The Couch Potato: Trollheart's Televisual and Cinematic Emporium
 

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Welcome to a different kind of journal. As the title implies, this one will be concentrating on television shows, with perhaps a few movies thrown in. This will NOT be a spoiler-free zone, so be warned: if I ruin a series you're watching then you only have yourself to blame.

Some series I will be reviewing episode-by-episode. Some, longer-running ones I will encapsulate by season. Within these reviews may be everything from character profiles to best quotes, from plot arc moments to best or worst episode, or perhaps even worst dressed character. I haven't really decided yet. My main sphere of interest lies in science-fiction and fantasy, so most of the reviews will be drawn from that genre, though I do watch plenty of other stuff too. I intend this to be a long term project, hopefully spanning out over years or even decades, depending on how long I live, how tolerated I am here and whether or not the world surprises us all by imploding after 2012.

I therefore won't be rushing through anything. Synopses will be long and detailed, with not only the plot of the episode/season but my own thoughts as well. If I can get clips I may feature some, though there will be nothing like the amount of videos you usually see in my own journal. So as to try to cater to most people, and not bore myself too much, I'll focus on three or four series at a time, writing maybe a synopsis of an episode for one, a profile of another, a quote list for a third, and so on. Look, I haven't really figured it all out yet, okay, so bear with me.

The main thing to keep in mind is that while these may indeed be seen as recommendations to try this or that series, I will be writing the reviews in a manner consistent with those who have already seen them, so as I say no important parts, plot strands, revelations or surprises will be kept from the reader. That's you. If you decide to read. Should you not have seen a series I feature, and decide to try it, stop after the main introduction or the chances are it'll be ruined for you. Of course you can read further, but you're taking the chance the series may end up being spoiled for you.

Comment and discussion is as always invited, though I've learned to accept this will be sporadic at best and non-existent at worst. It doesn't matter: I'm just doing this in order to try something a little different and satisfy an old and longtime desire of mine to review my favourite TV programmes somewhere. If a featured series is still running somewhere (in Ireland/UK) I'll mention that, in case anyone wants to try it.

With that in mind, the first three series I will be reviewing are three of my favourites, all with a sci-fi or fantasy component, some more than others.

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Babylon 5, my second-all-time favourite drama series ever, and one of the most thoughtful, groundbreaking and influential science fiction TV dramas ever to hit the small screen.

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Red Dwarf, one of the BBC's finest. Sharp, satirical, at times side-splittingly funny comedy based in space, that made stars out of Craig Charles and Chris Barrie among others, and set the bar for sci-fi comedy, a standard that has never to my knowledge come close to being reached.
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Supernatural, just quite plainly and simply one of the very best ever dramas to come out of the US, originally a horror/monster series but developed into so much more.

INDEX

BABYLON 5

Introduction

Pilot Movie: "The Gathering"

Season One: "Signs and Portents"
"Midnight on the Firing Line"
"Soul Hunter"
"Born to the Purple"
"Infection"
"The Parliament of Dreams"
"Mind War"
"The War Prayer"
"And the Sky Full of Stars"
"Deathwalker"
"Believers"
"By Any Means Necessary"
"Signs and Portents"
"TKO"
"Grail"
"Eyes"
"Legacies"
" A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 1 and 2"
"Babylon Squared"
"The Quality of Mercy"
"Chrysalis"

Season Two: "The Coming of Shadows"

"Points of Departure"
"Revelations"
"The Geometry of Shadows"
"A Distant Star"
"The Long Dark"
"Spider in the Web"
"Soul Mates"
"A Race Through Dark Places"
"The Coming of Shadows"
"GROPOS"
"All Alone in the Night"
"Acts of Sacrifice"
"Hunter, Prey"
"There All the Honour Lies"
"And Now for a Word..."
"In the Shadow of Zha'dum"
"Knives"
"Confessions and Lamentations"

RED DWARF

Introduction

Season One

"The End"
"Future Echoes"
"Balance of Power"
"Waiting for God"
"Confidence and Paranoia"
"Me2"

Season Two

"Kryten"
"Better Than Life"
"Thanks for the Memory"
"Stasis Leak"
"Queeg"

SUPERNATURAL

Prologue

Season One

Pilot
"Wendigo"
"Dead in the Water"
"Phantom Traveller"
"Bloody Mary"
"Skin"
"Hook Man"
"Bugs"
"Home"
"Asylum"
"Scarecrow"
"Faith"
"Route 666"
"Nightmare"
"The Benders"
"Shadow"
"Hell House"
"Something Wicked"
"Provenance"
"Dead Man's Blood"
"Salvation"
"Devil's Trap"

Season Two

"In My Time of Dying"
Everybody Loves a Clown"
"Bloodlust"
"Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things"
"Simon Said"
"No Exit"
"The Usual Suspects"
"Crossroad Blues"
"A Very Supernatural Christmas" (Out of sequence, posted for Christmas)
"Croatoan"
"Hunted"
"Playthings"
"Nightshifter"
"Houses of the Holy"

SPOOKS

Introduction

Season One

"Thou Shalt Not Kill"
"Looking After Our Own"
"One Last Dance"
"Traitor's Gate"
"The Rose Bed Memoirs"
"Lesser of Two Evils"

Season Two

"Legitimate Targets"
"Nest of Angels"
"Spiders"

LOVE/HATE

Introduction

Season One
Episode One
Episode Two
Episode Three
Episode Four

Season Two

Episode One
Episode Two
Episode Three

THE NEW STATESMAN

Introduction

Season One

"Happiness is a Warm Gun"
"Passport to Freedom"
"Sex is Wrong"
"Waste Not Want Not"
"Friends of St. James"
"Three Line Whipping"
"Baa Baa Black Sheep"

Season Two

"Fatal Extraction"
"Live from Westminster"

Our last, best hope for peace: the genesis of Babylon 5
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Probably the only TV drama, certainly the only science-fiction TV drama, to be conceived and laid out as a five-year story, a TV novel which was intended to span five full seasons of the show, and in the end did, Babylon 5 was the creation of Joe Micheal Straczynski, usually known as "J. Michael Straczynski" or more often just "JMS". Aficionados of the programme, like me and probably millions of others, as well as critics, will tell you that "JMS" was as instrumental to not only the creation but the development of Babylon 5 as Gene Roddenberry was to Star Trek. In fact, early in its inception JMS was heard to remark at a science-fiction convention that he believed his new series could end up "giving Star Trek a run for its money", to which an unimpressed reporter quipped "Yeah, and Bill Clinton will be in the White House!" Well, we all know how that turned out, don't we? :laughing:

But the above serves to illustrate how tough an arena television sci-fi was in the early nineties. The Star Trek franchise had pretty much a stranglehold on TV sci-fi, while the world of cinema had really not come up with anything substantial at the time, leaving "Star Wars" as the main moneyspinner and seen therefore as the way forward. Cinema had mostly whimsical tales like the "Back to the future" series, Arnie in the "Predator" movies and Gremlins all over the place. Of course there was "Terminator 2" and "Alien 3", and later on "Stargate" brought a measure of respectability to sf movies, but up to even the end of the 90s the main movers in terms of sci-fi cinema were still those that trod Roddenberry's somewhat tired and hackneyed stories of all humanity living together in semi-Utopian peace.
http://s5.postimg.org/s4ofrxd1z/jms.jpg (Joe Michael Straczynski, known as JMS, creator and driving force behind Babylon 5)
It wouldn't be till really the tail-end of the 90s, when "The Matix" burst upon our cinema screens like an avenging angel and slapped us all upside the head, that science-fiction would really achieve its rebirth on the big screen, and as for the small, well. Nothing could and did touch Star Trek for over thirty years, with series like "Logan's run", "Lost in space", "V" and though the UK did well to fly the sf flag with series like "Blake's Seven" and "Doctor Who", darker, more adult sort of programmes than their mostly light, fluffy, almost comedic in ways US counterparts, Star Trek was still seen really as the epitome of sci-fi, resulting in much ribbing for those the media came to dub "Trekkies". Sure, Doctor Who is now more aimed at a family-friendly market, but back in the sixties, seventies and eighties it was dark and disturbing, and we all hid behind the sofa when the Daleks came onscreen! Exterminate!
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The problem was that most television networks didn't really take sci-fi seriously. It was the pervue of the geek, the loner, the misfit. Families would not watch it, so any programmes commissioned --- or most, at any rate --- in the US had to be "made family friendly", by adding in cute characters or comic relief elements, and having everyone back on the starbase in time for tea, as it were. Only the British ones dared to do things like kill off characters, see the aforementioned "Blake's Seven" and indeed "Space: 1999", some of the darkest sci-fi you will ever come across. Okay, so the sets were wonky and the acting wooden --- should that be the other way round? Er, no --- but the stories were often top-notch, and occasionally the stuff of nightmares.

Which is how it should have been, anyway. Space is a frightening place. Films like "Alien" and "2001: A space odyssey" showed us that, as did "Event horizon" decades later, though that was really more a horror movie set in space (then again, you could probably level that same charge at "Alien"...) The happy, jolly, everyone-gets-along-fine-whether-they-have-legs-or-tentacles idea was a nice one, but ultimately fatally flawed. After all, humans can't even get on with each other without trying to blow each other up or exterminate (!) one another, so what makes us think we'd get on with aliens? Or that they'd get on with us? Maybe they're the badasses of that sector of the galaxy. Either way, they're unlikely to just drop in for a cup of proto-tea and a mega-biscuit now are they?

So with Star Trek portaying its general idea of "humans are great and want to save everyone and don't you wish you were like us though if you're not that's ok because we're so tolerant of other cultures and lifeforms" all across our televisions and film screens, and movies like "The Matrix", "Dark City" and "Inception" years or even decades away, what serious science-fiction was there on the box? Although Ronald D. Moore later revamped it into a tough, dark, gritty and realistic portrayal of Man's struggle to survive against an implacable enemy, "Battlestar Galactica" in its original incarnation was little more than a shoot-em-up adventure buddy movie in space, on TV. "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" was much worse, and although Star Trek would grow up with the third and fourth seasons and the newly-born Deep Space 9 would go on, after its second season, to redefine what mature, dark, intelligent televisual science-fiction could and would be, the airwaves were jammed with half-serious, half-comedic, in some cases downright awful attempts at sci-fi programs, as everyone tried to jump on the Star Wars/Star Trek bandwagon, making the fatal flaw of trying to be just like them.

Straczynski, seeing all this, did not want to go that route. He had come up watching the likes of "Hill Street Blues" reshape and change what was perceived as the general cop show, and he wanted to do the same for sci-fi with his own new show. This would be a heavily character-driven series, where people's decisions would weigh on future events, where one road taken might lead to war whereas the other might lead to peace, or something as simple as a chance meeting or offhand remark might have huge ramifications down the line. Most importantly, JMS decided to introduce, or at least expand on, the idea of a story arc. This was seen almost as television suicide by the networks: the idea that people would follow a series, noting all the little "clues" to future events, and that they would have to see almost every episode or risk missing a big piece of the puzzle and thereby end up being confused or missing a vital point, seemed to the execs beyond the American people's capabilities. More, it was not, they believed, what the audience wanted. They didn't dedicate their lives to a TV show. They watched and flipped between channels, and a series like Star Trek or Buck Rogers could certainly be watched one week and not for the next three, and then if they liked pick up after that without fearing they had missed some vital developments. By and large, sci-fi shows --- and this included Roddenberry's behemoth --- did not attach huge significance to events that transpired from week to week. The story arc would of course eventually prove to be the way to go, with later series like "Lost" and even "24", two of the most successful shows ever on US TV, requiring constant, regular viewing.

The first to do so of that franchise was Deep Space 9, where once it got into the main plot, there were standalone episodes, but even then something might happen in one of them that would reflect back in future ones. But the series followed a basic storyline, and like reading a novel, you couldn't just pick it up again three chapters in and know what was going on. Of all the series at the time on TV, sci-fi or otherwise, DS9 was the closest in terms of structure to what Babylon 5 would become.

And there was some controversy surrounding both series, as they hit the air around the same time. Not only that, Paramount --- who produced the Star Trek franchise --- had been offered the chance to back Babylon 5 but passed, and then mere months later announced the debut of their new Star Trek series. Both were set on space stations --- the first time any sf TV show had been located such a place --- and both would have major, galaxy-spanning wars and draw on elements of ideologies and religious themes throughout their run. Both would allow for major characters to be killed off, and of course as already mentioned both would follow a series arc. The similarities have been a topic od contention and hot debate between opposing fans of the series, but I'm not going to concern myself with them here, as I don't feel they're relevant to this article.

