PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Babylon 5 S2D2

 

The second disc has another 4 episodes and only the last one on the disc was written by J Michael Straczynski. Bruce Boxleitner is settling in as Captain Sheridan. He's got quite a story ahead of him though he doesn't figure as much in this batch of episodes. I think of the series as a big novel, like War and Peace, but readable. Not that I would want to read it. I did read all the Babyon 5 novels. Some were pretty good.

The Long Dark  11/30/94

Written by Scott Frost and directed by Mario DiLeo

An ancient Earth spaceship crosses paths with the station. Scanners say there's life aboard and they bring it into the station. Inside they find a frozen gal who's been on ice for over 100 years. Her husband died while she was asleep. That would be unsettling, huh. Dr Franklin takes care of her and there's a bit of something between them. Of course there are other things for the Doctor to get involved with and she returns to Earth. There's something else on that ancient spaceship. A near invisible space entity that causes some trouble for Mr Garibaldi and a decorated combat veteran of the Earth–Minbari War. I like this part of the story quite a bit. Leter G'Kar finds an illustration of the creature in his Book of G'Quan. The Book also has a drawing of one of the spider like Shadow ships.

A Spider In The Web  12/7/94

Written by Lawrence G Ditillio and directed by Kevin G Cremin

Michael Beck plays the past head of Free Mars. He'd died several years ago but sadly for him his body was used in an experimental cyborg program that animates the dead. Adrienne Barbeau plays a Mars government rep who is meeting with business man James Shigeta to try to help with the rebellion. There's plenty of problems on Mars and the planet is a powder keg. Poor James gets killed by Michael who's been programmed to kill by someone. Jessica Walter plays an Earth Alliance Senator and Jeff Conaway makes his first appearance as Security man Zack Allan. He would turn out to well received and turn into a regular for the seasons 3 to 5. Another good episode with plenty of stuff going on.

Soul Mates  12/14/94

Written by Peter David and directed by John C Flinn III

It's 30 years since Londo Mollari had his ascension and he's had a wish granted by the Emperor. He can divorce two of his wives. Lois Nettleton, whom I had just seen on an episode of The Twilight Zone, plays one of the wives. He'll keep one of the three he once described as Pestilence, Famine and Death which was also the episode's original title. Talia Winter's ex-husband shows up at the station. He was in the Psi Corps but somehow got out. Something that doesn't seem to happen much. He tells her that he was experimented on and lost his telepathy. He can do the same for her but she refuses. Talia and Ivanova start to become better friends. Someone tries to kill Londo but he survives and decides which wife to keep. Delenn has some trouble with her hair. I just like that picture of Vir.

A Race Through Dark Places  1/25/95

Written by JMS and directed by Jim Johnston

Walter Koenig returns as Psi Cop Bester. He's looking for the underground railway that is helping telepaths escape the clutches of the Psi Corps. Talia sides with the rogue telepaths, and rightfully so, the Corp really has some awful people in it. Talia helps the rogue telepaths trick Bester into thinking they were all killed in a shoot out. Her encounter with Jason Ironheart from the first season has left her a much stronger telepath. Sheidan and Delenn have a nice dinner. Talia visits Ivanova after her hard day.

I really like the mix of light and dark, comedy and tragedy. JMS plots well and is a deft hand with the dialog. Even after several viewings I still enjoy the episodes. 

Babylon 5 S2D1

Season 2 starts with a bunch of changes. Commander Sinclair is gone and Captain Sheridan comes to take his place. Mr Garibaldi is in a coma, Delenn is still in her cocoon, G'Kar is off in space somewhere.

Points Of Departure  11-2-94

Written by J Michael Straczynski and directed by Janet Greek

The episode opens with Captain John Sheridan in command of the Earth Alliance Destroyer EAS Agamemnon. He gets a new assignment which he isn't expecting. Back on Babylon 5 Lieutenant Commander Ivanova is in charge. She learns that Commander Sinclair has been permanently reassigned to Minbari. She shows Sheridan around the station when he arrives.

Sheridan is not well liked by the Minbari warrior caste, he destroyed their flagship, the Black Star, during the Earth-Minbari war and earned the nickname "Starkiller". A rogue Minbari ship, The Trigati, did not surrender at the end of the war. They have been on the run for ten years. They show up at the station and things get rather tense for a while. Nice way to start a new job, huh. A great opening episode with new characters and an interesting conflict.

Revelations  11-9-94

Written by JMS and directed by Jim Johnston

G'Kar gets chased by some Shadow ships near Quadrant 37. Sheridan's sister Elizabeth comes to visit and we find out that Sheridan's wife had died 2 years before. Sheridan and Franklin use the alien healing device to heal Mr. Garibaldi. Delenn emerges from her cocoon with a black crust on her skin. It crumbles off and she's got hair now.

A Narn ship travels to Z'ha'dum and is destroyed. Talia Winters uses her telepath powers to dig out a clue to who shot Mr Garibaldi. They bust his ass and lock him up. The President himself calls Sheridan and orders him to send the shooter to Earth. All the evidence too.

The Geometry Of Shadows  11-16-94

Written by JMS and directed by Mike Laurence Vejar

Ambassador Mollari and Lord Refa scheme about taking over the Centauri government. Neither plan to be Emperor, they will install a puppet, but they dream of the good old days of the Republic when they had control of much space. The Drazi are starting their fight for power. They pick green and purple scarves out of a barrel, the color of your scarf indicates the side you will fight on. The winner is the one with the most people left standing after the long fight is over. I can only think it's a good way to get rid of the excess population. Ivanova has been assigend to keep their violence off the station. She gets hurt and has to walk around on crutches. The hurt foot happened to Claudia Christian off set and they worked her crutches into the story.

