Yora reviews Babylon 5

[Grey Watcher]

I checked it again and it's so weird. One scene were exact numbers are really meaningful, and their count is off by one. It's really strange that they would have been sloppy with something like this.
The only reason I can think of is that they thought the audience might have forgotten that there are four warriors on the council now, so they showed only three. But not trusting the audience to remember things doesn't sound like this show.

Like I said, I think it's just the case that, because they did the one continuous shot (barring having to cut to a closeup of Delenn due to the previously mentioned uncooperative staff prop) it happened that the camera landed in such a way as to leave one of the warriors off screen.* It does seem a little careless not to make sure that the four who stay behind were all in the shot (since it doesn't appear that they are grouped by caste or anything, but maybe they were specifically assuming that the audience would remember the details and fill in the blanks.

*If you look very, very, very closely at the bottom right corner of the screen, you can see what I think is the broken staff in the edge of one of the spotlights. If you track where everyone comes from when leaving, none of them seem to be coming from that pool of light, so it appears to be technically correct, in a uselessly pedantic way. But you're right in that it's not the ideal framing of that shot.

[Yora]

On a side note: I am now pretty certain that I will only be covering seasons 1 to 4 and won't be doing season 5. So that will be 34 more episodes, which I guess will take about 5 weeks.
I've really been having fun doing these show review threads and would like to continue after this one.

One of my favorite shows that I've somehow not watched again in close to 10 years now is Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. It has two seasons of 26 episodes for a total of 52, which as an anime show are only about 20 minutes long each, instead of the 45 minutes of American TV shows. I definitely will be doing this at some point, but it might not be the next one to follow Babylon 5.

Another show that has recently come to my attention is The Expanse, which apparently just got another season or so. I have never seen this one, or really know anything about it, other than it uses realistic movement physics for spacecrafts, Earthlings have some kind of cold war with the Martians or something, at that at some point an alien virus shows up. That's really all I know. I've heard it's very popular though, and I got the impression that it isn't misery porn like The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones.
Season 1 to 3 seem to be pretty easy to get on DVD for very affordable prices, so that certainly would be an option. 36 episodes also seem enough material to make it worth the trouble.

Also on the table would be Twin Peaks. I watched season 1 once many years ago and thought it was amazing, but of course don't remember the specific story very well. I've heard season 2 was disappointing, but is not actually as terrible as it is often said to be. And the new season 3 was apparently really good again.

The third option I have on my radar but don't really know anything about is Lexx, another sci-fi show that ran shortly after Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5 had finished. I remember it being a thing, but it was pretty obscure even then and apparently pretty much forgotten now, but occasionally I've seen it mentioned as a niche classic. I've always been curious about it, but never got around to really learn anything about. However, this also might be a show which turns out to be something I don't enjoy at all, so it'd be the biggest gamble. If anyone has watched it and any thoughts of it to share, that might be useful to me.

An always very good candidate that I won't be doing is Avatar. It would be fantastic material to cover, but I've watched it so many times by now and I really don't feel like doing it again right now.
I also don't think I want to do Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I watched the whole thing when it originally ran but I always felt that it's something that probably aged very poorly, and I remember it having plenty of teenage drama that I just don't much tollerance for anymore.
And I won't be doing X-Files. I gave that one a shot a few years back and it got very quickly clear that the main story made no sense and had zero continuity. That also rules out Lost.

I reviewed over 200 episodes of DS9 and B5 by now, so you might have some impressions of what stuff I like. If you have some other show you think might be fun to cover, just let me know. It doesn't even have to be from the 90s.

[Grey Watcher]

On a side note: I am now pretty certain that I will only be covering seasons 1 to 4 and won't be doing season 5. So that will be 34 more episodes, which I guess will take about 5 weeks.

Awwww.... I would've liked to hear your thoughts on at least few Season 5 episodes. I do think it's better than its reputation suggests, though I suppose probably not to your tastes, since the Main Plot ratches back down. It just suffers a lot because of what I shall for the moment only call That One Not-So-Mini-Arc.

The third option I have on my radar but don't really know anything about is Lexx, another sci-fi show that ran shortly after Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5 had finished.

