My (mostly) unspoiled watch of Babylon 5

[Independent George]

IIRC they only time they return is in one of the DVD releases. But then, I'm still in Season 4, so what can you do? Do you mind spoilers? Because this is answered by the books and not the TV show.

No spoilers, please.

S2 Episodes 6-7: Spider in the Web, Soul Mates

1. Back-to-back Winters episodes - and I'm still not making much connection to her character. I'm not sure why - she's central to both episodes, but just doesn't grab me.
2. For all of G'Kar's creepiness in the pilot, Garibaldi has stalked and sexually harassed Winters for two seasons now. In Soul Mates, he abuses his authority to harass someone for no other reason than he used to be married to the woman he's stalking. The fact that he's actually involved in something shady is irrelevant - Garibaldi had no probable cause, and was just angry that his imaginary girlfriend was spending time with someone else.
3. The protective detail he assigns in Spider in the Web are terrible. They let their charge walk off, alone, into an unsecured room to continue a meeting like the guy who was just assassinated the day before. I won't watch any reviews until I finish the series, but I really hope Chuck has as much fun with the Keystone Space Cops as much as I am. Odo was a fascist, but at least he was an efficient fascist. Garibaldi is just genuinely terrible at his job.
4. Is it me, or does the Bureau 13 controller look exactly like Dana Scully, right down to the hair cut? I actually did think that was Gillian Anderson initially. I assume they're part of Psi-Corps. As much as I'd like to make fun of the post-JFK conspiracy mongering in the 90s, it's somehow even worse today.
5. I'm not sure I understand the political situation on Mars, or what Psi-Corps was attempting to do with the assassination.
6. I kind of hate the cyber-assassin idea. The whole point of an assassin is to be as untraceable as possible. A guy who electrocutes his victims with his bare hands is just begging for trouble.
7. I totally called the Psi-Corps eugenics program.

[Yukaphile]

1. Oh boy, wait'll you find out Talia's fate...
2. Yeah, Garibaldi's actions are totally smarmy as hell if not outright creepy. I don't think he gets a pass for that.
7. What I hate most about this episode is that it just glosses over this woman getting pregnant from rape and yet acting as if she'd still want the baby if they hadn't stolen it. That's something I hate in our society. It's why I think gender roles are so bad. We just assume women are more nurturing than men, we force it on them with subtle cultural perceptions so that it's being framed as, "Why would you want to give up a rape baby?" It's both angelization and misogynistic...

[Independent George]

Ok, one bit of geek trivia that I forgot to mention - I noticed during the credits that Stoner was played by Keith Szarabajka, whom I mostly know as the voice of Joshua Graham in Fallout: New Vegas. That is doing messed up things to my head.

[Independent George]

S2 Episode 8: A Race Through Dark Places

This was a great episode, I'm starting to warm to Winters, and the Psi-Corps eugenics program is seriously messed up. Retroactively, I'm even more annoyed with the conclusion to Mind Wars - changing him into an energy being was stupid and clicheed in the original, and it actively detracts from the Psi-Corps arc now.

The better way to handle the story would have been to make Bester look reasonable from the start, and give IRONHEART the villain edit as he behaves erratically and dangerously. Give Talia a reason to distrust him, and then have her turn him in only to have Bester reveal his true colors at the end. Bester shoots first, ignoring the bystanders in a public area; IRONHEART dies shielding them from the collateral damage, Talia realizes he's still the person she knew, and receives her gift in his final moments - including his memories of what Psi-Corps did to him. Tensions rise between B5 and Bester because of his recklessness, but he is protected by Psi-Corps. Talia and Bester exchange some heated words, and both realize that he can't get through to her mind - Bester assumes she's shielding herself, and Talia realizes that she wasn't and that he should have been able to read her easily. The episode ends with the same penny scene, and Talia learning about her new abilities.

That does everything the original episode did, but without the cliche of IRONHEART turning into energy, and closes the plot hole of Sinclair facing no repercussions from openly aiding a fugitive from Psi-Corps in a manner that got one of their agents killed.

Anyway, that's too much about Mind Wars and not enough about this episode, which I really enjoyed. Franklin assisting with the Underground Railroad is completely in character for him, and the reveal was excellent. I do question why Bester would himself refer to them as the Underground Railroad, seeing as how that casts him as the Psi Corps as slave owners. I loved Ivanova's bickering with Sheridan, along with her loyalty - those were some nice character touches handled deftly. I adored the final scene with Winters and Ivanova - I've been cold to Winters thus far, but she was great in this episode, and the thaw with Ivanova was handled with an understatement that was lacking in S1. All in all, I think the show has hit its groove.

Edited for grammar.

[Independent George]

7. What I hate most about this episode is that it just glosses over this woman getting pregnant from rape and yet acting as if she'd still want the baby if they hadn't stolen it. That's something I hate in our society. It's why I think gender roles are so bad. We just assume women are more nurturing than men, we force it on them with subtle cultural perceptions so that it's being framed as, "Why would you want to give up a rape baby?" It's both angelization and misogynistic...

I only got to the episode last night, but this is actually not an uncommon reaction from rape victims who are impregnated (though if I remember my statistics right, most of those situations involve being raped by a relative or stepfather, so it's even worse). It's an awful situation all around, but I think your automatic assumption that "of course they don't want the baby" is probably as bad as the assumption that they would want to keep the child. People react differently from each other, and even in that circumstance, having a child taken away can be just as traumatizing.

