Babylon Podcast #175: The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father (Season 5)
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Good thing I just rewatched this episode last night, because for the life of me I can never remember when new podcasts are posted!
I really do have to go listen to ‘Three-Edged Sword’, especially since John is an old acquaintance of mine from fandom days gone by. I also had no idea Summer was part of the production!
I had never heard of the program ‘The Prisoner’ before, but because it’s been mentioned here several times in the past, I looked for it online to see what it was all about. I watched the first episode and really enjoyed i! I may even watch more. (Because yep, what I need is even more TV.)
And on a completely shallow and random note, Edmund has such a cool voice. Just had to say that.
There’s a nice post on Charles Stross’s blog on “Why I hate Star Trek”, along with a lot of “Babylon 5″ and “BSG” references in the comments: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/10/why_i_hate_star_trek.html
Including an interesting B5/BSG comparison:
“Babylon 5 was generally good from a distance, but not close-up. Individual scenes and episodes suffered from uneven acting, crappy dialogue, etc., but the show seems much better when one steps back and considers an entire season as a single work– from that vantage point, you can see how there was a long-term story arc and subtle step-by-step progression of the story to its pre-planned end. In 2009 this doesn’t sound like anything that special, but in the mid-1990s, virtually nobody was doing this on television.
There were, of course, some prominent warts– the aforementioned uneven acting and cheesy dialogue, plus studio meddling (uncertainty about fifth-season renewal) that led to too much being crammed into the back end of the fourth season, then a bunch of filler in the fifth season, plus actor departures that disrupted the original plan.
The new Battlestar Galactica, on the other hand, is like a photographic negative of B5′s plusses and minuses. On a close-up level, BSG looks pretty good. Better acting; better dialogue, interesting stories (YMMV) on an single-episode or limited-episode-arc basis. But _really_ glaring faults from a bigger-picture perspective. “They have a plan.” (Um, so what was it?) And the Adam-and-Eve ending was a stinker. Some of the problems were inherited from the original source material, but some of them were home-grown.”
Mojo’s blog is at
http://darthmojo.wordpress.com/
Just a little nitpick–schizophrenia is not the same thing as multiple personality disorder. Many people think it is because etymologically it means “split brain”, but actual schizophrenia is much more boring than MPD.
I have just one thought for this episode. While I liked the episode itself very much–it was out of context for season five for me. I think that were we to see it earlier in the series (say, a bit after Bester’s first visit to the station involving Ironheart)–we would’ve had a, mm, richer perception of the Corps as a whole, as well as telepaths in general. And -then- Ivanova’s detest, as well as Talia’s seeming affection and loyalty, (especially -that-) would’ve made more sense (at least for me).
I always had the feeling that until season 5, jms wanted the Psicorps to be this menacing shadow of an operation. I originally credited Ivanova’s wrath on the Psicorps to a child’s feelings over loosing a parent. By the end of season 5 that assumption is completely gone from my mind.
I’m still of the opinion that the focus on the telepaths in Season 5 was still a stage to set up a Telepath War feature film.
Oh, and Summer I know for a fact that the WB music was included this time. I even had a third party listen to make sure I had some measure of sanity left.
I say include it every week. Could you adjust the levels though? Usually when I hear it in my head it’s a little softer. Thanks.
Are you sure about that WB ending tag, Gary? You know we really can’t trust everything we think we hear, after someone like Agent 6 has been meddling.
“I always had the feeling that until season 5, jms wanted the Psicorps to be this menacing shadow of an operation.” Oh, most certainly, but even a threat is more interesting and, well, fearful if it has depth and complexity. At least that’s how it’s always been for me. I have to admit, though, that I’m the sort who tends to ‘feel for bastards’, if they have reasons for BEING the bastards that they are beyond just ‘because I can’.
Not a chance Summer. I was singing songs like Barney’s theme, and doing mathematics including proving fermat’s theorem just like I was taught to in order to avoid mind scans. You get points for trying though.