The Babylon 5 First-Timer's Watch Log.
Atonement
*snerk* Yes that is totally the way to deal with a culturally obtuse human. "Next time, use a bigger needle". I do approve though.
* OMG G'Kar has a blue eye! And a new toy. Ooo, sneaky new toy. You can just SEE the gears turning in his skull.
* I know some people find Lennier's love for Delenn stalkery but honestly, I don't. He does not at any point get between Delenn and the people she wants to go out with or sleep with. He does not at any point go "OMG FRIENDZONED U BITCH" or try to leverage his loyalty into some kind of relationship against Delenn's wishes. He loves her and he absolutely respects her, and the only thing he won't let her do is go into danger alone. Which, frankly, the guys she does go out with would do if they knew what she was up to to the level he does.
* Whoa. B5 really does take as a given that all people everywhere are utter douchebags, doesn't it.
* Delenn may kick herself for setting the Minbari on the warpath, but I'm back here impressed that, when attacked without (to their understanding) any provocation, the Council even considered hanging back and doing an investigation first, strongly enough that the Council was divided. I call to the evidence roster Pearl Harbor. Humans? Not even that rational when they think they've been backstabbed. She may kick herself, but that was really her most human moment. We be vicious monkeys.
* Delenn really needed to take this to Sheridan. Who could've provided the Minbari with human history re: racial purity and then hit them over the head repeatedly with it because OH WOW DID WE NEED THE RACIAL STUPID, DID WE REALLY.
* Marcus Cole is so very, very Jeff Ryan. Singing "I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major-General" just caps it.
Racing Mars
* Are we finally dealing with Garibaldi's sudden personality transplant? Please?
* Sheridan you are being a dick. You're being ten times the dick Garibaldi is, and four times more public about it. Garibaldi is right. He's actually right on every. single. count. This is a cult of personality, you are a messianic figure, you are taking things personally and you are trampling on Garibaldi's right to disagree with you. And I am going to be ever so annoyed when Garibaldi turns out to be wrong simply because you're the star of the show.
* I like the Resistance contact.
* This is a 90s show. So I choose to forgive the contact for sniggering that the cover is 'you're a gay couple on their honeymoon'. This is a choice I am making. My teeth aren't grinding. Honest.
* That said, given the comparison to Jeff Ryan, I find it hella amusing that Marcus Cole is a lot more fine with this than the good Doctor.
* ...Oh. That was a "this script was written by a man" moment. 'Cos Ivanonva is *not* stupid enough to use a phrase like "what more could you ask for" around a group of criminal and violent men to whom she would be in debt. I'm sorry, but she just isn't.
* Uh. What? No really. WHAT? You get false IDs, but you carry your real ones - with your DNA imprints - in your other pockets? WHAT?
* I really hope the mind control parisites aren't a whole season. We already had that with ST:TNG. And that was just a two-parter that was one part too long.
* Sheridan? On the one hand, good idea. On the other, WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG. And third - how would this broadcast not simply be jammed?
* Delenn deserves a separate note all to herself in this episode. Starting with "It pleases me that you care for who I have become. Never forget who I was, or what I can do," and right up to leaving Sheridan at the end because shit's going down at home and she will bygods fix it - and the assumption that she, singlehandedly, can do this - is just OH MY GOD BADASS DELENN HOW I HAVE MISSED YOU. And then to add, basically, "You're afraid I won't like it if you get too badass. I don't agree, but since being absent will let you feel freer to be the badass you need to be, let me just go and sort out MY corner of the universe, and you can get on with sorting out yours. We can do lunch after." I like her. She's entirely clear that Sheridan's just got some hangups, and she absolutely knows how to deal with them.
Lines of Communication
* Hi Garibaldi. It's nice to know that whatever it is that crawled up your butt and died (besides the writing) has still left you a basically decent person. Now all that really remains is finding out whether the whole rift was manufactured by you and Sheridan in order to ferret out the remaining Night Watch types. It's a theory I'm accepting as quite plausible at the moment.
* Stephen and Ivanova having the "you missed the obvious but it's so obvious it looks stupid to have missed it so here I missed the obvious and you didn't" convo is just adorable. Really.
* Bloody hell. Zathras is the freaking Jar Jar Binks of this universe. Someone must think he's funny, but that really isn't me.
Conflicts of Interest
Essentially a Garibaldi episode. It's ...good. It involves a hella lot of stupid that you'd think a chief of security would've thought of but it's still reasonably good. The whole "the contact is your ex lover" thing, mind, stretches credibility a lot. So right now, I'm going under the belief that Garibaldi was trying to make SURE his security force could track him and find him and find out what he's up to.