A friend of mine is a huge fan of this and showed my fiance and I the pilot. I can't speak for the series proper, bu the pilot was... a thing that definitely existed. Yes. Someone committed that to film at some point and put it on TV. For some reason.

[The Glyphstone]

I'll vote for The Expanse - it's sci-fi, so keeps in your theme, and I also haven't seen it despite hearing good things.

[comicshorse]

I reviewed over 200 episodes of DS9 and B5 by now, so you might have some impressions of what stuff I like. If you have some other show you think might be fun to cover, just let me know. It doesn't even have to be from the 90s.

'Space: Above and Beyond' ?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112173/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

It only ever got one season of 23 episodes so it would be a relatively light task after the two massive quests through B5 and DS9

[The New Bruceski]

The scene where Sheridan is standing on the command deck and an explosion goes off next to him went wrong--the explosion was too powerful and a piece of shrapnel cut Boxleitner's forehead. When you see him raise his hand to the cut and then deliver his next line that was actually real surprise at a real wound, which they left in because it added verisimilitude.

A similar moment is during the news broadcast when part of the set falls onto the newsdesk. That was supposed to happen but wasn't supposed to land that close to the actors, so their (scripted) reaction has an extra oomph.

[Daimbert]

On a side note: I am now pretty certain that I will only be covering seasons 1 to 4 and won't be doing season 5. So that will be 34 more episodes, which I guess will take about 5 weeks.
I've really been having fun doing these show review threads and would like to continue after this one.

If you have access to it, I might suggest doing Crusade instead of season 5. It's not as bad as people may make it sound, and has some interesting moments, although my main impression is that any episode with Galen in it is at least okay, while the ones without him in it are at BEST okay.

Also on the table would be Twin Peaks. I watched season 1 once many years ago and thought it was amazing, but of course don't remember the specific story very well. I've heard season 2 was disappointing, but is not actually as terrible as it is often said to be. And the new season 3 was apparently really good again.

Okay, after I just recently sat down and watched all of these seasons, Twin Peaks keeps coming up in the strangest places [grin]. The first season is good, the second season is okay (it may depend on how well you can tolerate storylines focusing on annoying characters), but the third season was done 20 years later and involves a 25 year time jump. I didn't care for the third season as much, but there's lots there to talk about.

I also don't think I want to do Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I watched the whole thing when it originally ran but I always felt that it's something that probably aged very poorly, and I remember it having plenty of teenage drama that I just don't much tollerance for anymore.

I haven't rewatched it for a while, but it did seem to age pretty well. But if you wanted something in the universe without having the teenage angst angle "Angel" would work really well.

And I won't be doing X-Files. I gave that one a shot a few years back and it got very quickly clear that the main story made no sense and had zero continuity.

I watched the entire series a couple of years ago, and it did get better about halfway through, for me at least, but then lost it soon after.

[GrayDeath]

Lexx is.....a very weird one.

It is often very trashy, almost always quite crazy, and rarely just plain Good or Bad.

If you think youc an stomach that, do it. But given what you seem to like or dislike so far, I would suggest rather doing Farscape (at times similar Aesthetics but far more consistant Show) than Lexx.

The Expanse 9is something I ahve not watched yet either, as I tend to wait with SciFi Series until a few seasons are available, to avoid binge/wait watching. So yeah, why not?

But I wills econd, please do Season 5, at elast the non filler Episode. Yes, it is worse than Seasons to 4, but it DOES have some massively good episodes. ;)

[Grey Watcher]

If you have access to it, I might suggest doing Crusade instead of season 5. It's not as bad as people may make it sound, and has some interesting moments, although my main impression is that any episode with Galen in it is at least okay, while the ones without him in it are at BEST okay.

Peter Woodward (Galen) is definitely the MVP of that cast, for sure. Carrie Dobro (Dureena) does some goods stuff, too, but I feel like her character is rather under-served by the scripts. The rest of the cast is solid, and I would've liked to have seen how those characters would develop. Plus I think Dr. Chambers benefits a lot from lessons JMS learned while writing Dr. Franklin.

