, if only because the early potential set-up is almost ridiculously heteronormative. I am, on the other hand, delighted that Sinclair got to be Valen, because he's already training to smile enigmatically and say strange imperceptive things.
Despite ehh-ness on the damsel-ness, though, I still already love Delenn. That last scene, where she releases the souls, is absolutely beautiful.
No Bechdel-test-passing on this one; Delenn and Ivanova weren't in any of the same scenes.
1x01, Midnight on the Firing Line
Despite cosmetic & costuming changes, this episode really is a continuation of The Gathering -- it doesn't necessarily assume you've seen it, but nor does it do any of the character legwork the pilot did, except of course with Ivanova and Talia, since they're new. It's a bit of a shame, because the Gathering is basically a ridiculous shambles, but it's nice to go in knowing why G'Kar is so militant, why he and Londo are literally at each other's throats, why Ivanova's surprised to hear Sinclair call the Minbari honorable, &c.
Reasons Londo is my favourite:
GARIBALDI. A clerical error?
LONDO. Yes! We thought your world was Beta Nine; it was actually Beta Twelve. Okay, we made a mistake. I'm sorry. Here, open my wrists.
GARIBALDI. Centauri don't have major arteries in their wrists.
LONDO. Of course we don't. What do you think, I'm stupid?
It's funny, of course, and tells us a wacky fun fact about Centauri biology, but it's also about Londo's dramatics and lack of follow-through. This is not the man who will ask Vir to kill him to save Centauri Prime.
Speaking of Vir, here he is! He comes in bustling, anxious, and stating the obvious; "Have you met my diplomatic staff? Just arrived from the Homeworld. This is it!" Londo says, not even concealing his scorn. I think it's disgust with himself for the most part, though: the only assistance he merits is Vir. Of course it turns out that Vir is one of the best things that could possibly happen to him, and quite soon I'll probably want to talk about their seriously excellent relationship, but for the moment suffice it to say that Vir does not yet feel like a gift. (Sidebar: Vir already calls Londo "Londo." That seems to be the general rule, actually: everyone calls him Londo, or Ambassador if they're being formal; "Mollari" is reserved for official state occasions, or to be used like an insult every time G'Kar says it. It's just interesting that even Londo's nervous little aide is so informal with him. Maybe Londo told Vir to call him that in an attempt to make Vir less panicked?)
And here we have the near-simultaneous introduction of Talia and Ivanova. Talia's quite friendly and Ivanova completely brushes her off, which would be a braver move re: a new character if the audience'd had time to attach itself to the old lieutenant commander; as is, the first clear Ivanova impression we get involves her basically telling Talia to fuck off. To my vague recollection, this didn't make me dislike her, since I knew nothing about either of them; instead, I just assumed Ivanova had a reason to dislike telepaths, which is of course true.
Also, I ship them, but not yet.
Also also, we're five minutes in and the show has already passed the Bechdel test in this scene.
"Ambassador Mollari! Care to join me? I have some spoo; it's quite fresh this week." Rewatching makes these scenes golden, because of course Centauri hate fresh spoo, so a surface-jovial dining invitation is quite insulting already. Actually the entire scene is excellent: Londo and G'Kar are already placing personal blame on one another for everything their species do to one another; the wheel turns, does it not, Ambassador, G'Kar says in smug satisfaction; and they're already literally trying to strangle one another. You guys desperately need couples' therapy. Take two personal revelations and call me in the morning.
We hear about the Londo-and-G'Kar-will-strangle-each-other dream this early on! I love how weirdly pleased Londo is to know he's going to kill G'Kar (in much the same way that G'Kar will be happy to die if he watches Londo die too, two seasons from now in an elevator); I love Sinclair's assertion that a lot can change in twenty years, and that maybe it won't come to pass; I love that the dream can be a metaphor if Londo dies of a heart attack, and exactly what Londo thinks it is now if things stay in a holding pattern, and a mercy killing when it actually happens.
Londo in the series proper is a lot less of a joke than he is in the pilot, or at least he has more ... self-respect, maybe? He understands it's his personal responsibility that his nephew he assigned to Ragesh Three is in danger or possibly dead; he understands that peace with the Narn is virtually impossible; and so he decides there will be war. He has no power to make it so, but he's decided it anyway. The interesting thing about Londo is that when he decides to make something so, it often is so, and when he chooses to fight back it usually works; it's just that he often tricks himself into believing it doesn't, and so does nothing, and he hardly ever makes that decision when he should.
Kosh is a flashlight on a stained-glass dressing screen! That seems hilariously appropriate. Incidentally, I love how his voice is done; it's like a whole distant choir of people talking. And then of course he breaks out one of his first Koshisms:
KOSH. They are alone. They are a dying people. We should let them pass.
SINCLAIR. Who, the Narn or the Centauri?
KOSH. Yes.
I think I am going to love listening to the things Kosh says in retrospect, now that I know what's going on. Here, for instance, it's less that he's being deliberately obtuse than that who the Shadows pick, and how G'Kar and Londo (and Na'Toth and Ta'Lon and Cartagia and Vir and the Regent and &c) choose to act, will determine just who is alone and dying.
