Babylon 5 - Thirdspace

I've now watched another of the Babylon 5 television movies, and I'm really not sure what to think of this one. I enjoyed it as I was watching it, or at least I think I did. It was an hour and a half long, but it didn't seem that long as I was watching it because I was quite into what was going on. It moved at a decent pace and the story seemed interesting enough. The problem is when you get to the end, and realise that in that feature length story, not a lot really happened.

I'm glad it was set in a time where all the main characters new each other, and I always like to see both Sheridan and Delenn being involved. It was also good that Zack Allen finally got a chance to shine in a starring role. He had been listed as an "also starring", ie main character, since season 2, and yet had never quite been developed as much as many of the others in the sense that he didn't really have close relationships with many of the other main characters. He was friends with (and actually in love with) Lyta, and he was friends with Garibaldi, but other than that he was almost like a recurring guest star rather than someone who should be on the credits. In the absence of Garibaldi, Thirdspace gave him a chance to really be the chief of security and really be a main character.

Speaking of Garibaldi, he was really missed here. His absence did make sense, since at this point in the story he had fallen out with Sheridan and didn't trust him anymore, so he would be unlikely to be involved. It was still strange to have him gone though, since he was there from the beginning. The last human character to be there from the beginning, actually. Londo and G'Kar were also missed. True, they weren't in every episode anyway, and the timing of the story does mean that it makes sense that they weren't there. The story didn't need them much either. They were still missed though. Perhaps it was because this "movie" felt more like an extended episode, and so you'd expect the usual cast to all be there.

As I said at the beginning, the actual story was alright. I like how it fit into the already established mythology of the Vorlons, and made a lot of references to the Shadow War and things that have already happened. There were good action scenes, and there was a lot of good mystery. Still, it reminds me of the weaker Doctor Who specials. It's called a special, but really it's just like a long episode. It worked well enough though. I enjoyed what we got to see of the characters who were involved, particularly Zack Allen, and Sheridan and his obsession with mysteries. I think the story was interesting enough. All in all, worth watching, but not quite matching up to the series.

What I watched on Christmas Day

I didn't watch a great deal of TV on Christmas day, but there were a few things worth a mention, so here they are.

The Royle Family

This felt like a return to form for The Royle Family. Last year's Christmas special was good, but this one was as good as the series used to be. The gold eggcup argument was hilarious, as was the constant referring to The One Show. It was nice to see Anthony back as well, and Twiggy's reasons for not being there were funny. I wasn't too keen at first on the idea of a holiday, since the appeal of the series was that they were always just sat around talking in front of the TV at home, but it worked anyway.

There was good reason this was the most watched show on British TV on Christmas day, and I hope they make a tradition of these Christmas specials. As I said, this was better than last year, but there's no reason they can't keep this up.

Gavin and Stacey

I love Gavin and Stacey. It's similar to The Royle Family in that they do seem like really normal families. Well, obviously there are eccentric family members and weird things going on, but what family isn't like that? This final series has been brilliant. Really funny, as it always has been, and at the same time serious and even sad stories like Gavin and Stacey's attempts to get pregnant. It mixes humour and real life issues, with a cast of really likeable characters, and it really is the best British comedy going at the moment. I can't wait for the New Year concluding episode. I really hope Smithy and Nessa work something out!

Doctor Who

I'm not going to go into great detail here, because I think I'll want to do a dedicated post to David Tennant's finale at some point, but part one of The End of Time was really exciting. Lots of questions going into the final part. Why were Wilf and Donna not affected by The Master's plan? How can The Doctor beat a whole world of Masters? Why on Earth does all this mean that the Time Lords are back? Is that even a good thing? What will happen to Donna now she's remembering? Honestly, I'm incredibly excited about part two, and I also can't wait to see where Doctor Who is going in the future next season with Matt Smith.

Other than those three things, there didn't seem to be a lot good on in the evening. I missed Strictly Come Dancing because we were playing shot glass chess (that's a different story!), but other than that there was nothing else I wanted to watch. Three great shows though!

Babylon 5 - In The Beginning

After watching the first of the Babylon 5 television movies, I'm not sure what I think of it. Having more back story and more of the characters I love is a good thing, but exactly what they did with it wasn't exactly perfect.

