Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Simpsons Couch Gag & Babylon 5

First of all I came across one of the best Simpson Couch gags ever.. it's going to air this Sunday. You can watch it below:


Today was TV night with my buddy Robert. We are continuing our Babylon 5 first time viewing. Today we finished off season 2 with episodes 21 & 22 and started season 3 with episodes 1 & 2.

First up was S2 Ep 21 "Comes The Inquisitor" G'Kar rallies the Narns on the station to uphold the resistance effort against the Centauri. Delenn undergoes a torturous test of her allegiance to Kosh by a bizarre emissary called Sebastian.

This was a hard episode to watch, it's was tough seeing Delenn be tortured by this horrible person for no apparent reason. He was "testing" her but not really asking any questions. He just wanted to see if she would break before dying. I'm glad when Sheridan came to her rescue and both were found to be worthy of this approaching fight. Of course it's revealed that this "Inquisitor" is from Earth's past and he is Jack The Ripper and has been working/punished by the Vorlons for hundreds of years.

I like the fact that Sheridan helped G'Kar who I just feel is getting the raw end of every deal. And I loved Garibaldi's interaction with G'Kar by telling him not to use Babylon 5 to get black marketed weapons but then turns around and gives him a name of a guy who will take care of everything he needs discretely. Garibaldi is such a good guy.

Next was the finale for season 2 Ep 22 "The Fall of Night" Earth reacts to the Centauri's rapid invasion of several worlds — but it's not what Sheridan expected. Amazing revelations are made about the Shadows and the Vorlons.

Wow what a finale. I'm hating the Centauri more and more and Earth allying themselves with them was horrible. Sheridan was amazing in this episode, loved that he went to full on battle mode to save the Narn battleship and destroyed the Centauri battle cruiser. Londo and the rest of the Centauri's need to be kicked off Babylon 5 (but I know this won't happen now, especially with the Earth alliance).

It was great to finally "see" Kosh. It's interesting that he appears differently for each race of aliens and for most he appeared as a recognizable "god like" figure from this history.

I wasn't sad when Keffer died, I mean his character was never fully developed so when it happen I thought "oh well". Of course he was able to get footage of the Shadow creatures ship

I really liked how the episode ended with Ivanova reflecting upon recent events, noting that while Babylon 5's mission as "our last, best hope for peace" seems to have failed, it has instead become something greater: a hope for victory.

Third was the premiere episode of season 3 Ep 1 "Matters of Honor" Marcus Cole comes to Babylon 5 and the crew receive a new ship to use in the coming conflict. David Endawi of Earthforce Special Intelligence arrives on Babylon 5 to investigate the sighting of the Shadow vessel.

Great way to begin season three. Loved the new Vorlon/Minbari ship White Star, I'm sure will be seeing alot more of her in the future. They introduced a new character Marcus who is the new Ranger aboard Babylon 5. They revealed that the PSI Corp on Earth (who is pretty much running the government) is in leagues with The Shadow race. And Londo showed a shred of decently by trying to break off his alignment with Morden (Shadow liaison). Of course it's to late and he's done way to much damage, he's not going to get out of it that easy, nor should he.. he's made his bed now he has to lie with the ultimate evil.

And the final episode of the night was S3 Ep 2 "Convictions" A series of random bombings threaten the station, with one explosion seriously injuring Lennier. Lennier saved Mollari from the explosion and was injured in his place. This affects Mollari deeply. Brother Theo and a group of Monks from Earth arrive on Babylon 5. There are other pilgrimages to Babylon 5 seen in this episode as the news of Kosh's appearance spreads to the religious communities of various civilizations.

Compared to the other three episodes this was a very mild episode. Nothing to do with the approaching War. I've been a fan of Lennier for a while but this episode showed what good person he is. He sacrificed himself to save Londo (I actually yelled at the TV that he should have left Londo to die). But we do get some great moments with Londo and G'Kar stuck in an elevator. G'Kar is hilarious, not wanting to help Londo get them out, he'd rather die but first watch Londo die. I like when G'Kar was telling the Earth official about the mysterious ship and he was right but the Earth official just shrugged it off. There was another scene that I liked.. when the Earth official shows the footage to Sheridan and Delenn and Delenn says she has never seen that ship before. And I turned to Robert and said "wow.. she just lied" (Mimbari's don't lie) but then Robert said "maybe she's never seen the Shadows ship before so technically it's not a lie and sure enough when Sheridan questioned this she said exactly that. I love that this show remembers all the details, even minor ones from past episodes/seasons. I guess that's one of the great benefits of having one writer for the entire series.

Another great TV night with Robert, Babylon 5 is rocking and everyone says season three when crazy things start happening on this show. Been loving it since the first episode.. can't wait to see where it goes next.

2 comments:

  1. Keffler was a character foisted upon JMS by the network. They wanted a "hotshot fighter pilot character." JMS relented but resolved to kill him off as soon as he could get away with it.

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  2. I think it's cool that you're watching this for the first time. I've seen every episode, in order, and I can say with very little fear of contradiction that this is the most "complete" television show I think I've ever seen, with maybe Deep Space 9 or Farscape as close contenders. I loved practically every minute of it, and I can't wait to share it with my kids.

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