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Welcome to Show #12!
Tim’s off on vacation, so Summer and Jeffrey are left to pick up the slack. Jeffrey fills in some details on his and Pat Tallman’s trip to Italy to attend DeepCon (by Deep Space One), and the new channel available to Italian scifi fans, and hanging out with Anthony Simcoe (“FarScape”) and Alexander Siddig (“Deep Space 9”).
Next, Tim and Summer chat about “Mind War”, the episode that introduces us to the Psi Cops, and gives us our first long hard look at Earth’s telepaths and the organization designed to control them.
We also play some listener feedback: Michael from Chicago on the use and labeling of data crystals; Alexis from Ohio with thanks for the interviews and episode discussions.
Don’t forget to send us feedback! You can call and tell us what you think… and likely hear it played on the show.
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Promo: Tracy & Laura Hickman’s Dragon Hearth Productions
Another great episode, even without a special Guest.
I enjoyed the discussion on Mind War, however I was rather surprised no mention was made of Walter Koenig’s performance as Bester.
I thought he pulled of the performance remarkably, giving the right sinister edge to the charactor that we would come to love to hate. I was surprised when I first watched this episode at how quickly I accepted Koenig as Bester, considering how well he was known in the role of Star Trek’s Chekov. Just goes to show that what a talented actor Walter is.
I would have also liked to have heard more speculation on Ironheart’s “gift” to Talia. Had Andrea Thompson not decided to leave the show, resulting in the unsatisfying conclusion to her story in the episode Divided Loyalties, presumably this gift would have had a further payoff down the line in the shadow war. However I suspect Jeffrey Willerth is very happy that Andrea Thompson left, seeing that he went on to marry her replacement, Pat Tallman. Lucky Bastard!
Just a quick thought, seeing as you now have the B5 forum running, why not announce the next episode for discussion in the forum to obtain comments prior to recording your podcast.
John, you’re right – we didn’t touch on Koenig’s performance. Although, I thought sometimes it was a bit flat, I too was amazed at how different he was from Chekov- and his later appearances truly were deep and nuanced.
The problem is, we only have so much time per show for episode discussion – and in the case of the John Iacovelli interview, no time at all 🙂 And there’s so much to discuss!
I suspect -had Andrea Thompson remained on the show – that Talia’s TK ability would have been a weapon in the Shadow War. We saw similar talents from Lyta.
For what it’s worth, we’re pretty much covering episodes in order. So, if this week is “Mind War” you could be certain that next week is “The War Prayer”. One caveat – we sometimes record episode discussions a few weeks in advance, so your comments may not be brought up in that discussion, but probably as listener feedback the following week.
Another great episode. Tim, I agree there were some silly things I didn’t like. At the time the episode aired, the whole “he is becoming something more” was getting annoying. On the other hand, B5 did make it a bit more human.
And I totally forgot about the bad Talia episode. That one made me mad.
As for Bester, for the longest time I had a problem with his character. My mind subconsciously kept inserting Chekov’s Russian accent. No matter what Bester said, I heard it in Chekov’s accent. It was very weird, but once I got over that, I loved, er… hated Bester. 😉
Keep up the good work!
I only just discovered these podcasts; great work! I’m on a B5 rewatch, so I really enjoy the insight of the reviewers (and the interviews).
Yeah, that “he evolves into a higher being” thing was getting old, I had not really liked it on Star Trek. (Can I just say Wesley Crusher!)
Otherwise, I loved the episode and I, too, would have liked to see more of the development of Talia’s character. And also of the complicated relationship between Talia and Ivanova. The end of Talia’s story arc was unsatistying on various levels. I suppose you were not able to get Andrea Thompson for one of these podcasts?