So what did I like? I liked seeing more of Londo as the Emperor, especially as it was tied in to War Without End and the bit where Sheridan and Delenn are his prisoners. I like how the story was being told by him to the two Centauri kids. Seeing more of the fallen Centauri empire was great. I also liked seeing the younger Sheridan, and seeing more of Delenn as a full Minbari getting in with the Grey Council. Duhkat was also a great character to see more of, and it was interesting to see that the Vorlons were involved even back then, before the Earth-Minbari War. And one of them was Kosh! I really missed Kosh in the later series. Also enjoyed seeing what stage the Rangers were at 10 years before the main story begins.

And what didn't I like? It didn't feel like it was planned with the rest of the series. It felt like there was a lot of retconning going on. There was no indication whatsoever that Sheridan had met Franklin and G'Kar before he got to Babylon 5, let alone gone on a top secret mission to meet a Ranger with them. We knew that Sheridan had served with Ivanova before, which was a decent way of letting the audience know that we could trust the character when he first arrived, but there was nothing between him and Franklin. There was no indication at all that G'Kar had had much to do with Earth and the humans, let alone Sheridan. None of that seemed quite believable. I was even less keen on Sheridan and Delenn's first meeting though. I understand why he wouldn't have remembered here, because she was covered by her cloak and didn't look at him directly. I cannot understand at all why she wouldn't have remembered the encounter though. She must have known that the guy they had on the ship was Sheridan Starkiller, the only human commander to defeat a Minbari warship. Why didn't she ever mention that they'd met before, if she did remember? It was just a bit too strange to be believable.

Back to Sheridan again, and his defeat of the Black Star wasn't as cool as it'd been told. I assumed he'd been the captain at the time, not a first officer taking a long shot in order to escape. It was still cool and still fits in with the story, but I'm not sure I needed to see it.

And on to Sinclair. Michael O'Hare didn't film any new scenes because it wasn't cost effective to fly him over for the few short scenes they wanted. I think they should have splashed out and made him a bit more central. I got the feeling that he would have been more important during the Earth-Minbari war than Sheridan was, and yet because Bruce Boxleitner was the lead role in the main series at that time, Sheridan got all the focus.

Overall I enjoyed the film, but I just feel like it could have been so much better if it didn't feel like the retconned in bits of story so all the main players could be involved. I like backstory, and I very much like the way it was told by Londo at the very end of his life, but I just wanted it to be...better.

So I decided to try Babylon 5

I'm a massive DS9 fan, and I've always seen Babylon 5 as a lame alternative to Star Trek. It always looked too cheesy to me. I am so glad that I decided to give it a go anyway. I've rarely watched a series so obsessively. Just so we know where I'm coming from with this post, I started it soon after starting season 5. I'm finishing it the day after finishing season 5, before I've watched any of the TV films. A few days off work sick gave me enough time to finish the lot!

So starting at the beginning, The Gathering definitely got me interested enough to keep going. In fact, I liked all the main characters so much that I was disappointed that two of them were gone by the first episode of season 1. I didn't warm to Ivanova straight away, and it took me a very long time to like Franklin. I'm still not all that keen on him, and he's my least favourite main character. Well, other than Lochley, but we've not got that far yet.

Season 1 was, as someone had described it to me before hand, epically cheesy. Cheesy in a good way mind. Michael O'Hare isn't a bad actor, but he is definitely cheesy in the way he delivers the serious lines. He was a great commander though. I liked how he always found ways to make things work for him and do the right thing, while technically not breaking any rules. His way around the Rush Act in the episode By Any Means Necessary was brilliant, and definitely a Crowning Moment of Awesome, if you'll forgive me for using TV Trope name.

Commander Sinclair wasn't the only cheesy or over the top character in season 1. Ivanova probably had a few too many "because I'm Russian" comments, and Londo...well, he was just Londo. None of it was bad though. These characters were at the start of their arcs. Ivanova grew over the course of the four seasons she was in, and the fifth season really missed her. Londo was always supposed to be like that early on. I'll talk more about him later.

The quality of the stories in season 1 was as good as anything to come. Signs and Portents was an apt title, because that was exactly the way the whole thing felt. Mr Morden's mysterious introduction, and willingness to aid the Centauri, made everything a lot more interesting. From then on, it really felt like a great story arc was coming. The season 1 finale was even more exciting. As Sinclair said, nothing would be the same again.

