B5rewatch: Midnight on the Firing Line
So after all the delays from real life and other TV shows dragging me in, and partially for the fact that I may not see Avengers until next weekend let’s see how this review stacks up compared to my one for The Gathering.
1x01: Midnight on the Firing Line
First things first, contrary to my initial plan, I think I’m going to watch these on my computer starting off. While it means I can’t sit in judgement on whether the effects look any better or worse on a newer TV (a common-ish complaint by newbies that I’ve seen but thought maybe I shouldn’t speak to since I was watching it old school) it proved much easier to stop and make notes for the review doing it that way. So for now I’m going to stick to it.
Second thing, until I start forgetting to do it, I’m going to give the trailers a look. And this one is bad, especially for the first episode; I can’t imagine it making anyone want to check out this new show. It looks boring and slow and grey; and I happen to love this episode, but *I’d* be turned off by that trailer.
Now on with the episode itself, and right off the bat I have to say; for a show that will barely leave the station the rest of season 1, maybe starting off away from it wasn’t the best move.
Also, isn’t it a little strange that Londo acts so derisive of Vir being the extent of his staff, when he’s actually the first of the major ambassadors to get a staff at all? Which is its own kind of strange since you would think the Minbari would have sent Delenn with a whole bunch of acolytes considering the importance of her and her mission, while the Centauri don’t take the B5 post seriously at all.
For the sake of stating it early (especially since I’ll probably usually skip the credits) I find this season’s credits incredibly dull. The music is pretty and the narration...appropriate , but the visuals are bland choices and the basic starfield even more so. And by appropriate I mean the narration is kind of bland too, just very Sinclair and...very safe; it’s sort of comforting in that safeness, and Sinclair-ness for that matter, but it doesn’t quite save it from being bland.
Um, Londo, just because the Narn were involved doesn’t mean G’Kar was lying earlier when he said he didn’t know about it. That being said, as a viewer I’m not sure whether to assume he knew at that point or not, either is quite possible
I sort of wonder if JMS’ own feelings on the Narn and Centauri shifted over the years of the show, because I have a hard time imagining Kosh’s line about them both being dying people who should just pass on being spoken later in the series. In universe I can probably say it’s about Kosh gaining acceptance of the younger races over the years, but even then it doesn’t seem like the attitude of Kosh or the Volons at this point. And it definitely doesn’t feel like the show ultimately went that route, most of the series is about how both races are flawed sure (though debatable if any more so than the humans or minbari) they still have the capacity for and right to seek salvation.
Does it seem a touch hypocritical for Sinclair to be railing against the Narn for sneak attack tactics when the same episode is dealing with raiders who are probably humans (since later raiders all seem to be human until the Drakh get involved) attacking civilian ships? Sure he’s against both, but as a people his are just as guilty.
Also, where were the refugees on the last transport from and going to? I feel like this could have been a window into some little mentioned corner of galactic events but all we get is that there are refugee services taking people from somewhere to somewhere else, not what race they are, not why they’re refugees, not why B5 can’t call them and have them change their route slightly at least until the fighters get there. A basic line rewrite to “This ship got booked by a group of colonists fleeing the drought on Nova colony” or something would have saved me from needing to comment on this.
So wait, the time they knew there was a raider attack going on just Garibaldi and one other fighter went out; when they just think there might be an attack Jeff takes the whole squad? And since they have the animation for the squad going out why only use it once?
Funny thing looking at the space battle scene, you can tell these graphics were amazing for their time because there are several points when they seem to be showing off their ability to tumble the action and the “camera” during the sequence; and yet even compared to later B5 they seem quaint. But for the record, I like the B5 CGI, it feels comfortable to me even if I can’t necessarily expect newer viewers to feel the same.
I don’t think I have voted on election day at any point in my life (maybe once in a midterm), but I live in a state that makes it easy to vote by mail and/or vote early. I just mention it because it makes election night drama or last minute voting something I don’t quite relate to.
Unpopular opinion time: I don’t ship Ivanova/Talia. Probably largely because I love Susan and find Talia utterly forgettable (she’s basically Lyta’s place holder for me) but also because I think their meaningful screen time over two seasons amounts to maybe 20 minutes and that’s not enough for me in this case. They have too many issues and reasons why they wouldn’t be together for me to buy that they got past it in the time they had. But their closing scene here is pretty nice I admit.
So, during episode comments over, on with some closing thoughts.
I like this episode, I always do, I think it finds a higher gear than The Gathering did taking us forward. But looking at it critically it’s got problems; so are they JMS still trying to find his way, growing pains on the part of the actors, or bad direction? Probably some of all of the above.