And so, on February 22 1993, the lead-in pilot movie for the series, originally just called "Babylon 5" but later changed to "The Gathering", aired on Warner Bros PTEN channel, although I have a personal story about that. Living as I do in Ireland I of course had and have no access to the US networks, and happened to stumble across the movie in a video (look it up) rental shop and thought it looked good. Taking it home and watching it I was rapt, and thought my god how can someone not make a series out of this? It seemed to be setup for at least a sequel, with its closing line "Babylon 5 is open for business!" and I just thought damn it, another great movie that could have led to a series, and left it at that. Well, I didn't. When I brought the video back I asked the guy behind the counter if he knew if there were any more movies, or a series even, and he grunted (no doubt very interested in my query as he carefully polished the slipcase on "Vampire serial killer babes IV: Fangs Baby" or some such nonsense) that he didn't know. Substitute the word know for the word care and I think we had a better and more honest answer to my question.

So home I went, dejected but not surprised. Surprise was, however, to the nth degree when some months later Channel 4 announced a brilliant new science-fiction series coming soon, called, yeah, "Babylon 5"! I could not believe it, and quickly set about making sure I had enough blank tapes (I said, look it up! What do you think Wiki is for?) to ensure I recorded every episode, as through some cruel caprice of the gods it was airing at something like 5pm, while I was still at work. Ah, but with a video recorder (look, I'm getting really tired of you...) there was no reason I should miss a moment of what I felt sure would be my new favourite science-fiction programme!

As, of course, it proved to be.

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Pilot episode/movie: "The Gathering"

I explained in the introduction that when it came to, well, mostly US series, where a season can consist of twenty or more episodes, I wouldn't be treating each episode separately, unlike the shorter, UK series like Red Dwarf, Life on Mars, Being Human etc, and so I won't. When the series has that many episodes it just isn't practical to synopsise every single episode, and would take far too long, dragging out each series to lengths I'd prefer not to go to. But this one is special, so I will be doing a reasonably in-depth analysis of it.

The pilot movie that would lead-in the series, should it be commissioned, "The Gathering" (originally just called "Babylon 5" before it was clear there would even be a series) is important in many ways. Its plot sets up the backdrop to the series, and introduces us to many of its characters, even if some of those would not last beyond this film. It hints at the very beginnings of a deeper story, and even from this standalone movie you can see the depth and intricacy of JMS's writing, so that it woudl have been a shame --- indeed, a crime --- had the series not been taken up. But happily it was, and the rest is television history.

CHARACTER AND CAST FOR "THE GATHERING" (Characters/actors who were changed after this are italicised, with notes on who replaced them)

Michael O'Hare (RIP) as Commander Jeffrey Sinclair
Jerry Doyle as Chief Michael Garibaldi
Mira Furlan as Ambassador Delenn
Tamlyn Tomita as Lieutenant Laurel Takashima (Replaced by Claudia Christian, playing Lieutenant-Commander and later Commander Susan Ivanova)
Andreas Katsulas (RIP) as Ambassador G'Kar
Johnny Sekka as Doctor Benjamin Kyle (Replaced by Richard Biggs (RIP) playing Doctor Stephen Franklin)
Peter Jurasik as Ambassador Londo Mollari
Blaire Baron as Carolyn Sykes (Replaced by Julia Nickon-Soul, playing Catherine Sakai)
John Fleck as Del Varner (Never seen again)
Peter Hampton as the Senator (Never seen again)
Patricia Tallman as Lyta Alexander (Replaced for seasons 1 and 2 by Andrea Thompson as Babylon 5's onsite telepath, but Lyta returns from the end of season 2 and features quite prominently, if sporadically, during the third fourth and fifth seasons)

The year is 2257. Mankind has made contact with alien races and moved out into the galaxy, mostly by way of "jumpgates", technology shared with them by the Centauri, a much advanced race, and have built a space station, which they call Babylon 5, in neutral space. Here, all races are welcome. It's a trading post, jumping-off point, conference centre, diplomatic post and holiday destination for humans and aliens, and an important factor in keeping the uneasy peace between the various races. Babylons 1 through 4 have all suffered various untimely demises, with the final station prior to this, Babylon 4, actually vanishing twenty-four hours after going online. This small snippet of information is an example of a seemingly-offhand remark that will turn out to have massive importance as both season one and three come to a close.

There are five main races in this part of the galaxy, including humans, and they are the "superpowers" that run things. They are vastly different, each with their own idelology, traditions, history and outlook, and while some are content to live in peace there are old wounds that are festering between others, wounds which will not heal and which will all too soon plunge this sector of the galaxy into war. For now though, a quick look at each of these aliens.

Minbari: without question the most logical, spiritual and coldly clinical race, the Minbari revere life and peace but are nevertheless divided into three classes, or castes: Worker, Warrior and Religious. They have just come off the back of a vicious war with humankind, during which Earth itself was almost overwhelmed, but for the fact that the Minbari, with victory within their grasp and all opposition to them smashed, mysteriously surrendered at what came to be known as The Battle of the Line, Earth's last stand against the implacable enemy. The reason they halted hostilities will become clear, and again have a huge and profound effect on the story arc, later on. When we meet them in "The Gathering", they seem more observational than confrontational, almost monklike, as if they're waiting for some great event to unfold.

Narn: Looking like reptilian humanoids, the Narn are a proud race of mighty warriors, but not so long ago were subjugated by their old enemy, the Centauri, who enslaved them for years, raping their planet and stripping it of all its resources, leaving the Narns far behind in terms of technology. Due to their treatment at the hands of the Centauri, the Narns are out for revenge and will side with anyone against their old oppressors. They are also trying to gain any technological or military advantage that would allow them to wipe out the Centauri.

Centauri: An ancient race of people whose lifestyle and traditions seem to be based on that of the Roman Empire of antiquity, the Centauri are a fallen people. They still have power, but used to command a vast empire which has shrunk as their influence in the galaxy has waned. They long for "the old days", and keep an abiding hatred and contempt of the Narn in their hearts, their other desire being the elimination of the whole race, which they consider inferior. The Centauri were the ones who sold jumpgate tech to the humans, and so are essentially their oldest and closest allies among the Five Races. They see the humans as less evolved, younger versions of themselves when they were at the height of their power.

Vorlons: A mysterious race cloaked in secrecy and rumour, no-one has ever seen a Vorlon. They leave their home planet but seldom and when they do, always wear a bulky encounter suit, as the atmosphere of other planets is lethal to them. At the time this takes place, hardly anything is known about the Vorlons, and legends about them include one which holds that if anyone sees a Vorlon without his encounter suit they will turn to stone.

As the movie opens, station commander Jeffrey Sinclair is waiting to welcome a Vorlon as the fourth ambassador to Babylon 5. The first race we meet however is one of the Narn, a man called G'Kar (jyih-kar) who is in fact the Narn ambassador to the station. He comes across as belligerent and pushy, a thoroughly nasty fellow. The station's resident telepath arrives and greets Sinclair. Her name is Lyta Alexander (lee-ta) and through her induction to the station we learn various things, such as that the aliens resident on the station have their own sector (Green) where their quarters can be maintained with the correct mix of atmosphere and gravity to allow them live safely. Sinclair's security chief, Michael Garibaldi, opines that he does not trust telepaths. This will become a recurring theme throughout the series.

The arrival of the ambassador from Vorlon (like some of the races here, their homeworld is the same name as their race) occurs unexpectedly, as his ship comes through the jumpgate early, and Sinclair goes to meet him alone. However, before he can get to greet the ambassador, a klaxon blares around the station advising an emergency, and on reachiing the alien Sinclair sees that he has fallen ill and he is rushed to medlab. Fearing that the ambassador may die, thus provoking a lethal response from his government, Dr. Benjamin Kyle, Chief Medical Officer on the station, asks Lyta to scan the Vorlon's mind telepathically. She is reluctant, as firstly scanning without the person's permission or consent is against the law, and she could be thrown out of Psi Corps, the body which regulates, trains and employs all telepaths; and secondly, this could conceivably be seen as a hostile act, the invasion of the privacy of an alien ambassador's mind, the breaking of diplomatic immunity in its most literal sense.

However, when the alternatives are put to her she has no choice but to agree, and is shocked to see in Ambassador Kosh's mind the picture of Sinclair poisoning him by attaching a small disc to his exposed hand. With such irrefutable evidence, a trial is convened and Sinclair is relieved of duty. Unconvinced, however, Garibaldi, who is his friend and served with him on the Mars colonies, and who got the job here from the commander, investigates to see if there is another answer. Meanwhile, the politics and powerplays that drive and characterise Babylon 5 come to the fore, as representatives jockey for position, eventually voting to allow Sinclair to be extradited to Vorlon to stand trial for murder.

But Garibaldi is interested in a traveller who came aboard about the same time as Lyta, a man called Del Varner, who is a petty thief and smuggler wanted in several systems. He breaks into the man's quarters but is shocked --- and annoyed --- to find Varner dead. So much for that lead! However, as he tries to figure out a new strategy, it seems that Lyta is in medlab trying to finish Kosh off by turning off his life-support, before Dr. Kyle catches her. As she runs off though, she walks in the door and it's obvious there is an imposter on the station.

More or less confined to quarters, Sinclair tells Carolyn, his girlfriend, about the Battle of the Line, and his part in it. He tells her that as the battle reached its height he decided to ram one of the Minbari cruisers, determined to take one of them with him, but he blacked out and when he came to it was twenty-four hours later, and the war was over. The Minbari had unaccountably surrendered, and no-one has ever been able to say why.


Looking further into the dead smuggler's records, Garibaldi discovers that he had been trafficking in specialised items, and his last run had taken him to the Antares sector, where he had got his hands on a changeling net, a portable force-field that allows one to bend images around it, essentially enabling them to take on any shape or form they wish. Including that of the commander! So it wasn't Sinclair who had poisoned Kosh --- as Garibaldi had been sure anyway --- but Varner, using the changeling net to look like him! But... Varner is dead, so who killed him, and why? Had he an accomplice? A second suspect, who even now is running around the station, probably at this point trying to get off it?

He has Takashima use the station's scanners to pinpoint the huge energy signature the changeling net woudl put out, and they discover that there is indeed a second man, or rather alien. An assassin from a Minbari warrior caste, who once they have overpowered him tells Sinclair "You have a hole in your mind!" That cryptic remark resonates with the commander, as he knows that there is a twenty-four hour period that he can't account for during the Battle of the Line. It's a phrase that will come back to haunt him, and lead to a massive development and finally revelation as the series progresses.

Once Sinclair's innocence is established then, everything, for now, goes back to normal, and the massive station, with the recovered Ambassador Kosh installed as its final representative, is opened for business.

Important plot arc points:
This is where I will refer to scenes, people, quotes, occurences, anything that will later have a large impact on future episodes/seasons. I'll rate them from Green through Orange to Red, which will correspond to their importance and how they influence the series and the plot as a whole. If, in later seasons, they tie in to a previous plot point, I'll reference that.

The Battle of the Line
Arc Level: Orange
Note: the final defence of Earth from the attacking Minbari warfleet, the Battle of the Line was the last stand against the invasion fleet. It has gone down in human (and Minbar, and other) history as one of the bravest and yet most futile actions ever, and yet it worked (or seemed to) as the attacking fleet stopped short of destroying Earth, and in fact surrendered. Many who were there at the time believe something else happened: they know they were outmanned and outgunned, and were losing, had lost the war. There was no reason why an enemy vastly superior, on the very cusp of victory, would suddenly decide to end hostilities. Sinclair would later say "Maybe God blinked!" but the truth will turn out to be very much more stunning and unbelievable than that.

Narn vs Centauri
Arc Level: Red
Note: The enmity between the Narn and the Centauri, the oppressed against the oppressor, the conquered for the conquerors, is an old wound that is still fresh. It means no Narn would ever trust a Centauri, and very much vice versa. The Centauri see the Narn as vile, backward, subhuman beings who are only good as slaves, and though they were eventually forced off Narn in a war of attrition, they still consider the planet theirs. They do not accept that they were defeated, merely that it became "too expensive to be worth staying". The relationship between the two races will form a pivotal strand of the plot, and in a tremendous piece of writing our attitudes towards and opinion of each race will change radically as the seasons progress.

