Just a quick update this time around. For all my initial griping about the Shadow War ending quickly, I still finished season 4 about as fast, if not faster, than I did season 3. Whenever Sheridan goes on the offensive, cool things happen and you just have to zoom along with him. It's satisfying to have things settled down at Earth, and the Interstellar Alliance is a cool bonus. Of course, it's also good to know that the rapid changes at the end of season 4 was because of fear the show wouldn't get a fifth season. Otherwise, it would be rather confusing why season 4 didn't have any kind of cliffhanger. (Granted, having Sheridan captured at the end of the season would be one painful cliffhanger to end on.)
Right now, the telepaths make me nervous, as they probably would any other mundanes watching. Nick tells me we won't see much of the Telepath War, which seems unfortunate. I might have to look into the books about the conflict.
Next to last thought: "The Long Night of Londo Mollari" is a great episode, one of my favorites. It would make a great discussion starter on pride and admitting guilt, except you'd have to know a lot about Londo and G'Kar to really get it. More for B5 fans than anyone, I guess.
Last thought: I like the grand, royal feeling to the Season 5 theme music. Very fitting.
Quote of the Day:
Londo Mollari: You misspelled that. There's no 'y' in 'liberties.'
G'Kar: Oh go away. Repress somebody else.
Londo: As you wish.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Wait, the war's over already?!
This show continues to surprise me. I never would have guessed that the Shadow War would be finished six episodes into season 4! In fact, I was a little disappointed at first. I had expected the struggle against the Shadows would last for most of the rest of the show. Or, at the earliest I expected, it would end at the end of season 4 or beginning of season 5 and most of season 5 would be about rebuilding order around the galaxy. Instead, it looks like that rebuilding and regrowth time has begun before season 4 is even half over.
Upon reflection, I realize that as far as story arc timing goes, this is fairly typical of the series. You end one season with a great buildup of tension and continue that tension for several episodes at the beginning of the next season until the story arc is mostly resolved. The middle of the season is the incubation period. It picks up unresolved story threads and helps them grow in tension and importance. By the end of the season, the story tension has become too great to maintain the mid-season's status quo and all kinds of stuff happens to carry the arc into the next season. It's probably effective because you have a lot of excitement at the beginning of the season to get new people in; you know in mid-season you might lose some viewers, but you bring them back at the end of the season with even more adrenaline.
Nevertheless, I still rather miss the Shadow War. There's nothing quite like having a really, really bad bad guy to root against. Trying to sort out the Minbari caste system and weed out the corrupt Earth officials isn't the same. But like Delenn says:
Quote of the Day:
"War is easy. Destruction is easy. Rebuilding is hard."
--Delenn Mir
That may not be an accurate quote, but it's close.
In other news, what is the deal with Garibaldi?! That's been another frustrating thing about this season because I still don't know what happened to him on that alien ship and how it's affected his uncharacteristic decisions since then. Honestly, Garibaldi's always had a suspicious nature, but before this season he'd always been staunchly loyal to his job and his fellow officers. I keep waiting for G'Kar to get in his face and remind him of that "support and obey your superior officer" speech that Garibaldi gave G'Kar last season. Grr.
Upon reflection, I realize that as far as story arc timing goes, this is fairly typical of the series. You end one season with a great buildup of tension and continue that tension for several episodes at the beginning of the next season until the story arc is mostly resolved. The middle of the season is the incubation period. It picks up unresolved story threads and helps them grow in tension and importance. By the end of the season, the story tension has become too great to maintain the mid-season's status quo and all kinds of stuff happens to carry the arc into the next season. It's probably effective because you have a lot of excitement at the beginning of the season to get new people in; you know in mid-season you might lose some viewers, but you bring them back at the end of the season with even more adrenaline.
Nevertheless, I still rather miss the Shadow War. There's nothing quite like having a really, really bad bad guy to root against. Trying to sort out the Minbari caste system and weed out the corrupt Earth officials isn't the same. But like Delenn says:
Quote of the Day:
"War is easy. Destruction is easy. Rebuilding is hard."
--Delenn Mir
That may not be an accurate quote, but it's close.
In other news, what is the deal with Garibaldi?! That's been another frustrating thing about this season because I still don't know what happened to him on that alien ship and how it's affected his uncharacteristic decisions since then. Honestly, Garibaldi's always had a suspicious nature, but before this season he'd always been staunchly loyal to his job and his fellow officers. I keep waiting for G'Kar to get in his face and remind him of that "support and obey your superior officer" speech that Garibaldi gave G'Kar last season. Grr.
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