A preemptive comment: if y'all can manage to have someone outside of your viewing group monitor the submitted comments and exclude any from your view that have even just 'minor' spoilers - it will completely enhance and influence your approach to the show as a whole. Multi season plot arcs that we had to take the long route to see. Bits of season one affecting later episodes - no streaming to go look at past episodes for us back then. Y'all don't have to wait a week to see the next episode. Nor wait for the next season to start. Nor have to hope B5 wasn't going to be cancelled. The story arcs were planned from the start - a 5 season series, complete with outs and appropriate story changes if an actor has to depart. Season 5 had a lot of network interference, but at least it got made. I'm waiting for you to get to a specific first season episode that's past the massive introductory world building. There are very few shows that do character development and redemption arcs to the scale that B5 did. There's dialogue that the actors put forth with an unbelievable depth of passion and feelings. After an undisclosed episode in a later season, you should be told some real world information about what happened to someone behind the scenes. Any commenters on my post - do not say anything about what I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about. EDIT: I'd appreciate any upvoting of this post to ensure they see it sooner than later. Yes, it's not a perfect show, there are meh episodes. More often than not though, it delivered like no other show to us. If we truly love this program, we'd be doing a major disservice by spoiling their experience and discovery of this story.
Further to that - I'd say if you are the kind of guys to collect merch, maybe give your money to someone to source it for you. I've seen a few podcasts do giveaways of stuff that involves details they haven't arrived at yet, and if you start looking stuff up you will see things that will strongly hint at stuff to come. Also, I hope that after the undisclosed episode you are not told, but instead linked to a video where it is explained by someone with inside knowledge. We commentors know and can give you the gist, but the videos for that are much more textured.
The Soul Hunter in this episode was played by the late, and very very great character actor W Morgan Sheppard, who passed away in 2019 and who's career spanned the 6 decades from the 60s to 2017. He appeared in Star Trek 4: The Undiscovered Country, as well as in the JJ Abrams Star Trek (2009), and in both Star Trek The Next Generation and Star Trek Voyager. His science fiction and fantasy credits in film, TV, and games were incredibly extensive. You will definitely start to recognize him elsewhere just based on his gravelly, bass grumble.💯✌
@@RKnights He was also the mission briefing voice in the old Medal of Honor games. One of his best parts was as the Catholic Priest in Needful Things who gets into a dispute with neighboring Baptist Church. He has one of the best lines in the whole movie.
There is an anthropologist named Brian Fagan who wrote a book on the Little Ice Age. He has an uncanny resembelence to W. Sheppard. For a long time I thought they were the same person and the anthropologist did acting as a side gig. Found out later its two different dudes. I loved W. Shepards klingon on ST4 !
Spirituality, religion, faith...call it what you will...will come into play when you least expect it to. The beauty of this series is it has equal footing from all aspects, be it religious, political, social, it literally has something for everyone...and that's BEFORE the traditional sci-fi staples of space, discovery, battle, and exploration. Another thing that is great about this is there are questions in literally every episode. Some are biggies, others are more subtle, but each episode has you asking "what is this?" in some way or another...and sometimes the answer only leads to more questions. It's a very tangled web for sure! I'm so thrilled you guys are jumping headlong into this! It only gets better!
Sinclair’s involvement is like Kirk’s; budgetary constraints. The guns (PPG - Phased Plasma Guns) are like that because they have to be able to stop the perp, but not penetrate the hull. One of B5’s coolest aspects is the existence of religion. Most future sci-fi shows tend to dismiss religion as myth or irrelevant. Delenn and G’Kar are very spiritual beings.
The guns fire a small pellet which is superheated into plasma and then propelled by a magnetic pulse - it does a lot of damage to a person, but won't put a hole in the hull. They are called PPGs [Phased Plasma Guns]
Not the first sci-fi show with a long term arc. Even MJS acknowledged Blake's 7 as the inspiration. It was a VERY low budget BBC sci-fi show that used to show up on the PBS stations over here. Like B5 it was very character driven and political. B4-B5-B7🚀
There is so much I want to say about your questions about Sinclair but I will let them unfold over the rest of the season. Religion does have a place, the Soul Hunters are definitely an interesting species. A group that goes around collecting the souls of very influential people. Have the chance to talk to someone from history. An interesting theory which is somewhat in line with Medians and being able to talk to the dead. Enjoy learning about Commander Sinclair as the season goes on.