Technomages are massing at Babylon 5 for a trip to the galactic rim. They want to get away from the upcoming war, they don't want to take up sizes. In the novels there are many things revealed about the Technormages that are troubling. Londo tries to get a photo op with the Technomages but that backfires on him. Mr Garibaldi is slow to get back to work. He does rescue Ivanova when the Drazi kidnap her to lure the other side to an ambush. Ivanova accidently figures out what to do with the Drazi. Michael Ansara plays the head Technomage. Nice to see him again. I was sad when he passed away last year.

A Distant Star  11-23-94

Written by DC Fontana and directed by Jim Johnston

Sheridan's old pal Captain Maynard comes to call. He's the captain of the deep space exploration ship the Cortez. Delenn gets the cold shoulder from a lot of the Minbari who do not care for her new more human body. The Cortez leaves and soon breaks down in hyperspace. Sheridan figures out a way to rescue the Cortex. On the mission Lt. Keffer sees one of the Shadow ships.

Dr Franklin puts the command staff on diets to get them down a few pounds. Mr Garibaldi breaks the rules when he has ingredients for bagna càuda smuggles onto the station. Franklin catches him and when Mr G tells him it's his birthday tradition to have the dish his father used to make him on his brithday.

It's a good strong opening for the season. I really like all the episodes on this disc. There's a good bunch of character development and the stories are darn good. There's a rash of new characters and situations. I'm still interested in what's happening to the characters even though I've seen their story before. I can still remember some of what is going to happen and it doesn't stop any enjoyment. I often find I'm looking forward to favorite moments.

Babylon 5 S1D6

I'm finally at the end of the first season and the last disc has two really good episodes,  a commentary by JMS and 4 other extras. I didn't watch the extras but I did listen to the commentary on the last episode. JMS did a pretty good job on that. He likes to talk about the show and he likes to explain why he did what he did when he did it.

The first episode is a nice mix of humor and seriousness. It gets rather grim briefly but, luckily for me, JMS likes to pour some light onto the darkness. I appreciate his jokes and mostly like his sense of humor. The second episode on the disc is the season's last and every bit of it moves the story arc forward. It's packed, from beginning to end, with nice little tidbits of story. His story telling style, and the resulting story, is the main reason I stand so fastly behind the production.

I certainly don't care for the completely serious type of tv show. I don't mind it in a movie once in a while but I just don't want to sit though hour after hour of depressingly sad drama. Of course, both are subjective and mutable according to the whim of my taste. Or what I've been eating. Mostly I'll pick a comedy over a drama. I bought a dirt cheap laserdisc of Shindler's List back in 1999 or 2000 and after 8 or 9 years I got rid of it without ever watching it. I paid a lot more for the Babylon 5 series DVDs and I've gotten many times that value in enjoyment.

The Quality of Mercy  August 17 1994

Written by J Michael Straczynski and directed by Lorraine Senna Ferrara.

Dr Franklin is running a clinic in down below. Ivanova finds out and questions it's legality but the doctor talks her into helping. Someone is stealling Franklin's business and he finds June Lockhart running a clinic. She has an alien healing machine that fixes people right up. The problem is that it takes energy from someone else to do it. June has a life shortening illness that will kill her in 3 or 4 years so she doesn't feel to bad about giving some of her energy up. She wants to research the machine and leave a mark after she dies.

Mr Garabaldi has a killer in custody waiting for trail. Mr Garabaldi thinks the guy killed more people but Talia Winters won't go digging to find out. That would be against the Psi Corps rules. The killer is sentenced to the death of personality which is a mind wipe. He'd be reprogrammed to be a help to society, his old personality gone. I guess that's better than being spaced. That's Mr Garibaldi's wish, one of his team was murdered by the killer. On the way to cell the killer manages to escape for a while. He gets shot and winds up in June's clinic. He holds her daughter hostage to get some healing. It doesn't go too well for him when June, fed up with the murder's demands, reverse's the machine and pours her illness into his body. Nice one, June. Cure'd she leaves the station to return to Earth and start a new career. She leaves the alien healing machine with Dr Franklin.

Londo is told to get closer to the other aliens and he picks on Lennier to get to know better. Londo takes him to the station's naughty area where Lennier likes the lady dancers. When Londo finds out that Lennier is good at probabilities he rushes the Minbari to a gambling den. They get into a fight when Londo cheats at cards and Lennier kicks some ass. Lennier covers for Londo when they get arrested. They have diplomatic immunity but they have to answer to Sheridan for the damages. Too bad Londo takes a different path and Lennier's honor is wasted. We find out that the male Centauri can pick stuff up with the ends of their 6 really long penises.

Chrysalis  October 26 1994

Written by JMS and directed by Janet Greek.

There is so much happening in this episode, one bit of business barely has time to finish before another is clammering for your attention, characters take chances and change the fate of their worlds. G'Kar and Londo are arguing over Quadrant 37. Someone kill's one of Mr Garibaldi's lurker informants. Mr Garibaldi believes he was onto something big. Sinclair get engaged to Catherine Sakai. Mr Morden offers Londo some help with the Narn problem. He only wants a favor in the future. Don't we all. If Londo knew where he would wind up do you think he would make the same mistakes. Someone would wind up there, I know that from seeing the series before.

