EpDis: A Voice In The Wilderness Part 1

[Estelyn]

It is hard to review the first half of a story, isn't it?! I do like the idea that the planet B5 orbits ("all alone in the night" - doesn't that line of Sinclair's in this season's title sequence irritate you?! You'd think they were isolated from the rest of the universe - but everyone's old girl/boyfriends, mentors, enemies, rabbis show up, so they're not very alone, are they?!), which was thought to be uninhabited and chosen as the base for that reason, is discovered to be inhabited and full of advanced technology after all. The underground stuff looks fantastic.

I guess this half of the story gets its highlights from the personal moments - I love Ivanova's mantra, Londo's hokey-pokey, etc. The cliffhanger isn't bad either - not seeing something, just the reaction of a character to it, is always a good method to keep up suspense.

 

[Lennier's Tears]

I'm definitely a fan of "A Voice in the Wilderness". Both of the whole as of parts 1 and 2 individually. I love Draal. I have a PC named after him I think "Quickly, what's the third principle of sentient life?" is a great line because it makes me wonder what the other principles are. Also because it turns out to be relevant to the episode's storyline (as well as the main story, of course).

Little things:

• I'm not crazy about the Garibaldi/transport tube "joke". It does nothing for his character's likability. He's a creeper! Imagine being Talia and feeling like you're constantly followed around by the head of security, no less.
• This is one of those times where you can REALLY tell the show was written before social media took off. No one caught on to the fact that communication with Mars was shut down until the TV news told them!
• Londo's conveniently present when Sinclair discusses Epsilon 3 stuff over his link.
• I love Draal's "I'm going to the sea".
• Also on the news debate on "the cost of maintaining a presence in space". I love these kinds of background details.
• I'm glad to see this episode has a geologist who refuses to listen and ends up endangering everyone. It's not just archaeologists being assholes on this show
• Speaking of principles of sentient life, I often wonder how humans and aliens in the B5 universe feel about eating meat. We see characters eat meat every now and then, although we don't know if this meat comes from an animal or is lab-grown, or what. It seems to me that existing in a universe where there are aliens (and possibly even without aliens, but with sufficiently advanced IA), there would be some vigorous debates on the nature of sentience and the relationships between species.

I'll have more when I get to part II