I like the way you're analysing the episodes on-going. Just the way we all did on seeing it the first time round. You're gonna be wrong just as we where. Keep it coming.
One thing to keep in mind. All the graphics and special effects where all done in 94' 95' 96'. First show to have arc stories. Over multiple seasons. All others before were 1 and done episode tv.
Hey there fellaz ... welcome on a long journey , that will feel dubious at times.. but trust us , when we tell you that you are on a journey of a lifetime.
Enjoyed the reactions. There are several arcs throughout the series. It is a slow burn. You will get answers eventually, but you will get more questions. I'm looking forward for the ride.
Season 1 has many shows that are secretly part 1 of a part2 in season 3. Oh, each season that "It was the beginning of the 3rd age... changes each season.
This show is considered to be one of the more "religious" oriented of this period. Star Trek rarely dove directly into spiritual issues but B5 embraced them. The Battlestar Galactica reboot (which I think came out 10 years after this) tended to follow in B5's footsteps.
@@Dreamfox-df6bg I have no idea what you are talking about. There is no Battlestar Galactica 1978. There never WAS a Battlestar Galactica 1978. As for BattleStar Galactica 1980 that's beyond never existing.
@@aaronleffew9593 No, it really isn't. Not everyone is who they seem. means most people could be who they seem. Noone is who they seem, blocks that possibility.
Such a great episode. I love this show so much. B5 is not a cookie cutter kumbaya we are ALL just one big happy family (federation?). There is emotion in these shows, there is passion, it is real and it is messy. This is what science fiction should strive to be. And as much as I love those other shows imo Babylon 5 rises above them (although my personal favorite is Doctor Who), because it made us feel & think and it challenged us. This is SCIENCE FICTION!
I also like how JMS included discussion of religion. So many sci-fi shows ignore it with the idea that humans will evolve beyond needing religion, but I think a spiritual element has been part of humanity for as long as anyone knows, and it seems to be integral to the human race in one way or another, so I'm glad he didn't shy away from it.
This opening is honestly kind of amusing given that the general design for the Starfury has been granted to NASA so long as they still call it a Star Fury, though the now real world design is meant to be used as a tug. Which was how Sinclair was using it.
What I think is a really good feature of the soul hunters is that they are the heroes of their own narrative. To them, there is no after life, they are keeping important personalities around for posterity. To people who believe in an afterlife, they are monstrous. This for me is the best type of antagonist - Javert from Les Miserables is a paragon virtue BUT he doesn't believe in redemption or mercy, and it's that almost heroic nature to him that makes him fascinating. It's something that bothers me on rewatches of DS9 in that certain antagonists don't feel like they have any existence outside of being a nuissance for the main cast, they just aren't constructed well enough
This one is important because of the religion and souls aspect .. on first watch, it feels disconnected, but there are very few stories that don't have some connection - even if its just world building
This is an early indication that the show isn't Star Trek. Roddenberry believed that we would evolve past spirituality, in B5 there is a much more ambiguous approach taken. Are the souls real? Or do the soul hunters take some kind of copy of a person's brainwaves as they are dying, and believe it is the soul? The episode leaves that up to you (which you may prefer or may not), so it's not a debate worth having, people will have their own thoughts and opinions that aren't really changeable, but for me that ambiguity is a strength of the show.
"I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing" "No, leave me here!" I love that in your crew you instinctively picked up on the different beliefs. Yeah, this is a show that is going to really get under your skin!
22:44 The only real difference between the bad Soul Hunter and the good one is that the bad one doesn't wait for death to come naturally. They both have their collection of soul-balls, and both use the same technology to acquire them. As for your comments about Minbari religion, the show doesn't really go into a lot of detail, but one of the three castes of their society is the "Religious Caste", of which Delenn is a member. They are fairly spiritual in a vague sort of way, though. Humans basically have all the same religions as today. In later seasons, a order of Christian monks comes aboard and their leader is a minor recurring character for a bit. The Narn religion isn't gone into in depth, but is fairly important to them. The Centauri have a large assortment of gods as you'll see shortly, but real faith is less common for them than among the Narn or Minbari. A few minor races have some stuff about their religious ideas detailed, but those aren't really important. Fun Fact: For all the mention of souls and the importance placed on them and religious belief, JMS is an atheist who has gone on record that he doesn't believe souls exist.
