and I have forgotten how to dance

[aria]

Some tasty space links to go with today's recap!

i. Hypothetical methane-based life on Titan. There are plenty of non-biological explanations for everything that goes down on that moon, but I love that life is one of the wacky options.

ii. Hubble spots a planet-eating star. OM NOM NOM. The universe is so cool.

iii. Stellar Geography in the Babylon 5 Galaxy, which is less scientific but probably still relevant to our interests. Someone with much more attention to detail than JMS drew this up, so there are the usual mildly peeved fannish notes about inconsistency, but it's still awesome. (My personal favourite part is that, from the arbitrary viewpoint from which the galaxy is mapped, one would basically be traveling West to get beyond the galactic rim. :D)


1x06, Mind War

In large part I'm watching this time through for arc plots (ie the Shadow War and all its forward and backward domino effects) and I am violently allergic to the s5 telepath plot, so in rewatch, this episode is a bit unfortunate not because it doesn't in itself deliver, but that it promises something that in the end isn't as good as the promise. That said, I like that this episode carries with it all the seeds of the telepath problem, demonstrated in action rather than just in Ivanova's backstory, and it's definitely one of the better telepath episodes.

Much more importantly, it also has Bester. I sort of want to talk about Bester as I go along, and observe as I go rather than writing a treatise on him here; so right now I will just say that I adore him. He's one of the best villains the show has, because in a lot of ways he's the pettiest; like basically all the show's villains, his motive is power, but it's a very small and specific sort of power. He's just trying to protect his own interests, and the interests of the Corps -- because, of course, the Corps is mother, the Corps is father, the Corps is family -- and, obviously, he's better than all those mundanes out there. He's very, solidly in the right in his own head; I don't think that's ever a question. I LOVE BESTER.

"I don't like Psi Cops nosing around in here," Garibaldi says. "It's creepy the way they look at you, like you're some kind of bug." And then I discover that I do care, and deeply, about Garibaldi's season four arc, because that makes me writhe with discomfort and sort of wish that Garibaldi would just take out his PPG and off Bester right the fuck now, while he still can. I also love Bester breezing in past him, hearing Garibaldi's obviously angry thought, and saying, with a polite smile, "Anatomically impossible, Mr. Garibaldi. But you're welcome to try. Anytime. Anywhere." Because he is just that much of a dick. And thus is born my sudden weird conviction that Bester has decided to have a little Garibaldi obsession, just because poor Mike is so fun to bait.

"Good old Psi Corps! You guys never cease to amaze me. All the moral fiber of Jack the Ripper! What do you do in your spare time, juggle babies over fire pits? Oops, there goes another calculated risk!" REASONS I LOVE IVANOVA: SEE ABOVE. Deep in my soul I suspect she has a lot of the best lines.

"Do you know what it's like when telepaths make love, Commander? You drop every defense, and it's all mirrors, reflecting each other's feelings, deeper and deeper, until, somewhere along the line, your souls mix, and it's a feeling so profound it makes you hurt." A couple of things about this. One, I fucking love telepaths in theory. In practice they are very much hit-or-miss for me, especially because Bester is the only one I'm consistently interested in, and they got rid of Talia way too soon, but in theory, oh god, awesome. Two, the above speech sort of showcases one of the things I love about Babylon 5: there's a lot of pontificating, yeah, and people say things that real people just wouldn't say because no one sounds that type of eloquent when unrehearsed, but -- seriously, if I wrote a TV show, it would sound like this. In a lot of stupid ways, this is my perfect show.

I like that Jason Ironheart is sort of a object lesson in Do Not Try This At Home as far as enhancing one's own telepaths goes. The Vorlons technically created a much more stable telepath when they enhanced Lyta. On the other hand, Jason becomes one with the universe, and Lyta goes all Dark Phoenix, so I'm not actually clear on who ended up with the better deal.

