{"id":7022,"date":"2018-10-12T13:00:38","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T20:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7022"},"modified":"2018-10-01T14:52:40","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T21:52:40","slug":"mark-watches-babylon-5-s01e18-a-voice-in-the-wilderness-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/10\/mark-watches-babylon-5-s01e18-a-voice-in-the-wilderness-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Babylon 5’: S01E18 – A Voice in the Wilderness, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eighteenth episode of the first season of Babylon 5<\/i>, a mysterious signal from the planet that Babylon 5<\/i> orbits inspires an exploratory mission. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Babylon 5<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Generally, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a little hard to judge two-parters because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m only seeing half the story, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainly the case here for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Voice in the Wilderness,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d whose first part introduces a lot of ideas that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll hopefully be addressed in the next part. But those ideas and plot elements are at least interesting, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m eager to see where this is going. LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S DISCUSS.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Draal<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure if this will intersect with the other two storylines, but I appreciate that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting some more insight into the spiritual culture of the Minbari. From what I understood of this episode, many Minbari are drawn to certain places or events as their life comes to an end, and they often follow this mythological journey before returning to the Sea. Which, if I recall, is the metaphorical sea of souls. (Or river of souls, as it has been referred to.) So, that makes me think his presence does<\/i> matter to the events on Epsilon III, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153uninhabited\u00e2\u20ac\u009d planet that Babylon 5<\/i> orbits. But how? What can he offer? How much longer does he have before he returns to the Sea?<\/p>\n

Mars<\/b><\/p>\n

In a further continuation of recent events\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand seriously, this casual serialization is proving to be a lot of fun\u00e2\u20ac\u201dMars is now a nightmare<\/i>. A group of people on Mars\u00e2\u20ac\u201dreferred to as Mars First\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhave staged a coup on the planet in order to expel \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Earthers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and take Mars as their own. One thing that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s striking to me about how season one has developed is that the world outside<\/i> of the station is shown to us a lot more than I expected. Granted, we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get many scenes or moments from Earth aside from news clips or Babcom transmissions, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fascinating to me that despite that, I still manage to get a solid feel for what life is like in those places. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impressive! And because this revolution of sorts on Mars is tied to Garibaldi, it allows the script to approach the issue through a personal lens.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where Garibaldi comes in. He panics over the chance that an ex-girlfriend of his is still on Mars and got caught up in said revolution. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Talia, though, who assists Garibaldi in trying to make contact with this woman. I am curious if this is because the show is trying to address Garibaldi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s odd relationship with Talia. I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite get what the writers are attempting with them because their interactions are few and far between, you know? Like, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s with the elevator thing? Anyway, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clearly more to this plot, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna save my thoughts on it for the next episode.<\/p>\n

Beneath<\/b><\/p>\n

Oh, I am trash<\/i> for the science fiction plot of a place that was previously thought to be abandoned SUDDENLY DOING WEIRD, SUSPICIOUS THINGS. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very much like my love of the empty spaceship floating about, or haunted houses, or people entering places deemed lost or inaccessible. (So, basically, Annihilation<\/i>.) There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something about the mysterious, forbidden nature of it that instantly gets me interested, and then I need to know what actually happened, and I TAKE THE BAIT EVERY TIME.<\/p>\n

Is this episode an exception? HELL NO, IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S NOT. I wanted to know what that beacon was, why it was buried so deep in the ground, why there was an automated missile defense system protecting it, and why Epsilon III was abandoned. AND THEN THERE WAS THE MYSTERIOUS HOLOGRAM. Oh no, I needed ALL OF THIS EXPLAINED.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And while that hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happened yet, I am IMMENSELY intrigued by what has happened so far. The fact that this structure was so deep into the planet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s crust was interesting enough, but that thing?<\/i> I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know what it was. A massive machine? A reactor? How the hell is something that technologically advanced buried so far down? But the biggest shock here is that the being who projected themselves to Sinclair, Mollari, and Ivanova WAS BASICALLY WIRED INTO THE MACHINE ITSELF. Did they power<\/i> it??? Were they trapped there, forever destined to be a part of the machine until they died? WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT THING?<\/p>\n

Who is coming out of the jump gate? WHY HAVE YOU ALL DONE THIS TO ME?<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Voice in the Wilderness, Part I\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/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":"