Vorlons
Arc Level: Red
Note: Though having almost a peripheral role in this pilot movie, the mysterious and enigmatic Vorlons will become the puppet masters of the second and third seasons, leading into the fourth, and will become more entangled in and important to the fates of not only humans, but all races.

Lyta Alexander/Telepaths/Psi Corps
Arc Level: Red
Note: Although Lyta is replaced for seasons one and two by another telepath, the role of their parent organisation, the dark and shadowy, Orwellian Psi Corps, will become more pronounced and deep as it insinuates itself into the life of the station and makes its own plans for using certain members of its staff, resulting in a massive power struggle that will have cataclysmic consequences down the line.

"You have a hole in your mind".
Arc Level: Red
Note: This seemingly incomprehensible and unimportant remark will impact hugely on the truth behind the Battle of the Line, why the Minbari surrendered and why Commander Jeffrey Sinclair is key not only to the fate of humans but also to the rest of the galaxy. However, we will not find out exactly why until close to the end of season three, in an explosive revelation.

Best lines:

Commander Sinclair to tourist, about to make an, ahem, assignation with a female alien: "I wouldn't. You know the rules about crossing species. Stick with the list."
Tourist: "What are you, a bigot or something?
Sinclair: "No, but you've obviously never met an Arnassian before. After they're finished, they eat their mate!"

Ambassador Londo Mollari to Garibaldi: "You make very good sharks, Mister Garibaldi. We were pretty good sharks too once, but somehow, along the way, we forgot how to bite."

Londo (after Garibaldi has departed): "See the great Centauri Republic! Open nine to five, Earth time!"


Generic business man to Lyta Alexander: "Some day I'm gonna find the guy who thought up the idea of renting telepaths to businessmen, and I'm gonna kill him!"

Ambassador G'Kar to Lyta, on the subject of creating a race of Narn telepaths: "Would you prefer to be conscious or unconscious during the mating? I would prefer conscious but I don't know what your... pleasure threshold is."

Londo to Garibaldi: "I suppose there will be a war now? All that running around and shooting at one another: you'd think that sooner or later it would have gone out of fashion!"

Dr. Kyle: "There are moments in your life when everything crystallises, and the whole world reshapes itself, right down to its component molecules, and everything changes. I have looked upon the face of a Vorlon, and nothing is the same anymore."

QUESTIONS????
Why does Delenn abstain from the vote to extradite Sinclair to the Vorlon homeworld? When she says she is here merely to observe, what is she watching?

What was the Minbari assassin's involvement with G'Kar? Why does he meet him in the Alien Sector (disguised as Lyta Alexander) where he tells the killer "there's been a complication"? What has he to gain from the assassination of Ambassador Kosh?

Was there a connection between the fact that the poison used on Kosh can only be found in the one sector from which Carolyn had returned? Was it merely coincidence that she arrived at the station twenty minutes before the assassination attempt?

What really happened to Sinclair at the Battle of the Line?

What did Dr. Kyle see under Kosh's encounter suit?



Next post I'll be looking at season one, though not in as much detail episode-wise, giving an overall synopsis of the season and also some pointers as to where the five-year story is going. Season one of Babylon 5 --- or at least, part one of season one, depending on how long I make it --- "Signs and portents", next.

I was actually thinking of watching the Babylon 5 series again. I'd seen a couple of seasons of it before and so seeing this has now given me the the desire to watch it again.

I haven't read your review yet, as always they're long and in-depth meaning I need to concentrate:p: But what I do remember about Babylon 5 is that the series was very original in some ways and dealt with several diverse topics quite well, I thought the concept of the world was good and the main space station seemed a damn site more impressive than that of Deep Space Nine. On the negative side though, I do remember it being a series that had some really bad actors and acting. I also remember that Bruce Boxleitner was a damn sight more charasmatic than the dull Michael O'Hare in the lead role.

First, thanks for being the first comment in my new journal! Yay! :tramp:
Second, let's first (huh?) remember that Michael O'Hare, who played Commander Sinclair, died last year, so respect for the dead first.

As to the role he played, yes he was slagged off as being stiff, wooden etc but then that is the way the character was written, and how it was supposed to be played. Possibly to give all the more effect to the later change of leadership at the station: I mean, you couldn't really come up with two more opposing leaders than Sinclair and Sheridan, could you?

But as I mentioned in the intro, B5 was the first show to really explore the story arc idea, and it did this tremendously well, in effect laying down a blueprint for many shows that were to follow. The CGI was pretty impressive too, for the time, and of course the music, courtesy of Christopher Franke from Tangerine Dream, was beautiful, sumptuous, exciting, dramatic ... everything you want in a space show, as it were.

It's sad to see how many of its stars passed away, but at least the show came to a real and logical and finite conclusion, meaning any talk of a reunion would have been unlikely. "Crusade", the spinoff, I didnt like much, though I like Gary Cole, and sadly the planned series of followups, "The lost tales", only got the one outing, which I thought was unfortunate as I really enjoyed them, and it was great to see the station again after all that time. Oh well, maybe someday we'll see a Babylon 5 movie eh?

http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/series/3/b...oduction_5.jpg

Red Dwarf stands as something of a rarity: a show that is set in space but is essentially a comedy series, while at the same time taking an (almost) serious approach to science-fiction. I don't know of any series, before or even since, that has so successfully melded the two genres into something which is so much more than the sum of its parts. Almost unique, it's certainly never been bettered, and unless you count Douglas Adams' "Hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy", nothing has even tried. And it's not because the concept was shown to be flawed, was unsuccessful or failed at what it atttemped, as Red Dwarf has gone down as both a cult sci-fi series and a cult comedy series, though in fairness the balance does tend to be heavily on the latter.

Because of its uniqueness then, it's hard to judge it, as there's no yardstick against which to measure. Most sci-fi series can be compared to the greats, like Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica, or Babylon 5 even, while there are certainly hundreds of classic comedies you can put up against any newcomer to see if they measure up. But no show has ever straddled both genres so successfully, or indeed ever, and managed not to piss off the fans of either side. Spaced comes closest, probably, but even then that's not a sci-fi series, just references popular geek culture. Red Dwarf is set IN space, on a spaceship, and though the writers were proud to proclaim that the crew never met any aliens (which they didn't, through frankly amazingly inventive storylines) or used lasers or phasers, they manage to have the same kind of adventures as Captain Picard or Buck Rogers, albeit usually with a hilarious twist.

At its core, Red Dwarf is a story about characters, indeed one man, Dave Lister, the last human left alive. As the series gets going he surrounds himself with, well, let's not call them friends, eh? He wouldn't accept that. Let's just say they're, um, people he met. If you know the series that line will carry a little more weight than it would otherwise. Through a series of unlikely mishaps, Lister has ended up three million years in the future and light-years away from Earth, and must assume that by now either the planet is toast or at least that Man has died off or destroyed himself. His only companions, as the terrible truth begins to sink in about his isolation and what he can look forward to, are a hologrammatic simulation of perhaps the man he would least have wanted to spend the rest of his life with, a creature which was once a cat but has, over millions of years, evolved into a humanoid being, though still with the intrinsic characteristics of the household moggy and who, with trademark deadpan humour and lack of inspiration Lister names Cat, and the ship's computer.

Clear so far? Well perhaps you'll begin to understand better as the series develops. Being a typical BBC programme, Red Dwarf ran in six-episode seasons, or series, so unlike the other two series I'm tackling here at the moment there are just enough episodes and not too many for me to go into each in detail. But first, the cast:

Dave Lister, Technician Third Class, played by Craig Charles
http://www.comedy.co.uk/images/libra...arf_lister.jpg

Arnold Judas Rimmer, Technician Second Class, played by Chris Barrie
http://www.whydidigowrong.co.uk/wp-c...old-rimmer.jpg

The Cat, played by Danny-John Jules
http://www.comedy.co.uk/images/libra..._dwarf_cat.jpg

Holly, the ship's computer, seventh-generation A1
http://tvtalkblog.co.uk/wp-content/u...arfholly01.jpg

Season 1: Three million years from Earth...

Episode 1: The End

It's typical of the sort of humour we would see in this series that the first episode is titled "The end", though in many ways it is. The end of Lister's old life, the end of the crew, the end of Earth. In many more ways, of course, it's the beginning. We meet Lister and Rimmer, two lowly technicians aboard the Jupiter Mining Corporation ship "Red Dwarf", whose mission is to mine planets for minerals. Lister and Rimmer have a very important role onboard the ship: they must ensure that never, on any occasion and under any circumstances, do the chicken soup vending machines run out. Rimmer is a Technician Second Class, and so slightly above Lister in the pecking order, and he makes sure to pull rank on him every opportunity he gets. Lister, a lazy, bored, lackadaisical layabout who would much rather be back in his quarters knocking back cans of beer and eating five-alarm curries, is distinctly unimpressed by his "superior", and never misses a chance to wind him up.

After a particularly heated exchange during which Rimmer puts Lister on report (for about the 8,000th time) Dave is summoned to the captain's office, where it is put to him that he has a cat, contrary ot ship's regulations and quarantine rules, which he has smuggled onboard. When he denies this, Captain Hollister (played in brilliant deadpan mode by the wonderful Mac MacDonald) produces a photograph of Lister with the cat. Lister is then told he can hand over the cat or go into stasis, forfeiting a month's pay. Loyal to his pet, Lister chooses imprisonment, and is led to the suspended animation booth, where he is locked in.

A moment later he is released and asks the computer how is it that he has been let out so quickly? Surely a month has not already elapsed? The computer, Holly, does not reply at once but directs him to decontamination procedures, after which Lister asks where everyone is, and is informed by Holly that they are all dead. Shocked, he asks what happened and the computer tells him that a radiation leak developed, killing all the crew but preserving the ship. Lister is now the only human left alive on the ship. Holly tells him he had to wait until the radiation levels had reduced to a safe point before he could let Lister out, and advises him that he was not actually in the booth for a month, but rather longer. Three million years in fact!

Lister is gobsmacked, but even more so when he realises that although he may be the last human alive on the ship, there is someone there who is not alive. Arnold Rimmer, his bunkmate and erstwhile superior, has been brought back to life by Holly as one of the ship's holograms. All members of the crew when signing onboard the ship have their identities, personalities and physical characteristics etched on a tiny microchip, which, in emergency cases, the computer is able to use to effectively bring the person back to life. It's meant to be used in situations where, for instance, the captain has been killed. He can be brought back to life and still run the ship. Or perhaps his voiceprint or handprint is needed to activate or deactivate something, and the regenerated hologram can perform this function.

Left basically in charge of the ship, Holly sees his main role (other than flying and maintaining Red Dwarf) as keeping Lister, as the last representative of humankind, alive and sane. He has deduced that the best person to do this is Rimmer, a notion Lister not surprisingly disagrees with. Rimmer is quick to accuse his subordinate of being responsible for the accident, as the drive plate that blew, therby causing the radiation leak, was supposed to have been worked on by the two of them, but as Lister was in stasis Rimmer had to attend to it himself, and did not do a very good job. Whether in truth Lister's help would have prevented this disaster is highly debatable, but Rimmer is livid a) that he is dead b) that it was Lister's fault (as he sees it) and finally c) that he has been brought back purely at Lister's behest. Dave is quick to point out that Rimmer is the last person he would want to see, three milllion years of isolation or not, but before they can get into too much of an argument they are joined by a strange creature...

Having never given up his cat, Lister ensured that the animal lived on and thrived, breeding (although with what we're not told, as it's supposed to have been the only cat onboard!) and raising a whole colony of cats, who over the passage of millennia and without human intervention have now evolved to an upright, homo sapiens creature. They retain the basic mannerisms and idiosyncasies of the domestic cat though: they drink milk, clean themselves with their tongues, are exceedingly fastidious and highly arrogant and self-centred, and have the quick reflexes of their feline ancestors. Amazed at the creature, Lister calls it Cat and they become friends, in time allies of a sort against Rimmer.

Having come out of a three-million-year sleep, which was supposed to have only lasted one month, and found everyone he cared about dead, the human race in all likelihodo extinct and his only real friend a walking, talking descendant of his cat, Lister tells Holly to set a course for Earth, to see if he can make it back home.

And with that, a TV legend is born!

Best lines/quotes/scenes:
Note: Much of this is from memory, but some has been taken verbatim from the Red Dwarf Scripts at Pattycakes' Home Page, to whom I offer thanks.


