gdp's Comments

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Crusade': S01E04 - The Path of Sorrows

Mon, 6 May 2019 02:43:15 +0000

Well, that was not particularly traditional television. But it was really good! AND I finally got sold on Galen (and Peter Woodward's acting choices). Wouldn't have minded some actual Dureena-stuff, but what we did get, I'll gladly take.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Crusade': S01E02 - The Long Road

Fri, 3 May 2019 04:02:44 +0000

This plot felt very SG-1. (Or, yeah, TNG. Either one.) But the kibbitzing technomages were A+. And I liked the sun-lit garden at the end.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Crusade': S01E01 - War Zone

Thu, 2 May 2019 01:52:00 +0000

As I catch up and amuse myself (and possibly the mods): This is really good set-up. JMS may feel it's all too Obvious, but it feels like necessary exposition for anyone new to the Babylon 5 universe. Plus there's new questions, which Gideon doesn't know the answer to. Which... sold Galen on going with them. *cue ominous music* Haven't seen this at all. Very interested by what the new rules for telepaths are. Technomages make everything more dramatic, but they must be tiring to live with. I'm really quite impressed by Gary Cole, given what I've mostly seen him in. Also! DDK, wooo.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Crusade': S01E01 - War Zone

Thu, 2 May 2019 01:46:16 +0000

I like the music a lot, so long as I divorce this from Bab 5 and don't *expect* to have Franke. It's more spare, and driven.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Babylon 5': A Call to Arms

Mon, 29 Apr 2019 04:00:26 +0000

Hello, I am Be Hind. (Hi B!) Anyway, so I'm at least less behind than I was with Farscape... I think I saw the first bits of this once and then didn't finish it, though I know the basic plot outlines, because Nafeel's entrance is familiar. Otherwise, nothing else is. I like her (and her voice) a lot as a Contrasting Character to all these military types, and of course I love Tony Todd, and everyone else is everyone else. Drama! I do actually like the new music. More drum-oriented. But I gotta say, JMS has taken a break from mainlining Tolkien and started mainlining the plot of the first season of Star Blazers instead. (No, I know he didn't. But STILL.)

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Babylon 5': S05E22 - Sleeping in Light

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 03:13:47 +0000

Interesting question. I have the feeling the first season was trying to portray her as Extremely Alien, so the change would be more relevant, and so I suppose it's possible people were alienated? But that's just viewer reaction. She definitely has an arc, though it's not as slap-you-in-the-face obvious as Londo and G'Kar's are at times. Some of it's that some of her arc intertwines with Mr. Obvious John Sheridan, and she's more subtle... but that's not an argument against it. Well, that'll be fun to think about for awhile...

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Babylon 5': S05E22 - Sleeping in Light

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 02:56:45 +0000

I've never watched the stuff coming up, either, so I'm all excited.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Babylon 5': S05E22 - Sleeping in Light

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 02:54:26 +0000

Oh, huh, OK, yes. Well, either way, it's a nice look!

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Babylon 5': S05E22 - Sleeping in Light

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 02:47:47 +0000

"... I feel so sorry for her because Sheridan keeps refusing to acknowledge her pain..." That was something I forgot to comment on, yes. Like, he says "sometimes I look at her and know exactly what she's thinking, and sometimes, she's a mystery to me," and I'm just like, "How is she a mystery, because her entire body is sadness incarnate, this entire time." But. Well. Relationships are complicated.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Babylon 5': S05E22 - Sleeping in Light

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 02:36:59 +0000

OK, fine, slay me another time, there, music. (And yes, Delenn and the pillow just got me in my heart.)

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Babylon 5': S05E22 - Sleeping in Light

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 02:24:08 +0000

I don't think it really matters, after all this time, but I nonetheless feel the need to add a link to some of Christian's perspective on this (none of which really made me feel any better, at the time). http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/misc/cc-leave.html

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Babylon 5': S05E22 - Sleeping in Light

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 02:12:42 +0000

I've been in the midst of a career change, the past few years -- I went back to school and finally got my bachelor's, after 20 years of being a reporter, and now I'm applying for grad school, in an expressive arts therapy-focused counseling psych program. (So I'll get the equivalent of an MSW, except more psych oriented. If I get in.) And some of what JMS has put in his scripts, about doing what matters to you, about now being all we have, about hope, and a lot more than just those -- has underlain some elements of how I figured out how to make the changes in my life that I needed to, in order to do this. So I'm not going to be telling stories, but I will be helping other people tell theirs. (If I get in; and I will eventually go to some grad program even if I don't get into this specific one, because that'll just be a temporary bump.) So. Thank you, words-of-Joe.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Babylon 5': S05E22 - Sleeping in Light

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 01:54:00 +0000

Oh, man, ocean. I'm so glad JMS had the ocean for all this.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Babylon 5': S05E22 - Sleeping in Light