The Babylon 5 creator/showrunner, JMS, is an atheist. But he wanted a more believable depiction of the future than in Star Trek, so faith and spirituality are woven into the world he is building.
B5 goes to some really dark places if its required, which i have to think was pretty unheard of for its time. Soul Hunters were damn terrifying, as well as creepy. Love the way your trying to guess the motivation of the players after only the second episode, keep guessing guys
There were other shows with long plots, like soap operas and serials, but it was uncommon. The networks didn't like them because they wanted people who to missed episodes and not get lost. Because giving B5 a serial plot was so successful other shows copied it. That's why it's more common today.
Yes big soaps like Dallas were certainly carrying on plots and arcs for many years. And there would be continuity in other regular series with returning characters or sequels to previous episodes or arcs over serveral episodes but this was the first really big multi- arc show in this genre and a true landmark.
There was a big difference too, though: Those soap operas pretty much were made up on the go. Maybe sometimes a character got an arc for a while, but usually nothing was really planned ahead. B5 had it's plot for the whole 5 years laid out in advance. JMS knew all the way where he wanted to go. He had to adapt to some unplanned events that came up over the show's run - and in one or two cases it becomes relatively obvious (without going further into details before it is time to ^^ Nullus Spoilerus!) - but always managed to save the things he had planned.
Networks didn't like them because affiliates were responsible for airing things in order and they always messed it up because at prime time the competent people had left for the day.
I find it a slight issue that Sinclair went out there, there are ready pilots He has to run all way from CNC, get in a suit and then hop on a ship CNC is not next to the launch bay
Rewatch after 20+ years, finding stuff where I have to wonder "JMS you glorious bastard, you did THAT?!" And this is only S1E2... (hope that's phrased spoilerfree enough)
Just wait until the first stories really connect. The episodes usually go from good to great, but every once in a while you'll get a key episode that can really blow you away. An early episode of the second season didn't get the 1996 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation for nothing. But right now I'd say that even telling you the title of the episode would count as a spoiler. But let me tell you a little detail. J. Michael Straczynski knew that there might be problems with a 5 season story arc, especially as it's possible that actors could drop out for various reasons. So he had a 'trapdoor' prepared for every character. If necessary, he could write every character out in one episode. And differently from other shows, each Babylon season has it's own title, but as above, with the title of an episode? The title of a season might spoil something. So don't look up either for maximum effect.
Dangerous it is to walk a path of rhetorical questions you don't want answered. Dark it is when your own theories could be truths. But stay on your path and be surprised by your own theories. You present some interesting hypothesis. Although I might rule one out, even the ones you may rule out may should never be dismissed, because even far fetched theories that could be wrong can somehow be related to the ones that are the truth. That's why all theories, even if it some crazy off the wall unrelated idea like Scooby-Doo is coming to Babylon 5, you may be surprised how even a trollish outlandish comment can trigger an enlightening conversation. Now, my off the wall comment probably won't come true, but Scooby-Doo is all about unveiling the frauds or the ones not true to themselves. So keep on formulating o' knights of tge sky. Sing great songs about what is to come, for Babylon is not only a show. It is a show of song and Dance, but the dance is not dancing, and the song is not singing, for a dance is the drama, the narration of who gets who and how they plan on doing it and the singing is whatever entertains you and is music to your ears, not necessarily the notes but could be anything that makes a scene memorable in sn episode. But the dance is how all the aliens qnd humans make their moves. If you've read this far, I do implore you. This is a silly post of nonsense to those who cannot make sense out of nonsense. But to the wise, even foolishness can contain wisdom that even the smart people cannot see, for only fools understand that wisdom doesn't come from being smart but from letting their metaphysical self, the true self speak.
This is not a spoiler, this is information already said in the episodes you've seen: Neither Sinclair himself or anyone else ever said he died. In the last battle of the Earth -- Minbari War he thought he was going to die. He thought this was it for him and for Earth, they were about to not only lose the war, they were going to lose everything. He's about to kami-kazi a Minbari heavy cruiser ship, it's the last desperate thing he can do...then he blacks out, wakes up 24 hours later and the war is over, the Minbari have surrendered. He didn't know what happened and in the pilot episode of B5 he's told he has a "hole in his mind", but that doesn't necessarily means he died. Anyway, all that with Sinclair was at the end of the Earth - Minbari War. The great Minbari leader died earlier, before the war really began. Best Regards!
