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What's your rewatching thoughts?

K

Kara Baxter

Regular
So i was rewatching B5 season one...

And I find myself analyzing the plot stories.

what were your new thoughts when you watched B5 again?

Did you notice new things?

I noticed that they brought in the Narn vs Centari conflict right away...a plot that they kinda dismiss over season one, but pick it up moreso in the shadow war.

I also noticed they brought in Sinclair's back history early on re: battle of the line. I thought it was later on than it was.
 
I love "Midnight on the Firing Line" for the recurring plot elements it brings in:

1) the Narn-Centauri conflict
2) similarly, Londo and G'kar's personal conflict -- including their ultimate fate!
3) Talia's relationship with Ivanova
4) Ivanova's history with PsiCorps (and some of her troubled family history)
5) Kosh's actual appearance, and a lot of his nature
6) Sinclair's respect for the Minbari (who he's actually fought) versus the Narns

And probably not a few I've forgotten. As a setup episode, I think it's rivaled only by the first episode of "Firefly" (which was twice as long!).
 
I try to notice little details I didn't pick up on the first time thru, pay more attention to set dressings or little things that you can tell were meant one way to begin with (the marriage ceremony in the first season, for instance, you can see it was meant as set up for Sinclair and Delenn later, and then got left dangling) and then were changed later as part of a trapdoor. The main thing that stays consistent at each rewatching is my enjoyment of some fine storytelling.
 
I've rewatched the series several time - even including the episodes that I really don't care for - and each time I pick up some line of dialog or reference that makes me think..."o NOW that makes more sense".
I also find that I've been liking the episodes that I originally didn't care for more upon rewatching.
 
aajay said:
I've rewatched the series several time - even including the episodes that I really don't care for - and each time I pick up some line of dialog or reference that makes me think..."o NOW that makes more sense".
I also find that I've been liking the episodes that I originally didn't care for more upon rewatching.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Episodes that didn't strike me well on a first viewing seem better the more times you watch them.
 
yea, i never knew or paid attention that Delenn was building the chrysalis all thruout the series...i just noticed it when she changed.
 
I so love that scene where Vir says what he wants....the first time I was thinking, that'll never happen, then it did....that was CLASS right there.
 
I’ve tried Jade Jaguar’s Zen method, but my mind always kicks into high gear instead. Indications of where the series was going are everywhere!

Like aajay, I also find myself really liking eps that I previously didn’t like so much. ‘Knives’ is one for sure. And ‘The Quality of Mercy’. 'Midnight on the Firing Line' was one I always liked. Tricky to cram so much info into a single episode.


To answer your question: In ‘Acts of Sacrifice’, Franklin is speaking to the Lumati about helping other races whose lives are at risk. Taq tells him: “We would neither help nor harm them, it is not our place to interfere. The way for one race to help another is to allow evolution to run its course. It’s for their own good.”



Parallels here. The first part of this describes how the Vorlons want others to see them, though they are actually covert interventionists. The second is similar to the Shadows’ philosophy, evolution being the key to growth. And the third is how the Vorlons and Shadows both see themselves, doing what is best for the younger races. A bit of foreshadowing here, a full year and a half before we learn what the two races are really doing. And the name ‘Lumati’ implies they are illuminating things for us. That’s how I read into it, anyway.

And up until ‘Z’ha’dum’, we see several humans who are spoiling for another war with the Minbari. But of course, the second Earth-Minbari War storyline got dropped. Or postponed…


Raw Shark
 
I think G'kar became a comedic figure a bit too early on - or at least showed tendencies towards it. Was it the dock workers episode where he and Londo were rushed out from C&C by Sinclair? There were a stint of episodes around these parts where G'kar's earlier established features came down. It works, but as someone who watches through this stuff many times a year, you start to think how it might be improved and expanded even - this, of course, is just me thinking out loud. Also, B5 can be a state of mind, too. To just think nothing and have it rolling on the background, remembering things and appreciating them by hearing even if you're not exactly watching the picture.