Kosh tells Delenn "Yes" but we don't know the question. Kosh reveals himself to Delenn but we don't get to see anything. Always the tease that JMS. Mr Garibaldi gets a lead, pulls him in, and then someone lets him out of jail. No one knows who did it. It's the first clue that there's trouble in Mr Garibaldi's house. Trouble with a capital T and that spells terrorists. Mr Garibaldi finds some jamming devices linked to the President's space craft. He gets shot, by his own man, in the back, for all his good work.

Delenn tells Sinclair to come see her so they can talk about what happened to create the hole in his mind. She tells him she doesn't have much time but he has to find Mr Garibaldi first. The base at Quadrant 37 is blasted out of existance. Ten thousand Narns dead. G'Kar leaves the station. It's New Years and just after Midnight Mr Garibaldi turns up in one of the elevators. He's pretty screwed up. The President's ship explodes and he's killed. Vice-President Clark got off the ship early, he had a stomach bug, but he's ok enough to become President once the dust settles.

Mollari is upset with Mr Morden's big attack but Mr Morden tells Londo he's a hero at home. The guy who shot Mr Garibaldi is instructed by Sinclair to get the shooter. Ha ha, huh. He shoots the guy who was Mr Garibaldi's lead earlier in the show. He's one big scumbag that guy. We can see there's a big plot going on but the Senator's at home don't believe Sinclair when he tells them what he suspects. It's a pretty wild story and it's not over yet. When Sinclair gets back to Delenn he's too late, She's already in her cocoon and Lennier is crying. Mr Garibaldi might live, or not. We see the Shadows for the first time and they are not pretty.

Sinclair ends the episode commenting, "Nothing's the same anymore" and he's so right.

Babylon 5 S1D5

 

The series moves into the stuff of legends as it ramps up to the season end with several really interesting stories. The 4 stories on this disc move the story arc along nicely and there are plenty of exciting events and revelations.

Legacies  7/20/94

Written by DC Fontana and directed by Bruce Seth Green

In one story thread a young girl finds out that she's a telepath. Talia Winters, the stations resident telepath, wants her to join the Psi Corps but Ivanova isn't too pleased with that. She's got a hatred of the Corp and it's quite well justified. G'Kar asks her if she wouldn't mind coming to work for the Narns who don't telepaths among their people. Most planets have telepaths and some are pretty darn strong. They will come in handy in the future.

The other story thread has the Minbari warrior caste parading the dead body of the warrior who lead the Minbari fleet at the Battle Of The Line. Delenn is completely against it, it's not what Minbari do. We meet Naroon for the first time. He's in the warrior caste and he will be a big player in the next season. Delenn steals the body and sets things right. Naroon is not happy but he goes along with what Delenn tells him to do. The Minbari have three castes, Religious, Worker and Warrior. The Grey Council is made up of three from each caste. They rule from a battle cruiser travelling around in space. The Minbari have a lot of odd ideas.

A Voice In The Wilderness Part I  7/27/94

Written by JMS and directed by Janet Greek

A survey ship traveling to the nearby Epsilon III are attacked by rockets from below the surface of the planet. They survive and have to be rescued. Delenn gets a visitor, her old friend Draal, who's wants to see some of the universe before he gets too old. Sinclair is wondering why there isn't any news form Mars. Turns out there's a revolution going on.

Sinclair and Ivanova travel to Epsilon III where they meet the dying caretaker Varn. The core of Epsilon III seems to be an homage to the Krell machines in Forbidden Planet. Sinclair and Ivanova bring Varn back to Medlab but Dr Franklin says he's dying.

A Voice In The Wilderness Part II  8/3/94

Written by JMS and directed by Janet Greek

An Earth Force heavy cruiser shows up to take charge of the planet. Sinclair doesn't think that's a good idea and he pushes back. Some aliens show up and claim the planet for themselves. Varn says they have nothing to do with the planet. Those aliens get agressive and they get blasted to pieces. It's a tough old universe.

Without Varn the mighty machine is going to blow. Someone will have to take over, Londo thinks it might be him but it's Draal who gets the job. Later Draal will join the army of light in the up coming war. He'll be valuable, he's got some mighty skills. Draal is played by Louis Turrenne.

Babylon Squared  8/10/94

Written by JMS and directed by Jim Johnston

Babylon 4 appears and that leads to some crazy stuff. The station has a skeleton crew and they need to be rescued. The crew has an alien in custody named Zathras.

Delenn gets called to the Grey Council where they offer her the job of leader. She declines, wanting to follow the prophecy. She's got some changes ahead.

Another good bunch of episodes. A Voice In The Wilderness is one of my favortie stories and Zathras is one of my favorite characters. There's plenty of good ones to come and the last two episodes of season 1 are a couple of humdingers. I'll be getting to those soon I hope.

Babylon 5 S1D4

Things start moving forward with some serious advancement of the season's story arc in the first episode. There's a break for a couple of episodes before picking up the arc in the last episode of the disc. The first episode has the same title as the season.