[Yora]

S3E11: Ceremonies of Light and Dark

Sherridan and Ivanova keep the station under communications blackout since they are concerned Earth might remotely change the access codes for controlling the station. Garibaldi tells them not to worry since he has that part covered.

A human assassin tries to shot Sherridan, but is stopped by his boss who tells him Sherridan can not die yet and they first have to discredit his cause.

Londo gets a visit from Lord Refa, who isn't very happy to have been dragged out to this far corner of space and hopes it is something important. Londo is very displeased about the current tactical situation of the Centauri who are at war with pretty much everyone of their neighbours at once. Refa thinks it nothing to worry about because they have considerable resources on their side and Londo tells him that he knows he has been making deals with Morden. Londo thinks Morden is very dangerous and does not have the best interest of the Centauri in mind. Morden's allies might very well go down, and when that happens any who have allied themselves to them will go with them. He demands that Refa breaks off contact with Morden, but he doesn't see any good reason to do so.
"Because I have asked you. And because your loyalty to our people should be greater than your ambition. And because I have poisoned your drink."
The poison he has given Refa just now won't do him any harm, but will be impossible to remove from his body. But combined with another poison that is also completely harmless by itself and won't be detected by tests for poison, it will cause him a fatal heart attack. Killing Refa with poison will now be very easy for Londo if he wants to. Londo demands that Refa will change his strategy to not start more wars and find some allies, and to stop taking help from Morden.

Delenn tells Sherridan that she is going to do a Minbari ceremony to help people mentally prepare for the great trials ahead of them and wants him to participate.

The civilian members of Nightwatch, who were not arrested and deported with the EarthForce officers who tried to take over the station, are having a secret meeting to discuss their strategy to get the station back under control by the president's government. The leader thinks their first priority has to be to get the Minbari to withdraw their support and for that they will have to get rid of Delenn. One of the men points out that killing Minbari leaders will cause a lot of trouble, but the leader is convinced he will be able to blame her death on Sherridan. That will also cost him support from his human followers.

Delenn secretly meets Marcus in Brown Sector to ask about the ceremony, and Marcus says he would rather avoid participating. He tries to get away, but Delenn lets him know she will talk with him about this again.

Garibaldi does a hard reset of all the top level passwords for the station and reboots the main computer. Ivanova is nervous while the computer is rebooting, because she's always nervous they can't get it started properly again. When it comes back online, the interface talks very strangely in an annoying casual way and Garibaldi remembers that they tried to run the computer with an experimental AI, but shut it down because it turned out to be just too obnoxious. It apparently got turned on again in the rebooting and now Garibaldi needs to figure out how to disable it.

Delenn invites Londo to take part in the ceremony to make peace with his past mistake and gain confidence in the path that lies ahead. He's surprised that she thought about inviting him after their interactions in recent months, and Delenn tells him quite coldly that that's precisely the reason why he was one of the very first people she thought to invite. But Londo declines and says he really doesn't have any interest in it.

G'Kar also is not interested but Delenn tries talking with Marcus again. He says he has nothing left to leave behind, since everything he ever had was lost to she Shadows. Delen tells him that is his problem, because he is clinging to his grief and regret, which is what he will have to leave behind him. Marcus is uncomfortable and excuses himself, so she is alone when she meets with a Minbari captain and they are ambushed by the Nightwatch people.

Once news about the ambush get out, the Nightwatch leader calls Sherridan and demands that the Minbari cruisers withdraw from the station. Otherwise they will kill the captain and Delenn, and they start with killing one of the captain's officers right now. Sherridan tells Garibaldi to go looking for them and Marcus runs off by himself to talk with the thugs who hang out in the bar where he always meets his informants. He wants them to tell him what they know about the kidnappers or he will beat them up, which they don't take kindly.

Delenn isn't intimidated by her captors and one of them shots the captain in anger. The leader tells him to not kill them because they need them alive for now, but he can torture them to death later.