Meanwhile, the B plot: I love it. It's about Catherine Sakai going to Sigma 957, and G'Kar trying to warn her about the strange happenings there. Of course at the time, we the audience have no idea what the fuck that thing at Sigma 957 was any better than Catherine does, but to my delight on a rewatch I actually recognize them as the First Ones with the cool spinny-top spaceships. HI, FIRST ONES! :D I love that they're introduced so early, and are so completely incomprehensible if you don't know what you're looking at.

More than that, though, I love everything this episode does with G'Kar. This is the first time we hear him speechifying not in a blustering, for-political-gain way, but simply as an observer of sentient-being nature. "Let me pass on to you the one thing I've learned about this place: no one here is exactly what he appears. Not Mollari, not Delenn, not Sinclair, and not me," he says, and of course it's true for the immediacy of the episode, but it's also true in a much bigger way: every one of them has secrets, hidden depths, and a fairly epic destiny. Then, of course, G'Kar brings it right back down: "Narns, humans, Centauri, we all do what we do for the same reason: because it seemed like a good idea at the time." Which is of course also true! Some good ideas are much better ideas than others, though.

And at the end, one of my favourite of G'Kar's speeches:

An ant! I have just picked it up with the tip of my glove. If I put it down again, and it asks another ant, 'What was that?!' how would it explain? There are things in the universe billions of years older than either of our races. They are vast, timeless, and if they're aware of us at all, it is as little more than ants. And we have as much chance communicating with them as an ant does with us ... They are a mystery, and I am both terrified and reassured to know that there are still wonders in the universe, that we have not yet explained everything.

I love that, as I said, this is the first time we hear G'Kar speaking in a way that's different from the aggressive posturing we've had so far; the fun thing is that eventually it will all be like this, and it's important that it's been here from the beginning. G'Kar has so much potential for destruction and so much potential for grace.

I also love that what G'Kar says is fundamentally true; it is weirdly reassuring that there are unexplained wonders in the universe. I think it actually underlines for me the huge, huge problem that I have with Lorien and with the solution to the Shadow War in No Surrender, No Retreat: there is no more unexplained wonder. I mean, yes, it's not all perfectly explained; fuck knows what Lorien is besides Tom Bombadil, or what all of the First Ones can do and are up to. But they can be communicated with, sometimes via the medium of Lorien and sometimes by the power of Ivanova's awesome alone; they can be understood, insofar as the Vorlon-Shadow conflict can literally be deconstructed to that of parents fighting over the right way to raise the kids. And I understand that s4 had crazy amounts of plot compression it had to deal with, but it breaks my heart a little, because -- to overextend the metaphor, the ants can't tell the people with the ant farm to please leave, now, they're done living in the glass tunnels and they're quite capable of living on their own, thanks. If this is the setup, that cannot be the solution.

That's probably what weird existential fic is for, though.

Bechdel score: many awesome womens, none of them interacting in a significant way. Boo.


1x07, The War Prayer

...Which the show then makes up for by passing in the first thirty seconds of this episode. I love Shaal Mayan, and her obvious friendship and history with Delenn. (I might even ship them a little, just from the depths of affection with which they interact.)

DELENN. Our lives were simpler then.
SHAAL MAYAN. Do you regret the choices that you made, to be here?
DELENN. Sometimes. Only sometimes. You?
SHAAL MAYAN. I would be nothing other than what I am.

I like how easy it is, early on, to think of Delenn as the benevolent one, particularly because she's up against Londo and G'Kar, and right now she comes off as the sane and reasonable one in that equation. But all the hints are already there that Delenn can be and has been frightening, and is not to be underestimated, so that when we learn things like her role in the Earth-Minbari War, it's completely believable.

Meanwhile, I forgot how much Ivanova and Garibaldi flirt first season! I mean, their method of flirting is for Ivanova to delegate tasks to Garibaldi, Garibaldi to blackmail her about the coffee she's growing in the hydroponic gardens, and Ivanova to call him a vicious man, but I think that is just their way. Alternatively, they could be read as having the most awesome brother-sister relationship ever. Either way, I love watching them interact.

