S5: A View From the Gallery

[vjs2259]

This is the Harlan Ellison taunts JMS episode, and so worthy of note. Harlan was, of course, obnoxiously right in that you never see the background people in stories of this type. JMS does it his way, giving them Big Speeches and Commentary. Which jars a bit, as it often does when he goes high-flying in his Meaningful Dialogue. But I like it

Comments

[kungfuwaynewho]

I love the idea of this episode so much, but the execution just mars it for me. I never feel the station's actually in danger, I never feel any real fear from anyone, John is acting stupid and Delenn needed to smack him (and I hate it when I'm unhappy with the situation that leads to a kiss, since I have so few of them!), but mostly, I really don't like Mack and Bo. I feel like I should like them, because I love stories told from the POV of a minor character. But we never saw those guys before, and we never see them again, and they're just so...well, maybe you're onto something if they're supposed to be JMS and HE.

But since I do like the idea, I find that I can bear the episode better than I can episodes that are executed well but are just blah. I'd rather shows try different things like this than just churn out the same MOTW over and over. It was an experiment, and it didn't really succeed for me, but I appreciate it nonetheless.

[kungfuwaynewho]

Also, do you have an image at the end? Because I'm not seeing it... :/

[vjs2259]

I can see it...*scratches head*

[alto2]

I can see it, too.

[kungfuwaynewho]

LOL, now the images are popping up for me. Weird.

[vjs2259]

Apparently I had some set to 'private' in Scrapbook rather than 'public'. Not sure how, I thought I'd set the whole gallery to public.
I'm out of town and it seemed the easiest way to access the pictures for my posting day, but what a mess. The wi-fi is minimal here and it was agonizing to get everything set right. Thanks for alerting me!

[alto2]

I never feel the station's actually in danger, I never feel any real fear from anyone, John is acting stupid and Delenn needed to smack him (and I hate it when I'm unhappy with the situation that leads to a kiss, since I have so few of them!), but mostly, I really don't like Mack and Bo.

Exactly. Though I think the characters could be okay if it didn't feel like everything out of their mouths was designed as telling rather than showing--it's like they're Exposition Fairies--which we shouldn't need this late in the series--and they're not sure how to pull it off. Their dialogue feels forced because it IS. The only new thing we learn through them is that Byron can zap you into another place telepathically and that Londo had a shitty childhood. Whee.

I appreciate the effort, but it just does not work for me, because the characters don't feel real enough for me to give a damn about them or much of what's going on around them.