Lister and Rimmer in the first scene. Lister is smoking a cigarette.
Rimmer: "Lister, is that a cigarette?" Lister: "No, it's a chicken!"

The Cat, on discovering there is a crease in his flash suit, produces a tiny iron and treats it with the exclamation "Whoa! Crease!"

On being released from stasis, Dave is told by Holly that all the crew are dead. The conversation runs like this:
Lister: "So where is everyone, Holly?"
Holly: "They're dead, Dave."
Lister: "Who is?"
Holly: "Everybody, Dave."
Lister: "What? Captain Hollister?"
Holly: "Everybody's dead Dave."
Lister: "Toddhunter?"
Holly: "Everybody's dead, Dave."
Lister: "What, Selby?"
Holly: "They're all dead Dave. Everybody's dead, Dave."
Lister: "Peterson isn't, is he?"
Holly: "Everybody's dead, Dave!"
Lister: "Not Chen?"
Holly: "Gordon Bennet! Yes, Chen. Everybody. Everybody's dead, Dave!"
Lister: "Rimmer?"
Holly: "He's dead Dave. Everybody is dead. Everybody is dead, Dave."
Lister: "Wait. Are you tryin' to tell me everyone is dead?"
Holly: "Should never have let him out!"

Lister is called to the captain's office:
Captain Hollister: "Lister, where's the cat?"
Lister: "What cat?"
Hollister: "Lister, not only are you stupid enough you bring an unquarantined animal on board, and jeopardise every man and woman on this ship, but you take a photograph of yourself with the cat, and send it to be developed in the ship's labs! Now I ask you one more time, have you got a cat?"
Lister: No.
Hollister (displaying a photo of a smiling Lister with a black cat in his arms) "Have you got a cat?"
Lister: "Oh yeah, that one. Sir, just suppose I had a cat --- just suppose! --- what would you do with Frankenstein?"
Hollister: "I would send it down to the medical centre and have it cut up and tests run on it."
Lister: "Would you put it back together when you'd finished?"
Hollister: "Lister! The cat would be dead!"
Lister: "So with respect Sir, what's in it for the cat?"

Lister's plan is just hilarious. He and Rimmer are discussing their career options in their quarters, where much of the best banter of the first and second season will take place. Rimmer wants to become an officer, rise up through the ranks, though he has a snowball's chance in Hell of even coming close to this ambition as he can't even pass the flight navigation exam, and he's taken it nine times. Lister, however, is more sanguine.

Lister: "I've got me plan."
Rimmer: "What's that, the plan to be the slobbiest entity in the entire universe?"
Lister: "No. Me five-year plan. You see, I'm going to do two more trips. And I've been saving up all me pay--"
Rimmer: "Since when?"
Lister: "Since always. That's why I never buy any soap or deodorant or socks or anything like that, you know. Anyway, I'm going to buy meself a little farm on Fiji. And I'm going to get a sheep and a cow, and breed horses."
Rimmer: "With a sheep and a cow?"
Lister: "No, with horses and horses!"
Rimmer: "On Fiji?"
Lister: "Yeah! The prices there are unbelievable!"
Rimmer: "Yes, because they had a volcanic eruption and now most of Fiji's three feet below sea level!"
Lister: "It's only three feet. They can wade. That's why the animals are gonna have to be quite tall..."
Rimmer: "Nice plan, Lister. Excellent plan! Brilliant plan, Lister! What about the sheep? What are you going to do, buy them water-wings? Fit them with stilts? Better still, you could cross-breed them with dolphins and have leaping mutton. (Gesturing with his pen to represent a woolly dolphin leaping out of the water) Baa, splash, baa, splash!"
Lister: "You can get a drainage grant these days."
Rimmer: "Why bother, Lister? You could be the first man to produce wet-look knitwear."
Lister: "Look, this is why I never ever said anything to you, 'cause I knew you'd say something like this."
Rimmer: "Lister, you've got the brain of a cheese sandwich. (Miming a swimmer and putting on a country farmer's voice) "Mornin', Farmer Lister! I'm just poppin' down to the shops in my submarine. Can I buy you anything?"


Just having been released from stasis, Lister is sitting at the com deck, idly fiddling with some pools of what appears to be baking soda. "And why is it so dirty around here Hol? What is this stuff", he asks Holly, "It's all over the place. " Holly replies "That is Catering Officer Olaf Peterson." Lister jumps back, having been tasting the stuff on his tongue; he spits the powder out. "Urgh! I've been eating half the crew! And what about Krissie? What about Krissie Kochanski?" Holly tells him she's also dead (a fact Lister seems to be having trouble accepting). Lister is devastated. "Oh hey no. She was part of my plan" he says morosely. "I never actually got around to telling her, but she was going to come with me to Fiji. She was going to wear a white dress and ride the horses, and I was gonna take care of everything else. I was me plan. I planned it." Holly shrugs. He has no shoulders, being just the representation of a giant bald head, but you get the idea. "Well," he says philosophically, "she won't be much use to you on Fiji now. Not unless it snows and you need something to grit the path with!"

Rimmer studies... something...
Rimmer is studying for his astro-navigation exam, and is not confident. In fact, he knows bugger-all. The last time he took the exam, according to Lister, he write "I am a fish" five hundred times on the paper, did a funny little dance and fainted. To counteract this, he has written all the relevant information on his hands, arms, legs, and any spare scrap of skin he can write on. He is now reading it as Lister sleeps.

Rimmer: "Right. They're bound to ask the right thigh, which is 10 per cent. They must ask the left thigh, which is 20 per cent. They've got to ask one of the forearms. Which means I've passed already! Anything on the left shin's a bonus!
(Looking at one arm) Right. CUTIE: Current under tension is ... what's this? Current under tension is equal? Current under tension is expandable? Current under tension is expensive? What does this mean? (Beginning to panic) What does any of it mean? I've covered my body in complete and utter and total absolute nonsense gibberish! Aaaargh!
Just relax, relax, relax, relax--"

Lister, sleeping in the top bunk, is woken up by Rimmer's raving. Rimmer
notices and makes an effort to appear calm.

Rimmer: "Er, plus 20 per cent of the ship's course minus the Pythagoras theorem multiplied by two over the X axis minus one equals the total velocity of Red Dwarf, which means I know everything about astro-engineering. Good morning, Lister, for probably the last time."
Lister: "You've got it all down, have you, Rimmer?"
Rimmer: "Couple of blanks, (slapping his buttocks) but I think we're there."
Lister: "So you can't remember anything?"
Rimmer: "Think what you will, Lister."
Lister: "Rimmer, F-I-S-H, that's how you spell "fish." Then you just keel over. I'm sure it'll all come flooding back to you."

Guess what I had no idea that Michael O'Hare had died until I saw this:( He wasn't very old at all.

No, sadly it was a heart attack that took him. Richard Biggs (Dr Franklin) and Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar) also RIP. :(

http://s5.postimg.org/xv0u0fgwn/cpb5.png
Season One: "Signs and portents" (Part one)

It was the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind, ten years after the Earth/Minbari War. The Babylon Project was a dream given form. Its goal: to prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call, home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs and wanderers. Humans and aliens wrapped in two million five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last, best hope for peace.

This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258, the name of the place is Babylon 5.

As I mentioned in the introduction, Babylon 5 was conceived as a five-year story arc, both in the show's fictional universe, and in the real world. The series would run over five seasons from 1993 to 1998, and each of the five season was subtitled, with a tagline that gave some clue as to the part it would play in the overall story arc. Season one, with its title of "Signs and portents", alluded strongly to the placing of the pieces on the chessboard, as it were; the drawing of battlelines, the arrangement of characters and plot elements, and hidden and not so hidden clues within the episodes that would point to a greater, overall truth which would come to drive the whole plot. Not every episode in every season advances or even contributes to the main story arc, and season one more than most, as it was here that the very skeleton of the plot was being built. But the signs are there, if you know where to look for them. Or have someone to point them out to you.

But first, there have been some character changes, as mentioned in the intro to "The Gathering". Let's take a look at the important ones.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...B5_ivanova.jpg
Lieutenant Commander Susan Ivanova (played by Claudia Christian)
Replacing the (I thought) somewhat wooden and one-dimensional Laurel Takashima from the film, Ivanova is the new second-in-command on the station. She is of Russian descent, and as such can be seen to be quite cold and clinical as she goes about her duties. She has a softer side, though she hardly ever lets anyone see it. She will become indispensable as the commander's right hand throughout most of the series.

http://www.scifiupdates.com/main/ima...5/franklin.jpg
Doctor Stephen Franklin (played by Richard Biggs, RIP)
Having seen what lies beneath a Vorlon's encounter suit in the movie, Dr. Kyle is recalled to Earth, and Franklin is sent as his replacement to Babylon 5, where he assumes the post of Chief Medical Officer. His outspoken ways and often arrogant belief in himself and in his abilities tends to land him in trouble with the commander, but he's fiercely loyal and dedicated to his vocation.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...liaWinters.jpg
Talia Winters (played by Andrea Thompson)
As the second resident commercial telepath on the station, Talia replaces Lyta Alexander, whose fate we learn some time later on, and which will have another big effect on the storyline. Talia, too, will impact on the plot, though her part will end, coming to critical mass as it were, near the end of season two. After that, there will be no third telepath, at least, not officially.

Vir Kotto (usually known only as Vir, and played by Stephen Furst)
Attache to Ambassador Mollari, Vir is a young, impressionable Centauri with a great sense of duty, and eager to please his new employer. He sees his posting to Babylon 5 as a great honour, though Londo tells him it is the joke job handed out to those among their people the Court can't find a proper place for. Vir will soon lose his childlike wonder though, and become both a staunch ally and later a vehement opponent of Londo, while carving his own name in Centauri history.

Lennier (played by Bill Mumy)
A man those who watched the sixties sci-fi classic show "Lost in space" will know as Will Robinson, Mumy plays attache to Delenn, the Minbari ambassador. But just as Vir's fate will take him places he could never have guessed at, Lennier's place in galactic history is also assured. He is devoted to Delenn, later revealing that he is in fact in love with her.

Na'Toth (played by Julie Caitlin Brown, later Mary Kay Adams)
And just as the other two ambassadors have attaches, so must G'Kar. His aide comes in the form of Na'Toth, a determined, fierce female Narn who initially makes no secret of her dislike of her new employer, but whom she eventually becomes fast friends with.

1.1 "Midnight on the firing line"

Season one opens on "Midnight on the firing line", with a "Bay of Pigs"-style standoff as Ragesh 3, a Centauri agricultural colony is attacked by persons unknown and destroyed, persons who later turn out to Narns, reigniting the still simmering enmity between the two races' ambassadors on Babylon 5. Londo Mollari accuses his opposite number of attacking a defenceless station, while G'Kar sneers that during the war against them Londo's people had no such qualms, and subjugated whoever and whatever they saw fit. Londo warns that if his nephew, who was stationed at the colony, is harmed, there will be war between the two races.

This is a key element of the show, as in later sf series: war is always looming, seemingly imminent and unavoidable. Man's lust for power and territory and his taste for combat (when I say "man" I refer to all races, obviously, not just humans: the aliens have sadly just as little control over their emotions and their desires as we often have) drives him to fight his neighbour, take his lands --- or in this case, his planet(s) and/or system(s), and it seems there will never truly be a lasting peace. Old grievances are harboured, old hatreds merely pushed down, never forgotten, never forgiven, and everyone puts on the face of the diplomat. But behind that cheerful, often bland and dishonest mask hides the true nationalist, who is ready to avenge past wrongs and bring down bloody retribution on his old enemy.

Other plot strands begin to develop here too: we see the new station telepath, Talia Winters, who reports to the new station second-in-command, Russian-born Lieutenant Commander Susan Ivanova, but is brushed off rudely by the officer. There doesn't seem to be any real reason for this; perhaps Ivanova is just naturally rude? As the series develops, we come to see that yes, in general she is short and curt with people, intolerant of incompetence and unforgiving to those who break the rules, but there is a deeper reason behind her dislike for Winters. It goes to the heart of who and what Talia is, and will be part of a major revelation later. What we do learn here is that at the end of the episode, when Talia speaks to Susan off-duty, Ivanova reveals that her mother was a telepath, but refused to join the Psi Corps, as all telepaths are required to do. Her only other two choices were to go to prison or to take inhibitory drugs, which she did. The drugs however had a terrible effect on her and led to her taking her own life. Ivanova has always therefore blamed Psi Corps for her mother's death.

