100 Reviews: 91
Jan. 14th, 2014 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urthSo before watching The Originals, I thought I’d watch some B5 first, but I confess I wasn’t paying as much attention to the episode as I probably should have been.
Babylon 5: 1x09: Deathwalker
You know, I literally didn’t think of this until I mentioned TO, but I wonder if watching this show in my formative years is why I’m so resistant to immortality stories. In general I do have issues with the undead but more broadly I do kind of have issues with immortal beings. Because on this show most of them are kind of...awful.
And it makes sense that a sense of superiority would come from that kind of nature which would over time (whatever time it might be) become a very unpleasant and awful behavior. Granted you do have Lorien on the far side of the scale and he’s mostly gentled but most others of that type are in some form awful people.
I can’t decide if it’s okay or not that the story stops having anything to do with Na’toth before it’s even half done. It seems like she could or should have had more to do after kicking the whole plot into gear, but it’s realistic that an ambassadorial aide wouldn’t have a lot to do once this came to the attention of those able to play the games needed here. And this is a very political story, Na’toth’s attack in the beginning than brief bit of the Vorlons ending things are the only actiony bits we get unless you count the threats being thrown around as action.
And yet the competing political views do provide a fair amount of dread to hang over the episode. The fact that there was a peaceful settlement reached at all is probably a little unrealistic, but from a story standpoint it makes sense. This wasn’t as episode setting up dominos to fall down the road, the immortality serum or the question of who it belonged to or the threat of Deathwalker herself wasn’t something to leave hanging over the narrative going forward. For the ending to have the weight it does, there had to be a “good” ending already reached so that when the Vorlons make the decision there’s little to no relief in it (there’s some, since this is after Deathwalker (and I don’t want to try and spell her real name) had her speech about what her serum would mean for the galaxy, but not as much relief as would have come up if it had resolved an issue Sinclair hadn’t been able to resolve on his own). The question of what is up with the Vorlons is the one we’re left with after it’s over.
Oh right, the B plot...it happened. While it’s retconned later that this has some relevant to what happens after Talia leaves it’s never really developed as anything. But it does provide us with quite a few fun Kosh quotes (this episode probably qualifies as one of Kosh’s more active ones since he’s involved in both the A and B plots) and there are worse things to get out of an episode I suppose.
This is a pretty fine episode and there should be lots to talk about with it, but I was distractible watching it and I’m woolly-headed writing about it so I can’t seem to find much to say tonight.
Next time:
Well for tonight I’m off to watch TO, then we’ll see if I’m more awake later to do more B5.
Suggestion box
Babylon 5: 1x09: Deathwalker
You know, I literally didn’t think of this until I mentioned TO, but I wonder if watching this show in my formative years is why I’m so resistant to immortality stories. In general I do have issues with the undead but more broadly I do kind of have issues with immortal beings. Because on this show most of them are kind of...awful.
And it makes sense that a sense of superiority would come from that kind of nature which would over time (whatever time it might be) become a very unpleasant and awful behavior. Granted you do have Lorien on the far side of the scale and he’s mostly gentled but most others of that type are in some form awful people.
I can’t decide if it’s okay or not that the story stops having anything to do with Na’toth before it’s even half done. It seems like she could or should have had more to do after kicking the whole plot into gear, but it’s realistic that an ambassadorial aide wouldn’t have a lot to do once this came to the attention of those able to play the games needed here. And this is a very political story, Na’toth’s attack in the beginning than brief bit of the Vorlons ending things are the only actiony bits we get unless you count the threats being thrown around as action.
And yet the competing political views do provide a fair amount of dread to hang over the episode. The fact that there was a peaceful settlement reached at all is probably a little unrealistic, but from a story standpoint it makes sense. This wasn’t as episode setting up dominos to fall down the road, the immortality serum or the question of who it belonged to or the threat of Deathwalker herself wasn’t something to leave hanging over the narrative going forward. For the ending to have the weight it does, there had to be a “good” ending already reached so that when the Vorlons make the decision there’s little to no relief in it (there’s some, since this is after Deathwalker (and I don’t want to try and spell her real name) had her speech about what her serum would mean for the galaxy, but not as much relief as would have come up if it had resolved an issue Sinclair hadn’t been able to resolve on his own). The question of what is up with the Vorlons is the one we’re left with after it’s over.
Oh right, the B plot...it happened. While it’s retconned later that this has some relevant to what happens after Talia leaves it’s never really developed as anything. But it does provide us with quite a few fun Kosh quotes (this episode probably qualifies as one of Kosh’s more active ones since he’s involved in both the A and B plots) and there are worse things to get out of an episode I suppose.
This is a pretty fine episode and there should be lots to talk about with it, but I was distractible watching it and I’m woolly-headed writing about it so I can’t seem to find much to say tonight.
Next time:
Well for tonight I’m off to watch TO, then we’ll see if I’m more awake later to do more B5.
Suggestion box