When season 2 started, I was incredibly disappointed that this commander I'd grown attached to had been replaced by someone who seemed a bit of a nice guy, who wasn't so rough around the edges, and wasn't like by the Minbari, and who wasn't Sinclair. It didn't take me long at all to warm to John Sheridan though. After this season was over, I much prefered Sheridan as Captain. Sinclair's departure still bothers me slightly, however. He came back in seasons 2 and 3 to conclude his story arc. That season 3 two part time travel episode was truly brilliant, with visions into Sheridan and Delenn's future, Londo and G'Kar's fates, and answers from that season 1 time travel episode. However, it felt kind of sudden. Apparently JMS had escape doors for every actor in every season, so the story would carry on and not suffer without them. It didn't suffer without Sinclair, but it was a shame that he was out of the door so suddenly. The reassignment made sense, yes, but he was there one minute and gone the next. When he comes back, he's head of the Rangers and a well respected person on Minbar. It just needed a little more build up.

Anyway, that's skipping ahead to season 3 a little there. Season 2 improves a lot on season 1. This is a more serious and more emotional series. The Narn-Centauri war has terrible consequences, as do Londo's dealings with the Shadows. The image of Londo Mollari on the Centauri ship headed for the Narn homeworld during the invasion is one of the most memorable of the series.

Season 2 also sees everyone else finding out about the Shadows. We find out a lot more about Kosh and what he is, and about Sheridan's wife (his second wife, apparently), and about Za'ha'dum. The Army of Light idea is introduced, and Sheridan and Delenn start working more closely. And then follows what I think has become one of my favourite science fiction relationships. Sheridan and Delenn. Season 3 sees this develope properly, and then it's season 4 before they're actually engaged and married, and season 5 before they live together...but it starts subtely in season 2. This is why I like the relationship so much. It's not like a typical will they won't they. It's not something they ever keep secret and it's never like an affair. They grow naturally closer, fall in love, and slowly build on that. It really is a beautiful story.

Season 3 is possibly the best of the five seasons. It's hard to say that exactly because it's essentially a five season long miniseries with one evolving story arc. The action is amazing. The Shadows are a fantastic enemy, because they don't seem beatable. Earth is a fantastic enemy, because you never would have expected it. Well, obviously you would in Babylon 5 because of the build up, but the Earth government being the bad guys is not a usual thing. Babylon 5 becoming an independant state was certainly unexpected, for me, and a great twist. Very sad though, seeing what Earth had become. Very un-Star Trek is what I thought. DS9 nearly got there, showing that the Federation was flawed with Section 31, and through what Eddington of the Marquis had to say, but it would have never have gone all out and had Earth being the enemy in the way that Babylon 5 did.

Those final few episodes of season 3 were great. The build up to Za'ha'dum. Who would have guessed that the woman in Delenn's vision in War Without End would be Anna Sheridan? I didn't even guess that the vision would be so recent. Since she was in the same room as a sleeping John Sheridan in the vision, I assumed it'd be way in the future. Guess I didn't know Minbari rituals well enough at the time! The Za'ha'dum episode was amazing. John Sheridan, by this point, is easily my favourite station commander, and also a legendary character.

Season 4 is equally amazing. I think I perhaps prefered the conclusion of the Shadow War to the later Earth Civil War plot, but it was still exciting throughout. The Summoning, the episode where Sheridan returns, probably has his best Crowning Moments of Awesome. "We thought you were dead" "I was. I'm better now". Classic. And then tragic in the next episode when we learn that he only has 20 years. Only? Yes I know it's a long time, and better than nothing, but we all want Sheridan and Delenn to last forever!

I think one of my major problems with season 4 was that I couldn't get used to Garibaldi being a jerk. I've not mentioned him so far in this post, but he was a great character from the word go. He was a good guy, a good friend, and although he was ultra suspicious and trusted no one, he was loyal. He had changed since season 1 anyway, when he was shot in the back by his number 2, but being taken by the Shadows had changed him more. When we learned it was Bester all along though! It was obviously Psi Corps, but making it Bester made sure that he'd be angrier, and he took his anger into season 5. It was really good and believable character development for Garibaldi, but it was a great shame.

Talking of character developement, I've not mentioned much about G'Kar. At the start he was almost a villain. The bad guy of the advisory council who couldn't quite be trusted and who was mostly motivated by hatred of the Centauri and his desire for revenge. He changed after Narn fell, and he changed much more dramatically after Kosh had words during his Dust induced vision. G'Kar became one of the wisest characters on the show and someone others turned to. That was certainly not expected from the start. Well, hinted on in episodes like the one where Sekai goes to Sigma 957, but he still grew a lot as a character. I think they all did, which is another reason I love this show so much.