The line between acting problems and directing problems is always muddy to me, but several of the performances were really awkward and/or stiff in this one; so even though growing pains are a logical guess, the fact that they’re nearly across the board makes me tempted to lay the blame at the director. Ivanova is often stiff, it’s part of her charm, but her acting skill at the moment strikes me as ‘good at convincing stage business.’ It finally occurred to me that maybe the problem is O’Hare isn’t very good at reacting, he certainly isn’t here; and his acting is kind of bipolar (90% of his lines are either sleepy or growly, the other 10% are well enough done though). Vir’s performance is uninspired, Talia’s is *bad* a lot of the time, Garibaldi doesn’t come across nearly as natural as usual or even as well as he did in The Gathering; even Londo has some really awkward moments and Peter’s usually seen as one of the stand outs in the cast. So while yes, the cast is still finding their way I’m sure, they should be better than this.
Not that JMS is blameless, as an example the exposition about the history of human-Centauri relations is very exposition-y and not naturally integrated (as a counter example, the exposition about the treatment of telepaths is worked in pretty well). The script does a pretty good (but not great) job of treating the main characters as real people and letting them reveal themselves to us naturally, but the lesser characters and the world not quite as much. But going with that, I feel like we are given a lot clearer window into this world than we were in The Gathering, while it’s not always exposited well to us, I think we do come to understand a lot more of what’s going on (I’m thinking of with the Psi Corps and the Narn-Centauri conflict specifically).
As an additional note, I was going to just note that the makeup on the League ambassadors has got a long way to go, but then I realized there was a larger point that the makeup and costumes are still pretty primitive. Softening Delenn’s appearance makes her course robes look incongruous (but how much more comfortable does Mira seem compared to the pilot?) Why does Sinclair’s ‘relaxed’ shirt have plastic looking elbow pads on it? One thing that is already in evidence, the costumer on this show had a thing for capes.
Now on to the big thinky thought section, this time about the portrayal of the Narn and Centauri (through Londo and G’Kar). Basically, while the Centauri come across/are framed as softer, victims, and approachable, we’re also given plenty of evidence that that’s just not the case; that both races are in the wrong most of the time (hence Kosh’s line perhaps), that none of it is glorious but both want to see themselves as noble or victims depending on which suits them at the time. I wonder if this might be another directing vs. writing thing, though it might have been intentional I guess; that in JMS’ head things were reasonably balanced but the directing choices play down the mentions of Centauri atrocities of the past, frame Londo’s vengeful actions as nobly or stupidly misguided but the Narn doing so on a large scale as criminal. Because as someone who has seen the story, I can see the balancing factors between the lines, but they’re played down on screen for now.
It’s not helped by the fact that Sinclair comes down so hard on the Centauri (mostly Londo) side against the Narn (and G’Kar). Maybe Sinclair wants clear cut good and bad guys, in which case he’s in the wrong job; but in spite of both Londo and G’Kar getting scenes where they discuss their reasons with Sinclair (Londo says there will be war if Carn is dead, G’Kar points out that there aren’t forests on Narn because the Centauri already killed so many of his people), Jeff is sympathetic to Londo but gets pissed off at G’Kar. Delenn is the only person on this council whose head is on straight (Londo and G’Kar are...season 1 Londo and G’Kar, Kosh thinks half the council deserves to die, and Jeff’s kind of a racist asshole) and she’s the only one who has at this point ordered genocide.
I was thinking about going into it about Londo’s death dream, but I’m not sure I have anything all that interesting to say. Yes Londo, in 20 years you and G’Kar will choke the life out of each other, but you have a long way to go to get there. I always enjoy just being amazed by the foreshadowing even though I happen to agree with hallucination-Vir (in TVLNoLM) that prophecy is a guess that comes true and when it doesn’t it’s a metaphor (because as Kosh would probably say the Centauri and Narn are already choking the life out of each other so that both are dying). But having never seen this one until after I saw WWE, I’ve always just stood in awe of the story craft.
To close out, look I can be critical sometimes but in the end I love this show, and I quite like this episode. If I wasn’t reviewing it, but just watching I wouldn’t be nearly so critical. It’s an early B5 episode, it means you have to roll with some things being awkward and feeling its way forward, I know and accept that about the show. If I didn’t love the show so much I wouldn’t actually have nearly as much to say on the subject (the amount I have to say is paradoxically why I have I hard time sticking out the review process, I have things to say but I also want to watch quicker than my wordiness leaves me). Anyway good episode in spite of the flaws.