Of course, the real answer is the Vorlons, but I'm not sure even Kosh knows that yet.
G'Kar says that they've recently managed to restore a few forests on Narn, and that before the Centauri stripped it, it was all green. I'm picturing a glorious low-lit rainforest planet now, and my heart is breaking a bit, given what we see of Narn later. "I confess I look forward to the day when we have cleansed the universe of the Centauri and carved their bones into little flutes for Narn children," G'Kar adds, and dgkdsjkfd. I want to take his character arc home with me and feed it cookies and tell it how much I love it.
"The Earth Alliance can't go around being the galaxy's policemen!" a senator snaps at Sinclair, and boom, thus was born the Rangers. I don't know quite how serious I am about that, because technically the Rangers are deliciously recursive -- Sinclair joins the Rangers knowing that Valen founded them, discovers he's Valen, and goes to found the Rangers -- but I suspect that even if he didn't know, he'd still found them on principle.
At the end, in the bar, Ivanova and Talia talk about themselves to each other! Again! Ivanova apologizes, they sort of connect, and even though they're talking about a third party, they're discussing Ivanova's mommy issues. (I love that Ivanova has mommy issues! I also love that not too many people on this show even have very loud parental issues.) And I love that Talia willingly takes on Ivanova's story, and apologises for it; I love that Ivanova knows that what happened wasn't Talia's fault, but still can't yet forgive her. The two of them are excellent, and just typing this paragraph is making me want to go out in search of the fix-it fic I know is out there.
I LOVE GARIBALDI'S DAFFY DUCK OBSESSION. I also love that, while they didn't give Delenn much to do in this episode, she hangs out with Garibaldi and tries so hard to understand Earth humor. <3
1x02, Soul Hunter
This, on the other hand, is a Delenn-heavy episode!
We start with Franklin, though. One of the things that this show does that I love is maintain internal consistency: one black doctor is not interchangeable with another, thank god, and we get to find out what happened to Ben Kyle. More than that, though, these people know each other: Sinclair and Garibaldi are friends, Sinclair and Franklin apparently knew one another from before he transferred, Ivanova's been following Franklin's work, and later we learn she's had previous assignments with Sheridan. Everyone still has to get to know one another as friends, but they all know (of) each other in a professional capacity, and that's smart, insofar as it makes audience acceptance a bit easier.
I love the costuming on this show! I mean, I love in particular the way the various alien ambassadors' costumes change through the series, because the Earthforce uniform to the free Babylon 5 uniform is in-your-face striking, but the other clothing changes -- Londo's coats getting darker, G'Kar's outfits becoming ... more elegant, is maybe the way to put it? and Delenn's complete blue-to-red palette change -- are subtle and awesome. Right now I am appreciating Delenn's teal silk things.
I think I like soul hunters in concept. The soul hunter himself has a cool voice synthesizer thing -- but then, I also love how Sea Devils sound. The rubbishy bits of sci-fi: I'm weirdly fond of them. But I'm also fond of the bit where we establish, quite early on, that souls are real, tangible objects, although I still sort of think they're ... conceptual objects? They're not a matter of belief, though, and I find that fascinating. I do think that at this point the theology/spirituality/what-have-you of the show isn't fully formed or laid out in a definite way, and I find myself incredibly spoiled by some of the things G'Kar says in later seasons, but I do like that the show is playing around with beliefs and truths and realities already.
I also love that, having established the truth of the soul, no one can agree what to do with them. My inner archivist thinks that soul hunters are actually kind of awesome in the sense that, well, if a soul will leave the world if you don't catch it in a ball, you should probably work to preserve it. On the other hand, reincarnation is also one of those belief-facts, and keeping a soul from where it should go is a bit horrific. I also love what the soul hunter says: "Minbari! Pale, bloodless, look in their eyes and see nothing but mirrors, infinities of reflection." I love that -- infinities of reflection. That's a rather delightful visual for reincarnation.
...Apparently soul hunters came to take Dukhat at the beginning of the Earth-Minbari war; they made a wall of bodies to stop us. Having now met Dukhat, the idea of him being imprisoned is viscerally horrifying. I love rewatches! The old stuff is somewhat less good, but you can also retroactively assign extraordinary meaning to it.
"Understand this: before you leave, I will search your ship, rip every panel, tear up every floor; I will gut it from end to end until I find the souls you have stolen from us." There's the Delenn I know and love! The Delenn I know and love is badass and terrifying. On the other hand, she's not quite done becoming Delenn, because later on in the series, I'm fairly sure she'd have kicked the soul hunter's ass and not allowed herself to be captured for soul-harvesting. I do love how I have to think really hard to remember those times when she's actually damsel-in-distress-y rather than just threatened-but-competent.
I am desperately glad that Sinclair/Delenn did not end up happening in canon, if only because the early potential set-up is almost ridiculously heteronormative. I am, on the other hand, delighted that Sinclair got to be Valen, because he's already training to smile enigmatically and say strange imperceptive things.
Despite ehh-ness on the damsel-ness, though, I still already love Delenn. That last scene, where she releases the souls, is absolutely beautiful.
No Bechdel-test-passing on this one; Delenn and Ivanova weren't in any of the same scenes.