Presents & Babylon 5

Today is Wednesday so that meant I was going over to Roberts for TV night.. but before that I stopped by my mailbox to pick up mail and noticed that I had a rather large package from Amazon. Of course my first thought was "it must be my first birthday gift" as my birthday is coming up (Sept 23rd) and I always have an updated birthday wish list on Amazon.

So I opened the package in the car and was delighted to see Three's Company DVD season 1 staring back at me. I notice that the box was pretty big for just one DVD season so I pulled out another and another and another until I had all eight seasons of Three's Company. My buddy from Canada Ken Todd sent me all eight seasons of this fantastic classic TV series. I was so excited. I can't wait now to sit down and do a marathon of this series and laugh my ass off. Thanks Ken for the awesome birthday gift. 

I then headed to Roberts for TV night. We are continuing out Babylon 5 first time viewing. Tonight we started with S2 Ep3 "The Geometry of Shadows" Vir fixes Londo's hair as Londo and Refa scheme. Techno-Mages arrive on the station which is sign of foreboding. The command staff learns that the Green Drazi and Purple Drazi have a global brawl every 5 years to determine the Drazi leadership for the next 5 years. When Ivanova attempts to resolve the conflict, she learns that the distinction between the two colors of Drazi is totally random. Right before the brawl, the Drazi draw a colored sash out of a barrel and join that colored faction. One sash of each color has a leader pendant tied to it; whoever draws that pendant becomes the leader of that color of Drazi.

This was an enjoyable episode. Again as I have mentioned before I'm not really liking where Londo's character is going.. he's defiantly turning to the darkside.  The Drazi stuff was fun..kind of showed you how stupid people can be when they do or believe in something for no reason, just because they were were taught or grew up that way. These aliens grab a green or purple scarf from a barrel and then all of the sudden they are mortal enemies and fight until one group wins and then the do it again five years later. These is no reason for the fighting, there are no differences.. it's just what they do. Oh and by the way I really love the term Techno-Mages

Next was S2 Ep4 "A Distant Star" Capt. Maynard, an old war buddy of Captain Sheridan's. Maynard's arrival prompts Sheridan to realign his priorities --- and then disaster strikes. On other fronts, Delenn runs afoul of the Mumbari hierarchy, while Dr. Franklin tries to administer nutritional advice to some unwilling patients. The episode concludes with a desperate rescue mission, launched from hyperspace.

Again a story that as pretty much a filler episode like the one before.. there was a bit of story about the Shadow and the forthcoming war. We get to see a different side of Sheridan, and for some reason the doctor is going crazy with diets for the crew, if anything it leads to some very funny scenes.

Third episode of the night was S2 Ep5 "The Long Dark" A cryonic exploration vessel from a hundred years ago approaches Babylon 5, bringing with it a deadly creature and a human from the past. A lunatic named Amis (Dwight Schultz) begins making grand assertions of doom; when Garibaldi investigates his past, he discovers that Amis was a decorated combat veteran. Garibaldi takes an interest in Amis, and asks him to explain his story. Amis explains that when his unit was attacking a remote enemy base, they came across a ghostlike alien that began feeding on his men.

This was probably my least favorite of this crop of episodes... though I do enjoy a crazy Dwight Schultz. The relationship between the Doctor and the surviving woman of that ship was very forced. She literally found out that her husband had died an hour before making a play for the doctor. Of course later in the episode she justifies it as they're marriage was rocky to begin with.  Which really didn't make sense since he did go with her on this deep space mission. The episode was fine.. nothing great and no talk of the Shadow war.

And the final episode of the evening was S2 Ep 6 "A Spider in the Web" A friend of Talia comes to Babylon 5 to negotiate a deal to help Mars become more self-sufficient, when a man calling out "Free Mars!" electrocutes him. The mystery deepens as we find out more about this assassin.

This is what I was waiting for.. this was my favorite episode of the night and a great way to end the evening. There wasn't much talk of the Shadow war but it did delve deeper into the corruption of the government on Earth. Lot's of good stuff happened in this episode. Also the continuation of this "Free Mars" storyline that's been going on in my background for most of this series.

So over all not to many "OMG" that was amazing episodes tonight but still all were very entertaining and I can't wait to continue.  And of course the best part of the evening was spending time with my best bud Robert.. after the crappy morning I had it was nice to relax, watch some great TV with my best friend. I did wind up crashing at Robert's tonight as I'm heading over to Disneyland tomorrow and he's place is an hour closer then mine.