Monster of the week club ... but no young woman to scream like in Dr Who. Having to search manually? It's a huge ship, they never got rid of the giant space cockroaches ;-)
Just a head's up. This episode is an example of the tug of war between the writer J Michael Straczynski and the network. He's telling a big, complicated story spanning multiple seasons. The network wanted a star trek-like problem of the week. (This was a network episode) However, pay attention, there are still key items/themes in here that come back later in the show. I'd say, 'Enjoy', but this is my second least favorite episode of the entire series.
Common problem during this time period and on rewatches, the standalones never seem to hold up as well. I remember that the Farscape (which came out about 6 years after this) producers had the same problem. Of course the abandonment of the 22 episode season has mean that there simply isn't any time for filler episodes.
@@miller-joel JMS has stated this in multiple interviews, you can find them on RUclips. Douglas Netter has confirmed this in his interviews as well. It's a fairly commonly known fact. JMS had to fight to get each year renewed and admitted that he had episodes for all five seasons outlined on 4x6 note cards in a box on his desk, but didn't share them until each season. Writers like Lary DiTillio and Peter David have discussed in fan forums how they were called in to bring a more traditional style, one that would have a broader appeal, to episodes. They were brought in based on their work on Star Trek, comics, and various TV shows.
@@miller-joel The add you mention came later and JMS hated it. The way he removed it was a middle finger to the studio interference. 🙂 Leadership at PTEN/WB was a mess and kept wanting this to be a something more episodic. The first and second seasons reflect this in various ways. While the renewal drama was more about ratings, leadership never bought into JMS's long-term vision. A serialized epic had only been done once before 'Wiseguy' (great show btw)
This episode, probably more than any other, shows the extremely bad engineering that occurred when they built the station. WHY would you put your station in a direct path from the jump gate so that anything coming through is automatically on a direct impact course?
Aftterlife does not = religion, it's a belife, religion anf belive are not the same. That i understand is hard to understand for religious people and/or sociaties. Here under 20% of pop is religious, close to double that have some kind of belife and half of pop are free/have none and we have one of the lowest crime in the world, strong costums and patriotism to not the country but the people(to our people, costoms, history and nationality). We do quite well for about 1mil people of nationality (here and couple hundred thousand around the world).
A preemptive comment: if y'all can manage to have someone outside of your viewing group monitor the submitted comments and exclude any from your view that have even just 'minor' spoilers - it will completely enhance and influence your approach to the show as a whole. Multi season plot arcs that we had to take the long route to see. Bits of season one affecting later episodes - no streaming to go look at past episodes for us back then. Y'all don't have to wait a week to see the next episode. Nor wait for the next season to start. Nor have to hope B5 wasn't going to be cancelled.
The story arcs were planned from the start - a 5 season series, complete with outs and appropriate story changes if an actor has to depart. Season 5 had a lot of network interference, but at least it got made.
I'm waiting for you to get to a specific first season episode that's past the massive introductory world building. There are very few shows that do character development and redemption arcs to the scale that B5 did. There's dialogue that the actors put forth with an unbelievable depth of passion and feelings.
After an undisclosed episode in a later season, you should be told some real world information about what happened to someone behind the scenes. Any commenters on my post - do not say anything about what I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about.
EDIT: I'd appreciate any upvoting of this post to ensure they see it sooner than later. Yes, it's not a perfect show, there are meh episodes. More often than not though, it delivered like no other show to us. If we truly love this program, we'd be doing a major disservice by spoiling their experience and discovery of this story.
Further to that - I'd say if you are the kind of guys to collect merch, maybe give your money to someone to source it for you. I've seen a few podcasts do giveaways of stuff that involves details they haven't arrived at yet, and if you start looking stuff up you will see things that will strongly hint at stuff to come.
Also, I hope that after the undisclosed episode you are not told, but instead linked to a video where it is explained by someone with inside knowledge. We commentors know and can give you the gist, but the videos for that are much more textured.
@@neilbiggs1353 I'm actually trying to find an old JMS interview to eventually post that covers it properly.
Edit: Found and bookmarked it.