The Kosh bits of this episode are great. "We take no interest in the affairs of others," he tells Sinclair, and about a minute later, says he's studying Earth. Oh Kosh. Your party line is rubbish when you're very obviously checking in on the development of humanity. Of course that scene is on purpose, and makes much more sense in context. I also notice, on a rewatch in order to make sure I have Kosh's lines right, that this scene should play in a way that tells the audience that Sinclair's figured out the discrepancy between Kosh's words and actions. As is, it plays like two people who don't emote like humans, having a normal, civil conversation, but I guess that's all right too. I do like that Sinclair also addresses the weirdness of the way in which Kosh got poisoned in the pilot; I still think it doesn't make much sense, but I guess Kosh really did want to reveal himself to Sinclair at the beginning or something.

Speaking of Sinclair, the scenes where he has to pretend to be an alien-hating bigot sort of crack me up, not least because his acting is, um ... Well. I am having fun playing the Imagine Sheridan Doing This game, and I seriously cannot conceive of Sheridan ever being this underhanded. He's a really straightforward kind of guy, and just barges in with his charisma and his Special Destiny and expects that things will get done. Sinclair, on the other hand, really enjoys playing games, and being cryptic and sneaky whenever possible. I so deeply approve of him growing up to be Valen.

This is also the first episode in which we learn that Narns have pouchlings! I've had a couple of friends tell me that it sounds too much like "younglings" and is horribly twee, but shh. I spent a lot of last year running into my friends in the hall and saying, "Pouchlings!!" and I want to draw little fuzzy hearts all around baby Narns, okay?

Ah, the young Centauri who have eloped and come to visit Vir! They enter loudly, demanding to be unhanded and to be sent to the Centauri ambassador, and they are representative of so many things that are wrong with the Centauri Republic. In order to marry for love, they need to run away; they are, in a very young way, convinced of their own status; and, bless Vir, he's convinced them that he actually has some power of his own that can help them. (Incidentally, it cracks me up that the girl's name is Aria. I'm secretly Centauri, guys! Now you know.)

I also love Vir himself in this; he's clearly imprinted like crazy on Londo, and is doing his best to make disapproving Londo-like faces at his cousin. He doesn't pull them off very well, but it's cute to see him try. It's equally heart-warming, in a weird sort of way, to see his various scenes with Londo in this episode, starting with the one where he's helping Londo get dressed with the air of someone who does it all the time. I love all the ambassador-aide relationships, but I think I love Vir and Londo's the most, because even here they're doing a bit of conspiring and trouble-shooting together. <3

Actually, the whole young-Centauri-eloping B plot makes me hugely happy, if only because of the things it says about Londo. "Love! What does love have to do with marriage?" is his demand; because, of course, his own marriages are terrible: "Knowing that they are waiting at home for me is what keeps me here, seventy-five light-years away." It's put in further context by the fact that Londo's first marriage was for love (and to a dancer; notice a pattern?) and that it ended badly. Of course he's angry that this couple is being young and stupid the way he once was. Actually, we get it spelled out fairly explicitly:

SHAAL MAYAN. You should listen to the girl. We Minbari consider love a most potent force for healing. She cares deeply for him. Such feelings can turn the tide when all else fails.
LONDO. Oh, I see. And if he dies, despite this great power of love --
SHAAL MAYAN. If he dies, she will suffer enormous grief. But every moment together will make her grief a little less.
LONDO. I would expect such logic from a poet. What can a Minbari know about Centauri feeling?
SHAAL MAYAN. Ambassador, I have traveled far and seen much, and what I have seen tells me that all sentient beings are best defined by their capacity and their need for love.
LONDO. And she will learn to live without it.
SHAAL MAYAN. As you did.

I wish that the last line wasn't there, because it's such an obvious punchline, but it might only be obvious because I already know Londo painfully well. I transcribed that bit of conversation anyway because this is one of those awful times, early on, when someone tells Londo exactly what he needs to hear to save himself, and he doesn't listen. (It's never too late, but he spends a very long time thinking it is.) Londo, of course, needs love like nobody's business.