Next time: Soul Hunter, and maybe less to say.
1x01: Midnight on the Firing Line
First things first, contrary to my initial plan, I think I’m going to watch these on my computer starting off. While it means I can’t sit in judgement on whether the effects look any better or worse on a newer TV (a common-ish complaint by newbies that I’ve seen but thought maybe I shouldn’t speak to since I was watching it old school) it proved much easier to stop and make notes for the review doing it that way. So for now I’m going to stick to it.
Second thing, until I start forgetting to do it, I’m going to give the trailers a look. And this one is bad, especially for the first episode; I can’t imagine it making anyone want to check out this new show. It looks boring and slow and grey; and I happen to love this episode, but *I’d* be turned off by that trailer.
Now on with the episode itself, and right off the bat I have to say; for a show that will barely leave the station the rest of season 1, maybe starting off away from it wasn’t the best move.
Also, isn’t it a little strange that Londo acts so derisive of Vir being the extent of his staff, when he’s actually the first of the major ambassadors to get a staff at all? Which is its own kind of strange since you would think the Minbari would have sent Delenn with a whole bunch of acolytes considering the importance of her and her mission, while the Centauri don’t take the B5 post seriously at all.
For the sake of stating it early (especially since I’ll probably usually skip the credits) I find this season’s credits incredibly dull. The music is pretty and the narration...appropriate , but the visuals are bland choices and the basic starfield even more so. And by appropriate I mean the narration is kind of bland too, just very Sinclair and...very safe; it’s sort of comforting in that safeness, and Sinclair-ness for that matter, but it doesn’t quite save it from being bland.
Um, Londo, just because the Narn were involved doesn’t mean G’Kar was lying earlier when he said he didn’t know about it. That being said, as a viewer I’m not sure whether to assume he knew at that point or not, either is quite possible
I sort of wonder if JMS’ own feelings on the Narn and Centauri shifted over the years of the show, because I have a hard time imagining Kosh’s line about them both being dying people who should just pass on being spoken later in the series. In universe I can probably say it’s about Kosh gaining acceptance of the younger races over the years, but even then it doesn’t seem like the attitude of Kosh or the Volons at this point. And it definitely doesn’t feel like the show ultimately went that route, most of the series is about how both races are flawed sure (though debatable if any more so than the humans or minbari) they still have the capacity for and right to seek salvation.
Does it seem a touch hypocritical for Sinclair to be railing against the Narn for sneak attack tactics when the same episode is dealing with raiders who are probably humans (since later raiders all seem to be human until the Drakh get involved) attacking civilian ships? Sure he’s against both, but as a people his are just as guilty.
Also, where were the refugees on the last transport from and going to? I feel like this could have been a window into some little mentioned corner of galactic events but all we get is that there are refugee services taking people from somewhere to somewhere else, not what race they are, not why they’re refugees, not why B5 can’t call them and have them change their route slightly at least until the fighters get there. A basic line rewrite to “This ship got booked by a group of colonists fleeing the drought on Nova colony” or something would have saved me from needing to comment on this.
So wait, the time they knew there was a raider attack going on just Garibaldi and one other fighter went out; when they just think there might be an attack Jeff takes the whole squad? And since they have the animation for the squad going out why only use it once?
Funny thing looking at the space battle scene, you can tell these graphics were amazing for their time because there are several points when they seem to be showing off their ability to tumble the action and the “camera” during the sequence; and yet even compared to later B5 they seem quaint. But for the record, I like the B5 CGI, it feels comfortable to me even if I can’t necessarily expect newer viewers to feel the same.
I don’t think I have voted on election day at any point in my life (maybe once in a midterm), but I live in a state that makes it easy to vote by mail and/or vote early. I just mention it because it makes election night drama or last minute voting something I don’t quite relate to.
Unpopular opinion time: I don’t ship Ivanova/Talia. Probably largely because I love Susan and find Talia utterly forgettable (she’s basically Lyta’s place holder for me) but also because I think their meaningful screen time over two seasons amounts to maybe 20 minutes and that’s not enough for me in this case. They have too many issues and reasons why they wouldn’t be together for me to buy that they got past it in the time they had. But their closing scene here is pretty nice I admit.
So, during episode comments over, on with some closing thoughts.
I like this episode, I always do, I think it finds a higher gear than The Gathering did taking us forward. But looking at it critically it’s got problems; so are they JMS still trying to find his way, growing pains on the part of the actors, or bad direction? Probably some of all of the above.