The Soul Hunter in this episode was played by the late, and very very great character actor W Morgan Sheppard, who passed away in 2019 and who's career spanned the 6 decades from the 60s to 2017. He appeared in Star Trek 4: The Undiscovered Country, as well as in the JJ Abrams Star Trek (2009), and in both Star Trek The Next Generation and Star Trek Voyager. His science fiction and fantasy credits in film, TV, and games were incredibly extensive. You will definitely start to recognize him elsewhere just based on his gravelly, bass grumble.💯✌
Tha KS for the info, he was great
@@RKnights He was also the mission briefing voice in the old Medal of Honor games. One of his best parts was as the Catholic Priest in Needful Things who gets into a dispute with neighboring Baptist Church. He has one of the best lines in the whole movie.
There is an anthropologist named Brian Fagan who wrote a book on the Little Ice Age. He has an uncanny resembelence to W. Sheppard. For a long time I thought they were the same person and the anthropologist did acting as a side gig. Found out later its two different dudes. I loved W. Shepards klingon on ST4 !
Oops...stupid fat fingers...that is Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country. D'OH! 😁
@@iKvetch558 I didn’t want to mention it.
Spirituality, religion, faith...call it what you will...will come into play when you least expect it to. The beauty of this series is it has equal footing from all aspects, be it religious, political, social, it literally has something for everyone...and that's BEFORE the traditional sci-fi staples of space, discovery, battle, and exploration.
Another thing that is great about this is there are questions in literally every episode. Some are biggies, others are more subtle, but each episode has you asking "what is this?" in some way or another...and sometimes the answer only leads to more questions. It's a very tangled web for sure!
I'm so thrilled you guys are jumping headlong into this! It only gets better!
We are impressed with everything we have seen so far. We love that souls were introduced in this as opposed to just shrugging off this topic
@@RKnights Even though there is lots of fair discussion of religion, it's interesting that most of these episodes were written by an atheist...
JMS says he is an atheist but B5 treats religion in a more fair and evenhanded way than any other show did.
Sinclair’s involvement is like Kirk’s; budgetary constraints. The guns (PPG - Phased Plasma Guns) are like that because they have to be able to stop the perp, but not penetrate the hull.
One of B5’s coolest aspects is the existence of religion. Most future sci-fi shows tend to dismiss religion as myth or irrelevant. Delenn and G’Kar are very spiritual beings.
I am glad that they did include it in the story. It makes the characters more interesting
Sinclair is involved a lot because of budget, but they give it a good story reason as well.
This is when they wrote good intelligent thoughtful science fiction on television.
The guns fire a small pellet which is superheated into plasma and then propelled by a magnetic pulse - it does a lot of damage to a person, but won't put a hole in the hull. They are called PPGs [Phased Plasma Guns]
Not the first sci-fi show with a long term arc. Even MJS acknowledged Blake's 7 as the inspiration. It was a VERY low budget BBC sci-fi show that used to show up on the PBS stations over here. Like B5 it was very character driven and political.
B4-B5-B7🚀
There is so much I want to say about your questions about Sinclair but I will let them unfold over the rest of the season.
Religion does have a place, the Soul Hunters are definitely an interesting species. A group that goes around collecting the souls of very influential people. Have the chance to talk to someone from history. An interesting theory which is somewhat in line with Medians and being able to talk to the dead.
Enjoy learning about Commander Sinclair as the season goes on.
I like the way you're analysing the episodes on-going. Just the way we all did on seeing it the first time round. You're gonna be wrong just as we where. Keep it coming.
We love the intricacies that are in the episodes. It gives us a lot to talk about
So we're we. It's only when the show actually starts for real can you make any proper guesses.
OK. When the context starts for real.
One thing to keep in mind. All the graphics and special effects where all done in 94' 95' 96'. First show to have arc stories. Over multiple seasons. All others before were 1 and done episode tv.
⭐ I understand that at the end of this episode they find James Brown...
What?! Lol, because of the Soul Hunter? 🤣🤣🤣
@@RKnights ⭐ GIVE THAT MAN A KEWPIE DOLL! 😂
@@rocketeer3667 🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣🤣
Hey there fellaz ... welcome on a long journey , that will feel dubious at times.. but trust us , when we tell you that you are on a journey of a lifetime.
We are so stoke!
Enjoyed the reactions. There are several arcs throughout the series. It is a slow burn. You will get answers eventually, but you will get more questions.