Which follows on one of my favourite early scenes. First, it has Vir actually talking back to Londo, telling him what's what, that Londo's wrong, and that there's something wrong with the glorious tradition of the Centauri Republic if it values wealth and power over love; this is one of the early flashes of the Vir I love best, who of course is in there all along but slowly becomes more vocal and awesome about his principles. And then, of course, there's this:

LONDO. My shoes are too tight.
VIR. Excuse me?
LONDO. It was something my father said. He was old, very old at the time. I went into his room, and he was sitting alone, in the dark, crying. So I asked him what was wrong, and he said, 'My shoes are too tight. But it doesn't matter, because I have forgotten how to dance.' I never understood what that meant until now. My shoes are too tight, and I have forgotten how to dance.
VIR. I don't understand.
LONDO. Nor should you.

That story is amazing enough at the time, but from the perspective of Londo's whole arc, oh my god ow. The best part of the whole scene, too, is the smile Londo gets when Vir confesses he doesn't get it; in a lot of ways, it's probably the first time Londo properly sees Vir, and has hope for him, and wants to make sure that things are better for Vir than they were for him. Actually, Londo spends a lot of time trying to make sure that the people around him don't end up like him, as witnessed by how he manages to find a way around the arranged marriages. (The best part of that scene is Vir's smile of proud anticipation, knowing what Londo's about to do.) I think it's a wonderful thing to do in the absence of other options, and it's basically the same urge in microcosm as the one that makes Londo sacrifice himself for all of Centauri Prime in the end.

Meanwhile, my heart breaks for Ivanova. Malcolm gives her a rose! There are a huge number of reasons that Susan is burned for love by the time Marcus arrives, and I know that Malcolm's romantic gestures have to be one of those reasons. The amazing thing is that Ivanova doesn't even take a moment for denial; she just watches the tape, acknowledges that this was not the Malcolm she knew, and says she'll get Sinclair in with the anti-alien terrorists on the condition that she's there when Sinclair takes them down. She just accepts that the world is like this. And, as Malcolm observes, "Always the same old Susan. Duty first."

In a lot of ways, I guess, this episode doesn't have an A plot and a B plot, partly because the Centauri couple and Shaal Mayan are tied up with one another and with the anti-alien terrorists, but also because this whole episode is about lonely people desperately in need of love. It's especially horrible because it's Londo and Ivanova, and the best either of them will get are extremely bittersweet endings.

Comments

[selenak]

re: Bester: I wouldn't say "pettiest", not because the "everyone is the hero of their own story in their own mind" phrase definitely applies to him but because he's absolutely sincere in his "the corps is mother, the corps is father" belief, instead of instrumentalizing it for his own benefit. The last episode he's in sums that up; the same Bester who is capable of chucking a "mundane" into space is capable of risking his life to save a schizophrenic telepath killer because he's a fellow telepath. I love The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father for many reasons, not least because of the pov switch JMS pulls off here; in many ways, it's Mind War reversed, and instead of "evil psi cop comes to the station in pursuit of rogue telepath, makes trouble, gets defeated" you have "dedicated cop tracks down telepath gone serial killer to station full of anti-telepath-bigots, manages to track him down, no thanks to the locals, and save the day"... and yet nothing so much different happens. It's the presentation. When Ivanova gets snappy one liners about Psi Corps, we're in her pov and cheer her on; when Zach, in reply to Bester's briefing that the man he pursues killed a psi cop, says "so far I don't see a problem", he comes across as bigoted and callous instead because a scene earlier we've seen the dead man's widow grieving over his body, and we're in the pov of Bester's interns.

(There's also the irony that Lyta by the end of s5, dressing in black leather, forcing a man to commit suicide after he tried to kill her and Franklin but has already been defeated by her just because she can and because it's final, talking about "my people" as the justification for everything, has become Bester's mirror image.)

And thus is born my sudden weird conviction that Bester has decided to have a little Garibaldi obsession, just because poor Mike is so fun to bait.

