Well, I certainly don't hate this episode. I also don't hate Eduardo Delvientos
![Stick out tongue :p :p](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
I am pleased he reappears here, because I like it when shows reuse characters like that. It makes the world feel more real.
The weird format where the whole episode is contained in an in-universe TV show doesn't detract from the actual content, I feel. The episode has both main arc stuff and character stuff, which is always a mix I like. I love how the various characters' personalities shine through when they're being interviewed on camera, especially the Earthforce personnel. Sheridan is such a talker, he's always speechifying, and he gets pretty animated. Ivanova is all business and refuses to get personal in any way. Garibaldi worries on camera about keeping his job if he talks about things on camera. The only thing that maybe detracts a little is that this camera crew is all up in everyone's business and apparently everyone is OK with this? The parts where they're in medlab in the middle of a huge crisis trying to interview people as they're trying to save lives, and when they're in C&C during a sensitive investigation.
People in the background acting like people in the background during a live broadcast are pretty funny. Also Corwin being interviewed with Ivanova hovering over him. Haha. I'm sure that's not at all a funny situation in real life, having to watch what you say because your supervisor will have your hide if you don't, but, you know, it's funny here
Main arc stuff includes not just the obvious Narn - Centauri war, but also "smaller" stuff, like Senator Quantrell representing certain factions on Earth. Little snippets of background information about Clark's rising popularity due to his focus on "the needs of Earth." Some people don't think Babylon 5 is all that useful 14 years (14 years is what they say on this episode, but shouldn't it be 12?) after the end of the Minbari war, and those resources would be better spent on Earth. I wrote a whole post somewhere else on this forum some time ago about how differently I view Babylon 5 after all this time, not just because TV has changed, but because I am older. One major thing that I couldn't appreciate when it was the 90s and I was in my teens, is what those "ten years after the Earth - Minbari war" would have meant to the characters. When I was a teenager, ten years seemed like a really long time. Now it seems like no time at all, and I much better understand how traumatized everyone must still be, and how difficult this whole subject must be for them. Anyway, it's interesting that we see people making these bold claims about how much more advanced Earth's technology is now, and how the war surely would go differently if it were to happen now. This is not the first time we have heard characters say that. I love how we get all this background stuff about what is going on back on Earth a little bit at a time throughout various episodes.
[Minor spoilers for general sort of storyline stuff from later seasons in this paragraph].
Cynthia Torqueman, while discussing the various opinions on Babylon 5's usefulness, says "growth only comes through pain and struggle." That of course is an opinion lots of people have had throughout human history without any Shadow interference, but, who exactly has she been consulting with, eh?
The Delenn interview makes me very uncomfortable. On the one hand I feel like "HOW did she not see that question coming?" but on the other hand, she clearly doesn't know humans well enough yet, and she has been struggling with her change, so it does make sense. It really is painful to watch. I like how she talks about Minbar with such love, though.
Some minor things:
- Sheridan says "armchair quarterbacking" several times. The character is American, but would people back on Earth know what he is talking about? I mean the ones outside the US
I can't remember now, but I probably didn't know what a quarterback was when I first watched B5.
- Cynthia Torqueman says "roughly" a lot, and then G'Kar says it when he is interviewed by her.
- That Psi Corps ad ... It's kind of funny, with all we know about Psi Corps, and that subliminal message and all, but how realistic is this? I guess it isn't so much an ad as a PSA, but how long has Psi Corps existed at this point? Do they really need to advertise? Doesn't everyone know what happens to telepaths?
- "No one else would ever build a place like this." It's that thing where sci fi shows position humans as somehow unique among humanoid species. I have commented on this in other threads for sure, so pardon me repeating myself. I don't see what is so unique about humans in this universe.
- It's interesting that Cynthia Torqueman doesn't at all challenge the colonialist language when she interviews Londo and he talks about how the Centauri "civilized" the Narn.
I was going to do a little victory dance here, and have a small party, for having posted in ALL the episode discussion threads, but then I realized I forgot The Lost Tales. D'oh! Soooooon, though.