I'm looking forward for the ride.
I wish we did not have jobs so that we can binge watch this show
Season 1 has many shows that are secretly part 1 of a part2 in season 3. Oh, each season that "It was the beginning of the 3rd age... changes each season.
This show is considered to be one of the more "religious" oriented of this period. Star Trek rarely dove directly into spiritual issues but B5 embraced them. The Battlestar Galactica reboot (which I think came out 10 years after this) tended to follow in B5's footsteps.
Actually, the original Battlestar Galactica had that also, though very different. It was part of the reboot.
I feel like it makes the world more 3d in its depth
@@Dreamfox-df6bg I have no idea what you are talking about. There is no Battlestar Galactica 1978. There never WAS a Battlestar Galactica 1978. As for BattleStar Galactica 1980 that's beyond never existing.
@@Shadowman4710 I agree on the static on the TV for around an hour once a week in 1980 🙂
@@Shadowman4710 Battlestar Galactica 1978 is great. In some ways I prefer it to the 2000s remake.
Guys, love the theories, hope you keep going. This series is summed up by a simple phrase "Not everyone here is EXACTLY who they seem"
I think you mean. "Noone here is exactly who they seem."
@@oldinion I think it doesn't matter, the meaning is the same
@@aaronleffew9593 No, it really isn't. Not everyone is who they seem. means most people could be who they seem. Noone is who they seem, blocks that possibility.
27:29 - Anyone else got a "True Lies" moment there? "Low battery"? 🤣🤣🤣
Such a great episode. I love this show so much. B5 is not a cookie cutter kumbaya we are ALL just one big happy family (federation?). There is emotion in these shows, there is passion, it is real and it is messy. This is what science fiction should strive to be. And as much as I love those other shows imo Babylon 5 rises above them (although my personal favorite is Doctor Who), because it made us feel & think and it challenged us. This is SCIENCE FICTION!
I also like how JMS included discussion of religion. So many sci-fi shows ignore it with the idea that humans will evolve beyond needing religion, but I think a spiritual element has been part of humanity for as long as anyone knows, and it seems to be integral to the human race in one way or another, so I'm glad he didn't shy away from it.
Thanks guys. Looking forward to the next one.
one of the few shows where size doesn't matter. i'm talking about earthlings' guns of course!..😊
This opening is honestly kind of amusing given that the general design for the Starfury has been granted to NASA so long as they still call it a Star Fury, though the now real world design is meant to be used as a tug. Which was how Sinclair was using it.
What I think is a really good feature of the soul hunters is that they are the heroes of their own narrative. To them, there is no after life, they are keeping important personalities around for posterity. To people who believe in an afterlife, they are monstrous. This for me is the best type of antagonist - Javert from Les Miserables is a paragon virtue BUT he doesn't believe in redemption or mercy, and it's that almost heroic nature to him that makes him fascinating. It's something that bothers me on rewatches of DS9 in that certain antagonists don't feel like they have any existence outside of being a nuissance for the main cast, they just aren't constructed well enough
This one is important because of the religion and souls aspect .. on first watch, it feels disconnected, but there are very few stories that don't have some connection - even if its just world building
This is an early indication that the show isn't Star Trek. Roddenberry believed that we would evolve past spirituality, in B5 there is a much more ambiguous approach taken. Are the souls real? Or do the soul hunters take some kind of copy of a person's brainwaves as they are dying, and believe it is the soul? The episode leaves that up to you (which you may prefer or may not), so it's not a debate worth having, people will have their own thoughts and opinions that aren't really changeable, but for me that ambiguity is a strength of the show.
"I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing"
"No, leave me here!"
I love that in your crew you instinctively picked up on the different beliefs. Yeah, this is a show that is going to really get under your skin!
It's for sure it's own beast of a show
What sense is this!
It will be interesting to see your reaction to the films Space Truckers and Robocop 3. This is a cool immortal classic 👍
22:44 The only real difference between the bad Soul Hunter and the good one is that the bad one doesn't wait for death to come naturally. They both have their collection of soul-balls, and both use the same technology to acquire them.