There is some Bester/Garibaldi slash out there, but personally I've always seen it more like a cat and favourite mouse thing, not as sexual. I think Bester makes his decision that Garibaldi would just be a great tool to deal with Edgars after Dust to Dust, not as early as here, but he definitely comes to the conclusion Garibaldi is fun to bait and should be needled at a regular basis in Mind War already.

It's equally heart-warming, in a weird sort of way, to see his various scenes with Londo in this episode, starting with the one where he's helping Londo get dressed with the air of someone who does it all the time.

I know. In a similar vein, I find it weirdly pleasing that this is something that remains consistent through five seasons; just before things go to tell for the Centauri in s5, in the episode where Vir borrows Londo's sword to go after the Drazi, he's also shopping for Londo. And it's not that by then Vir doesn't have other things to do - he's a high ranking entrusted official in his own right in s5 - it's just, imo, that Vir likes taking care of Londo.

Dorothy Fontana's script for War Prayer is a bit too on the nose for me in general - it's very early Star Trek (not surprising because D.C. Fontana was one of the important scriptwriters for TOS - with the message "Xenophobia IS WRONG" written out large, but it has its moments. And Shaal Mayan who is the only female Minbari we see Delenn interact with in five years, sigh. Still, I think the episode would rank higher on my personal list if Malcolm weren't such a horrible flat villain. For example, how about making his xenophobia the result of genuine trauma and loss from the Earth/Minbari war, thus allowing Susan to be actually torn about handing him over instead of being instantly repulsed, and giving Sinclair something to empathize with? Malcolm as a tragic villain instead of a hateful slimy bigot (what did Susan see in him anyway, one wonders) would have been the same story, but told far more interestingly.

[aria]

I mean "pettiest" mostly in terms of "doesn't want galactic domination, for a nice change of pace," but yes, agreed, absolutely. I love The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father for exactly the reasons you say, and also because that episode articulated to me why I love Bester so: he really is sincere in his beliefs, and when you're looking through his eyes, the command staff of B5 are the baddies. <3

(Oh my god, I didn't even think of the Lyta thing! That's probably because my mind forcibly shut down the s5 telepath arc. But the Lyta-by-herself bits were quite decent, and I'll be watching for the mirroring this time.)

And yeah, I don't think Bester's thing for Garibaldi is at all sexual; I think he just finds Garibaldi fun to barb, and then, of course, finds him useful later.

in the episode where Vir borrows Londo's sword to go after the Drazi, he's also shopping for Londo

So he is! Oh, bless. I love everything about Vir, especially the fact that it seemed perfectly unremarkable for him to do Londo's shopping there. Vir's probably the worst personal loss for Londo when he becomes emperor, because of course he needs to keep Vir far away from the Drakh, but Vir's the only one who ever really takes care of him. *draws hearts around Vir*

I am with you on Malcolm! That would've been awesome backstory to give him, and would've lent the episode some nice depth.

[icepixie]

and sort of wish that Garibaldi would just take out his PPG and off Bester right the fuck now, while he still can

*siiiigh* Oh, Michael. Me too. I'm not looking forward to watching that arc again, not because it wasn't well-done, but because it's just so painful.

I think you managed to put into words on of the big reasons I find the end of the Shadow War disappointing. There aren't going to be any more moments quite like Catherine's encounter with the Walkers now that all the First Ones are gone beyond the Rim. (I guess there are other possibilities for wonder, but it all seems like it's on a much smaller scale.)

I am finding new appreciation for Sinclair after Sheridan, because yes, I can't quite imagine Sheridan being sneaky and underhanded like Sinclair is. If only O'Hare had known how to act for TV...

Meanwhile, I forgot how much Ivanova and Garibaldi flirt first season! I mean, their method of flirting is for Ivanova to delegate tasks to Garibaldi, Garibaldi to blackmail her about the coffee she's growing in the hydroponic gardens, and Ivanova to call him a vicious man, but I think that is just their way.