Then there's the presidential race back on Earth. The incumbent, Luis Santiago, is being challenged by Marie Crane, whom some give a better chance than she's expected to have. Sinclair is watching the election campaign from Babylon 5, mindful that Earthgov, the seat of authority on the home planet, pay the bills and keep the lights on at the station. Without its continued support Babylon 5 can no longer function and would have to be shut down, so it's important to him that whoever occupies the position of power looks upon the station favourably. He seems disappointed at the end of the episode when it's clear the incumbent has won the election. This may seem odd in the light of later events.

Important plot arc points:

Londo vs G'Kar/Centauri vs Narn
Arc level: Red
This is an ongoing struggle between the two races which will have a massive effect on both of them in the future, and also on the wider galaxy. The argument between the two ambassadors over the taking of Ragesh 3 escalates to a point where they have to be separated, and later Londo plots to kills G'Kar, but more than that, Londo has had a dream. He tells Sinclair that the Centauri are able to see their own death in dreams, and he has seen himself, many years hence, squeezing the life out of G'Kar as the Narn strangles him back, and he knows the two will eventually kill each other. This, too, will turn out to be so much more than it seems on the surface. Also, as the series progresses, there will be no clear good or bad guy, loyalties and sympathies will shift like desert sands, and it will become hard to know who is in the right, for a long time.

Kosh:
Arc Level: Red
The enigmatic Ambassador Kosh is the first Vorlon to venture beyond his home planet, and like the Minbari in the pilot movie, he seems more inclined to hold a watching brief than get involved in any of the politics of the station. When Sinclair asks for his help in sanctioning the Narns for invading Ragesh 3, his reply is "They are a dying people. We should let them pass," to which Sinclair, confused, asks "Who? The Narn or the Centauri?" Kosh's answer is one that will become typically ambiguous and mysterious: "Yes", he says.

Telepaths and Psi Corps:
Arc Level: Orange
The revelation that Ivanova's mother was a telepath is a relatively minor one, considering what is to come, and Talia Winters has a huge role to play that will only become clear near the end of season two. Psi Corps itself will become more involved and entangled with the affairs of the station, proving themselves at times a deadly enemy, not only to Babylon 5, but to all races.

The presidential race:
Arc Level: Red
Although merely a footnote to the story here, the leadership on Earth will turn out to be a pivotal point which will run through the end of season two and right into season four, laying down some totally jaw-dropping moments on the way. The end of this season will see the beginning of that seachange, and it will not be for the better!

1.2 "Soul hunter"

In episode two we meet the alien race known as "soul hunters", in fact the episode is titled for them. They are a mysterious cadre of beings who can sense death, and travel to where the great and the good pass on, to harvest their souls by ways shrouded in ancient mystery and myth. One comes to the station but his ship was on a collision course as he had passed out. When the ship is taken inside and the pilot transferred to Medlab, Delenn comes in and sees the creature, shrinks back and advises Sinclair to send the Soul Hunter back where it came from.

This turns out to be good advice, because it's Delenn the alien has come for, and he manages to abduct her and hooks her up to a machine which will suck out her life-essence and transfer her soul to his keeping. Sinclair however rescues her and the Soul Hunter's comrades, who have come looking for him, believing him deranged, take him back with them.

This is the first time we meet the new Chief Medical Officer, Doctor Franklin. He and Sinclair will butt heads many times, over many issues, but will remain good friends. He will remain on the station until the last episode, and will play a large part in the overall story arc.

Important plot arc points
This episode does not have too many, but there are a few that will link into the main arc.

Satai Delenn:
Arc Level: Green
Sinclair hears the Soul Hunter call Delenn this, and wonders what it means. He asks the computer to look it up and finds it to be an honorific used in the Minbari tongue which refers to a member of the Grey Council, the ruling body of their people. He is surprised, as Delenn has never mentioned, nor made any allusions towards being a member of the Grey Council. As far as he knows, she is simply a government functionary, an ambassador assigned to Babylon 5. Could she have a dark secret?

Also, linked to this:
"They are using you!"
Arc Level: Red
The Soul Hunter tells Sinclair this, and asks why he is fighting for the ambassador? How can he know such a thing, and if by "they" he means the Minbari, what are they allegedly using him for? And why? To what end?

"We were right":
Arc Level: Red
When Sinclair rescues her at the last moment, Delenn breathes "I knew you would come. We were right about you." Sinclair wonders what she meant, but this will all be tied in to the revelation as to what happened at the Battle of the Line, and why the Minbari surrendered on the eve of their victory.

1.3 "Born to the Purple"

In episode three we learn a little more about the workings of the Centauri court. Londo has fallen in love with a dancer, Adira, who is a Centauri, but it turns out she is a slave, being used by an alien who has a grudge against Mollari and wants to discredit him and bring his house down. When he realises he has been played, Londo is more anguished than angry, as he had really fallen for the girl. After the slavemaster is defeated and arrested, and Londo's sensitive files (Purple Files) are recovered, Mollari arranges for Adira to be freed of her slave contract. She is now a free woman, and he sends her on her way, hoping she will one day return to him.

In a subplot, Garibaldi traces unauthorised communications which lead him to inadvertently eavesdrop on the final converation between Ivanova and her dying father back on Earth. As he watches on helplessly, the man dies and Ivanova cries. He switches the channel off, knowing that it will not be compromised again, but feeling terrible for the stricken woman.

Best lines:
With a dog of a hangover, Londo is "unwell" and sends Vir to be his representative in the negotiations with G'Kar and Sinclair. Excited and honoured, Vir says he will do Londo proud. Mollari's groaning retort is "Just don't give away the homeworld!" When Vir enters the chamber and G'Kar sees Londo is not coming, he takes umbrage and nominates Ko'Dath, his new head of security, as his representative. Equally honoured, she declares she will endeavour to do well, to which G'Kar laconically replies "Just don't give away the homeworld!"

Important Arc Plot Points:
Although there is really only the one in this episode, it's quite important.
Adira Tyree:
Arc Level: Red
The relationship between Londo and Adira will later be exploited to tragic effect, in order to manipulate the Centauri ambassador and push him into making a decision he will forever regret, and which will have dire consequences for every living being in that part of the galaxy.

1.4 "Infection"

Next up is "Infection", and there's nothing to say about it. It's a throwaway episode, hardly worthy of JMS's writing, in fact it's so bad you'd be fooled into thnking he didn't write it. But he did. It's worse than the worst Star Trek episode you've ever seen, almost B-movie material about an alien device that attaches itself to a host body and becomes a weapon. Yawn! Even the presence of the magnificent David McCallum ("Man from UNCLE", "The invisible man", "Sapphire and Steel") can't drag this out of the cesspool it inhabits. JMS has even been quoted as saying "What was I thinking?" It's just that bad.

The only real point of interest in it is the first mention is ISN, the InterStellar Network, the news channel who will become both a friend and a foe of the crew of Babylon 5 as the series runs on. Other than that, if you're watching for the first time and want to skip it, you'll miss nothing by doing so. Even Sinclair's speech at the end, about why mankind must go to the stars, seems stilted and forced. Awful episode, but in fairness, one of the very few bad eggs.

Important Plot Arc Points:
None.

I wanted to go ahead to the next episode but it will take me over the maximum allowed characters per post, so that will have to wait for part two of season one. If this has whetted your appetite for the series and you intend now watching it, you can get by without any major shocks coming from this article, nor probably the next, but after that you need to stop if you don't want to ruin the surprises, twists and revelations yet to come.

Remember, you have been warned!

I never realized that so many stars from the series had passed away. Richard Biggs was only 44! Also Andreas Katsulas I didn't know about and he was certainly the best known of the actors that passed away as he had a lot of good supporting credits over the years both in cinema and TV.

I've just watched "The Gathering" and read your review afterwards. All I will say is that your review is superb and serves as a perfect intro for anybody wanting to get into the series but without spoiling anything. As I said before I'd seen the first three seasons but had forgotten a lot of the stuff. I should be going through the first season very soon.

This is a superb journal, keep it up.....which I know you will of course.

There is a certain amount of corniness and even a dated feel about Babylon 5and it has some poor script work and acting BUT the concept is great, there are some smart and funny lines and most importantly it all hangs together very well.

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Prologue: "Looks like we've got some work to do!"

How would you feel if you knew your father was a demon-hunter? That he hunted actual, real, honest to --- well, not God obviously, but real demons from the pit of Hell? To even know such things actually existed would surely fry your mind and freeze your blood. But once you'd got over such fears and doubts, what would you do? Would you follow in his footsteps, or be so scared that you'd move far away?

When Dean and Sam Winchester were children a demon came for them. At the opening of the series we have no idea why, but we can see that the demon is one BAD mofo! He takes on the form of the father, and approaches the baby, Sam, who cries and alerts his mother. She comes in, takes in the scene and lunges at the demon --- whom she had taken originally to be her husband --- but is pinned to the ceiling and the demon vanishes. As John Winchester looks on in horror, his wife bursts into flame, and unable to help her he has to rush his two children out of the house as it begins to burn around their ears. He just barely gets them to safety.

Twenty-two years later and the boys have grown, but chosen separate paths in life. Sam has gone to college, is engaged to a girl and is studying for a law degree, trying to put the traumatic events of the past behind him. Having been a baby at the time he doesn't remember much, though Dean has told him what happened. As the older brother, Dean has elected to help his father track down the demon that killed their mother, and the two brothers have not seen each other for some time.

This, then, is the premise to Supernatural, an incredibly well-written, deep and intelligent fantasy series that really begins almost as a "monster of the week" show, but soon develops into so much more. There is a complicated and involved story arc running through the series, the main element of which is the reason why the demon wanted to abduct Sam, what his connection with the Winchester family is, and how many more of his type there are. Supernatural will be one of those rising breed of shows where you can never be one hundred percent certain that anyone, even the lead characters, are going to survive from week to week. Everyone's a target, and although, being fantasy, it's possible to sidestep death and find ways to bring people back, you just never know...

One of the huge selling points of Supernatural was and is its lead actors, two very handsome and personable guys in Jared Padalecki and Jensen Eckles, who surely got the hearts of most of the ladies (and maybe some of the lads!) all a-flutter when the series hit the network in 2005. There hadn't to my knowledge been any other show of this nature that had two male leads, and it was definitely their charm and charisma, and the chemistry between the two, that got the show on its feet and kept it on the air through the first mostly shaky season.

At its heart, Supernatural is a show about family, about devotion, and about revenge too. It's also about doing the right thing. Most of the creatures Dean and Sam track down through the first and second seasons have little or nothing to do with their mother's death (and later, Sam's financee's) but the brothers know these things are evil and must be dealt with, so they become freelance demon hunters, seeking out these horrors by way of newspaper reports, rumours and later, information garnered from like-minded individuals and allies, and in the process help people they don't even know.

But what holds the series together and stands it apart from a whole slew of monster/horror/fantasy themed shows is the bond between the two brothers. As the elder, Dean has always had to look out for Sam, especially when their father has disappeared for months at a time, chasing down the demon that killed his wife and looking for his own personal salvation. Dean can be reckless though, and oftentimes the roles get turned around, and it's more often the level-headed Sam that has to look after him. But when the brothers work as a unit, demons beware!

Another great thing about Supernatural, which will be of particular interest to those reading, is the terrific music they use in the show. Mostly classic rock, you'll hear some of the greats, and unlike many shows that use "indie" rock (usually angsty ballads) as their backdrop, Supernatural gives you the clear impression that the show could have easily been produced in the seventies, as most of the music comes from around that time. As I go through the episodes/seasons, I'll note what music is used in each episode, and if possible include a video.

Supernatural is interesting in many ways, not least the fact that it really concentrates on just the two brothers. There are others who come in from time to time, but the show revolves completely around Dean and Sam, and generally any extra characters who appear are for that episode only, at least in the beginning. Later, as the seasons develop and the brothers begin to meet and make allies in the world of demon hunting, some characters do recur, with the odd one staying on almost as a supporting character.

Without then giving away too much about the show, it begins as a basic monster hunt, although even then the episodes are pretty much really great, then widens its scope as the main story arc begins to kick in. It's only then that you truly start to appreciate what a powerful and sublime series it really is. It's still running at the time of writing, in its eighth season, said to be its last. I have only caught up with it as far as season three, so after I've encapsulated the first two seasons for you, we'll be discovering the rest together for the first time.

