The unusual suspects

[Ranger1]

the worst episode thread made me wonder, about favourite unusual episodes? everyone loves episodes like Endgame, Severed Dreams, War Without End, etc, etc, but what about the episodes nobody thinks about? how good is Comes the Inquisitor really? What about Visitors From Down The Street (Crusade)? I'm talking every season, every movie and every show. Personally, i love Visitors From Down the Street, because it is really quite an amusing episode.

On a side note, am i really that weird for thinking Na'Toth is kind of cute?

[Jan]

Visitors from Down the Street is about the only of the 'off-format' episodes that I don't care for. But then, I was never a fan of X-Files anyway.

Jan

[KoshFan]

I love off-format episodes, although B5's were never quite as good as some other shows I've seen.

[Shabaz]

I on the other hand quite liked Visitors, since the x-files is probably one of the few shows I ever watched religiously for years on end on television (i.e. not on DVD, which is how end up watching most shows I really like now). It wasn't great, but it was fun seeing (fellow x-files fan) JMS having a bit of fun with it.

As for other shows, Farscape comes to mind. They did some of their best work in the off format stuff, although their regular episodes could get pretty weird and out there already.

[PillowRock]

Sticking the B5 universe:

For me the best off-format episodes are probably:

Intersections in Real Time
and
The Illusion of Truth

They aren't exctly *fun* to watch (well the early section Illusion has some fun; but not once the broadcast starts). But given what they are and what they are doing, they shouldn't be ...... in much the same way that Schiner's List and Sophie's Choice are not exactly *fun* to watch.

[Dayton3]

I loved "And Now For A Word" where a news team was covering B-5.

I especially loved the part where the newswoman talked about "our exclusive interview with Vorlon Ambassador Kosh"..........when in actuality it was the news team running after Kosh as he made a hasty escape.

And the PsyCorps commercial was priceless.

[Chilli]

Hmm .. quick view over episodes I personally considered "weird" - hope I didn't forget anything too important

And Now for a Word, I *hated* the first time I saw it. I started liking it more and more on repeated viewings, and love it by now.

I didn't care much for "The Illusion of Truth". I didn't hate per se, but which I found a bit .. predictable, really. And I thought Sheridan was a bit of a dumbass to let them film in the first place. Gee, who'd have thought it would end like it did?

Atonement was awesome.

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.

Deconstruction of Falling Stars .. a favourite of mine.

A View from the Gallery .. I liked the way in which the main plot of the episode - strange aliens attack - just didn't make sense. As .. would the shadow war make any sense to average Joe? I did not like .. everything else, basically

Day of the Dead .. recently covered

Visitors from Down the Street .. I've only seen it once, like all of Crusade. But I recall liking it loads. Don't remember more than that

[Dayton3]

JMS made a good point about "A View From the Gallery" regarding the complaint from fans that nothing was ever known about the aliens.

Not even their names.

He pointed out that the story was the viewpoint of the two maintenance guys.

And guys like that would NEVER know anything about the aliens. Not even their names.

[Ranger1]

some really good points, i especially agree about "And Now For A Word" i love that episode, just for the psicorp ad and the tosspiece looking psi cop. however the second question remains, am i really that weird for thing that Na'Toth is pretty cute, i mean have a think, would you?

[KoshN]

Visitors from Down the Street is about the only of the 'off-format' episodes that I don't care for. But then, I was never a fan of X-Files anyway.

Jan

I was a fan of The X-Files until Season 6. From the first episode of Season 6, it went sharply downhill, and it became more and more obvious that Chris Carter had no idea where he was going with it.

The only part of Visitors from Down the Street that I didn't like was the alien head prosthetics and how the tendrils moved (like rubber fishing worms).

I thought the interplay between Gideon and the aliens was great. The music also seemed to be right on the money, as well, creating a nice atmosphere. A lot of good quotes came out of that episode.