I would've liked G'kar to remain a bitter and bloodthirsty creature a bit longer. Even a villain. His journey would've been so much greater and his comedic figure should've emerged actually only after the scholar. I think he must've been the first alien creature in a tv serie who sold me the concept of warrior nation with his line of liking to "walk in the green before battle". They were what they were because of the Centauri, but can be a bit more too. Made me think of the japanese samurai in the feudal days. Savage, but deep in it.
 
JMS intertwined humor and tragedy a lot, to augment both of them -- if you'll recall, G'kar was comedic back in "The Gathering," too, or at least the butt of fun.

And the first sign of decency we see in him comes very early: "Mind War."
 
KoshFan said:
JMS intertwined humor and tragedy a lot, to augment both of them -- if you'll recall, G'kar was comedic back in "The Gathering," too, or at least the butt of fun.

And the first sign of decency we see in him comes very early: "Mind War."
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm just saying since it's the topic here. I would've really loved G'kar to be a villain - it would've been so easy to justify his constant meddlings, since he is an ambassador and B5 is an political stage also. I believe JMS if anyone could've cooked up a story for the viewers not to question about how the good guys don't simply just get rid of the baddies. Stuff that you generally think with most series where the good guys seem to be incapable of dealing with the baddies once and for all, for no apparent reason other than to stretch things on.
 
I started rewatching B5 about a month ago, and this time around I've started to notice some logic gaps in some of the stories that don't quite make sense.

For example, in "The Gathering" we're suppose to believe that there is a conspiracy to assassinate Kosh involving a human weapons smuggler, the Narn, a Minbari warrior sect, and the Psi Corp (Laurel Takashima was running interference--she was the original "Control"). Okay, I can buy that the human smuggler Del Varner is simply a hired hand. But what about the Narn, the Minbari, and the Psi Corp? What compels these various factions to work together? What did they hope to gain by eliminating the ambassador to a very powerful and mysterious race?

I realize that once the series was launched, this particular plot point was abandoned, but I still wonder how JMS would have explained this conspiracy had he continued it.
 
It's interesting to consider the assassination plot of "The Gathering" with information contained within the Babylon 5 flyer, which was a promotional item from back before the show went into production. In it, about the Vorlons, it says:

The secretive Vorlons are a group not to be trusted. A massive power struggle is going on among their upper echelons where advancement is only accomplished by assassination. They seek to eliminate the Earth Alliance and solidify themselves as heads of the Empire.
Click to expand...
 
Weird, I had not heard of that flyer before. A very early indication that the Vorlons were immortal. I just sort of wrote off the assassination plot as another clunky item from 'The Gathering,' there are so many. If that had been the first thing I'd seen for B5, I don't think I would have watched again, though I enjoy it now. I'm so glad it was considered an experiment, and things improved from there.

When I have considered the plot, I kind of figured the Wind Swords were the only ones with all the pieces of the puzzle, they wanted the Vorlons to annihilate Earth. They would probably have convinced G'kar to come in on it with a vague promise of future alliance. And Varner was a tech runner, doing jobs for the money, no questions asked, he wouldn't be hard. As for Takashima and the Psi Corps, that I cannot explain. They don't seem to like aliens, so I have not yet thought of any reason they would participate. And I imagine it would be hard to gain their cooperation by lying to them.

Most likely it was just one of those things that didn't work well early on and got jettisoned.

Raw Shark

"Can you fly, Bobby?"
Clarence Boddicker, Robocop
 
Raw Shark said:
They would probably have convinced G'kar to come in on it with a vague promise of future alliance.
Click to expand...

I think the series has demonstrated quite well that he Narns will sell anything to anyone for any reason as long as the price is right. That being the case, I don't really see there is any need to look for other reasons for the Narn involvement.
 
Just Watched Ship of Tears - the part where Gkar confronts Ivanova about being allowed into Sheridans alliance. He refers to Space and Time being circular so that eventually everything comes back on itself. I wondered if that is the very core of B5. Maybe everything does repeat itself. Circular Reasoning I know.

Take for example the Vorlons and the Rangers.

The rangers badge has one silver figure and one gold figure - said to represent the humans and minbari. When Kosh fights Kosh, one silver and one yellow.

Coincidence?
 
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