Welcome to Show #127!
This week’s show was slightly delayed because of Dragon*Con. Thank Brad for imbibing in the Red Bull to speed his post-con recovery and get the editing done.
Vorlons and political tangents do not mix. The puns are too much, it’s too late for the sane ones to vote. That, and the smoke machines. Let’s hear it for the Hollywood Wafters Guild!
Deep Geeking: This week, Tim and Summer talk about “Atonement”, and we pick nits about the pacing and some aspects of the execution in this episode… notably on why Delenn’s clan waited so long before taking issue with her relationship with John Sheridan, and what exactly is the purpose of the assistant in The Dreaming, anyway? Was Lennier’s guidance colored by his feelings for her, and his subconscious hopes of separating Sheridan and Delenn?
Tim doesn’t care for the “genie in the bottle” element of The Dreaming as a plot device to reframe some badly needed exposition and back story. For the weight and potential impact of what was revealed in this episode, could it have been pieced out to viewers differently? The mandate of summoning Delenn home for this questioning was mostly a surprise, and some breadcrumbs about this being a looming issue might have taken care of some of that.
Discussion: In an email for Jeffrey, Gene from Greenville wants to get his opinion on the real impact of JMS’ statement on current or future collaborations with WB; James in Tallahassee agrees that BSG’s Vipers would indeed wipe the floors with B5’s Starfuries and Thunderbolts (warning… serious geeky tangent approaching!); Rod in Nashville sent in a voicemail in praising JMS’ out-of-the-box resolution to the Shadow War, a victory of wills and philosophies, rather than resorting to a shoot-out in space.
Babylon Podcast Social Communities:
Twitter: @babylonpodcast
Babylon 5 Information Gathering: If you know of a dead or abandoned B5 related website that may be in need of a new home, let Summer know! Maybe we can mirror it here or house it on a sister site.
If you can, Please Donate to the funding of the show!
Promo: Form Letter Rejection Theatre: Short Fiction Dramatic Readings
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | RSS
I realize Tim feels the dreaming was a deux ex machina (sp?).
I think it is more indicative of the internal struggles in the grey council, and Minbari civilization in general. Due to the compressed season 4 Minbari Civil war, we might not fully understand why it was called for. Delenn was obviously a pawn in some sort of power struggle.
This episode was prior to in the beginning, and I didn’t feel it rehashed issues as much as Tim did.
I thought that Atonement was great when it came out. In the Beginning reused too much of Atonement.
I thought that the dreaming was the Minbari’s version of eating a piece of peyote and then seeing stuff in the desert.
This was another great show, but it’s a shame that during the geekoff the discussion wasn’t elevated to include X-Wings (with possible mention of Y-Wings for the true geeks).
Evan, X-Wings would be meat in any universe other than Star Wars. Both the Vipers and the Starfuries can alter their orientation without regard to their initial vector. X-wings behave as if they’re slogging through atmosphere. Maybe a B-wing might be able to hold its own against a Viper or Fury – maybe.