[Yukaphile]

It's not that "of course they don't want the baby." It's that due to societal gender roles, rarely will you see a woman in a piece of fictional entertainment media who was raped presented in a sympathetic light if she does not want the baby, because we tend to think women are more nurturing. Some right of center people on this very forum complain about how women win in a high number of custody cases. Ignoring that the male could just be plain stupid, let's assume for a moment why that is, which would be that society instantly assumes mothers are more caretaking and thus make better parents. This is why I want to challenge traditional gender roles, something which certain idiots on this forum clearly do NOT understand.

[Independent George]

S2, Episode 9: The Coming of Shadows

Whoah, this was a big one. I might have to re-watch S1, because I remember Londo mentioning that the Centauri were sometimes able to see their own deaths in the future, and I think we had a glimpse of him, as Emperor, being strangled to death (possibly by an aged G'Kar, but I'm not certain of that). This ties in with both the techno-mages' prophecy, and the mystic who said that one Centauri guy (I can't recall his name) would be killed by shadows. I think Kosh also said something about the Centauri and the Narn both destroying themselves.

Londo just dug himself inextricably deeper with the Shadows; I wonder who he thinks they are? Their agent is presenting himself as a human - does he think he's got a contact with an Earthforce black ops group? That's the only mundane explanation I can imagine him believing. I've read enough LeCarre novels to know that he can't get out now - while he's more or less expendible to him (with the Emperor now dead, they can go to any of Londo's rivals who want access to the Shadows' resources), they can threaten to out him as a traitor at any time they choose. If he thinks it's someone from Earthforce, then he would assume it's mutual assured destruction because they don't want anyone to know they're responsible. But since we know he's working for an eldritch abomination that can't be blackmailed in turn, we know he's stuck. He has no way out. "You are both damned.".

That was two huge character reversals for G'Kar in the same episode - being ready to kamikaze himself upon the Emperor, and then ready to make peace with the Centauri, then right back to where he was at the start. What's interesting here is that I'm not sure either side is really ready for the war - the Centauri have been pulling back for ages, and weren't strong enough to attack the colony on their own, while the Narn had previously only been sending raids to gauge Centauri strength, and now have suffered two huge losses in the last year. I assume the Shadows' strategic goal is to embroil the major powers in a war that will leave them either weakened, distracted, or susceptible to their own influence. I also wonder if they've been in contact with Psi-Corps, and that is the source of their increasing power.

Sheridan is apparently part of a paramilitary volunteer outfit investigating the rim. I like that they actually appear to be trying to compartmentalize, but surely there was an easier way of reaching Garibaldi discreetly. And, once again, station security decides to leave a mysterious stranger, unsearched and unbound, alone with their CO (whom he'd been stalking). Great job, guys.

[Independent George]

S2 Episodes 10-11: Gropos, All Alone in the Night

This feels like a couple of breather episodes before heading into the next escalation - and yes, I know it's weird to call it a breather when the A-plots involve Earthforce launching a ground invasion on a strategic location, and Captain Sheridan being abducted and probed by an unknown race. They were pretty good episodes, but Gropos felt a little too conventional (right down to the redshirts getting just enough development before getting killed unceremoniously), and All Alone in the Night felt too unconventional (the kidnapping came right out of nowhere with no ties to any previous stories). That said, there are several important revelations in the B and C plots:

1. The Minbari are apparently every bit as dysfunctional as Earthforce. The warrior caste is ascendant, and Delenn is in political exile. I am very curious to see how this affects Sinclair's Rangers (who had previously indicated they have Minbari support), whether or not the warrior caste is a part of it, or if they even knows they exist. I am betting "no" on those last two questions.
2. Kosh apparently really did appear to Sheridan while he'd been abducted, which is... intriguing. I'm not sure if this means the Stribe are definitely working with the Shadows, or it means they are definitely NOT working with the Shadows.
3. The Stribe coming out of nowhere to abduct random aliens is a bit too abrupt for my tastes. The "kidnap aliens and make them duel to the death" was overdone in the 60s, and a bad cliche by the 90s - but if they represent a significant faction in the future and get more development, then I might be able to accept it. Right now, they feel like a bad plot device, but I think the show has earned some credit on that score.
4. It is a huge revelation that there is another group of officers trying to secretly band together against the Psi-Corps cabal; I wonder if they are independent of Sinclair's group, or another isolated cell. Garibaldi is now, as far as I know, the only one who knows about both groups, which is a really hard position to be in.
5. I'm glad they addressed why Sheridan is CO of the station, and not someone known to be loyal to the cabal; more than anything, that is an indication that the writers care about verisimilitude and went out of their way to answer a question only the nerds are likely to care about. I have to assume that they have more infiltrators besides that one officer who shot Garibaldi.
6. And that, folks, is why a senior staff officer has no business leading fighter squadrons. Ever. (This is one of my least favorite tropes, in case you couldn't tell). Acceptable for a small independent crew like on Firefly, utterly ludicrous for an actual military organization. And yes, I know Star Trek is even worse about this, but you bet I'd be ripping them if I were watching it fresh like I am with B5.

[ORCACommander]

the strive plot line does contribute a recurring character

[Kinky Vorlon]

Just discovered this thread. Enjoying your thoughts thus far. As you can guess by my username/avatar/siggy, B5 is my fav sci-fi show.