Marcus beats up the entire bar but doesn't get any information from anyone until Lennier arrives and is looking for him. He tells Marcus that he will still be going ahead with the ceremony because that's what Delenn ordered him to. Marcus thinks that's insane and grabs Lennier, but he turns out to be even stronger and almost lifts him off the floor, being angry about the whole situation himself. He wants to explain himself and since sharing a personal secret is part of the ceremony, he confesses to Marcus that he values Delenn's welbeing over everything else and is devoted to a degree that some might not consider appropriate and probably would make her uncomfortable.
One of the thugs wakes up and Marcus starts questioning him again, and is starting to get some answers about where Delenn might have been taken.
"As I always said: You can get more with a kind word and a two-by-four than you can with just a kind word."

Garibaldi has analyzed the message from the Nightwatch leader and thinks he can narrow the location down to somewhere near the station's reactor. Marcus arrives to let them know it's probably on level 14, since some criminals delivered sensor-blocking equipment there. Ivanova looks through the floorplans for Grey 14 and finds an area that was locked down by Garibaldi's authorization, which he is sure he never did.
The area is very difficult to get inside and easy to defend, but Sherridan has a plan. Marcus has a good description of who of the security officers is helping the Nightwatch people and Sherridan plans to use that to trick them into believing that they give in to their demands.

The corrupt officer calls the Nightwatch people that the Minbari ships have withdrawn, and the leader tells him to send a secret message to EarthForce to come and capture the station. Alarms go off and the leader peeks out the door, where fleeing workers tell him there is a reactor leak. The leader decides that they have to move the hostages and they immediately run into an ambush by security. The nuttiest of the Nighrwatch people survives and throws a knife at Sherridan which Delenn takes in the back. Franklin is already waiting ready and Sherridan chases the fleeing man and punches him out.

Lennier tells Sherridan and Ivanova that Delenn will be fine, but the ceremony will have to be postponed because the first parts had already begun some time back and they will have to start all over later to keep the time table.
Ivanova tells Sherridan that Garibaldi almost has the AI disabled again. Garibaldi is in an elevator listening to the annoying AI ranting.

Sherridan goes to see Delenn in medlab because he still wants to do his part of the ceremony before the day ends. He has decided that he wants to leave his uniform behind and confesses that when she was injured, he fully intended to kill the man because he as become to feel very close to her.
Garibaldi and Ivanova follow next. Garibaldi confesses that he is always afraid that he might do something terrible if he loses control of himself, and Ivanova that she had started to love Talia. Franklin tells her that he thinks he has a serious problem, but does not say anything further.
Before they leave, Lennier tells them Delenn has had new uniforms made for them.

--

As okay episode goes, this one was done pretty well. I probably wouldn't give it 4/5, but there is almost nothing in this episode that it does really badly. It's just not particularly remarkable as a story.

The one thing that I noticed most negatively is the two Nightwatch men with speaking being total caricatures of evil crazy psychopaths. Which is a shame, because their plan wasn't that bad.
A smaller thing, but much more dumber, is this stupid idea with the obnoxious AI. I had not remembered how very, very small its part in this episode is. It really appears only for three short moments throughout the whole episode and does not impact anything. You could cut these moments from the episode and nobody would ever notice that anything is gone. It's probably only 20 seconds in total. Which are wasted on a pointless and dumb joke. Did they think they needed to lighten up the episode a bit? If so, this definitely is not the way to do it!

Something that for a very long time has not been sitting right with me about this episode as someone personally invested in queer representation in fiction is Ivanova's admission that she was falling in love with Talia. I am certain that early on in season 2, there were definite plans to go in that direction. But I said before when I was covering S2E19: Divided Loyalties, that when they knew Talia would be dropping out of the show, they should have just abandoned that arc before it really started and nobody would have been the wiser that it was ever intended. I can kind of understand that the writers might have felt disappointed to lose their one piece of representation they had planed and wanting to get at least the little bit that they could on the screen. I think their intentions were entirely noble with that decision.
But personally I think there is a very severe imbalance between queer relationships ending tragically or turning out well, particularly in TV. And here they even added to the imbalance instead of righting it. But at least it was more or less wrapped up with Ivanova and Evil-Talia having their final conversation.
Bringing the whole thing back this episode with a single line always feels really tacked on to me, and somewhat disingenuous. It's a blink and you miss it things that has a bitter taste of virtue signalling. It's like a fig leave to claim you have queer representation one short moment, but then never mentioning it again. Like companies having a rainbow stripes image on twitter one day of the year and never following it up with anything meaningful. Or, since this was back in the 90s, it also can feel like an attempt at a cheap shock, with no intention of actually following up on it. Maybe this was genuinely intended to have a little bit more representation on TV. But it never sat right with me. It always felt very awkwardly handled. I appreciate the dare to try it in 90s TV, but I am disappointed that this was as far as they dared to take it.

