Your favorite Babylon 5 episode?

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

I just saw the "Favorite Trek episode post, and I feel I have to inquire on this board what your favorite B5 episode was.
I first experienced Babylon 5 when I was thumbing through an Amiga magazine, and they had printed screenshots from the upcoming pilot episode. The FX didn't look as good as Trek, but they were all CGI, and done on Amigas. As an Amiga owner, I was fascinated by the idea, so I gave it a chance, and watched the pilot. The pilot almost convinced me, but it took watching the first season to realize I had something special here.

I don't expect many replies to this. For some reason, there's a lot of animosity towards Babylon 5 from the majority of Trek fans (this is from personal experience, by the way,) but I loved both series. I just happened to get into Babylon 5 more.

My favorite episode would have to be "Severed Dreams" (Third season) Sheridan decided that Babylon 5 must break away from the Earth Alliance and dedicates himself to doing so until President Clark is out of office. It has a hell of a lot of drama, excellent acting all around, and a ten minuite space battle, to boot.

My favorite story arc would have to be the one that "Severed Dreams" finished up. ("Messages from Earth", "Point of No Return", and "Severed Dreams")

Anyone else?

[Caution]

1. Easily "Intersections in Real Time"

Episode was about pyschological and physical torture of a political prisoner. Very creepy and well done.

Babylon 5 is a very interesting show because many of the tactics used by the "Clark" administration mirror those of the Bush administration.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

2. What's really frightening is that Bush LOVES the show.

One of his aides mentioned it to JMS when the Great Maker was at the White House with Bruce Boxleitner (He's a repub, sadly, along with Jerry Doyle, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2002,) and JMS was told that *Bush and *Cheney love the show.
Now we know where they're getting those ideas.

JMS is a liberal, by the way. I love his writing. Anyone who calls Harlan Ellison a close friend is way cool in my book.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Not only is Jerry Doyle a royal repuke, but

he's also a liar. He omitted the fact that he was married ca. 1976, divorced, and has a son, Matthew in New Jersey. Guess it wouldn't make good copy with regard to family values.

[Lisa]

7. don't let that worry you ...

I heard that Gordon Campbell (a rabid neo-con up here in Canada) loves "The West Wing".

Perhaps these guys enjoy a good story as much as anyone else does ... I heard that when George Plimpton visited the WH, all * wanted to talk about was an April Fool's yarn about a fictional baseball player that Plimpton had once written.

We already know that * is very susceptible to seeing himself as a "media creation" -- hence the penchant for dressing up? If he sees himself as a B5 character some days .... maybe this is one of the few areas where he actually has good taste!


p.s. my guess is, Cheney probably identifies with the Shadows. That whole idea about staying hidden while they take things over ... (shiver)


Note that, if they actually were telling the truth and not just trying to butter up their visitors ... Bush sure hasn't come out and said he likes SF, maybe because he's afraid that people would make fun of him. Wimp! Al Gore told several interviewers that he watched "Star Trek" and thought Frank Herbert's "Dune" was one of the most influential books he'd ever read.

[LanternWaste]

4. Deconstruction of falling Stars

"Deconstruction of falling Stars" simply blew me away in conceptual story telling.

"The Corp is Mother, The Corp is Father" is also a really good one as it illustrates the Psi-Corp in an almost positive light.

"And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding place" simply because it has some of the best interaction between Londo and G'kar (they're my tweo favorite characters)


Yes...I backed off a little from Star Trek many moons ago, and it was because of B5. B5 ruined ST for me...lol. Yes, so I'm just a big ol' geek when it comes to B5 (don't tell anyone, I don't want to ruin my cover as a normal guy :) )

[Lisa]

5. the ones that stick in my memory ...

I don't know the titles (only saw the first few seasons) -- the one where they look at the impacts of a particular decision, centuries into the future. Peoples' opinion of those involved changes radically, generations later -- and keeps changing.