Signs And Portents  May 18 1994

Written by JMS and directed by Janet Greek

Lord Kiro, played by Gerrit Graham, has come to Babylon 5 to deal for a rare Centauri artifact, the Eye, that has been missing for over a hundred years. He's brought his aunt, Lady Ladira, who is a seer. She feels there will be some death and destruction on Babylon 5 in the future. Ain't that the truth. Lord Kiro figures on getting some major status by giving the Eye to the Emperor but he really wants to keep it. Kiro and Mollari discuss the good old days of the Empire. Mollari understands Kiro's desire to keep the Eye, it used to belong to Kiro's family, but he talks him out of it, or so he thinks. Lord Kiro has second thoughts and some tricks up his sleeve. They aren't very good tricks and he'll get blowed up real good. It marks the first appearance of a Shadow ship. Black, spidery and deadly purple beams of total destruction.

Mr Morden, played by the delightful Ed Wasser, comes to the station. He visits with Ambassadors G'Kar, Delenn and Mollari to ask them a question. "What do you want?" Only Mollari, missing the old days of the Empire, answers him. He Morden that he wants to see the Centauri stride proud amongst the stars once again and crush the Narn while he's at it. Mr Morden is pleased and he leaves. Near the end of the episode Morden returns carrying the Eye. It had been stolen by Raiders in the middle of the episode. Mr Morden has an encounter with Ambassador Kosh and the Ambassador needs some repairs to his encounter suit. He won't say what happened. It another episode that's a favorite. Mr Morden is a great villain.

TKO  May 25 1994

Written by Lawrence G Ditillio and directed by John C Flynn III

An old pal of Mr Garibaldi's comes to the station. He was a boxer and he's come to fight in the Mutai. No Human's are allowed but he gets his shot at being beaten to death. Theodore Bikel plays Rabbi Koslov and he's come to sit Shiva with Ivanova. Her father died in an earlier episode and she's done nothing to deal with it. She doesn't want to but finally goes ahead with it. She has a lot of anger about her father. It might not advance the season story arc but it provides a nice bit of backstory for Ivanova. Theodore Bikel is really good and the two stories work well together.

Grail  July 6 1994

Written by Cristy Marx and directed by Richard Compton

Aldous Gajic, played by David Warner, comes to the station. He's seeking the Grail cup that Christ used. Jinxo was an engineer on all the stations. When he left the first four they all were destroyed or disappeared. He feels he's cursed and can't leave the station or something bad will happen to it. Aldous helps him get over that curse. An odd issue with interesting characters. Like the previous episode it isn't the kind of story you often see on an SF show, especially at the time of it's first broadcast.

Eyes  July 13 1994

Written by Lawrence G Ditillio and directed by Jim Johnston

Col. Ari Ben Zayn, played by Gregory Martin, comes to the station with his telepath Harriman Gray, who's played by Jeffrey Combs. He wants to investigate the command staff. It's a bit of dirty underhanded retaliation for Sinclair handling the dock strike in his way. There's an evil growing in the Earth government that will take a long time to expose. Ben Zayn will have Harriman scan everyone to test their loyalty. Ivanova refuses and comes close to resigning. Sinclair will figure out a way out of that one. Garibaldi gets some help from Lennier in building a 1992 motorcycle. It's another good episode and it's nice to see Jeffrey Combs.

Babylon 5 - S1D3

Babylon 5 is described in the opening credits as the "last best hope for peace".  There were 4 previous stations, the first three were destroyed by terrorists and the 4th disappeared. There are a quarter of a million humans and aliens on the station. The EarthForce personnel number about 2000. Here's Commander Sinclair's narration for the 1st season's titles.

It was the dawn of the third age of mankind – ten years after the Earth-Minbari War. The Babylon Project was a dream given form. Its goal: to prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call – home away from home – for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers. Humans and aliens wrapped in two million five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal… all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.

Deathwalker  April 20 1994

Written by Lawrence G Ditillio and directed by Bruce Seth Green

Na'Toth attacks a Dilgar woman who's just arriving on the station. She claims the now unconscious Dilgar is Deathwalker, the notorious Dilgar Warmaster and mass murder named Jha'dur. She is supposed to be dead. She'd been hiding amongst the Windswords and she'd developed weapons for the Minbari during the Minbari-Earth War. Delenn tells Sinclair that the Minbari government never knew until Jha'dur turned up at the station. All the races have their secrets in secrets and they hardly ever turn out well for anyone. Turns out Deathwalker has a universal anti-agathic drug that cures disease and retards the aging process in all humanoid life forms. That would be popular, huh.

Sinclair is told by Senator Hidoshi that he has to get Deathwalker to Earth right away. The League of Non-Aligned Worlds put a stop to that, they want to try Jha'dur for her war crimes. She killed whole populations during the war that happened 30 years ago. It was the first space war the Earth entered, helping the League against the Dilgar invasion. The Humans hadn't meet the Minbari yet. The League sends warships to B5 and it gets a bit hairy until Sinclair gets them to hold off. They can have her once she helps the Earth develop the drug. Turns out that drug requires one person or alien to die to keep another going. Ha, ha. Like that would stop people from using that. There'd be a rash of new crimes that would require the death penalty. It's doesn't matter much, the Vorlons blow up Deathwalker's ship as she gets to the jump gate. Kosh tells everyone they aren't ready for immortality. You can't really argue with that. Most humans and aliens don't seem ready for lunch.

The other story line in the episode concerns our mysterious Vorlon. He hires the stations telepath Talia Winters for some business. They meet with a guy named Abbut. That's him in the black hat and purple stripped coat. I've always liked the variety of costumes on Babylon 5 and that includes the colors. Visually, I find the show a treat. Kosh and Abbut exchange odd words and Talia stands there. She has some weird visions and it disturbs her. Nothing is ever explained. Just more Vorlon stuff. They are the most sercet of races. At least for now. It's an episode I liked quite a bit. It doesn't move the arc along much but it gives you some backstory and a bit of look at the Vorlons.