To say something positive for a change, Marcus was very believable this episode. Which is a bit strange. I always used to think of his performance to be somehow off in an uncomfortable way, but watching his scene now, I feel like he's doing really well and I actually get him.
In contrast to that, Lennier still doesn't.

[comicshorse]

Fun Fact : the annoying AI is voiced by sci-fi author Harlan Ellison

[Grey Watcher]

S3E11: Ceremonies of Light and Dark

The one thing that I noticed most negatively is the two Nightwatch men with speaking being total caricatures of evil crazy psychopaths. Which is a shame, because their plan wasn't that bad.

Yeah, it's weird that the Night Watch faction instantly goes from "clean cut, misguided patriots" to "crazy nut from the cabin in the woods." And it's in both their costume and makeup design as well as in their writing and acting. I mean, I get that the specific Night Watchmen we've seen so far were put on a long bus ride back to Earth, but it's always felt like a jarring change.

Something that for a very long time has not been sitting right with me about this episode as someone personally invested in queer representation in fiction is Ivanova's admission that she was falling in love with Talia. I am certain that early on in season 2, there were definite plans to go in that direction. But I said before when I was covering S2E19: Divided Loyalties, that when they knew Talia would be dropping out of the show, they should have just abandoned that arc before it really started and nobody would have been the wiser that it was ever intended. I can kind of understand that the writers might have felt disappointed to lose their one piece of representation they had planed and wanting to get at least the little bit that they could on the screen. I think their intentions were entirely noble with that decision.
But personally I think there is a very severe imbalance between queer relationships ending tragically or turning out well, particularly in TV. And here they even added to the imbalance instead of righting it. But at least it was more or less wrapped up with Ivanova and Evil-Talia having their final conversation.
Bringing the whole thing back this episode with a single line always feels really tacked on to me, and somewhat disingenuous. It's a blink and you miss it things that has a bitter taste of virtue signalling. It's like a fig leave to claim you have queer representation one short moment, but then never mentioning it again. Like companies having a rainbow stripes image on twitter one day of the year and never following it up with anything meaningful. Or, since this was back in the 90s, it also can feel like an attempt at a cheap shock, with no intention of actually following up on it. Maybe this was genuinely intended to have a little bit more representation on TV. But it never sat right with me. It always felt very awkwardly handled. I appreciate the dare to try it in 90s TV, but I am disappointed that this was as far as they dared to take it.

It never bothered me on that level. I actually kind of appreciate it on the level "Yes, that was what you thought it was." Making more explicit the thing so there's less plausible ways to engage in queer erasure on the Susan/Talia thing. But now that you mention it, I can also see it the way you do. But even if Andrea Thompson had stayed on board and the Russian Winter ship sailed, this was still the era of the "sweeps week lesbian kiss." I don't know. It's a step ahead of most of its contemporaries, but only a step. And that includes the "shedding baggage with weird implications" part of things.

To say something positive for a change, Marcus was very believable this episode. Which is a bit strange. I always used to think of his performance to be somehow off in an uncomfortable way, but watching his scene now, I feel like he's doing really well and I actually get him.
In contrast to that, Lennier still doesn't.

Marcus always amuses me. But I do think this episode has one of his best moments:

:Marcus knocks out last person in bar:

Marcus: <expletive>! Now I have to wait for somebody to wake up!