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 01:49:54 +0000

Things Burned Into My Brain About Sleeping In Light: This, I have seen quite a number of times, and it is very effective at what it does. Farewells, hints of other stories, traces and aspects of other times and places, in among the tales that *are* told. Also, looking at it from the perspective of if it had been the 4th season finale, as it was actually going to have been had they not been renewed last minute, that would have worked really well. But even with the two other fifth season wind-down episodes, it was a different, more elegaic and yet also personal farewell. So. It worked for fifth season, too. Stuff: Bruce Boxleitner has a really good voice. Just. Wanted to say that, one more time. HI IVANOVA, and hi Babylon 5’s Hugo! The scene with Franklin and Garibaldi and Garibaldi’s kid (!) was great. Old friends, old stories, people who know each other well. I like Delenn’s shorter hair. Christopher Franke, staaahp. (Actually, don’t ever stop. This music killed me.) I do love Ivanova’s final voice-over. And her stylin’ new duds. Oh, yeah, and hi JMS. And hello Christopher Franke’s music again. And everyone! Plus the main cast in the beginning and end. OK, so, I wasn’t going to say it, but apparently I’m going to anyway. I know I’m a heretic, but Delenn’s repeated Reaching Out Motion Of Sadness is stagey and hokey. I love it anyway, because I decided the first time I saw this I was not going to let my negative side out, but it is nonetheless extremely hokey. Just for the record. (And yet, it made me tear up. So! Dichotomies are me.) Mark: Really nice review. Thank you. Unt now I read other comments.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Babylon 5': S05E21 - Objects at Rest

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 02:19:18 +0000

Thank you for all of this transcription stuff, and this one in particular, because, aw.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Babylon 5': S05E21 - Objects at Rest

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 02:17:47 +0000

Things I Definitely Remember About Objects At Rest: Haaaaate. Me, now: Still hate the Lennier stuff, but it fits his character as written more than I thought it did at the time. I just… don’t like it. It doesn't make me retroactively hate his character, I just. Want it to be different. Also, it seems to have soured me on the rest of the episode, at the time, which is quite amazing as a farewell, and very, very good. Stuff: I really liked the quiet, small scene with Sheridan and Lochley at the beginning. (Liking Lochley is a gift, this time ‘round.) Excuse me, Christopher Franke, it is RUDE to make me cry. (And yet, expected, particularly in ‘goodbye to the Station’ scenes. And people saluting each other. And that scene with everyone in the Zocalo.) I really freakin’ hate that JMS chose to do that with Lennier, but in terms of the character, it actually does make sense. I just. Hate it. But it does get that incredibly sensitive comment from Delenn, about “becoming someone you are not.” Of course, she’d know… (I hope, someday, she can talk to Sheridan about it. It’s a hard secret to have.) HEY LONDO HI. (I forgot about this part. Maybe I was too flummoxed by frickin’ Lennier.) Man, Peter Jurasik is damn good at pained regret, masked by enthusiasm. Dear Lennier: Speaking as someone who has fucked up considerably in multiple ways due to different things than you (depression, mostly), let me explain, slowly, that in order to make progress, you can’t rely on someone else’s footsteps; you have to forgive your*self*. And I understand the shame, but it, too, is something you have to reduce on your own. No one else is nearly as ashamed of you as you are. But, this may be different for Minbari, or people not me. But it *is* a thing I have learned for myself. Aw, Sheridan and his recordings.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Babylon 5': S05E21 - Objects at Rest

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 02:14:48 +0000

Hi! Glad to have you aboard. (And yeah, it's a good cap, and Boxleitner nails it.)

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Babylon 5': S05E20 - Objects in Motion

Mon, 8 Apr 2019 23:20:06 +0000

I appreciated your thoughts here -- on choice, forgiveness, and on whether G'Kar is a pacifist. (I also tend to think not, for similar reasons.)

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Babylon 5': S05E20 - Objects in Motion

Mon, 8 Apr 2019 23:03:28 +0000

Things I Do Remember A Lot About Objects In Motion: Gosh, yes, all kinds of farewells and valedictorys. (Valedictories? Hm, yes.) I've concluded I didn't actually ever see Wheel Of Fire, just extensive clips, which again, wtf me? Anyway, this episode put me closer to Lyta-as-antagonist than Wheel Of Fire did, oddly, what with her just kind of casually removing details from the assassin's brain and then *making him forget it*, but definitely not a villain, no. Because of what bat's eye says. She's got reason for it, and good reason. Meanwhile, "now is all we have" is just the best. Well, rather. Jerry Doyle & Garibaldi are the best, but "now is all we have" is the best last line I can think of just now. I also love G'Kar's little monologue with Sheridan. <3. I completely buy Jerry Doyle's acting here (especially with Sheridan, both last episode and everything that involves being slightly wincy but owning up to everything in this one -- painfully familiar to me, though not for substance abuse reasons, just general "unburying after depression" reasons), and Garibaldi and Lise together. Aw. (Don't like Denise Gentile, though. I like the idea of the character, I like Lise here, I just don't like the acting.)

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Babylon 5': S05E20 - Objects in Motion

Mon, 8 Apr 2019 20:52:41 +0000

Williamson, to the surprise of no one, started on stage and still loves it.