Believers  April 27 1994

Written by David Gerrold and Richard Compton

I've always had a hard time watching this one. Dr Franklin has a little boy in his care. He wants to operate but the parents religion does not allow that. He goes ahead and operates and the parents have to kill their son because he's now being controlled by demons. Once the skin is broken the soul is destroyed and demons take over. It's a tough story and a good one. I just feel so sad for the family, either way, their kid is dead. I don't feel much sympathy for Dr Franklin, he did what he did for a good reason, but it was the wrong thing to do.

The drama is cut with some space action. Ivanova takes out a gang of Star Furys to help a stranded ship. There are a good number of raiders in the spaceways. Babylon 5 tries to keep them cleared out of their area. It's another episode that doesn't move the arc forward and like all the rest of the episodes on this disc it isn't written by JMS. Science Fiction readers might recognize David Gerrold's name from the novels and stories he wrote over the years. I read his 1972 short story collection With My Finger In My I when it came out. I also read the novel he wrote with Larry Niven, The Flying Sorcerers, but I don't remember reading anything else on his book list on the Wikipedia.  He also wrote a good bit of TV including Star Trek's The Trouble With Tribbles. A much lighter toned story to be sure.  

Survivors  May 4 1994

Written by Marc Scott Zicree and directed by Jim Johnston

President Santiago is coming to the station and someone wants to kill him. That same group frames Mr Garibabldi and he has to go on the run from his own men. We learn that Mr G has had a checkered path and problems with alcohol. He falls off the wagon while he's on the run and gets caught. He manages to pull his feet out of the fire and figure out who is behind the frame. Garibaldi is one of my favorite characters in the series. He's got his issues but he's always ready to help a pal when they need a hand. He's a good man to have at your back. It's another one that I like a lot, even though it's a well used plot device. The characters are what make the series so wonderful and the actors do a great job bringing them to life. Lucky for them they have such good scripts.

By Any Means Necessary  May 11 1994

Written by Kathryn M Drennan and Jim Johnston

The stations dock workers are overworked, they work too many shifts, people are getting hurt. The station says they have no more budget and they can't do anything. The workers start an illegal strike which puts Sinclair on the spot. Earth sends a strike breaker named Orin Zento but before he gets everyone arrested Sinclair saves the day. I think the story line makes the station more real. JMS has said he wanted it to be a lived in universe. It sure is. I like it.

In the other story thread a special plant G'Kar needs for a religious ceremony gets destroyed. It's a rare thing, if he ordered a new one, it wouldn't arrive before the ceremony's deadline passes. It turns out that Mollari has one of the plants, he was going to get high with it, but he won't give or sell it to G'Kar. Sinclair gets in there and gets the plant. The deadline has just past and Londo is happy. The ceremony has to be held when the light from Narn's sun falls on a certain spot on Narn. Sinclair reminds G'Kar that the light from the Narn sun would be getting to the station later in the day. G'Kar can hold the ceremony. Sinclair does a lot of good on the station and he'll have a big impact on the Minbari in the future.

Another good batch of stories and even though JMS didn't write them he does have a chance to rewrite and add stuff. He keeps the characters on track and adds a lot of interesting dialog and story idea. We don;t get as much advancement on the story arc in this batch of shows but that wheel turns soon enough.

Babylon 5 - S1D2

 

That's the main characters on the series. Commander Sinclair in the front with Michael Garibaldi and Susan Ivanova to the left of him. Talia Winters and Stephen Franklin are the other two Humans in the picture. The three aliens across the back are Londo Mollari, Delenn and G'kar. Most of them are key players in the up coming conflict and they shape worlds and lives. I fear the body count must be rather high for the run of the series. Billions and billions. On with the fun.

The Parliament of Dreams  February 23 1994

Written by J. Michael Straczynski and directed by Jim Johnston

Sinclair's old girlfriend Catherine Sakai come to the station on business. They get involved again. She's a planetary surveyer and she's got a nice little spaceship to get about in. Na'Toth is G'Kar's new diplomatic attache and she's played by Caitlin Brown. The previous aid was written out of the series by an unfortunate air lock accident.

There's a festival to introduce people to the religions of the other races. The Centauri host a party filled with music and dance and copious drinking. Passing out is considered a good thing. I hope no one draws a dick on Londo's huge forehead. Lennier arrives to be Ambassador Delenn's aid. Billy Mummy does a great job capturing the awed Lennier. I like the character but he will have a lot of growing up to do and he won't always make good choices. That's a lot about what the whole series is about. Your mind, clouded by something, takes you down a path you shouldn't be on.

An old enemy of G'Kar's send an assassin to torture and kill him. G'Kar gets a body guard but the big guy is killed right away. The Minbari hold a much more serious ceremony. G'Kar gets kidnapped by the assassin but is rescued. He still gets kicked around a good bit. It's a violent universe. huh. It's an entertaining episode, there's a nice balance of humor and serious. I did like Sinclair's religious presentation. It's not a scene you'd normally see. The show always did a good job at surprising me with something, a scene, a line, a character's actions.