I think Bill Mumy is doing a good job with Lennier, but it's not an... easy character to empathize or identify with. I... kinda do, personally, but that's me. I feel like Lennier might work better as a character in a novel, where a lot of what's going on in his head could be dealt with more directly. As it is, it's kinda like you're looking into a house through the windows. You only see the parts of what's going on that happen to take place in view, but there's a lot missing. Also you're a dirty peeping tom.

[Kantaki]

That poison Londo used to convince Refa just fits the Centauri perfectly.
Just what a decadent court of intrigant nobles would come up with.

Also kinda awkward when someone else already dosed your prospective ally with the second component...
Probably happens all the time.
They just pretend it's on purpose.

[Xyril]

Yeah, it's weird that the Night Watch faction instantly goes from "clean cut, misguided patriots" to "crazy nut from the cabin in the woods." And it's in both their costume and makeup design as well as in their writing and acting. I mean, I get that the specific Night Watchmen we've seen so far were put on a long bus ride back to Earth, but it's always felt like a jarring change.

I always saw this as a reflection of how Earth already "lost" B5 and also meant to underscore the corruption the the Clarke regime. All of the "good" Nightwatch personnel--the ones who were emotionally stable and function enough to remain on active duty before they were given the order to "activate" and who were to act as the public face of Clarke's office afterwards--were all captured and shipped home. The only assets Clarke had left was the one deep-cover officer he left in place--because paranoid dictators who murdered their way into power should always keep something in reserve--and the guys from Deliverance who even Clarke realized would put a terrible public face on his government if they were working immigration, stamping passports. The fact that he was down to a handful of supporters on B5 demonstrate hold brazenly he overplayed his hand with the Nightwatch order, and how thoroughly the station officers consolidated their position, while the fact that Clarke would even have such dangerous psychopaths working for him--even as last ditch reserve assets--tells you everything you need to know about the morality of his regime.

I don't remember for certain if this was the episode that did it, but it was around this point in the series that I started to change my view of Clarke as a ruthless--even evil--Machiavellian schemer who would use any means to achieve his goals, to him being borderline unbalanced and evil for its own sake.

[Corvus]

If you think youc an stomach that, do it. But given what you seem to like or dislike so far, I would suggest rather doing Farscape (at times similar Aesthetics but far more consistant Show) than Lexx.

I can second Farscape. Off beat but really awesome show. Did I mention offbeat?

Plus, as it was filmed in Australia, it is fun, as an Australian, to watch it and see all these Australian actors doing guest of the week appearances.

[The New Bruceski]

Stargate. ALL of it.

[Douglas]

That poison Londo used to convince Refa just fits the Centauri perfectly.
Just what a decadent court of intrigant nobles would come up with.

Also kinda awkward when someone else already dosed your prospective ally with the second component...
Probably happens all the time.
They just pretend it's on purpose.

If I recall correctly, the second component gets cleaned out of the body in a much shorter time span. Anyone wanting to set up such a threat would always use the long-lasting component first, reserving the short term component for triggering the kill, so even if two people used the same poison on the same victim they'd pretty much never end up killing him accidentally by using different components of it.

[factotum]

I always saw this as a reflection of how Earth already "lost" B5 and also meant to underscore the corruption the the Clarke regime.

Yeah, this. Also, while there were plenty of people who were just members of Nightwatch because it was extra money for doing nothing much, there are always going to be people who are in it for the power trip.

[Kantaki]

If I recall correctly, the second component gets cleaned out of the body in a much shorter time span. Anyone wanting to set up such a threat would always use the long-lasting component first, reserving the short term component for triggering the kill, so even if two people used the same poison on the same victim they'd pretty much never end up killing him accidentally by using different components of it.

Yeah, there probably is a reason it wouldn't work like that, but the idea amuses me every time this kind of poison comes up.
So every time there's a B5 rerun...

[Rodin]

Garibaldi does a hard reset of all the top level passwords for the station and reboots the main computer. Ivanova is nervous while the computer is rebooting, because she's always nervous they can't get it started properly again. When it comes back online, the interface talks very strangely in an annoying casual way and Garibaldi remembers that they tried to run the computer with an experimental AI, but shut it down because it turned out to be just too obnoxious. It apparently got turned on again in the rebooting and now Garibaldi needs to figure out how to disable it.

