EpDis: The Exercise Of Vital Powers

Refresher Links:
Lurker's Guide Main Page for The Exercise Of Vital Powers
Lurker's Guide Extended Synopsis for The Exercise Of Vital Powers

Ah, the infamous Exercise of Vital Powers. The first draft of this script was JMS's revenge for a trick played by Andreas at a convention.

The episode did well considering how much exposition there was in it on top of having to reestablish the Garibaldi/Lise connection. What always struck me about it was the utter coldness of both Wade and Edgars.

Jan

Edgars, as a character, has such incredible presence in this episode. I also particularly enjoy Lyta's character in this episode.

Edgars is awesome.
I remember once watching an episode where Edgars and Garibaldi were doing a big exposition dialogue about the telepath virus/antidote and such, and I'm such a sucker for the politicking and plotting and planning in well-written fiction, and my roommate, kinda half-watching it out of context, blurts out, "This is so BORING!"

Eh, different strokes.

and my roommate, kinda half-watching it out of context, blurts out, "This is so BORING!"

Click to expand...

This is not about this episode, but following the tangent of roommates sorta half watching because they happen to be in the room.

My old housemate is something of an SF fan, but hadn't yet been really hooked by B5. He had been in the room a reasonable amount of the time when was watching, by hadn't had it complete grab him so that it wasn't just background noise while he was reading the newspaper (or whatever). (Although to be fair, he was gradually starting pay a little more attention to the show as time went on.)

Then came the episode when Refa visits B5 and Londo gives him the first half of the two stage poison. In particular, Londo had the line:

"Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts. Only the heir to the throne of the kingdom of idiots fights a war on twelve fronts."

He about fell out of his chair laughing. He is a big military history buff, and he has very biting, sarcastic sense of humor. That line just completely struck a chord with with him. That was the point at which he got hooked, started really watching without reading at the same time, and started asking multiple questions to fill in pieces of relevent backstory that he had missed.

Yep: Different strokes.
Different people get hooked (or not) by different little details.

B++ very good.

Just shy of an A because there is a lot of long dialog segments that seem to go on alittle longer than they need to.

The dialog is important though... so I can deal with its slowness to a point.

GKarsEye said:

Edgars is awesome.
I remember once watching an episode where Edgars and Garibaldi were doing a big exposition dialogue about the telepath virus/antidote and such, and I'm such a sucker for the politicking and plotting and planning in well-written fiction, and my roommate, kinda half-watching it out of context, blurts out, "This is so BORING!"

Eh, different strokes.

Click to expand...

I don't like Edgars.

This episode is exposition-heavy, that's for sure. If the dialogues between Edgars and Garibaldi actually revealed something new, they would be more interesting, but they basically tie up elements we already know.

Garibaldi's voice-over at various points, always starting with the word "Mars", is an interesting technique used in this episode.

Orange juice again! Why is it that it's the caviar and champagne of the future?! First Sheridan's obsession with oranges, now Edgars. The latter is definitely an interesting character - a combination of gentle husband, seemingly compassionate human, and ice-cold opportunist who will walk over corpses to get what he wants.

Garibaldi's betrayal, especially as it involves Sheridan's father, feels very wrong.

Lyta's power is once again showcased in connection (literally!) with the Shadow-implanted telepaths.

And once again - the chemistry between Garibaldi and Lise doesn't work for me.

I like this one. I actually never found it to be too overly dialogue-ey. This is slower than the last episode, but not necessarily less tense. There's a lot of creepy stuff going on. Something unpleasant is about to happen with the Shadow-implanted telepaths, but we don't yet know what it is. There's a LOT of creepiness with Edgars/Wade/Garibaldi.

Obviously I can't like Edgars as a person, but I really do like the character. He is perfect as the evil powerful businessman. He didn't have to care much about Clark's shenanigans until that point because none of that stuff affected him in his position of power. Now he's worried, and he's got the resources to do something about it.

I find it interesting that Garibaldi is able to find Sheridan's father when Clark's people can't. I think it tells us something about medical privacy laws in the Babylon 5 universe It's also interesting that there's only the one member of Sheridan's family anyone ever cares about. What about his mother? What about the sister who even had her own episode (well, not really. But still, it's a well-established character).

Estelyn said:

And once again - the chemistry between Garibaldi and Lise doesn't work for me.

Click to expand...

Not for me either. For my part, I think it's because the Lise-actor is rather appallingly bland. Such a pretty face which doesn't really do anything at all. Hard to care about her at all.

This episode gives me anxiety attacks. I feel very... I wonder if 'distressed' is the word I'm looking for. My memory doesn't serve me very well and I don't remember whether Garibaldi snaps out of whatever 'it' it is at some point, but god I hope he does, and promptly too if you please! I don't know why this whole Garibaldi storyline is hard to handle for me. Noose is tightening around Sheridan and I hate that Garibaldi has anything to do with it.
Of course, as plots go, it's well done just because it Garibaldi, the person we all have grown to like...

Yes, Edgars is creepy and I too like him as a character. Works very well in this setting.

Lennier's Tears said:

It's also interesting that there's only the one member of Sheridan's family anyone ever cares about. What about his mother? What about the sister who even had her own episode (well, not really. But still, it's a well-established character).

Click to expand...

Yeah, I wondered the same thing quite a few episodes ago when using Sheridan's dad first came up. Like, did his mother suddenly die or what?? When they had their last 'call', his father talked about Sheridan's mother doing this or that so obviously she was alive and well.

Most of B5's dialogue is good, and a lot of it is absolute brilliance. However, this episode had one line which I hate with the burning passion of thousand suns and which - if I were the Great Maker and thus omnipotent - I would ban from existence: "I never meant to hurt you". If ever there was a more meaningless and vapid phrase... Like, oh really, and that's supposed to make me feel better??! Oh Garibaldi, why did you have to say that...

Talvitar said:

"I never meant to hurt you". If ever there was a more meaningless and vapid phrase... Like, oh really, and that's supposed to make me feel better??! Oh Garibaldi, why did you have to say that...

Click to expand...

But Talvitar, I really did never mean "to hurt you."

Okay yes I definitely find all of the Garibaldi / Lise tough to watch. In fairness I don't think we really learn enough about Lise's character. I mean really we only get 'Dodger' Durman for one episode and I feel we know more about her character than all of the Lise guest appearances combined. And I also feel like I was more interested in seeing where that relationship led more than Garibaldi / Lise. That being said I really like where the Garibaldi / Lise story ends up in the end.

Lise was just an ordinary woman trying to make her way in a harsh world. She wasn't a hero and didn't really care about any causes. She just wanted to keep her head down and get by. It would be interesting to have seen what the security of the Edgars fortune might have done to/for her character.

Jan said:

Lise was just an ordinary woman trying to make her way in a harsh world. She wasn't a hero and didn't really care about any causes. She just wanted to keep her head down and get by. It would be interesting to have seen what the security of the Edgars fortune might have done to/for her character.

Click to expand...

You are DEFINITELY correct. I think that is the problem with Lise. We only really got to know her as an archetype and not a character with any depth. And you are also correct that it would have been interesting to get some of that character depth before and after Edgars. Really after would make more sense because she would have had the "security" to be more of her own character without as much concern for trying to make that security for her child.