Mind War  March 2 1994

Written by JMS and directed by Bruce Seth Green

Jason Ironheart is a telepath with the Psi-Corps. He comes to Babylon 5 and he's on the run. He's followed by Psi-cop Alfred Bester and his partner. They aren't very welcomed but they have power to pretty much do what they want. Bester contacts the station's resident telepath Talia Winters because of her past relationship with Ironheart. She hadn't seen him, not yet. Later when she talks to Ironheart she finds out he's been experimented on by the Psi-Corps to make him a stronger telepath.

It worked really well, he became really powerful and the Psi-Corps are kind of afraid of him. Ironheart doesn't think this kind of power belongs at the Psi-Corps and he's sure right. They will prove to be huge dicks in the B5 universe. Ironheart escapes and winds up on Babylon 5. His powers are becoming too much for him to control and he literally becomes a superior being. At least he's all glowy, that's got to mean something.

The episode starts the long and dangerous battle between Bester and Garabaldi. It won't go well for Mr G at first but he comes through it all pretty well. Bester's life story is chronicled in a trilogy of novels that start in his youth and tell of his rise in the Psi-Corps. He falls pretty hard and winds up drugged in prison until he dies. He's a horrible misguided man and Walter Koenig plays him most wonderfully.

There's a second story track that features Sinclair's gal pal Catherine Sakai. She's got a request to survey a planet named Sigma 957. She gets a warning from G'kar, he tells her it's a dangerous place to be. She goes anyway and he sure was right. She encounters an unknown ship that drains the almost all the power from her ship. She's skimming the planet's atmosphere when some friendly Narn's pluck her red hot ship from that ol' brink o' doom. When she meets up with G'Kar on the station they have a bit of a conversation. One I really like a lot.

Catherine Sakai: Ambassador! While I was out there, I saw something. What was it?

G'Kar: [points to a flower with a bug crawling on it] What is this?

Catherine Sakai: An ant.

G'Kar: Ant.

Catherine Sakai: So much gets shipped up from Earth on commercial transports it's hard to keep them out.

G'Kar: Yeah, I have just picked it up on the tip of my glove. If I put it down again, and it asks another ant, "what was that?",  [laughs]  how would it explain? There are things in the universe billions of years older than either of our races. They're vast, timeless, and if they're aware of us at all, it is as little more than ants, and we have as much chance of communicating with them as an ant has with us. We know, we've tried, and we've learned that we can either stay out from underfoot or be stepped on.

Catherine Sakai: That's it? That's all you know?

G'Kar: Yes, 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. Whatever they are, Miss Sakai, they walk near Sigma 957, and they must walk there alone.

The War Prayer  March 9 1994

Written by D. C. Fontana and directed by Richard Compton

An old friend of Delenn's comes to the station. She is a poet and person of peace. She's attacked by some hooded humans. They have been attacking the other races and Mr Garibaldi's team has been having a hard time catching them. An old flame of Inanova's comes to the station and he leads them to the Home Guard, an anti alien group, operating on the station. There are more attacks before the men are caught. It's a tough story but there's a bit of balance in the second plot line.

Vir's cousin and his girlfriend steal some credit cards and buy passage to Babylon 5. They think Vir, who's told them he's the ambassador in letters, could help them get married. They both have been betrothed to other people in arranged marriages. It's something that Centauri families do. Londo wants to send them home to their fates but Vir talks him into coming up with a better solution. There's a bit of a romantic in Londo. Sadly, he lives in a society that values that little. The cousin is a victim of the Home Guard but he survives with help from Dr Franklin.

And the Sky Full of Stars  March 16 1994

Written by JMS and directed by Janet Greek

Two men kidnap Commander Sinclair and drug him up. They have a machine that will let the one man go into Sincliar's mind. They want to find out why Sinclair was missing for 24 hours at the battle of the line. He doesn't know but the mental probing loosens up some memories of the time. He had been taken aboard a Minbari battle cruiser and brought before the Grey Council.

He eventually escapes but still drugged he sees attackers on all sides. After brief fire fight with the security team Delenn talks him out. Later in Medlab Sinclair tells Delenn that he doesn't remember anything. Still later Sinclair tells Garibaldi about the new memories he's got. Garibaldi vows to help him in any way he can to find out what happened.

I enjoyed this disc a lot. The plot thickens and gets more complex. There are plenty of danger out there in the universe and a lot of it comes visiting to Babylon 5. We've got many new clues about the story and where it's going. I couldn't second guess where the story would go and there were always nice surprises. Even on rewatching it's still so good that I have nearly the same joy.

Babylon 5 S1D1

The first season of Babylon 5 has a title, it's called Signs And Portents, and there are plenty of them in the stories. Each episode is packed with clues about upcoming events and characters. J Michael Straczynski created the series, he wrote a lot of the scripts and he left his imprint on the ones he didn't write. He sets a lot of stuff up, starting with the pilot film, that will play out months and years later. He had a great idea, he put all of his characters in one place and pulled people to them. I liked that he wanted a long story arc that plays out over 5 years. That gives each character a nice amount of time. He created good characters and put them in a great big epic space opera. Whole planets are destroyed, races wiped from the universe, men fight gods. Or near enough. Mind you that's not for a little while yet, as our story opens the Narn are giving a little something back to their hated enemies the Centauri.

Midnight On The Firing Line  1-26-94

Written by JMS and directed by Richard Compton.