I love the idea that Babylon 5 avoided the problems with synthetic life forms that other universes have because AIs turned out to be jerks. Not evil, not wanting to overthrow humanity. They're just absolutely insufferable, and all races stop research into it in favor of going the organic technology route instead.

Because at the end of the day, nobody likes their computer talking back to them.

[thompur]

I love the idea that Babylon 5 avoided the problems with synthetic life forms that other universes have because AIs turned out to be jerks. Not evil, not wanting to overthrow humanity. They're just absolutely insufferable, and all races stop research into it in favor of going the organic technology route instead.

Because at the end of the day, nobody likes their computer talking back to them.

Yeah, classic "Trek" did that gag in the episode "Tomorrow is Yesterday".

[GrayDeath]

Stargate. ALL of it.

Do you really want him to spend 3 years on that (assuming a few free days, after all, its 10+5+ Season + 4? Movies?).

Aside from that, for me Stargete falls in the "exceüptionally easy and often fun to watch but mostly just average" SciFi-. Aside from a handfull of episodes, and most of Stargate Universe (which sadly got cancelled as soon as it got its feet under itself, sigh).

[Yora]

S3E12: Sic Transit Vir

Vir has an audience with the prime minister in the imperial palace. The emperor was very pleased with Vir's report on the Minbari, but its clear that Londo had part in writing it, and he recommends not doing that anymore. When he returns to his quarters, a group of serious looking Narn is waiting for him.

On the station, Londo is hunting bugs in his quarters. He complains to the maintenance service but they tell him they put him on the waiting list to deal with it. So he goes chasing after it with his sword. This is not nearly as fun as it is probably meant to be.
He is interrupted by a pretty young Centauri woman who is looking for him. When Vir arrives on his transport, Londo isn't there to pick him up as usual.

Sherridan is asking Delenn for a date, because this is the first day in a long time he has an evening off and there might not be another soon.

Vir comes to Londo's quarters, who tries to look busy reading newspapers before calling him in. After some chatting, he tells Vir he has a surprise for him and calls the woman to come in, who he presents as Vir's new wife. Vir has never seen her before and thinks its a really bad idea, but with his new career he is now a desirable match for noble daughters who will benefit their parents.

Zack goes to Ivanova because he noticed that there have been a lot of Narn refugees who managed to leave Centauri space and checked their papers, and noticed something fishy about the Centauri papers being signed by Abrahamo Linconi.

Vir tries to convince the woman that they really shouldn't get married but she tells him that is not his call to make, and neither it is hers.

He is then called to Ivanova's office and admits that he has been making fake travel permits for Narn refugees to get out of Centauri space.

Sherridan tried cooking Minbari food for Delenn, which she very much appreciates but it's still pretty bad.

Vir and his lady are getting assaulted by a very angry Narn with a very big knife. Someone sees it and calls security, Sherridan hears the call on his communicator, and hearing its right next to his quarters goes out to help. Vir holds the Narn off long enough for Sherridan to arrive and help him, but Sherridan gets injured and when security arrives they shot the Narn.

Sherridan tells Ivanova he heard the Narn shout that he wants revenge against Vir specifically, and that this wasn't a random attack against Centauri.
Ivanova calls Vir to her office to let him know that there are probably more attacks coming and they have no clear what the motive might be.

Ivanova interrupts Serridan and Delenn to call him to come to Londo's quarters. They confront Londo that they found out that all the Narn that Vir smuggled out have ended up in concentration camps and killed, and they think Londo is responsible for it. Vir interrupts them and tells them that they are not dead, but he also faked the records of their deaths because the Centauri don't care about dead Narn and won't by trying to figure out where they actually went. Though that raises the question why the Narn are looking for revenge.

Vir goes to his lady to apologize for having caused her the whole trouble and scare, but she tells him not to worry. It's clearly the fault of the Narn, because she turns out to be horribly racist. She tells him she has a surprise to cheer him up, which turns out to be a Narn assassin she captured when he tried to kill her. She remembers him as one of the survivors from when she was with her father on the Narn homeworld to execute anyone who wasn't following their orders.

