I’ve been re-watching Season 3 of Babylon 5, and I’m just as floored as I was the first time I watched the show all the way through. Even with the misses that are “Walkabout” and “Grey 17 is Missing,” this season has a consistency, magnificence and payoff that, for me, can’t be touched by any complete season of any other show that comes to mind (of course reasonable people will disagree).
I think this season has some of the best “off-arc” or “part-arc” episodes in the whole show. “Passing Through Gethsemane” is in my top-10 of Babylon 5 episodes, and slower moments like “Sic Transit Vir” and “A Late Delivery From Avalon” do not slow down the action in the way that “Grail” and “TKO” did in earlier seasons.
I mean…this season has “Z’ha’dum” AND “Severed Dreams.” What more do you want from a season of TV? The latter is my favorite episode of B5 ever (for some reason I just don’t react as warmly to “Z’ha’dum” as most B5 fans)–I don’t think a television episode has ever gotten to me in the same way as “Severed Dreams.” Delenn popping up on that monitor is still wonderful, hundreds of viewings later.
I could go on and on and on. I was just watching “Ceremonies of Light and Dark” last night, and my God, the exchange between Refa and Mollari is just superb. (I, for one, enjoy the way it all culminates in “And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place”).
We just watched “Severed Dreams” the other night (I’m hoping for no spoilers, since that’s as far as we’ve gotten so far in this season, but I’m not going to insist). It. Was. BADASS! When Delenn came through those jump points with the cruisers both supervenusfreak and I were cheering. And he spent the entire first season MST3King the show…
The first time I watched the show all the way through it was running in the evening on the Sci-Fi Channel, so my dad would watch with me. As he did/does with most of my sci-fi faves, he ripped on B5 mercilessly, but for the first (and only) time ever, his MSTing really made me upset–to the point where I would actually go up to my room to watch the show. However, for some reason, I was watching “Severed Dreams” downstairs. The episode was so good, and I was obviously so captivated, that I think he was getting a kick out of watching me watch.
A few days later, he said to me, “I think I’ve figured out why you like that show so much. You’re a lot like Delenn, and you really, really want to end up like her when you’re older.” I had never really considered this before–in fact, if you had asked me prior to his statement, I don’t think I would have listed Delenn in my top ten favorite recurring characters. However, my father, as he often is, was right about me. It really hit me on a re-viewing of “Severed Dreams” (the episode puzzled me for some time, as I could not articulate why it had such a profound effect on me); one day I desperately want to have the gravitas, independence and commitment to something that will allow me to, if necessary, say “Why not?” in the exact same way she says it there.
/Dad laid off B5 after “Severed Dreams” (well, sort of)
//jayjay, y’all must watch the next episode (“Ceremonies of Light and Dark”) ASAP!
“Passing Through Gethsemane” is the episode I used to get my wife (who generally dislikes SF) hooked on the show. The 4 episode mini-arc (Messages From Earth, Point of No Return, Severed Dreams, Ceremonies of Light and Dark) is one of my favorite pieces of visual art ever.
Yeah, I haven’t really been following it. I usually watch shows like B5 and BSG on DVD. I haven’t gotten around to BSG yet, but from what I’ve seen you may be right.
I thought Seasons 3 and 4 were some of the best TV. First episode I ever saw was “Into the Fire” because that was the episode currently airing when I started watching.
Which episode was the one with Delenn’s line, “The only human ever to defeat a Mimbari war cruiser in battle is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else.”?
That would be the oft-cited (here, anyway) “Severed Dreams.”
Merijeek, that is some place to start the series! I presume from your other comments that knowing what was coming didn’t ruin the pleasure of S.3 and the start of S.4?
I’m glad to see lots of love for “Gethsemane” here–it really is an amazing stand-alone episode.
I’ve just started watching S.2 from the beginning…the jump between S.2 and S.1 really is amazing (though I guess you could argue that it started w/“Chrysalis” if not before).
Nah, but to me, because of where I started viewing, I didn’t see why the Shadows were such a big deal, and I actually found the Clarke/Earth/Garibaldi plotline more interesting than the Shadow War. Note that the episodes that are getting talked about the most here (and in other threads) are the 3-4 episode mini-arc involving “Severed Dreams”.
I also agreed with Garibaldi on the “He’s not the Pope - he doesn’t even look anything like her!” line. You know, that Sheridan had gone too far.
Oh, and the other thing it did for me was demonstrate, once I saw Season One, how much Michael O’Hare sucked ass. Completely and totally. I didn’t have any inborn loyalty because he was the one who started off in the bossman position.
Hmf. I started with Season 1 and thought O’Hare sucked ass from the beginning. Given the futuristic materials that B5 is made of, Sinclair was apparently the only wooden thing on the whole station…