The episode opens with a bag as the Narn attack the Centauri agricultural base near Ragesh 3. Ambassador Mollari is upset and no one knows who did it. We know it's Narns but G'Kar doesn't seem to know himself. A disabled ship has been attacked by raiders and Mr Garabaldi goes out after them with a gang of Star Furies. The new Babylon 5 Resident Telepath Talia Winters and Lt Commander Susan Ivanova are both new to the station. Ivanova doesn't care much for telepaths and she's not afraid of telling Talia her reasons. 

The Star Furies arrive too late to save anyone. Mr Garibaldi vows vengeance. Things heat up in the station as Mollari is out for blood. His nephew is one of the people kidnapped and forced to tell lies about the invasion. The Narns are saying that the planet was theirs a hundred years ago and they want it back. Sinclair goes out with the Star Furies and catches the raider's command ship. Besides putting a stop to the raiders they find some leverage against the Narns. Sinclair uses it to get them to pull their forces out of Ragesh 3. A good intro to the new players in the story and it's the set up for the Narn-Centauri war to come. We learn for the first time that Londo has dreamt his death, at the hands of G'Kar. By the time it comes, he'll really deserve it.

Soul Hunter  2-2-94

Written by JMS and directed by Jim Johnston

A damaged space ship comes through the jump gate and Sinclair goes out to catch it just before it hits the station. He's a hands on kind of guy, that Sinclair. The ship contains an unconscious Soul Hunter who's played by W Morgan Sheppard. Some of you might remember him as Blank Reg on Max Headroom. The Soul Hunters are hated through out the galaxy, even Delenn wants to kill it. They collect the souls of important aliens and save them in floating glowing glass balls. They learn from them and keep them hidden away out of reach. Other races aren't as keen in letting the Soul Hunters do this and often try to stop them. Delenn did this when they came for Dukhat.

Dr Stephen Franklin comes aboard as the new head of Medlab. Another Soul Hunter arrives, looking for the first. He tells Sinclair that Morgan has gone out of his mind for failing to get the soul of the Minbari leader Dukhat. Now he's killing aliens to collect the soul instead of waiting for them to die a natural death. Morgan escapes Medlab and hides in the station with the help of local criminals. He targets Delenn and instead of waiting for her to die decides to kill her. Instead his soul gets sucked into the machine he uses to extract the souls. The other Soul Hunter leaves, told by Sinclair not to come back.

Born To The Purple  2-9-94

Written by Lawrence G Ditillio and directed by Bruce Seth Green

Londo has fallen in love with a beautiful dancer in the casino when he's supposed to be negotiating with the Narn. She's really a slave of a baddie named Trakis. He wants her to get close to Londo and steal some files that would be valuable to other governments. She steals the files but goes on the run from Trakis. Londo inlists Sinclair to help get them back.

Mary Woronov plays G'Kar's new aide Ko'Dath, she'd only last the one episode, finding the make up too much for her. That happens to a lot of actors, either they can't stand the rubber pieces glued to them or they get a reaction from the glues and cleaners. I always admire actors who can wear full prosthetics. Andreas Katsulas does a great job as G'Kar, creating one of the great alien portrayals anywhere. Even though the story takes a break from the longer story arc it does help to establish Londo's propensity to make the wrong choices.

Infection  2-16-94

Written by JMS and directed by Richard Compton

David McCallum is an old friend of Dr Franklin. He arrives on B5 with some alien artifacts that he wants the Doctor to help him understand. The material turns out to be a bioweapons suit that takes over guest star Marshall Teague's body and turns him into a killing machine from Ikarra 7. He battles Mr Garibaldi's security team before Sinclair jumps into the fight and manages to talk the thing into killing itself. It's kind of a slight story that JMS isn't too proud of, he says it was the first script written for the series and he's still figuring out how things work. I don't find it awful or anything like that and it does give some thought as to why Sinclair is prone to rush into danger instead of leaving it to the security forces to handle. Even at it's 'worse" it's still entertaining.

The episode has one of my favorite thoughts from Commander Sinclair:

Reporter: "After all that you've just gone through, I have to ask you the same question a lot of people back home are asking about space these days. Is it worth it? Should we just pull back, forget the whole thing as a bad idea, and take care of our own problems, at home?"
Sinclair: "No. We have to stay here, and there's a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics - and you'll get ten different answers. But there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on: whether it happens in a hundred years, or a thousand years, or a million years, eventually our sun will grow cold, and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us, it'll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-tsu, Einstein, Maruputo, Buddy Holly, Aristophanes - all of this. All of this was for nothing, unless we go to the stars."

Babylon 5 - In The Beginning

 

In The Beginning is a 1997 TV movie that tells the story of the Earth - Minbari war. It was one of those things that started because the wrong people were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Earth ship that first encounters the Minbari ship mistakes it's open gun ports as a sign of hostility and attacks. The ship is carrying the Grey Council, the Minbari leader Dukhat and Satai Delenn. The Minbari ship is damaged in the surprise attack and Dekhat is killed. The Earth ship flees and the Minbari go to war.

The war started in 2245 and lasted about three years. The Humans were blasted out of space, bested at every encounter, survivors forced to flee to Earth. The Humans fought back bravely but the Minbari are no Dilgar. The Human's build a line of ships against the advancing Minbari fleet. The idea is to give the last of the humans a chance to escape the Earth and survive amongst the other worlds. At the last moment the Minbari surrendered. No one knows why but a few in the Minbari leadership and those of us that watched the movie.