Like Babylon 5, Supernatural is the creation and vision of one person, Eric Kripke, who up until this series premiered was known for little other than the rather low budget horror film "Boogeyman". It's interesting, looking at the synopsis for the first movie, how elements from it would filter into the creation of his hit series. We'll discuss these in the next post. He remains the driving force behind the series, piloting it through its first five-year arc, after which it's said by critics it lost its way but recovered after season six. I don't know as I have not seen it that far, but we'll find out. All indications are that this is the final season though and that it looks on course to end strongly.

Coming soon(ish) to this theatre!
 

Just to give you a sense of what's to come, and some hope or interest to those of you who are not science-fiction fans, this is a shortlist --- well, a relatively long list, but you get the idea ---- of programmes I intend to cover in the coming, well, years I guess. The thing is, each series will take a while to do, and I want to do them properly, not just skim through them, so this whole journal is without question going to be spread out over a number of years, meaning some of the suggested series below may not surface in this journal until next year or even the year after that. But I'll try to keep everything interesting and fresh, and fit as many new series in as often as I can, around the edges of my other two journals. Oh yeah, and my life.

At any rate, here are the ones I'm considering covering. Anything bolded is a definite. Please note I won't be reviewing series I haven't seen (obviously) and in general although I will fit in a few that are current (maybe more than a few: there are some great series on at the moment), mostly they'll be ones that have completed their run on TV. I've decided in general to stay away from comedy shows, at least those that use visual impact to get the laughs, as I think these might be difficult to translate through to the written word. Some exceptions will probably be allowed, but only ones I think are appopriate and that I think I can handle. Also, some documentary/reality-style shows may make it through: I haven't quite decided that yet. Anyone for the Apprentice? ;)

So then, the list. These are not in order, though they may end up being approached that way. I've added a quick description of each, in case you're not familiar with any of them. I've noted the main actor/actress, how long the series ran/is running for, whether it's UK or US, or other and anything else that might be of help. Although over here we use series rather than seasons, I'm just sticking with the latter to describe a full run of episodes, rather than get confused hopping between the two. Anyway, I always considered series to be the overall show itself, as in Doctor Who is a series, with so many seasons...

Spooks (UK) --- Drama series concerning MI5, the British Secret Service. One of the most outstanding and inventive spy series ever, with some amazing scenarios and the clear intention of leaving no character safe from being killed off, no matter their popularity or status. Makes "24" look like "Baywatch" at times! 10 full seasons, now finished. Main star: Peter Firth as Sir Harry Pearce.

Farscape (Australia) --- Science-fiction series about an American astronaut who is hurled off course and into a distant part of the galaxy, where he must fight to survive, making alliances and enemies and trying to discover a way home. Features the characters from Jim Henson's Creature Shop, and written by sci-fi legend Rockne S. O'Bannon. 4 full seasons, plus one TV movie to wrap everything up nicely. Completed now. Main star: Ben Browder as John Crichton.

Love/Hate (Ireland) --- Yeah, Ireland! We're proving we can produce some pretty fine drama, none better than this gritty, realistic look at the criminal underworld in Dublin. Not quite the Sopranos, but it's a tough, harrowing drama following the fortunes of a local gang who believe most if not all disputes are handled at the barrel of a gun. Three seasons and counting, last one to date just finished a month ago. Main star: Robert Sheehan as Darren Treacy, who you may know from "Misfits".

Futurama (USA) --- What's not to like? Hilarious animated show from the creator of the Simpsons, set in the thirtieth century, but proving that people don't get any brighter in a thousand years. Great characters including Bender the alcoholic robot, Leela the one-eyed alien and Fry the delivery boy from the 21st century. Seven seasons, despite cancellation after the fifth, and still going strong. Main star: Billy West as Fry.

Sleeper Cell (USA) --- Another show that gave "24" a run for its money, but got little or no press or recognition, Sleeper Cell was a much more pragmatic approach to the idea of terrorist cells in America, with a CIA operative going deep undercover to try to infiltrate one such cell. It was gritty and uncompromising, and didn't feature a countdown clock. Only ran for two seasons, with the last one more than likely to have ended any possibility of future seasons, though there's always hope. Main star: Michael Ealy as Darwyn Al-Sayeed.

The Onedin Line (UK) --- Period drama from the BBC, set in Liverpool in the nineteenth century and chronicling the exploits of the titular James Onedin, from simple sea captain to shipping magnate, against the bustling backdrop of sea trade during the 1860s. A family drama and an action drama, and my all-time favourite show. Ever. Eight seasons, which ran during the 1970s and early 80s. Main star: Peter Gilmore as James Onedin.

The House of Cards trilogy (UK) --- Based on the hugely successful novels of Michael Dobbs, this three-programme series takes a look into the darker corners of the corridors of power, where we see a humble minister in the English government rise to become Prime Minister, and the lengths he will go to in order to keep his hold on power, and prevent his awful past from being revealed to the public. In three parts, as I say, titled in order "House of cards", "To play the king" and "The final cut", this is perhaps one of the most incisive and biting political dramas you are likely to see. Politics laid bare, greed, corruption, murder and powerplays; all the great elements of a Shakespearian tragedy, without the boring archaic English references. Main star: Sir Ian Richardson (RIP) as Francis Urquhart.

Robin of Sherwood (UK) --- The tale of the archer from the Greenwood has been told many times, often badly, sometimes well, but nobody ever got it as spot-on as HTV's "Robin of Sherwood". Mixing pagan magic, legend and historical fiction with just the right amount of drama and a touch of humour, this show still stands as the yardstick against which all future shows regarding Robin Hood would be measured, most if not all falling far short. With a mesmerising soundtrack by Irish band Clannad, the celtic influence in Robin of Sherwood can't be overstated. Three seasons in total. Main star: Micheal Praed (and later, Jason Connery) as Robin.

Brimstone (USA) --- So you think "Reaper" is original, do you? Well, a decade before that was even on the drawing board, "Brimstone" was running, with its premise of returning a cop who has died and gone to Hell, in order to capture a bunch of souls who have escaped too, and return them to the Pit. Should he succeed, he will be brought back to life. The series only ran for one season before being cancelled, a fact that has always stuck in my throat, as I consider it one of the best series ever made. Main star: Peter Horton as Ezekiel Stone, though really it's John Glover as the Devil who steals the show.

Lilyhammer (Norway) --- Whoever had the inspired idea of taking a Mafia criminal from the US and transplanting him to a little town in Norway deserves a reward, because the whole fish-out-of-water series is hilarous, endearing, enthralling and engaging as Frank "The Fixer" Tagliano becomes Giovanni "Johnny" Henriksen, and tries to settle down in Lillehammer, but soon starts shaping life in the sleepy town to the sort of thing he's used to, running into trouble with the local law and becoming once again a big fish in a very small pond. Only the one season so far, but another is promised. Main star: Steve Van Zandt as Frank/Johnny (Yeah, that one!)

Game of Thrones (USA) --- Do I need to talk about this? George RR Martin's book cycle, "A song of ice and fire" comes to the TV screen with graphic sex and violence, a warts-and-all series that pulls no punches in any way, and was probably, when it was screened at the time, the best thing on telly anywhere. Find anyone --- even someone not into fantasy --- who hasn't seen it, and I'll send you a million Euro. Okay then, one Euro. Seriously, I'm sure everyone watched this. Two seasons to date as we wait for the third to start in a few months time. Main star: Sean Bean as Neddard "Ned" Stark.

True Blood (USA) --- Vampires in the deep south! Based on the novels of Charlaine Harris, this series follows the adventures of a vampire and his lover in the sleepy litlte town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, as each learns the other's secrets and evils both small and apocalyptic threaten their home town. Graphic and violent with a ton of sex, it's another one that most people have probably seen. Now moving into its sixth season. Main star: Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse.

The New Statesman (UK) --- Comedy legend Rik Mayall puts on a straight face and yet manages to pull of some of his funniest moves in a series lampooning the Conservative Party and politics. Mayall is Alan Beresford B'Stard, a right-wing Tory politician who will stop at nothing to get his way. Money is what he craves, and women. And power. His machinations are just breathtakingly satirical, and he plays the part with a machivellian delight you would have thought not to see from the man who brought us such characters as Ritchie Rich and Rick from the Young Ones. Four seasons, with two special extra episodes. Main star: Rik Mayall as Alan Beresford B'Stard, MP.

Rome (UK/USA) --- Brutal retelling of the time of gladiators and senators, emperors and wars, as two ex-gladiators try to make their way through their tough lives while getting tangled up in historical events. The show was noted for not only its explicit violence (probably a precursor to the likes of "Spartacus" series) but also for the fact that its main characters were all loosely based on real figures of ancient antiquity. Rome ran for two seasons only. Main star(s): Kevin McKidd as Lucius Vorenus and Ray Stevenson as Titus Pullo.

Blood Ties (Canada) --- Another vampire series, this follows something that would become a bit of a trend and had already started with another Canadian series, "Forever knight", in that it features a vampire who assists the main character in her police work. It only ran for the two seasons, was pretty much blasted by the critics, and yet they loved the vastly inferior and quite similar "Moonlight"? Main star: Christina Cox as Victoria "Vicki" Nelson.

Life on Mars/Ashes to ashes (UK) --- One of the most inventive and interesting shows of the period, "Life on Mars" follows present-day cop Sam Tyler as he is somehow sent back in time to the seventies, where not only does he have to deal with "old" cop behaviour, but he must also ascertain if this is all a dream, and if so, how he can wake up? The followup series, "Ashes to ashes", did not feature Sam but concentrated on his workmates back in the 1970s, concentrating on his old boss. "Life on Mars" ran for two seasons, "Ashes to ashes" for three. Main star: (LoM) John Simm as Sam Tyler (A2A) Phil Glenister as Gene Hunt.

Spaced (UK) --- One of the few times when I will break my rule about comedy shows (yes, I know I said "The New Statesman" and "Futurama" are already being featured, but that's different!), I had to include one of the cleverest and seminal comedies of the very late nineties, with more pop culture references than you can throw a sealed, boxed collector's edition figurine of Boba Fett at, Spaced was the creation of then-unknown but now iconic cult star Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevens, both of whom also starred in it. It ran for two seasons.

La Femme Nikita (Canada) --- Not the current "Nikita", which is a remake/follow-on, this is the original series, based on the film, which ran up until 2001 and features Nikita, a vagabond who lives on the street and is involved in a murder, after which she finds herself in an odd organisation called Section, who train her to be an assassin and fighter, and for whom she carries out covert operations. Ran for five seasons. Main star: Peta Wilson as Nikita.

Homeland (USA) --- Based on the Israeli series "Prisoner of war", Homeland tells the tale of a soldier who is discovered alive, having been held in captivity in hostile territory by Al Qaeda, and who is feted as a war hero on his return home. But the soldier has been turned, and is working for the enemy. Only one person suspects the truth, and she is shrugged off by her superiors as she is known to have a history of mental problems. Homeland just won the Emmy for best drama a few days ago, and is currently finished its second season, with a third in the pipeline. Stars: Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody.

Ultraviolet (UK) --- Never has the subject of vampires been treated more clinically on TV. Never called vampires, but rather "Code Fives", they are hunted by a special squad of crack police formed to pursue vampires. However, one of the men on the team has, unbeknownst to all but his best friend, become a vampire himself... Ran for just the one season but was highly acclaimed. Main star: Jack Davenport as Detective Sgt Micheal Colefield.

24 (USA) --- Again, everyone is likely to know, or know of this series, which star Kiefer Sutherland and really restarted his career as the hard-as-nails Counter Terrorist Jack Bauer, who each season has to face a threat to America's security in a desperate race against the clock. 24 was innovative in its use of (apparently) real-time events, so that each episode was one hour in the twenty-four hours Bauer has to save the world, and the clock would regularly tick down onscreen as time began to run out. Series ran for eight seasons.

The booth at the end (Canada) --- An incredibly inventive and thoughtful series, which features "the man", who sits in, you guessed it, the booth at the end of a cafe. If you have a problem, go to him and he will ask you to do something, whereafter your problem will cease. But beware: he will not give you an alternative, you must do what he asks if you want your wish to come true. For some clients, it's as simple as a phone call. Others may have to build a bomb and set it off in a public place. According to him, even he doesn't know what the request is going to be, but it's not negotiable. Two seasons so far. Main star: Xander Berkeley as "The Man".