Season 4 had a slightly rushed end because they thought it'd be cancelled, and so squashed in some of what could have been season 5 material. Did it suffer? No, not really. I think the formation of the Interstella Alliance and Sheridan's election as president was maybe a little fast, yes, and it would have been cool to finish it on the interoggation episode as intended, but I still don't think it greatly sufferred. I'm not 100% sure what I think of that finale, Deconstruction of Falling Stars, but it was a good idea to fill the gap left by the real finale, which was pushed to the end of season 5. I feel like the penultimate season 4 episode, Rising Star, lead into the real finale though, but it still worked out.

Season 5, however, did suffer slightly from the uncancellation. The fact that the early season 5 stuff that was meant to finish the civil war actually went into season 4 meant that season 5 had far more non-arc filler episodes than the rest. Most of these episodes were pretty good, but they weren't quite what I was after at this stage. I'm still not sure about the whole Telepath colony story really, because although it was more than understandable, I didn't like to see Lyta on the opposite side to everyone else. I didn't like seeing Bester on the same side either.

Season 5 also had a few cast changes, which always makes things difficult. Ivanova was gone. Real shame that, although her reasons and her escape door made sense. Marcus (who I've forgotten to mention!) was dead, and he was really missed. Captain Lochley, or the tarty bird from Lois and Clarke, was brought in. She wasn't a bad character really. More hard-ass than Sheridan and Sinclair maybe, but she did a good job. Not keen on her being Sheridan's ex wife though. For me, when I first found out, it took something away from John and Delenn. This was the third time he'd fallen for someone enough to marry them?! I got over that though. There wasn't even much friendship between the two. The thing I did like about what they did with Lochley was that she was never made into an Ezri Dax. There was no need to give her loads and loads of back story. We'd pick up what we needed and see how she relates to everyone else. No need for long episodes just about her and her issues.

The big story of season 5 was the war with the Centauri. The real tragedy behind all of this was that it was the conclusion of Londo Mollari's story. JMS said that if Babylon 5 was about one person, it was about Londo. He started off as a bit of a joke. A drunken gambler who dreamed of a time long gone when the Centauri Republic was a great galactic empire. His ambitions for himself and his people led him to Mr Morden, and then to Refa, and the terrible things they did shaped the course of the Shadow War. When he tried to put things right and get rid of the Shadows and Morden from Centauri Prime, he was warned that his world would be punished by the allies of the Shadows. Absolutely all of the prophecies related to Londo came true. The eye that doesn't see (G'Kar), the man who is already dead (obvious answer maybe Sheridan, but could have meant Morden. Things may have been different if he hadn't killed Morden) and then surrendering to his greatest fear. That could mean either his death at the hands of G'Kar, or in my opinion more likely that it was allowing the Keeper to control him. Either way, Londo sacrificed himself for his people to live. He did terrible things, but I don't believe Londo was a bad person. He did a lot of awful things for what he believed were the right reasons, and he came to regret all of them.

Londo's demise was the first thing that brought me to tears in the final few episodes. The departures of G'Kar, Lyta, Franklin (yes, I liked him by this point) and Garibaldi all had an effect too. Lennier's tragic betrayel and departure too (I forgive him!). When John and Delenn left Babylon 5 for the last time for Minbar, and then John recorded that message to their unborn son, that definitely brought a tear to my eyes.

Nothing compared to Sleeping in the Light though. Twenty years is almost a lifetime to me, since I'm only 23, but John and Delenn should have been forever! They truly loved each other, and she had to go on without him. Part of me thinks he should have stayed with her until the end, but the bigger part of me knows that his path was the one Kosh and Lorien laid out for him. Sheridan went back to Babylon 5, and then went back to the end of the beginning. It was beautiful. A very moving and low key ending, without epic space battles and dramatic stories. Just a winding down and a saying goodbye.

This post is very jumbled and unstructured and has a lot of what I wanted to say missing. I wish I'd posted during the watching rather than leaving it all until the end. I'm sure I'll have more to say about individual episodes and characters and themes later on, but this is my jumbled train of thought at the moment.

In conclusion, Babylon 5 is now officially one of my favourite television series.