Later, Londo is having a talk with Vir about covering up his work to save Narn and to let him now how very much disappointed he is. He also tells him to go back to the woman to make up with her to get married.

Ivanova tells Sherridan that since Londo doesn't know about the fake diplomat Vir made up, she keeps using it to help Narn escape from the Centauri.

--

Meh. A very strong meh. This is pretty poor, but not really offensively so. Of course I had some basic memory of what this story is about, but I still found it very predictable. There are lots of silly jokes that seem to be trying way too hard.

On the plus side, this might quite possibly have been the worst episode of both seasons 3 and 4. But there are a few more with even worse reputations.

[Kantaki]

I think Londo's regretting letting Vir walk off on his own now...

Vir on the other tentacle proves he's both a good man and a true Centauri.
That was a pretty sly plan he pulled there.

[Rakaydos]

The bit about the bug is all about the "you dont seem as big as you were a moment ago", with a sence of realization that the sword was not quite nessesary- a metaphor for war in general.

[factotum]

Surely the reason the Narn are out to get Vir is because they think he's killed their relatives? Wouldn't be so easy to fool the Centauri if all the relatives of the Narn Vir transports knew they were alive. Although the thing that puzzles me is: the Centauri control Narn itself, so where are all these escaping Narn going? Why are they so desperate to get away from their homeworld that they'll even agree to fool their own relatives into thinking they're dead?

[Dragonus45]

Lexx is.....a very weird one.

It is often very trashy, almost always quite crazy, and rarely just plain Good or Bad.

If you think youc an stomach that, do it. But given what you seem to like or dislike so far, I would suggest rather doing Farscape (at times similar Aesthetics but far more consistant Show) than Lexx.

Lexx is a timeless sleazy classic and I think doing it would have great comedy value and be more interesting then Farscape. But it could easily be a bit to risque for some peoples tastes.

[Grey Watcher]

Surely the reason the Narn are out to get Vir is because they think he's killed their relatives? Wouldn't be so easy to fool the Centauri if all the relatives of the Narn Vir transports knew they were alive. Although the thing that puzzles me is: the Centauri control Narn itself, so where are all these escaping Narn going? Why are they so desperate to get away from their homeworld that they'll even agree to fool their own relatives into thinking they're dead?

It doesn't seem too implausible that the Centauri are too snobby to ask and that the Narn are too angry to tell. The families of the escapees are probably well aware of what's actually happened to their loved ones. And just as aware that it's key to their safety that the Centauri think the person in question is dead. Narn insurgents probably don't have access to Centauri paperwork, and this is buried deep enough in the bureaucracy that it took a lot of digging just to find out these Narn were listed as dead at all. It seems plausible enough to me.

[Xyril]

I always assumed that there were neutral worlds willing to give asylum and possibly a few Narn refugee convoys bouncing, either of which may have been more attractive than remaining on an occupied homeworld.

Spoiler: Minor spoilers

Show

Since we find out later that there's at least one operational Narn cruiser that survives more or less on its own up until season 4, I would be surprised if there weren't at least hundreds of Narn civilian vessels out there somewhere. Even in wartime, you would generally have more civilian and support ships than warships to begin with. Those ships were more likely to survive the war since many probably started moving out of the most contested areas while the military was still marshaling all of its forces for that one failed offensive, and it seemed like every warship that survived Gorash VII was committed to delaying the Centauri while the civilian ships were evacuating people. The only disadvantage the civilians would have in terms of survival is their lack of combat capability, which might allow them fall prey to raiders or random encounters with small Centauri forces. However, at this point the G'tok is pretty much relying on hiding and evasion to survive as well--they can fight off a smaller Centauri force that a civilian convoy couldn't, but at that point they pretty much immediately have to run before the Centauri can bring together a larger fleet.

[factotum]

It doesn't seem too implausible that the Centauri are too snobby to ask and that the Narn are too angry to tell. The families of the escapees are probably well aware of what's actually happened to their loved ones.

Then why was one of those family members trying to kill Vir? The only explanation for that bit is that he thought his relative had actually been put to death by Vir.