Hustle (UK) --- Welcome to the world of the con. These guys can make you part with your cash, no matter how hard it may seem. A team of grifters who don't know the meaning of the word "impossible", Hustle is a sassy, hip series that shows up the innate greed of humanity and how easy it is to use that greed to separate people from their possessions. Ran for eight seasons. Main star: Adrian Lester as Micky Bricks/Michael Stone.

Taken (USA) --- Nothing to do with the action movie starring Liam Neeson (or indeed, the second action movie, also starring Liam Neeson!) this is Steven Spielberg's sprawling drama chronicling the lives of three familes, who are all influenced one way or another by the arrival of aliens. The series runs over generations, and is in fact a miniseries, therefore just the one season. Main star: Joel Gretsch as Owen Crawford.

Hell on wheels (USA) --- Telling the story of the building of the railroad across America, and the people who were involved in it, Hell on wheels is set in the 1860s and features such themes as racial segregation, anti-Indian sentiment, greed, power and betrayal. Two seasons so far, with a third due. Main star: Anson Mount as Cullen Bohannon.

Tripping the rift (Canada) --- A gloriously irreverent, sexy and totally politically incorrect space comedy animation, Tripping the rift began life as two short internet cartoons and soon grew to a whole series. The show is based loosely around sci-fi precepts but just refuses to take itself seriously and is probably the most fun you can have while still dressed or sobre. Ran for three seasons. Main star: Stephen Root as Chode McBlob.

Forever Knight (Canada) --- Already mentioned, this follows the exploits of vampire Nicholas Knight, who in regret for his life of murder and mayhem as one of the undead seeks to atone by working for the police. He also hopes to become human again. The series ran for three seasons, and was one of the better vampire/cop crossover shows. Main star: Geraint Wyn Davies as Nicholas Knight.

Poltergeist: the Legacy (Canada) --- Nothing really to do with the horror movies of the same name, Poltergeist: the Legacy concerns the activities of a shadowy group called the Legacy, who battle supernatural evil in all its forms. Intensely mature for its time, with a very dark subtext, it's one of the best shows you've never seen. Ran for four seasons, despite being initially cancelled after the third. Main star: Derek de Lint as Derek Rayne.

Boardwalk Empire (USA) --- The prohibition era comes to life in the latest gangster show to hit the TV screens. Set in Atlantic City in the 1930s, the show follows the life of mobster Enoch "Nucky" Thompson and his cohorts as they run illegal alcohol into the city during "the dry years", using every method at their disposal to thwart the authorities as well as their rivals. Tough and violent with a soundtrack endemic to the time, it's currently in its third season and to be renewed for a fourth. Main star: Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson.

Sons of Anarchy (USA) --- Called "The Sopranos on motorcycles", it's far better than that comparison. The inhabitants of Charming, California are "protected" by the local Hell's Angels chapter, the SAMCRO, or Sons of Anarchy, who run everything from guns, drugs, prostitution and booze to keep their profit margins fat. There are however divisions among the club, with the younger generation wondering if the time has not come to have a go at being more legit? Currently in its fourth season, and already renewed for a fifth and sixth, with the real possibility of a seventh and final being commissioned. Main star: Charlie Hunnam as Jackson "Jax" Teller.

Burn Notice (USA) --- One of the funniest, smartest and slickest drama shows ever to hit the screens, Burn Notice takes us inside the world of the spy, as a disgraced agent tries to supplement his income by taking on freelance jobs while also trying to find out who "burned" him, that is, blacklisted him with the CIA. In its sixth season, with a seventh due. Main star: Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen.

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Season 1: Three million years from Earth...

Episode 2: "Future echoes"

For the first two seasons, the episode will be preceded by Holly giving a basic rundown of what happened in episode one, with a joke tagged on at the end, a different joke each episode. The usual announcement runs like this, though later the words "a hologram simulation of one of the dead crew" is changed to "a hologram simulation of his dead bunkmate".

This is an SOS distress call from the mining ship "Red Dwarf". The crew are dead, killed by a radiation leak. The only survivors were Dave Lister, who was in suspended animation during the disaster, and his pregnant cat, who was safely sealed in the hold.

Revived three million years later, Lister's only companions are a life-form who evolved from his cat, and Arnold Rimmer, a hologram simulation of one of the dead crew.

The joke: I am Holly, the ship's computer, with an IQ of 6000. The same IQ as 6000 PE teachers.

As he prepares to make the calculations for the jump to lightspeed that will help them navigate their way home, Holly tells Lister that he and the Cat must go into stasis, and Lister tells Rimmer that he has decided to go the whole hog and stay there for the entire trip home. Rimmer is not impressed, as he knows this means he'll be left alone with Holly. When Lister suggests they could just turn his hologram off for the journey, this still doesn't satisfy him. At any rate, it seems that Holly has made something of a miscalculation and they've broke the lightspeed barrier too early. As a consequence, very weird things are happening aboard the ship.

Conversations are taking place out of synchronisation, effects are being seen and felt before the cause occurs, and Holly tells Lister, Rimmer and the Cat that they are experiencing what are known as "future echoes". As they move closer to the speed of light, time speeds up, and so they begin to catch up on their future selves, seeing and experiencing events before they have actually taken place. The Cat runs by, holding his face and shouting that he's broken a tooth, and a short while later we see him fishing in Lister's fishtank, unaware the fish in there are robotic. So it's now pretty clear what's going to happen: the Cat will bite the robot fish, break his tooth and then go screaming out into the corridor, where the "other" Lister and Rimmer will see him running past. Clear? No? It gets better...

The strangest thing they see from the future is a photograph of Lister holding two babies, which certainly look to be his. When Rimmer asks how he gets two babies he grins and says "I don't know, but it's going to be fun finding out!" He's not laughing though when Rimmer calls him to say he has just seen a future echo of Lister dying! Desperate to change the future, Lister reasons that if he can stop the Cat from eating his goldfish and thereby breaking his tooth, he can cheat fate and change the outcome. Rimmer, ghoulishly delighted at the situation Lister is in (and happy that he's in no danger!) tells him it can't be done, but follows him anyway.

Although Lister manages to knock the fish out of the Cat's grip, in the ensuing fall and struggle the Cat hits his head and ... knocks his tooth out. Thus proving the old axiom that you can't change the future, it will always realign to the same outcome. Then Holly calls to say there's an emergency, and he needs help in the drive room. This is where Rimmer said he has seen Lister die, so Lister, realising you can't cheat fate after all, resigns himself to the inevitable and goes to meet his destiny.

After a tense few moments though, he fails to die and Rimmer, making no attempt to disguise his disappointment, is unable to understand it. He knows he saw Lister die, here, at this point, and yet here he is, still alive. When they return to the bunks, they're amazed to see a very old man there, who is quite obviously Lister from the far far future. He tells Lister (well, himself, but his past self, who is his present self --- don't you just love temporal paradoxes?) that it wasn't him that Rimmer saw die in the drive room, but Lister's son, Bexley. He tells Lister to run and get his camera, which he does.

On returning, the old man is gone, but in his place is a Lister not much older than the current one, holding two babies. Lister snaps a photo, and now we know where the photograph they saw in the future echo came from. But as to how Lister gets two babies without a woman on board, well that's another story and believe me, you wouldn't guess it, not if you lived to be a million!

Best lines/quotes/scenes:

Rimmer to Lister, having seen "him" die in the future echo:

Rimmer: "Brace yourself for a bit of a shock, Lister, but I just saw you die!"
Lister: "What?!"
Rimmer: "I did warn you to brace yourself."
Lister: "You didn't give me much of a chance!"
Rimmer: "I gave you ample bracing time!"
Lister: "No you didn't. You didn't even pause."
Rimmer: "Well, I'm sorry! I've just had a rather nasty experience. I have just seen someone I know die in the most hideous, hideous way!"
Lister: "Yeah! Me!"
Rimmer: "You were fiddling around with the navi-"
Lister: "I don't want to know! I don't want to know!"
Rimmer: "You don't want to know how you die?"
Lister: "No! (Pause) Was it quick?"
Rimmer: "Well, I wouldn't say it was super fast. Not if you count the thrashing around and the agonised squealing."
Lister: "You're really loving this, aren't you?"
Rimmer: "What a horrible thing to say!"
Lister: "It was definitely me?"
Rimmer: "Oh yes".
Lister: "I don't want to know. (Pause) How old did I look?"
Rimmer: "How old are you now?"
Lister: "Twenty-five. How old did I look?"
Rimmer: "Mmmm ... mid twenties."
Lister: "Smeg! I'm not ready! I'm not smegging ready!"
Rimmer: "You did seem surprised."
Lister: "Ah! Did you actually see me face?"
Rimmer: "You were wearing a hat, but it was definitely you."

The "future echo conversation" between Rimmer and Lister (and Lister)...

Lister: "Yo, Rimmer, look, I've been thinking--"
Rimmer: "What?"
Lister: "You know, about going into stasis and everything."
Rimmer: "How did I do what?"

(Rimmer walks into the middle of the room, and Lister realises that Rimmer
isn't looking at him, but at an empty spot in the air. Throughout the
following conversation, Rimmer continues ignoring Lister and talking to
thin air, while Lister is continually looking around, trying to figure
out what Rimmer thinks he's talking to.)

Lister: "What do you mean, "How did I do what?"
Rimmer: "Lister, don't be a gimboid."
Lister: "I'm not being a gimboid!"
Rimmer: "I've just been in the library, thinking. And I've decided--"

Rimmer stops as though he was interrupted, although Lister hasn't done
anything.

Rimmer: "Shut up! As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I've decided, when you go into stasis, I want to stay behind. I want to be left on."
Lister: "What, on your own for the rest of your life?"
Rimmer: "What things?"
Lister: "Eh?"
Rimmer: "I said what?"
Lister: "What's going on?"
Rimmer: "You're space crazy!"
Lister: "I'm space crazy?! You're the one who's (waving his hand in front of Rimmer's face, who doesn't notice) space crazy!"
Rimmer: "Well, it probably is deja vu. It sounds like it."

Rimmer shakes his head and leaves the Drive Room through the near door. As he leaves, a second Rimmer enters through the far door. Lister is staring after the first Rimmer, and gets a shock when he turns around and sees the second Rimmer.

Lister: (Screams) "Aaahhh! Rimmer! (Calms down a little) I've just seen you walk out of that door!"
Rimmer: (Now talking directly to Lister) "What?"
Lister: "How did you do that?"
Rimmer: "How did I do what?"
Lister: "You just this second walked out of that door."
Rimmer: "Lister, don't be a gimboid".
Lister: "I swear, on me grandmother's life, as you walked out of that door, you came in this one!"
Rimmer: "I've just been in the library, thinking. And I've decided--"
Lister: "Rimmer, I'm telling ya--"
Rimmer: "Shut up! As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I've decided, when you go into stasis, I want to stay behind. I want to be left on."

As he says this, Lister realises that he's heard all this before.

Lister: "Rimmer, you've just come in and said exactly these things."
Rimmer: "What things?"
Lister: "You said that!"
Rimmer: "I said what?"
Lister: "And that! You said that!"
Rimmer: "You're space crazy!"
Lister: "And then you said, "Well it probably is deja vu."
Rimmer: "Well, it probably is deja vu. It sounds like it."
Lister: "Well, go on then. Shake your head and walk out."

Rimmer shakes his head and walks out.

Lister's idea of freshening up (it's better visually but you'll get the general idea.)

Lister reaches under his T-shirt to scratch with one hand and sprays under his arms with the other. He picks up another spray can in his free hand and sprays his face. He suddenly realises that he's spraying his face with underarm deodorant. Cautiously reaching under his shirt, he discovers that he's been spraying shaving foam under his arms. He scrapes off a handful and slaps it on his face.

Rimmer, on the drawbacks of being dead:

Lister: "Oh, come on, Rimmer, don't give me this."
Rimmer: "Don't give you what? I'm dead, Lister, or hadn't you noticed?"
Lister: "I know you're dead, Rimmer. Don't whinge on about it!"
Rimmer: "Sorry to be a bore."
Lister: "I mean, you're everything you were when you were alive. Same personality. Same everything."
Rimmer: "Apart from the minuscule detail that I'm a stiffie."
Lister: "Look, Rimmer, death isn't the handicap it used to be in the olden days. It doesn't screw your career up like it used to."
Rimmer: "That's what they say, Lister. But if you had two people coming for a job, and one of them was dead, which one would you pick?"
Lister: "It depends which is better qualified."
Rimmer: "Bull pats! When was the last time you saw a dead newsreader?"
Lister: "Channel 27 have a hologram reading the news."
Rimmer: "Oh, groovy, funky Channel 27. Big smegging deal. You livvies hate us deadies!"

