{"id":6984,"date":"2018-09-21T13:00:04","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T20:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6984"},"modified":"2018-09-20T17:06:51","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T00:06:51","slug":"mark-watches-babylon-5-s01e01-midnight-on-the-firing-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/09\/mark-watches-babylon-5-s01e01-midnight-on-the-firing-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Babylon 5’: S01E01 – Midnight on the Firing Line"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first episode of the first season of Babylon 5<\/i>, good lord, this was a lot darker than I anticipated. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Babylon 5<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of imperialism, genocide, suicide.<\/b><\/p>\n

What the hell, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all??? There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a willingness within \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Midnight on the Firing Line\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to draw the audience towards an uncomfortable conflict and then shove our faces in it, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s riveting. This premiere is bold in a lot of ways because of this unflinching tone, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still reeling from a number of scenes??? Oh my god, what the hell have you gotten me into???<\/p>\n

The Attack<\/b><\/p>\n

This show opens with no introduction to anything<\/i> on the screen and throws us into a bleak moment: an agricultural colony facing their imminent death at the hands of an unknown foe. You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily need<\/i> to have watched The Gathering<\/i>, but let me be the first to thank all of you for guiding me through this viewing order because I AM VERY HAPPY I MADE SURE TO WATCH THAT FIRST. It provides such a huge bit of context to much of what we see here, and that information helped me appreciate how fucked up and complex this is.<\/p>\n

And let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s start with that attack because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, this show does not make it easy to pick sides, so to speak. Once it was clear that the Narn were behind the attack on the Centauri colony, a whole mess of political history is immediately unearthed. Even with just a cursory knowledge of this previous conflict, I knew that the Centauri had once conquered many Narn worlds. So, as unlikable as G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar might be, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to criticize his people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s want for revenge on the surface of all this. The Centauri oppressed them! Ragesh 3 used<\/i> to be theirs! The kind of brutality that was hinted at in The Gathering<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhich G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar used to blackmail Londo\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis not something you just get \u00e2\u20ac\u0153over\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in a century. The trauma from that is passed through the generations, and it informs the culture and society of a people. So, are they just supposed to let it all go?<\/p>\n

Of course, the complication is just as obvious: the Narn attacked a colony that was made up of\u00e2\u20ac\u201dat worst<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u201dpeople whose parents or grandparents were complicit in an attempted genocide. They certainly benefited from that, but do they deserve to die like this? G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar definitely believes so, and thus, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got two groups who desire nothing more than the utter extinction of the other. And we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve no idea of their history before<\/i> their war! The audience has to work with limited information, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a disadvantage, necessarily. No, I felt like it kept me on my toes, eager to learn more about their history and what exactly happened that coalesced into the current problem.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the only history here, though. We learn that the Narn assisted Earth in their war against the Minbari, but not out of some sense of charity or ethical obligation. The Narn, as far as I can tell, seek out power and money wherever they can find it, and they crave dominance above all else. Which would make their current endeavor part of a long game to take\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, everyone<\/i> out of the running. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t trust them as an ally because, as we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen in just one film and one episode of this show, G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar is prepared to stab anyone in the back to get what he wants. And for what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth, Londo is close<\/i> to that, but at least he pulls himself back when Garibaldi stops him. So there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s some awareness there of right and wrong, whereas G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar appears to think, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hey, will this thing get what I want? THEN LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S DO IT.)<\/p>\n

Talia<\/b><\/p>\n

So, no Lyta, but Talia Winters is the Psi Corps character for the show, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m assuming. HI, LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S TALK ABOUT ALL OF THIS BECAUSE HOLY SHIT, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M SO UNCOMFORTABLE. Again, as I said before, this show doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make most of this easy to digest, and this is only the first episode. I, like Talia, was perplexed as to why Lt. Commander Ivanova kept ignoring her Psi Corps officer. Was she too busy? Did she find Psi Corps officers irritating and unnecessary? Wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she have<\/i> to talk to Talia at some point? By the time we got to their actual conversation, it was clear that this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just the two of them missing each other due to busy schedules. Ivanova was actively<\/i> avoiding Talia. That seemed like such an easy way to get off on the wrong foot, you know?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, once Ivanova started apologizing, I settled in for what I thought was a recognizable trope: she was sorry for treating her badly, she would do better in the future, everything is fine. Yeah. No. Not even close. Because Ivanova reveals that her mother was an unregistered<\/i> telepath, and in this universe, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s massively, massively illegal. So the same organization that trained Talia, that raised her and helped her become who she is, drugged Ivanova\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mother so much and so badly that she eventually committed suicide. AND IVANOVA HAS NO REAL INTEREST IN EVER BEING FRIENDS WITH TALIA. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, this character straight-up admits to a bias, and then promises to\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 not really work on it at all.<\/p>\n

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHOW. Oh my god, can we have a Psi Ops episode? They sound FUCKED UP.<\/p>\n

Stray Thoughts<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sad about the loss of Dr. Kyle and Takashima, since I wanted to know more about those characters, and as it stands, this cast is now pretty white. (I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t speak to the actors in prosthetics.) I recall there being a doctor listed in the opening credits, but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not shown onscreen, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m hoping that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get to meet them soon. For the most part, this is a dense episode that\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing here\u00e2\u20ac\u201dseeds a lot of stuff the show could use later. Like Londo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dream of his own death, twenty years in the future, or his utter hatred of G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar and the Narn, which I highly<\/i> doubt is resolved after this premiere. We technically see Kosh outside of their suit, and they appeared to be nothing more than a beam of light, so THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S PRETTY COOL. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how important the recently-elected president is, but I do know that Ivanova\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comment about the Vice President\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chins was\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 really not okay. AND I WANT MORE OF DELENN. Are we ever going to see those weird gravity ring things again??? Delenn is utterly delightful in the very few scenes they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Midnight on the Firing Line,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and there definitely needs to be more of the Minbari. WHY DOES SINCLAIR HAVE A GAP IN HIS MEMORY.<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do this to me, I am already thirsting to know the answers to these questions.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Midnight on the Firing Line\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"