As for your comments about Minbari religion, the show doesn't really go into a lot of detail, but one of the three castes of their society is the "Religious Caste", of which Delenn is a member. They are fairly spiritual in a vague sort of way, though. Humans basically have all the same religions as today. In later seasons, a order of Christian monks comes aboard and their leader is a minor recurring character for a bit. The Narn religion isn't gone into in depth, but is fairly important to them. The Centauri have a large assortment of gods as you'll see shortly, but real faith is less common for them than among the Narn or Minbari. A few minor races have some stuff about their religious ideas detailed, but those aren't really important.
Fun Fact: For all the mention of souls and the importance placed on them and religious belief, JMS is an atheist who has gone on record that he doesn't believe souls exist.
The Babylon 5 creator/showrunner, JMS, is an atheist.
But he wanted a more believable depiction of the future than in Star Trek, so faith and spirituality are woven into the world he is building.
Great decision
You never know what you'll find in space, or what will arrive on your doorstep.
8k here you come!!
We are chugging along!
B5 goes to some really dark places if its required, which i have to think was pretty unheard of for its time. Soul Hunters were damn terrifying, as well as creepy. Love the way your trying to guess the motivation of the players after only the second episode, keep guessing guys
There were other shows with long plots, like soap operas and serials, but it was uncommon. The networks didn't like them because they wanted people who to missed episodes and not get lost.
Because giving B5 a serial plot was so successful other shows copied it. That's why it's more common today.
Yes big soaps like Dallas were certainly carrying on plots and arcs for many years. And there would be continuity in other regular series with returning characters or sequels to previous episodes or arcs over serveral episodes but this was the first really big multi- arc show in this genre and a true landmark.
There was a big difference too, though:
Those soap operas pretty much were made up on the go. Maybe sometimes a character got an arc for a while, but usually nothing was really planned ahead. B5 had it's plot for the whole 5 years laid out in advance. JMS knew all the way where he wanted to go. He had to adapt to some unplanned events that came up over the show's run - and in one or two cases it becomes relatively obvious (without going further into details before it is time to ^^ Nullus Spoilerus!) - but always managed to save the things he had planned.
Networks didn't like them because affiliates were responsible for airing things in order and they always messed it up because at prime time the competent people had left for the day.
I think you mentioned you haven't seen DS9. Religion is a part of that show too. Hope you'll react to that series someday.
I find it a slight issue that Sinclair went out there, there are ready pilots
He has to run all way from CNC, get in a suit and then hop on a ship
CNC is not next to the launch bay
Rewatch after 20+ years, finding stuff where I have to wonder "JMS you glorious bastard, you did THAT?!" And this is only S1E2... (hope that's phrased spoilerfree enough)
Just wait until the first stories really connect. The episodes usually go from good to great, but every once in a while you'll get a key episode that can really blow you away. An early episode of the second season didn't get the 1996 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation for nothing. But right now I'd say that even telling you the title of the episode would count as a spoiler.
But let me tell you a little detail. J. Michael Straczynski knew that there might be problems with a 5 season story arc, especially as it's possible that actors could drop out for various reasons. So he had a 'trapdoor' prepared for every character. If necessary, he could write every character out in one episode.
And differently from other shows, each Babylon season has it's own title, but as above, with the title of an episode? The title of a season might spoil something. So don't look up either for maximum effect.
Thank you for the heads up
Even medicine in this century doesnt wait to closeba eound before restarting the heart. 😮 Nobody ever said Sinclair died.
It's not a super episode, but I like it well enough. Glad to see you enjoyed it.
Dangerous it is to walk a path of rhetorical questions you don't want answered.
Dark it is when your own theories could be truths. But stay on your path and be surprised by your own theories. You present some interesting hypothesis. Although I might rule one out, even the ones you may rule out may should never be dismissed, because even far fetched theories that could be wrong can somehow be related to the ones that are the truth. That's why all theories, even if it some crazy off the wall unrelated idea like Scooby-Doo is coming to Babylon 5, you may be surprised how even a trollish outlandish comment can trigger an enlightening conversation. Now, my off the wall comment probably won't come true, but Scooby-Doo is all about unveiling the frauds or the ones not true to themselves.
So keep on formulating o' knights of tge sky. Sing great songs about what is to come, for Babylon is not only a show. It is a show of song and Dance, but the dance is not dancing, and the song is not singing, for a dance is the drama, the narration of who gets who and how they plan on doing it and the singing is whatever entertains you and is music to your ears, not necessarily the notes but could be anything that makes a scene memorable in sn episode. But the dance is how all the aliens qnd humans make their moves.