This! So much this! Oh, man, I love their scenes together in the first couple seasons. I can see it as brother-sister, but I much prefer to view it as their own special brand of flirting. God, they're so cute. Watching this season makes me want to write UST-filled fic where they flirt snarkily with each other for pages and pages.

"Deep in my soul I suspect she has a lot of the best lines."

She so does.

[aria]

I'm not looking forward to watching that arc again, not because it wasn't well-done, but because it's just so painful.

Ugh, yes. I also watched this show almost completely unspoiled the first time through, so that arc was agonizing. I tore very fast through s4 almost on the power of my anxiousness for Garibaldi alone.

I guess there are other possibilities for wonder, but it all seems like it's on a much smaller scale.

Exactly! I mean, I have a whole boatload of reasons that I wish the solution to the Shadow War had happened differently, but that's the big one. Or, alternatively, because B5 has such a consciously Lord of the Rings aesthetic, it's all right to drive the First Ones beyond the Rim as long as it's acknowledged that something amazing and beautiful is fading. (I do have the vague recollection that Sheridan and Delenn discuss this on the shuttle back to B5, and that they mention it now being the Third Age, &c &c, but since I got no lasting sense of that conversation, I either wasn't paying very good attention or the sense of loss wasn't properly articulated.)

I love comparing Sheridan and Sinclair, actually, both externally to the story (so I can have fun mapping plot changes) and internally, where comparing them, weirdly, gives me lots of extra affection for them both. I really, really want them to hang out more than they do. Ah well.

[icepixie]

Ugh, yes. I also watched this show almost completely unspoiled the first time through, so that arc was agonizing. I tore very fast through s4 almost on the power of my anxiousness for Garibaldi alone.

Oh, my. I don't think I could've lived through S4 unspoiled. (Especially not "Between the Darkness and the Light" and "Endgame." I would've DIED.) I knew--because my brain likes to keep useless information like "what people on the interwebs were saying during its first run about a show I didn't even watch at the time" around for, my god, thirteen years--that Garibaldi was under Bester's influence, but I didn't know when or if it would ever end, so as it got worse and worse, I got more and more horrified that Garibaldi would end the series in complete disgrace.

I do have the vague recollection that Sheridan and Delenn discuss this on the shuttle back to B5, and that they mention it now being the Third Age, &c &c, but since I got no lasting sense of that conversation, I either wasn't paying very good attention or the sense of loss wasn't properly articulated.

I remember that conversation as having a tiny bit of "Glorious things passing," and a lot more of "Younger races get their day to shine, wheee!" It definitely could've benefited from some pondering of particular FOTR and ROTK scenes where the elves are leaving.

[rembrandtswife]

Okay, officially friending you now for the B5 rewatch. Lorien = Bombadil, how have I never seen that myself??

[aria]

Yay, and hello!

I am probably, when I reach the beginning of second season or thereabouts, going to do a 'who's who in the Lord of the Rings parallels' post. Of course, that's going to get complicated very fast, because Sheridan is kind of Aragorn and also kind of Gandalf, and it just gets more complicated from there ...

[rembrandtswife]

You have the LOTR parallels and then you have the Arthurian parallels, and hmm, why has no one written Merlin/B5 fusion yet? *g*

[aria]

I ... am now trying to imagine how it'd work, and my brain is bending inward on itself. XD

[lizbee]

...Which the show then makes up for by passing in the first thirty seconds of this episode. I love Shaal Mayan, and her obvious friendship and history with Delenn. (I might even ship them a little, just from the depths of affection with which they interact.)

Even in schmoopy Delenn/Sheridan fic, there are sometimes throwaway lines about her youthful "experiments" with Mayan. I love their friendship quite a lot; it's my personal fanon that she, Delenn and Branmer were a trio from when they were very young, and all ended up on separate and sometimes conflicting paths.

I understand that, for various reasons, it's narratively important to isolate Delenn after her transformation, but I do wish we'd seen Mayan again. I don't like to think that she, of all people, would have ostracised a half-human Delenn, so I choose to believe that she made off-screen visits to the station and helped road-test Delenn's new half-human biology.