The other one was the story about the soldiers who arrive at B5 on the way to fight a battle. They bicker among themselves, worry about what's to come, and have altercations with the major characters ... and at the end of the episode, we learn secondhand what happened to them after.


I actually like both B5 and the Star Treks (what I've seen of them) -- I'm nowhere near as huge a fan as others I know, and maybe that's why!

A long time before B5, the writer did a post-apoc series made in Toronto ("Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future") -- it had the ongoing storyline, and the merging of CGI and live-action characters (my cousin actually worked on the animation side).

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

6. Actually, that first episode you mentioned was the 4th season finale...

"The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" Not a bad ep, considering they had to throw it together. JMS had planned on finishing the series in the 4th season and constructed the story arcs to finish on ep 21. When TNT picked up the series for it's final season, JMS had to write an episode to finish the season. That was it.

The other was a 2nd season episode called "Gropos"

[LanternWaste]

8. Yeah....another great episode!

The closing scene in that ep. when the casualty lists were scrolling on the view screens and the major characters were looking at it, hoping NOT to find a friend was pretty damn hard on me.


What a great show!

[Lisa]

9. thanks!

I was thinking about trying to track that ep down, because it might be useful to show a clip in class (when we're talking about how interpretation of historical events shifts over time), and then compare it to an actual situation like the Northwest Rebellion.

p.s. Lantern Waste? Someone here reads CS Lewis!

[LanternWaste]

13. You've blown my cover...lol

Well, yes. You've blown my cover. You workin' for the WH, or something? ;)

He's one of my favorite authors (both fiction and non-fiction).

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

10. It's vain to reply to my own post, but...

This post was a "trick" post...
Not on that way, of course. But my OTHER favorite episode of Babylon 5 came in the first season.

It was called "By Any Means Necessary"

It involves a dock workers strike, the republican government negotiator who invokes a union-busting act to bring in replacement workers, and the complete switch at the end by the skillful Commander Sinclair to resolve the crisis.

It's brilliant. It was written by JMS's wife, (he hates nepotism, so he picked the script apart) and it's a story that Star Trek would never do.

Bonus points: What was the title of the union-busting act???

Considering who's been in the news today in GD, this should be easy.

[chemenger]

11. Two episodes immediately come to mind.

Don't know their titles but one involved two monks. The younger monk turned out to be a serial killer who was sentenced to a mind wipe and a new identity as a very devout monk. The older monk's admonishment to Sheridan re: the importance of forgiveness was very well done.

The second was when Delenn was hosting some kind of Minbari religious function and all the guests from the various races had to present in some fashion their religious beliefs. At the end of the episode Sheridan introduced Delenn to representatives from all of Earth's many religions and beliefs. I found that truly fascinating.

[VelmaD]

12. Where Marcus nearly dies fighting Neroon...

was the ep that got me hooked on B5 after a couple of years of ignoring my ex when he tried to pimp the show to me. After that I was hooked.

I'm also partial to the ep where Neroon steps into the Starfire Wheel and declares that his heart is religious caste to try to heal the Minbari civil war. I cried...I had come to really like that character.

And any ep where Marcus and Ivanova bantered. :-) Those 2 amused the hell out of me. "Should I put a bucket on my head and pretend to be the ancient Vorlon god Booji?" *snort*

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

14. "That's it!"

Marcus: "Great! I'll get a bucket!"
:)

I watched the show WAY too much.

[Book Lover]

15. This one is tough...

I think if I'm forced to chose one, it's Coming of Shadows...

"The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us ...and our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast, terrible in-between."

But, I totally have to share my favorite Londo scene: he and Refa are in the Zocalo. Londo will convince Refa to, shoot, exactly what escapes me now, but Londo's line goes, "You will do it because you will put the good of our people above your own personal glory! You will do it because it is the right thing to do!" Pause. "And you will do it because I have just poisoned your drink."

Anyone remember these lines better than me?