The line between acting problems and directing problems is always muddy to me, but several of the performances were really awkward and/or stiff in this one; so even though growing pains are a logical guess, the fact that they’re nearly across the board makes me tempted to lay the blame at the director. Ivanova is often stiff, it’s part of her charm, but her acting skill at the moment strikes me as ‘good at convincing stage business.’ It finally occurred to me that maybe the problem is O’Hare isn’t very good at reacting, he certainly isn’t here; and his acting is kind of bipolar (90% of his lines are either sleepy or growly, the other 10% are well enough done though). Vir’s performance is uninspired, Talia’s is *bad* a lot of the time, Garibaldi doesn’t come across nearly as natural as usual or even as well as he did in The Gathering; even Londo has some really awkward moments and Peter’s usually seen as one of the stand outs in the cast. So while yes, the cast is still finding their way I’m sure, they should be better than this.
Not that JMS is blameless, as an example the exposition about the history of human-Centauri relations is very exposition-y and not naturally integrated (as a counter example, the exposition about the treatment of telepaths is worked in pretty well). The script does a pretty good (but not great) job of treating the main characters as real people and letting them reveal themselves to us naturally, but the lesser characters and the world not quite as much. But going with that, I feel like we are given a lot clearer window into this world than we were in The Gathering, while it’s not always exposited well to us, I think we do come to understand a lot more of what’s going on (I’m thinking of with the Psi Corps and the Narn-Centauri conflict specifically).
As an additional note, I was going to just note that the makeup on the League ambassadors has got a long way to go, but then I realized there was a larger point that the makeup and costumes are still pretty primitive. Softening Delenn’s appearance makes her course robes look incongruous (but how much more comfortable does Mira seem compared to the pilot?) Why does Sinclair’s ‘relaxed’ shirt have plastic looking elbow pads on it? One thing that is already in evidence, the costumer on this show had a thing for capes.
Now on to the big thinky thought section, this time about the portrayal of the Narn and Centauri (through Londo and G’Kar). Basically, while the Centauri come across/are framed as softer, victims, and approachable, we’re also given plenty of evidence that that’s just not the case; that both races are in the wrong most of the time (hence Kosh’s line perhaps), that none of it is glorious but both want to see themselves as noble or victims depending on which suits them at the time. I wonder if this might be another directing vs. writing thing, though it might have been intentional I guess; that in JMS’ head things were reasonably balanced but the directing choices play down the mentions of Centauri atrocities of the past, frame Londo’s vengeful actions as nobly or stupidly misguided but the Narn doing so on a large scale as criminal. Because as someone who has seen the story, I can see the balancing factors between the lines, but they’re played down on screen for now.
It’s not helped by the fact that Sinclair comes down so hard on the Centauri (mostly Londo) side against the Narn (and G’Kar). Maybe Sinclair wants clear cut good and bad guys, in which case he’s in the wrong job; but in spite of both Londo and G’Kar getting scenes where they discuss their reasons with Sinclair (Londo says there will be war if Carn is dead, G’Kar points out that there aren’t forests on Narn because the Centauri already killed so many of his people), Jeff is sympathetic to Londo but gets pissed off at G’Kar. Delenn is the only person on this council whose head is on straight (Londo and G’Kar are...season 1 Londo and G’Kar, Kosh thinks half the council deserves to die, and Jeff’s kind of a racist asshole) and she’s the only one who has at this point ordered genocide.
I was thinking about going into it about Londo’s death dream, but I’m not sure I have anything all that interesting to say. Yes Londo, in 20 years you and G’Kar will choke the life out of each other, but you have a long way to go to get there. I always enjoy just being amazed by the foreshadowing even though I happen to agree with hallucination-Vir (in TVLNoLM) that prophecy is a guess that comes true and when it doesn’t it’s a metaphor (because as Kosh would probably say the Centauri and Narn are already choking the life out of each other so that both are dying). But having never seen this one until after I saw WWE, I’ve always just stood in awe of the story craft.
To close out, look I can be critical sometimes but in the end I love this show, and I quite like this episode. If I wasn’t reviewing it, but just watching I wouldn’t be nearly so critical. It’s an early B5 episode, it means you have to roll with some things being awkward and feeling its way forward, I know and accept that about the show. If I didn’t love the show so much I wouldn’t actually have nearly as much to say on the subject (the amount I have to say is paradoxically why I have I hard time sticking out the review process, I have things to say but I also want to watch quicker than my wordiness leaves me). Anyway good episode in spite of the flaws.
Next time: Soul Hunter, and maybe less to say.