Babylon 5: A Distant Star

[Jonathan101]

https://www.sfdebris.com/videos/babylon5/b5s2e04.php

[Yukaphile]

FUCK YES! TIME TO CHECK THIS BABY OUT!

[Fipse]

I never really got why it is so hard to get olive oil or other basic ingredients onto the station, especially if money is not really an issue.

[Yukaphile]

Another pre-intro stinger! HOORAY!

"The right people in the right place at the right time?" To totally flip the bird at the Vorlons as well as the Shadows. LOL! That worked out well, aye?

Okay, seriously, who's requesting these? They're all asking for the Decree of the Emperor? Let's see... um, did the episode actually say?

You know, Captain Maynard reminds me of Kyle Reese somehow. It's just a little something in the face. I wonder what became of him in the EA civil war and what he thought of Sheridan's actions...?

Chuck's little tale about his experience with the doctor brought a chuckle to me. Shit, even with my doctors, they don't demand anything from me in helping me lose weight, and I've lost almost 100 pounds.

I'll repeat it again, from the last thread? The focus on character journey and little character moments like they have in this story, with Garibaldi just desperately trying to smuggle in his favorite meal for his birthday to honor his dad, and Sheridan having to cope with adapting to a new desk job, is what makes B5 special, and arguably a relic from a forgotten era, since as I've said elsewhere, TV shows and movies today, especially in the sci-fi genre, tend to put more emphasis on spectacle than character and story. Such a shame. I miss those days.

Tbh, having seen most of B5 now, I can confess I don't find Keffer that annoying. Don't get why Chuck hates the guy. IIRC he was taken out by the Shadows, but his footage survived to alert the galaxy to their presence? So at least his death had some good use.

You know... the whole "living in hyperspace" thing seems like good foreshadowing now I've seen Season 4, in that the Shadows were probably doing what the Vorlons were prior to their offensive - hiding their fleets or smaller armadas and ships in hyperspace. Very well done and just another reason I love this show. VERY tightly consistent. JMS really knows what sci-fi fans want.

Okay, so that explains the whole Heffer thing... kinda. But does a character REALLY need charisma to be a good character? Even if Keffer wasn't "THERE!" in a "putting himself out there" way, there are still average joes living everywhere, and one could argue Keffer is that in spades.

Return of the Living Dead...

Gotta just love how casually prejudiced the Minbari are to Delenn now, especially given the genocidal war they waged on humans a decade prior. I see this as her redemption. Becoming human (because I have learned she was the cause of the genocide against the humans, yes? I have not reached it, but I read it) and then eventually marrying one will be her penance. And they don't understand, and treat her as a freak. But then, it does hold itself up pretty well to how real life would go. None of that Star Trek idealism here, kids! Move along, move along.

Wonder what Chuck will say during poor Ivanova's naked dream sequence? Fanservice, sure, but damn, it stuck with me.

Though, Ivanova's line here about fighting Russian imperialism is what really moved me from where I used to be to where I am now, and just love her to death (and the naked scene in the next season certainly didn't hurt ). Read she dies somewhere in the series run. That's very sad. I at least hope she goes out taking an evil enemy with her, perhaps a whole score of them. That's a death I think she'd greatly appreciate. Like Worf! XD

Seriously, why do people keep naming their ships the Cortez? They did it in DS9 and now B5. It's like naming a ship the Hitler or Stalin. It's just... feels wrong.

I always assumed to be lost in hyperspace would mean you'd spend eternity drifting through an empty void, and your supplies would run out and the ship would degrade, atmosphere would dissipate, and so on. I mean, if hyperspace is infinite like it is in some other works (like Z-space in Animorphs), then to stray too far from a gate is a death sentence, yes? Am I alone here?

You know, Dr. Franklin really struck me as an overprotective parent here. Guess he learned more from his dad than he thought! ^_^

This episode made me wonder if bagna cauda tastes any good? I looked it up on the wiki, googled it online, and turns out it's a real Italian food. Go figure.

Bwahahahaha at the stim joke!

Chuck's comments about the Delenn being the bridge? Kind of fitting, I suppose, given she was the one who wanted to "kill them all." Again, as I've said, I see that as her redemption, and I think with enough time to reflect on the past, she sees Sheridan as just a man doing what he had to do in a war that was senseless, that she caused. She can't begrudge him for that. Totally consistent with what she said after he was seemingly killed at Z'ha'dum.

So... humans are Cthulhu?

I dunno, I have a soft spot for this episode. Especially Garibaldi's shenanigans. Overall, a solid review. Can't wait for more!

[MixedDrops]

I never really got why it is so hard to get olive oil or other basic ingredients onto the station, especially if money is not really an issue.

Isn't it? I mean, I guess maybe Earthforce members get nice salaries, but apparently not enough to stop people from joining Nightwatch for that little bit of extra spending cash. Even if they had huge salaries I imagine any perishables were still a luxury they could only indulge in once in a while.

[ORCACommander]

I think it is heavily implied that B5 is 3-5 weeks from the nearest agrarian planet or planet well developed enough to export surplus food. Remember one of the big military secrets in this show are the Gold Channels which allow real time communication over light years.
B5's isolation is probly intentional on the part of the Babylon board of directors species. only way for neutrality to exist is in uncontested, strategically valueless space

[Kinky Vorlon]

I never really got why it is so hard to get olive oil or other basic ingredients onto the station, especially if money is not really an issue.

Logistics. Space is really, really fucking big, even with jumpgates. It's not uncommon to find expired food in your local grocery store. I don't find it hard to believe that fresh food would be a rarity several hundred light years from Earth.

[Beastro]

I never really got why it is so hard to get olive oil or other basic ingredients onto the station, especially if money is not really an issue.

IIRC, even "real" coffee is often difficult to come by on the station.

I appreciate what they were trying to do making luxuries and even what we'd consider basic supplies hard to come by on the station, but even then I felt it was too short a tether to Earth, though I am one that sees things through the lens of things such as the Age of Sail trip from Europe to the America's could take several months while one to India took the better part of a year to complete (and East Indies and Orient could take over a year depending on the winds).

I never really got why it is so hard to get olive oil or other basic ingredients onto the station, especially if money is not really an issue.

Logistics. Space is really, really fucking big, even with jumpgates. It's not uncommon to find expired food in your local grocery store. I don't find it hard to believe that fresh food would be a rarity several hundred light years from Earth.

It's a thing I dislike the replicator for in Trek. It's such a huge drama killer and reveals a bit of the annoying side to its optimistic future, that such ideas would be explained away rather than embraced.

It also left open that huge window of temptation for Voyager to squirm out of as resupply was simply a matter of power. No replicators suddenly means they couldn't just quickly BS their way out of things, but would have to explain them stopping by worlds if only to restock their food stores.

B5's isolation is probly intentional on the part of the Babylon board of directors species. only way for neutrality to exist is in uncontested, strategically valueless space

Hyperspace is an issue to consider.

IIRC, it doesn't map to normal space, so the shortest distance on a star map isn't a straight line. Systems close together can take time to go to in HS while more distant ones can be arrived at sooner.

Again, IIRC, this is a key element to why the Centauri invaded Narn, as it was a world relatively close to them in HS, which also explains why the war in the show is so rapidly started and concluded as well as why the Narn were so paranoid about their defences to prevent a second occupation.

[Sir Will]

Babylon 4?

[Madner Kami]

I never really got why it is so hard to get olive oil or other basic ingredients onto the station, especially if money is not really an issue.

Money pretty much is an issue.