If you've read this far, I do implore you. This is a silly post of nonsense to those who cannot make sense out of nonsense. But to the wise, even foolishness can contain wisdom that even the smart people cannot see, for only fools understand that wisdom doesn't come from being smart but from letting their metaphysical self, the true self speak.
I feel like Patchface just spoke to us. Patchface (Game of Thrones)
This felt like self mutilation to my mind's eye.
man the younger generation has a low bar for what is DARK.
The OG Star Trek you are watching almost always ends well. B5 is a longer story so some eps might not end well.
it's also a reminder that life doesn't end the way it should. unlike star trek, outside of the wars.
Not always. There are some pretty tragic endings in Original Trek at times.
This is not a spoiler, this is information already said in the episodes you've seen:
Neither Sinclair himself or anyone else ever said he died. In the last battle of the Earth -- Minbari War he thought he was going to die. He thought this was it for him and for Earth, they were about to not only lose the war, they were going to lose everything.
He's about to kami-kazi a Minbari heavy cruiser ship, it's the last desperate thing he can do...then he blacks out, wakes up 24 hours later and the war is over, the Minbari have surrendered. He didn't know what happened and in the pilot episode of B5 he's told he has a "hole in his mind", but that doesn't necessarily means he died.
Anyway, all that with Sinclair was at the end of the Earth - Minbari War. The great Minbari leader died earlier, before the war really began.
Best Regards!
Monster of the week club ... but no young woman to scream like in Dr Who. Having to search manually? It's a huge ship, they never got rid of the giant space cockroaches ;-)
Just a head's up. This episode is an example of the tug of war between the writer J Michael Straczynski and the network. He's telling a big, complicated story spanning multiple seasons. The network wanted a star trek-like problem of the week. (This was a network episode) However, pay attention, there are still key items/themes in here that come back later in the show. I'd say, 'Enjoy', but this is my second least favorite episode of the entire series.
Common problem during this time period and on rewatches, the standalones never seem to hold up as well. I remember that the Farscape (which came out about 6 years after this) producers had the same problem. Of course the abandonment of the 22 episode season has mean that there simply isn't any time for filler episodes.
@@miller-joel JMS has stated this in multiple interviews, you can find them on RUclips. Douglas Netter has confirmed this in his interviews as well. It's a fairly commonly known fact.
JMS had to fight to get each year renewed and admitted that he had episodes for all five seasons outlined on 4x6 note cards in a box on his desk, but didn't share them until each season.
Writers like Lary DiTillio and Peter David have discussed in fan forums how they were called in to bring a more traditional style, one that would have a broader appeal, to episodes. They were brought in based on their work on Star Trek, comics, and various TV shows.
@@miller-joel The add you mention came later and JMS hated it. The way he removed it was a middle finger to the studio interference. 🙂
Leadership at PTEN/WB was a mess and kept wanting this to be a something more episodic. The first and second seasons reflect this in various ways. While the renewal drama was more about ratings, leadership never bought into JMS's long-term vision. A serialized epic had only been done once before 'Wiseguy' (great show btw)
An other good one. Got nothing that wasn't already said in the comments. So just for the algorithm ^^
In real life commanders don't do that sort of thing - in old TV series they did ... I mean, look at Kirk...
What entertainment is this!
Watching your reactions to both Star Trek and B5! Am having flashbacks of Narn!
I am glad you are spending some time with us
Star Trek represents the highest ideals of humanity were mankind came together, Babylon 5 is game of thrones.
This episode, probably more than any other, shows the extremely bad engineering that occurred when they built the station. WHY would you put your station in a direct path from the jump gate so that anything coming through is automatically on a direct impact course?
Not religion, it's spirituality.
Aftterlife does not = religion, it's a belife, religion anf belive are not the same.
That i understand is hard to understand for religious people and/or sociaties.
Here under 20% of pop is religious, close to double that have some kind of belife and half of pop are free/have none and we have one of the lowest crime in the world, strong costums and patriotism to not the country but the people(to our people, costoms, history and nationality).
We do quite well for about 1mil people of nationality (here and couple hundred thousand around the world).
❤🧡💛💚💙💜
Probably one of the weakest Babylon 5 episodes. But yet with important information.
"Where's she Russian to?" ... /smack