The series had been on for four years and there was a chance to make some movies when the show moved to TNT for the last season. This was the first of them and JMS wanted a chance to tell the story of how the Earth - Minbari war started and ended. Londo Molari tells the story and how he was responsible for some of it. He was the Centauri Ambassador to Earth at the time. When he tells the story it's 2278 and things aren't going to well for him and the Centauri home world. We'll learn more about that when the series plays out.

I enjoyed the movie the first time I saw it. I like the framing story with Londo and even though he brought it all his trouble on himself I feel somewhat sorry for him. He's such a brilliantly written character and Peter Jurasik does as good with the role as any actor could ever do. J Michael Straczynski wrote all those great lines and it's some good stuff. Michael Vejar did the directing and he did a bang up job. He worked on B5 a lot through the years. This is one movie I know still has some rewatching in it.

Babyon 5 - The Gathering

I had seen the recent announcement that J Michael Straczynski is trying to put together a theatrical movie set in the Babylon 5 universe. I would totally go to the theater to see that and I'm not much of a fan of the cinema visit. If it happens I'll be happy but for now it reminds me that I haven't seen the series for a while. I've watched the series several times since it started 21 years ago. I had tapes I recorded off of cable until the dvd's started coming out in 2001. I sadly didn't keep the orginal recording of the Babylon 5 pilot. After the series had started JMS changed the movie and the soundtrack. Here's the original opening credits for the movie with the Stuart Copeland soundtrack and rather uninspiring Peter Jurasik narration. After watching both openings the new one is better by far. I'd like a copy of the original and I'm sure I could get that online somewhere but for now the dvd will do.

I put on the pilot movie The Gathering which first aired February 22, 1993. I have both the 2 dvd set that came out in 2001 and the 5 movie pack that came out much later. The Gathering intros us to the cast, some of whom would change when the series starts. I liked Commander Sinclair right from the start and continued to admire the man through the first season. I was sad to hear that the man who played him, Michael O'Hare had become mentally ill during the filming of the first season. So much so that he had to leave the role. JMS had agreed to keep O'Hare's reason for leaving from the fans until after O'Hare had died. When that happened in 2012 JMS told the fans at a convention the following year. The series would have been different if O'Hare had remained in the role for the whole series. His leaving would be just one of many in a long list of people leaving the series. They all changed the narrative one way or another. I credit the talent and sticktoitiveness of JMS for making the series as good as it is. He wanted to make a science fiction show that was good sf and good tv at the same time. It's certainly my favorite SF show, bar none, so I think he succeeded quite spectacularly.

The main body of characters that also helped make the series great are there at the beginning: Jerry Doyle as Michael Garabaldi, Peter Jurasik as Londo Molari, Andreas Katsulas as G'Kar, Patricia Tallman as Lyta Alexander and Mira Furlan as Delenn. They all do great job in their roles and they'd just get better and better.

Ardwight Chamberlain did the voice) and Jeffery Willerth wore the encounter-suit of the Vorlon Kosh Naranek. Johnny Sekka plays the station's 1st doctor Benjamin Kyle. Julie Caitlin Brown plays G'Kar's aid Na'Toth. The last two would leave the series, as would Lt Commander. Takashima, played by Tamlyn Tomita.

The story, for those few that might not know, takes place in 2057 which is a year after the 5th Babylon Station went online. The first three got blowed up and the 4th disappeared completely. We'll learn what happened to it in the future. The station is awaiting the arrival of the Vorlon Ambassador. He arrives two days early and is attacked in the docking area before anyone can get to him. Commander Sinclair was delayed by a transporter malfunction. The station medical team scramble to take care of him with little knowledge of the Vorlon race. They are a secretive people who travel in environment suits and no one knows what they look like or how their bodies work.

There's someone on board that is killing people and Mr Garibaldi and his security team is hard at work trying to figure out what's happening. When at a loss for clues they ask the telepath Lyta to poke her mind into Kosh's environmental suit and see what he saw. In the brief image, before she breaks off the contact, Lyta sees Sinclair poison him with something on his hand.

Next thing you know, the Commander is on trial by the Babylon Council. G'Kar is fighting to get him sent to the Vorlon home world. G'Kar is a much harder and more bitter Narn than he would become in the future. I've always felt he was one of the best characters in the show with Londo Molari a close second. His interactions with Londo through the series are some of my favorite scenes.

 

There's plenty of running about and some action as they dig down deep into the mystery of who poisoned Kosh. The station nearly gets destroyed by the Vorlons. They show up to collect Sinclair for his trip to the Vorlon home world and it's right down to the wire before they're convinced it wasn't him. The explosion caused by the powerful bomb inside the Minbari behind the poisoning also nearly wrecks the station. Only the skills of Lt Commander Takashima save the day. She'd be replaced in the first season by Claudia Christian's Lt Commander Susan Ivonova.

Eventually everything settles down and the station gets back to normal. It's quite the opening and I was impressed with the pilot when I saw it in 1993. It still remains one of my favorite episodes. I find it to be a more realistic future than the Star Trek universe. Human nature hasn't changed much in the last dozen centuries even if the technology has jumped a head by leaps and bounds so I'd expect it to be something similar a couple of hundred years from now. Oh well, huh.

I can't recommend the series enough and feel it belongs in any good science fiction tv collection. You can buy all 5 seasons and the 5 movies for 90 bucks on Amazon and that's a lot less than I paid for the 2002 dvds. I'm not complaining, it was still worth spendingf the money, I'll be watching these again in a few years.