26 years ago, a science fiction show aired that changed the way TV operated. Building upon and strengthening the idea of Star Trek’s five-year mission, this show proved that sci-fi TV could be something grander than an episodic adventure. Welcome my friends. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2260. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
Last year, and the year before that, I covered the first two seasons of this seminal show just as it was coming to streaming for the “first” time on Amazon Prime (see here for what I mean.) The stream was not the best quality, thanks to WB/AT&T, but it was still nice to have ease of access to a show that for years has been slipping farther and farther out of reach.
. . .You’ll notice the past tense there. Yes, as of January 2020, Babylon 5 is gone from Prime. I’ll get to that soon enough. But for now, join me as we begin our first sojourn into uncharted territories for me in the first episode of season 3, “Matters of Honor.”
A new member joins the cast, the Shadow War begins, and Ivanova continues to be the best member of Command and Control.
Spoilers ahead.
1. 4:3 Never Looks So Good
Friends, I must apologize for picking a show with such a fraught licensing history for my summer TV binge. I thought I was good enough to make it all five years but shame on me for thinking the entertainment and streaming industry was anything but consistent. Like, seriously, this show went from being available only via out of print DVDs and never being rebroadcast in syndication (as far as I’m aware) to being on go90, the Verizon streaming service, to its widest release on Prime, to suddenly disappearing from Prime and finally getting rebroadcast on Comet, a new Sci-fi channel that’s got a live stream on its site. No on-demand, the show airs from 1-4am, and it’s owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group but it’s something. Sucks about that last point, I’m always down for a new, focused sci-fi channel.
There is some good news, however. The show is available for digital purchase from Vudu (with the pilot film but not the other films) and Google Play and, after being inexplicably unpurchasable for a while, Amazon (which does have the films). Why’d it leave Prime in the first place? There was never a reason given nor, from what I could uncover, was there an elaboration on what it “rotating” through meant. And don’t hold your breath for it coming to HBO Max, because the execs at Warner Bros hate, haaaatttteeeeee all the former PTEN shows and it’s a miracle we’ve gotten to see this show stream at all. There is hope that the show will come back to Prime (Thanks Meg from “Namesake!”) in the next couple months but until then, I cannot invite you to join me as easily. Sorry y’all.
All that is to say, I am now watching the show from a purchased copy through Vudu instead of Prime and OH. MY. GOD. It looks. So good. The version I have is not in widescreen, which is a shame, but being in 4:3 means that the CGI integration is much closer to intended. The show looks crisp and clear and the garden scenes don’t look like they were fed through a pixel blender. It really is a world of difference and gives me a much better appreciation for the CGI, though that could also be down to the CGI being a couple years newer, as well as an idea of what viewers actually saw when this first aired. It also makes the inability to get a widescreen AND HD re-release (pretending WB didn’t hate the PTEN shows) all the more saddening.
. . .It also makes season three’s opening rather unfortunate as it’s actually in “widescreen” but for an old-CRT square TV, which on a modern TV makes it awkwardly letterboxed on all four sides. It’s really tiny and kinda funny, despite the gravity of the intro itself. I’m a sucker for intros that change with the show and B5 does a fantastic job of reflecting the tone of the season in its opener. The music is different, more somber, and the opening speech reflects the loss of the station’s original purpose: peace. For how can peace be achieved when those in power want war and blood and the destruction of those they deem “unlike them?”
Continued belowHow can we have peace when the agents of the state are trained in violence and revel in wielding their power like a cudgel? How can there be peace, when the system is built to harm instead of heal and help? How can peace be found, when the ones crying loudest for civility and a return to “peace,” as if what came before was actually peace, are the ones with their hands on the weapons of war, itching to deploy them against agents of peace?
What remains? The fight back. For justice, not the old status quo.
For true peace.
2. Contract Negotiations for the Soul
Welp, it wouldn’t be a season premiere if I didn’t spend close to 1000 words before the second thought. There’s a lot to digest in this episode, a lot of season set up, and a new dynamic to fully entrench. Londo has the biggest change early on as he seemingly cuts ties with Morden, who lays out the terms of engagement for the Centauri Republic, which is an Empire in all but name at this point: the Republic gets what appears to be 2/5th of the galaxy while the Shadows control the rest. Oh, and this planet is off limits and if you so much as look at it funny, we’ll wipe you from the universe so fast your ancestors will develop whiplash.
