Discussion Post - 0x6 "Mind War."

[01d55]

It's Friday afternoon and by god we are going to have a discussion post ON TIME.

This week's offering:

1x06: Mind War



A genetically altered telepathic fugitive hides aboard Babylon 5 and seeks help escaping from his pursuers before he mutates into a destructive superbeing. Catherine (Guest star Julia Nickson) experiences an incredible encounter with an alien spacecraft. Walter Koenig ("Star Trek") guest stars

Vital Stats
Production number:

Written by J. Michael Straczynski

Directed by Bruce Seth Green

Original air date:


Arc Notes / Story Points of Interest

- Two big plot threads are telegraphed here: Scary Psicorp and Scary Ancient God Aliens.

- Apparently Sinclair gets to live a million years. Lucky jerk!


Trivia

- G'Kar is still a totes rad baller.

I'm not sure why they set up Ivanova's history with Psicorp just so she can say totally justified things about them. Where's the hyperbole?

A reminder: not everyone playing along has seen the series before, so please be considerate about major spoilers. Vagueness, warnings and/or spoiler tags are appreciated.

Comments

just saw Inception! Yay!

[julian]

Oh, gosh, this means I have to watch this, boo. I haaaated this episode.

Man, there's a lot of "I have to watch this, ugh" 1st season episodes. I keep forgetting until I'm in the middle of it.

in which I sort of liveblog. (spoilers for future seasons at the end)

[julian]

Someone just said “what could go wrong?” Don’t SAY that. (I bet there’s a TVTropes page about that.)

Who is this dude Talia’s infodumping on? Oh, Sakai’s contact, OK.

(Garibaldi & Talia’s actors are married. This is especially clear in scenes like this elevator thing.)

You’d think Sakai’d bother trying to find out where this target was /before/ she agreed to the deal.

G’Kar: “Hi! I’m here to intimidate.Or possibly suffer from my repuation. You decide!”

...OK, I forgot about Bester in this episode. I guess it’s not /that/ bad. (But his compatriot is annoying. Bad voice.)

I like hotel lady’s outfit.

OK, nevermind, compatriot lady is fun, I just hate the higher part of her vocal range. The beginning of the scan-scene, when they were circling Talia in a predatory manner, that was nice. (The later stuff was over sound-effected.) And I love the ‘you don’t need to know’ stuff. (Sinclair & Ivanova: Huff!)

Meanwhile, Ironheart bores me. Also I hate those “I will stand around moaning in pain and have things crack up around me” scenes.

“...to create a stable telekinetic. And it worked, Talia!” I dispute your reality, good sir!

Who knew I liked posturing antagonism so much when it comes from ex-Chekov?

Yay! Sigma 957.

Speaking of yay, yay, they get to yell at Bester!

“I... am becoming.” Ironheart: Moan. Talia: I will look sick and confused!

Snrt! I did not recall Sakai’s G’Kar impression.

Sinclair & Talia... I love this stuff where Sinclair’s like, “OK, I will be sneaky. It’s such a sacrifice, I shall do it for You Only.”

And I should hate Talia’s voice and everything about her but I just can’t. I succumb.

“There must never be anymore like me.” (Which explains so well why you gave Talia her gift at the end of the episode! Oy.)

I kind of think this whole “clear the Zocalo” thing is so blatant as to be ridiculous. And thus in my head it’s Sinclair double crossing Ironheart in some elaborate and unspoken arrangement with Bester. And the punch was just a satisfying part of keeping the masquerade up. (No, I don’t really think this, but I wish I could, as it’s a really /exceptionally/ dumb bit of the plot.)

Ironheart’s post-human body way should have JUST been light.

Oh, yay, more posturing. (But I do love the “that’s a lie” bit.)

For those not aware, the “be seeing you” thing is an homage to The Prisoner, a weird British TV show from the late 60s. And no, I did not watch the remake.

Spoiler: I would be way more intrigued by the penny if Talia’s part in the whole thing just got /dropped like a hot potato/ after Spider in the Web, along with the whole Bureau/Control/13 thing. I know, I know, the actress left the show, but it was still lame. And the teeps in 5th season /were not compensation/. Mostly because they all sucked like hoovers.

However, I really do like the Psi Corps as another aspect of the distopian control stuff explored at times in the show.

"They are a mystery and I am both terrified and reassured to know that there are still wonders in the Universe. That we have not yet explained everything. Whatever they are, Miss Sakai, they walk near Sigma 957 and they must walk there .. alone." Gooo G’Kar.

‘Kay, so I actually do like this episode. (Unlike Infection, which I revile at will.) It just had a lot of flaws. But it has Bester being a skeeve! And G’Kar saving the day! So it’s ok.

Re: in which I sort of liveblog. (spoilers for future seasons at the end)

[aulayan]

Unfortunately for me, this first appearance of Bester really doesn't capture him as a character. He seems to really come into his own later.

And I liked this episode quite a bit. The B-Plot with Sakai I enjoyed. G'Kar really started to come into his own here with this line:
"Let me pass on to you the one thing I've learned about this place. No one here is exactly what he appears. Not Mollari, not Delenn, not Sinclair, and not me."
Since up until this point, he was treated more as antagonist. Mollari more as comedic buffoon. Delenn and Sinclair ...are more on the nose as they've been written, however.

Re: in which I sort of liveblog. (spoilers for future seasons at the end)

[julian]

I basically consider this a pilot-Bester episode, yes. But at least we get /something/.

The thing with G'Kar and Londo is that I first started watching B5 with mid-third season, where the relationship and the dynamic had upended itself and already become something different. (And then I watched all three seasons at once, one weekend.) So uh. What was my point?

Oh, right: that yeah, the beginning of the series, they were one place, and were already progressing to cycling to different places.

(And Delenn, I tend to think, is supposed to be presented initially as purrfect and all the manipulation/secrecy is supposed to be a surprise. It doesn't work that well, though.)