The unusual suspects

[Shaal Mayan]

Visitors is the only ep I can think of as well and it's usually the one I will skip when watching Crusade.

[RW7427]

I sometimes skip Visitors when I watch Crusade, but usually I just let it play and find something to occupy my attention while it's on.

[Dayton3]

I loved Visitors From Down The Street if for no other reason than the thing with the sewer pipe leak causing that smell no one could find while riding the tube.

And how Gideons shaking of it dumps a load of crap on his security team.

[Ranger1]

i just love the end of the episode, because the alien dude lights up a smoke, and first time i saw that, i thought to myself "finally, proof they smoke in the future" and yes i know the culture of that planet was based on the past, and there was an episode of B5 where people were warned they were in a no smoking area, but looking at some aliens on the show that could have been a warning to some alien race that has smoke rising off of their bodies all the time (extremely unlikely i know), but it just tickles me slightly to know people still smoke in the future, even though their culture is based upon earths past.Although in SiL mike has his cigars, but i saw Visitors before i saw SiL

[AnlaShokGrey]

For what reason would the fact that people smoke in the future 'tickle' you? I've seen too many people get lung cancer -- and lose their battle to it -- to find that the least bit positive.

[RMcD]

Shadow Dancing is one of my favourite episodes of all. That episode seemed to deliver movie-quality thrills that were far too good to belong on television, and it's almost a shame that it's so overshadowed by being immediately followed by Z'ha'dum. I think it's the best B5 battle too. Netter Digital's effects may have been technically better and more ambitious than Foundation Imaging's, but I felt something was lost when Ron Thornton left..

On the other hand I think War Without End may be a little overrated. I love Zathras, the Londo scene, and the ending, but there are some (necessary) contrivances in there to make it work, and I thought Michael O'Hare's delivery wasn't as good as in S1.

[PillowRock]

Intersections in Real time was .. not as deep as it thought it was, I thought Showing torture as something "kind of weird" basically, but something you can easily beat if you have balls. I've never been tortured, but I doubt it's quite like that, to be honest.

I would point to the JMS Speaks section of the Lurkers' Guide page, which in part reads:

"As someone who has degrees in both Psychology and Sociology, and who has been a supporter of PEN International (a multinational group that monitors the treatment of writers who are prisoners of conscience in other countires) for years, I have had a longstanding interest and familiarity with this area...and through my European roots with relatives who were in Germany and Poland when the camps were in full swing, and later when the Russian government beat down its people. I have plenty of personal background on this one."


I would also note that Sheridan was a very prominent person, one who would be a major coup to be able parade in front of the press after having been broken into contrition. As such, there would be serious limits to the visible physical damage that they would want to do to him. Torture that resulted in noticeable physical damage would *greatly* reduce Sheridan's value for propaganda later.

[Recoil]

I agree.

There were a lot of very real elements in the episode "Intersections in Realtime." Lets remember the goal of that was not to torture Sheridan for information, but convert him (brainwash of sorts) so he will do their bidding. That is very much the breakdown of the mind. The Interragators explaination of "truth" when talking to Sheridan was a perfect segway to get Sheridan to see things a different way --- their way.

That episode was very well done and well researched.

[Sindatur]

Plus, I think Psychological mindgames and breaking of people, is far more likely to get you what you want from someone you are torturing then to simply start cutting off fingers. If they didn't tell you what you wanted, or do what you wanted when they snipped the first finger off, the other 9 probably aren't going to produce much better results.

[KoshFan]

I've always liked the idea that I saw on the Lurker's Guide years ago, that one reason they had to resort to so much trickery and drugs was becasue Sheridan's now "sealed off" from telepathy, as we saw in that scene with Lyta.