It’s pretty striking to have the Shadow’s ambitions laid bare, and to know that this isn’t even scratching the surface of what they truly want is chilling. We get hints at how deep the rot goes with Earthgov as well as a glimpse forward through Londo’s visions. This is such a small part of the episode but it drives home the point that this is the season where shit gets real and the stakes cannot be higher.
And you can’t help but have your heart torn apart watching as Londo slowly realizes this. He spent the whole of last season falling in deeper with Morden while having these horrifying dreams of strange ships destroying everything, but never connecting the two. Now he has and you can see the fear in his eyes. As the audience, there is precious little sympathy left for Londo, although I certainly felt pity for the man, which has as much to do with the writing as it does Peter Jurasik’s fantastic performance. This was once, if not a good person, a person with the potential to be better but now, he is a decent man who has fallen so far he has no hopes of arresting his descent, much as he may want to.
3. That’s No Ship, That’s a Living Organism
All the ships in B5 are rad but of them all, my favorite might be the Vorlons’ ships. They’re like giant gords that are also jungle gyms and suitably otherworldly while still being recognizably a ship. With that out of the way, can I freak out about the new ship we’re introduced to? Because I LOVE IT and I love the explanation behind it and all the in-world politics surrounding how they can or cannot be seen and ahhhhhh. They BLOW UP. A JUMP GATE. BY OPENING. A JUMP GATE IN THE JUMP GATE.
They took out a shadow ship! There’s no way that is a) going unpunished and b) going unnoticed. It might take a while for the Shadows to notice but notice they will and when that happens, I have a feeling Morden is gonna make a very testy return. And I didn’t even mention the religious caste being the crew? Like I said before, there’s a lot going on in this episode. I don’t really have the bandwidth to break it all down so I’ll save my thoughts for when the ship returns.
Oh, but before I move on, I’m very glad we got that moment on the bridge. That’s some classic Star Trek bullshit and I am here for it.
4. GORO SMASH
For all the positives of B5, there will always remain a layer of bad TV Sci-fi cheese that cannot be removed or transformed. In this case, the muscle bound gang leader who reminded me of a discount-Goro. Hooooo boy is he given some bad lines, and the delivery is on par with our good friend the Soul Hunter from way back in season 1. He’s clearly nothing more than a plot device to illustrate the goodness and intelligence of the new cast member, Marcus Cole, and I got a good laugh out of him so I’ll forgive it.
Continued belowStill, it was a jarring scene for an episode, and a previous season, that had been very solid. Although, without scenes like these, the show would lose a piece of its charm. The somewhat roughshod, ramshackle nature of the station and its people is why it all feels so real, despite being set in space, hundreds of years in the future.
5. Best Cast Member. GO!
I have sung my praises for the entire main cast before, and I will continue to do so, but I’m dedicating another point to Ivanova because she was pitch perfect this week. Marcus Cole may be the newbie with all the secret information but Susan Ivanova figured basically everything out and never gave even a hint that she knew. In a lesser show, this would feel forced but Ivanova is in the position to overhear everything, is friends with all the people who might let slip a piece or two of what’s going on without realizing because of that comfort, is smart enough to put it all together, and is savvy enough to know that once she is needed, she’ll be brought in.
Until then, plausible deniability.
I love it. She also gets some of my favorite lines in the episode, most of them getting a solid laugh and a wide grin out of me. In a pretty grim episode, that’s something to be commended. She does have to compete with Londo for best lines though.
That about does it for now. Thank you for returning to this journey to the stars with me. Join me again in a week for an explosive time, Lennier and Londo bonding time, and the power of a monastic order on the station that, in the year of the Shadow War, became something greater.
This is Elias. Signing out.
Best Line of the Night:
Ivanova: “Leave it to you to take the fun out of life. Where’s your sense of adventure?”
Sheridan: “Are you trying to cheer me up?
Ivanova (immediately): “No, sir. Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Sheridan: “Good. I hate being cheered up. It’s depressing.”
Ivanova: “Well, in that case we’re all gonna die horrible, painful, lingering deaths.”
