Babylon 5 Season 3 NO SPOILERS

[iznardy]

At this point in the series, we know Clark has pulled off a coup d'etat on Earth and that he is trying to consolidate his power base and eliminate any potential challenges to his authority.

How much he knows about Shadow involvement on Earth is still unclear. The Shadows do an end-around on Al Bester at PSI Corp, and you would think he would be a very difficult person to deceive. My guess is that the Shadows and their contacts in Earthgov are also working somewhat independently of Clarke, telling him only what they want him to know, and exploiting his hunger for power to get various programs and preparations in place; he is, in other words, something of a puppet. In his personal quest to stay in power, he is probably okaying initiatives to investigate Shadow technology and the like, but I think he is probably too distracted with potential challenges to his control of the Presidency to fully understand what's going on.

This seems to be the case, at least initially, on Centauri Prime, as well. To begin with, Emperor Cartagia seems to know very little about the Shadows; his ministers and supporters are the ones immediately in contact with their "associates." I think the Shadows only focus on the Emperor as a potential tool when some of their other tools have been "eliminated" by Centauri politics.

[ProfCrash]

At this time we do not know that Morden has done an end around Bester, that has not been brought up in the series. I also do not think we have any idea what Cartagia knows or does not know.

[Wizz]

Yeah, it's as I suspected. Avoiding spoilers about Morden/Shadow involvement with EarthGov/PsiCorp is like looking at thin ice and wondering if it's thick enough or not. There are a number of things coming up, and I just wanted a clearer idea of how certain "projects" progressed. And, I hope that's vague enough...

[iznardy]

beserker probe

this is maybe the fifth time i have seen this episode and it has always bothered me. the whole thing with the beserker probe never made too much sense to me. if its intention is to seek out potential enemies, test their level of technology, and then destroy them if they appear dangerous, then it doesn't seem very well equipped to perform its funtion. it has a sufficient warhead to destroy B5, a space station, but of course if it encountered a planet, it would only do partial damage to the species it found. seems to me that blowing up a Minbari warship or a major Minbari city, while living everything else in tact, would be a good way to motivate the Minbari to tracking down whoever sent the probe and burning their butts. so unless the probe was specifically sent out to harass or destroy small targets in space, the whole things seems a little far-fetched as a premise.

[iznardy]

and if your really wanted to destroy a civilization, you wouldn't send a beserker probe. you would send the holographic doctor from voyager. he would drive any species beserk.

[Wizz]

Iz, I have to agree on both points. I missed the episode this time around, but I honestly don't think I missed much. Unless it was there to show how well all parts worked together (teamwork), it didn't do much. Maybe the "B" story (which I don't recall) was the better part of it.
As for the EMH, they should have left the good doctor with Neelix in the asteroid fields. Picardo plays the part well, but like ProfCrash's Chowderhead?, a well played part doesn't forgive a lame character.

[iznardy]

actually, i guess i would class both of the last two episodes in the "hanger" category--i.e., they are mostly stand-along stories, only loosely connected to the overall story arc, on which some parts of the larger story can still be hung.

the main plot of the beserker episode is pretty innocuous. but it does provide an opportunity to show dr. franklin's increasing problems with stress and stims. plus it is another good case of things going haywire at the station, and thus distracting sheridan and crew from some of the other issues they need to deal with.

the episode about the mind-wipes falls in the same category. it's a more interesting story, i think, and raises some issues about the nature of good and evil, but it a little unusal for B5 in that it focuses the main story on an introduced character instead of one of the regulars. however, it also serves as a vehicle to reintroduce lyta alexander into the cast and to remind us of the presence of brother theo's monks.

come to think of it, "A Day in the Strife" was yet another recent example of these 'stand alone' stories. something that always separated B5 from shows like voyager and earth: final conflict was that jms could introduce these stories and still keep the big story constantly moving along to its next major peak, whereas the other series always seem to be disjointed and jumping from one unrelated story to another.

[MerleZ]

Low blow! No matter how bad you may think Sheridan is as a character, he's head and shoulders above the EMH.

Yeah, and instead of leaving Neelix in the asteroid swarm, they shoulda just shoved 'em out an airlock, along with Harry, Chakote, Tuvok, Naomi, and Janeway. Hmm, think that leaves only Seven, Tom and B'Lana, and the latter two would be on thin ice, IMO.

I missed the beserker ep, but iz makes good points. (When does iz ever NOT make good points?) I always thought the concept was kinda lame, too, but couldn't put my finger on it, except to think that blowing up the damned thing seemed a little too easy. Thanks, iz.

Oh, and someone mentioned EFC. Did anyone see the (hopefully) final ep of that, with the Geridians merging with the Taelons???? Did that blow, or what? And forgive me for venting off topic.

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[ProfCrash]

The worst character on B5 is head and shoulders better then the best character on Voyager. No doubt about it. But that is my opinion.

Day in the Strife was interesting but the only info that comes out of that episode that is really interesting to me is the Doc's use of stims. Garibaldi is clearly worried about Frankiln's use of stims and says something. Then at the end of the episode, Franklin lies to Garibaldi when he says that he got through the entire crisis without the use of stims.

I loved Passing through Gesthemane (sp) the first time around and I still love it now. This is a great episode. Not a part of the story arc, but that's fine. The issues addressed are more then a bit relevent, is the death penalty, in any form, acceptable? In typical JMS fasion, he lays out the story, many different points of view, and then lets you draw your own conclusions.

I have always thought that JMS handles religion really well and this episode was no exception. We got to learn abit more about how the Minbari worship and their ideologies. Sheridan is forced to deal with the issue of forgiveness, and Garibaldi has to come to terms with the difference between Brother Edward and the Black Rose Killer. I always liked that at the end of the episode Garibaldi, the one who wants electric bleachers, is very concerned about Edward.

I amy be one of the few here, but alot of my favorite episodes are not story arc episodes. I like the ones that really develop the characters and show sides of them that we are not likely to see during the normal arc episodes. These episodes serve to flesh out parts of the characters that we normally don't get to see.

[Nommy]

Do we need to creat an EFC topic?