Good morning, Lister, Rimmer-style:

Rimmer: "Morning, Lister! How's life in hippie heaven, you pregnant baboon-bellied space cookie?What's the plan for the day then? Slobbing in the morning, followed by slobbing in the afternoon, then a bit of a snooze before the main evening's slob? God, you're a disgrace to the species!"

The Cat, taking only "the bare essentials" into stasis:

The Cat is wheeling a rack of clothes along and meets Lister.

CAT: (Singing) "This little kitty went into stasis. Oooo! This little kitty stayed home. Ooh! Yeah, my clothes look good."
Lister: (Laughing) "What are you doing?"
CAT: "I'm doing what you said do."
Lister: "I said, "Take a few essential basics you couldn't bear to leave behind."
CAT: "Right! These are all I'm taking. Just these, and the other ten racks. Travel light, move fast!"
Lister: "You can't take all of this. There's no room."
CAT: (Rummaging around in the rack) "OK, then I'll leave ... this!" (Pulls out a small red handkerchief.) "I'll just have to do without it."
Lister: "You can take two suits and that's it."
CAT: "Two suits? Then I'm staying!"
Lister: "You can't stay. By the time I come out, you'll be dead."
CAT: "Two suits is dead!"

Lister and Rimmer discuss the causality and the inevitability of events. Kind of. With respect to his upcoming death, as witnessed by a Rimmer barely managing to suppress his delight:

Rimmer: "Lister, it has happened. You can't change it, any more than you can change what you had for breakfast yesterday."
Lister: "Hey, it hasn't happened, has it? It has will have going to have happened happened, but it hasn't actually happened happened yet, actually."
Rimmer: "Poppycock! It will be happened; it shall be going to be happening; it will be was an event that could will have been taken place in the future. Simple as that. Your bucket's been kicked, baby!"

And before I confuse you (or myself!) any more, I'm off! More Red Dwarf in the coming days. Watch for more Babylon 5 soon, and hopefully we'll get Supernatural properly started before the week is out. Yeah. Don't hold yer breath... :D

You're going to do reviews on all these series, this is fucking amazing! If you don't include Blakes 7 then shame on you.

Yeah sorry, like I said I have to be sufficiently into the show to merit putting all that time into it, and although I loved B7 as a kid, when I rewatched it about ten or more years ago it just didn't speak to me in the same way. Some of the stories were just peurile, and the acting generally not that great. Still have a crush on Jenna though!

I've so much stacked up it'll be hard to get through it all, but I'm definitely looking forward to Spooks, Futurama, Life on Mars and Love/Hate. Sorry, can't do every show. Doctor Who I'm still considering, though only from the Christopher Eccelston era onwards if at all --- hey, ain't that interesting? Old Who could now be categorised as BCE (Before Christopher Eccleston!) :D

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Season One: "Signs and portents" (Part two)

Maybe I'm just writing too much on each episode, but each time I think I'll fit up to "that" episode in the next post, I fall one short. Which is a pity, as the one after the last one here (if you follow me) is really great and now it'll have to wait for the next update. Still, I'd rather put in too much (although I don't think it's too much: the summaries are pretty basic really) and have to do more updates than skimp and just fly through the seasons. So bear with me, those of you reading who are interested in the story. We'll get there, like Commander Sinclair says at one point, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but we'll get there...

1.5 "The parliament of dreams"

New Characters: Na'Toth, attache to Ambassador G'Kar; played by Julie Caitline Brown.
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Lennier, of the Third Fane of Chu'Domo, attache to Ambassador Delenn; played by Bill Mumy
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With the truly awful "Infection" now behind us, it's full steam ahead as we move towards the first proper "arc" episode, but this is more a gentler, standalone comedic episode really. The main plot concerns Babylon 5's first multi-cultural, multi-religious festival, during which all races who use or live on the station will be allowed to demonstrate their culture and their religion. It's an interesting idea, ending with a great comment on humanity's various religions. But though it's interesting it's also sort of boring, and the subplot is far more engaging.

Ambassador G'Kar receives word that his old enemy, D'Rog, is dying, but before he dies D'Rog has arranged for an assassin to visit Babylon 5, with the express instruction of killing him, in revenge for G'Kar's humiliating D'Rog before the Narn Council and ruining his family. He tells G'Kar he will not know the hour nor the means, and he should trust no-one. Just then his new aide Na'Toth arrives, to replace Ko'Dath, who had died in an airlock accident. G'Kar is suspicious, believing she could be the assassin, the moreso when he learns that it was indeed D'Rog who sponsored her for the post.

As G'Kar's suspicions mount, he demands Na'Toth find the courier who brought D'Rog's message to him. When the Narn, who is called Tu'Pari, is brought before G'Kar he seems to reinforce the ambassador's suspicions about his new aide, when he mentions that the message was actually given to him, after D'Rog's death, by Councillor Sha'Toth, father of his new attache. With this in mind he lets the courier go and contacts the homeworld to demand the reassignation of Na'Toth immediately. The Narn on the screen quickly agrees they will do this, and then apologises for the delay in getting the courier to him. There was an accident, he says, and they have not yet had time to find a replacement. G'Kar is mystified, until he turns and sees Tu'Pari pointing a gun at him!

He wakes to find himself shackled in electronic paingivers, which, if he comes too close to the assassin, send a shock through his system that results in crippling pain. As Tu'Pari carries out his commission, Na'Toth enters and advises him she is his backup, in case anything happens. Although skeptical about this, Tu'Pari does let his guard down enough to be attacked from behind by the furious G'Kar, and the assassin is knocked unconscious.

They must have also drugged him, because it is three days later when he awakes. G'Kar tells him that by way of recompense he has deposited a large sum of credits in Tu'Pari's personal account, which freeze the assassin's blood, as he knows the Guild he works for will see this as betrayal, and send assassins after him! He leaves in a fluster, hoping to stay ahead of whoever is now on his trail.

Important Plot Arc Points:
The Minbari Ceremony:
Arc Level: Green
During the display of Minbari religion, Sinclair and Delenn both eat a tiny red egg. Catherine Sakai tells the commander that this could possibly signify a marriage ceremony. The significance of this will be seen in later seasons.

Satai Delenn:
Arc Level: Orange
In a follow-on from "Soul hunter", Lennier on first meeting Delenn greets her as "Satai Delenn", but she quickly hushes him, saying that no-one on Babylon 5 must know she is of the Grey Council. This then confirms the snippet of information Sinclair retrieved at the end of that episode, and shows that Delenn is more than just an mere alien ambassador.

Quotes:

Probably the best part of the episode is the second opening scene, where we see Ambassador G'Kar making his dinner, and as he cooks, he SINGS! The song goes like this: "I'm thinking of thinking of calling her right after my afternoon nap. I'm thinking of thinking of sending her flowers right after Bonnie gets back. So many fishies left in the sea, so many fishies, but no-one for me... I'm thinking of thinking of hooking a love soon after supper is done." Classic!

Also in the same scene, when Tu'Pari enters and asks if he is Ambassador G'Kar, an annoyed G'Kar, who is just beginning his meal, snaps "This is Ambassador G'Kar's quarters. This is Ambassador G'Kar's table. This is Ambassador G'Kar's dinner! Which part of this progression escapes you?"

When Tu'Pari reveals himself as the assassin sent by D'Rog, he tells G'Kar that his instructions are: "You are to know pain. You are to know fear. And then, you are to die." When he wakes and finds he has been outfoxed by G'Kar, and that the Assassins' Guild will now be after him for dishonouring his commission, as they see it, G'Kar and Na'Toth cheerfully tell him he probably won't be caught, but if he is "You will know pain. You will know fear. And then you will die. Have a pleasant flight."

G'Kar, holding a death blossom, the calling card of the Assassins' Guild, which he has just found on his pillow: "And I suppose you have no idea how this got into my bed?"
Na'Toth: "Ambassador, it is not my place to speculate upon how anything gets into your bed!"

Londo (pissed): "You too! You're cute! Everybody's cute! Everybody's cute! Especially me! But in purple, I am stunning!" (Passes out)

Delenn to her new aide, Lennier, who believes it is not his place to look at her directly: "You can look up. I cannot have an aide who will not look up: you will be forever walking into things!"

G'Kar to Na'Toth: "The Earthers have a phrase: "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." Perhaps they stole it from us."

Garibaldi to G'Kar, upon finding, while searching his quarters, a pair of pink knickers: "Let me just say, from the bottom of my heart, Ambassador: hot pink is definitely your colour!"

Last point: this is the first time we see the station's resident fixer, spiv, hawker, an alien who can get it for you if you can pay the price. N'Grath is a six-foot tall insect who lives and carries on his business in the lower levels. He's totally alien, speaking in a sort of rasping whisper in broken English, and we only meet him once or twice during the entire show, which is a pity as I always thought he was a character who could have been very much more developed.
http://www.ajbaker.force9.co.uk/b5chimages/ngrath.jpg

1.6 "Mind war"

Borrowing rather a little, to be fair, from Star Trek: the Next Generation's season three episode "Transfigurations", this more or less standalone episode features the arrival of one Jason Ironheart, a high-level telepath on the run. The Psi Corps send two of their own to track him down and bring him back, and one of these is a character who will be a recurring one, and a constant thorn in the side of Babylon 5 command. He is called Alfred Bester (yes, after the sci-fi novelist) but usually just goes by his second name, and he is played by Star Trek's Chekov, Walter Koenig.

Sinclair does not hide his disdain for and distrust of the Psi Corps when the two "Psi Cops" ask for a meeting (well, demand it really) with all the staff, so that they can telepathically scan them to see if they are telling the truth when they ask if anyone has seen Ironheart. Sinclair is reluctant, but Psi Corps have jurdisdiction as this is one of their own they are pursuing, and Earthgov tends to give them a wide latitude in its dealings with them. They are a powerful force on Earth, as we will learn later, holding or at least influencing from the sidelines many positions of power.

Ironheart knows Talia Winters --- he used to be her instructor at Psi Corp HQ, and her lover --- and he trusts her, so only meets with her after the Psi Cops have conducted their scans. They are particularly brutal, mentally, with Talia, as they assume, since she has history with Ironheart, that they will have met. But her mind tells the truth, and they must accept she has not encountered the rogue telepath. Later, of course, it's too late for them to know he has made contact with her. Although Bester and his aide have advised Sinclair and the staff that Ironheart is carrying important government secrets in his head and intends to sell them to the highest bidder, thus compromising Earth's security, he tells her that he was part of a top-level, black-op mission, that he volunteered to have his psi ability --- the rating of his telepathic mind power --- increased to such a level that he was, in the end, able to do just about anything with his mind. Then he learned the dark secret behind the experiment.

Psi Corps were trying to develop something that has eluded them for years, a stable telekinetic, someone who could move objects by the mere power of their mind. He tells Talia he was being made into a weapon, so that assassinations could be carried out without weapons: mental murder with never a trace of evidence to tie it back to the killer. When he realised what was happening he ran, but of course they sent people after him. Now, the unbridled, untapped power of his brain is tearing him apart: he can hardly control it, and he tells her that if he does not get off the station he will end up destroying it. He simply can't stop what is happening to him.

As Ironheart's trauma translates itself into the shaking of whole sections of Babylon 5, Kelsey, the other Psi Cop calls it a "mind quake", and Sinclair demands to know what has been kept from him and his staff by the Psi Cops. Bester explains that they want to capture Ironheart alive because of the massive potential of what he is, and to prevent that power falling into alien hands. They possess a "failsafe code" which was written into Ironheart's brain, which they can use to shut him down, but they need to be on a line of sight for it to work. The commander is less than happy that his station has been put at risk and he kept ignorant of the danger this man poses, but again he has no choice but to help Bester and Kelsey. Whatever the morals of the situation, whatever his personal dislike for and mistrust of Psi Corps, Ironheart represents an incalculable danger to Babylon 5, and he must be removed from it as quickly as possible.

When they pinpoint his location and find Ironheart however, things do not go as planned. After warning them, pleading with them not to use the code, the rogue telepath simply waves his hand and Kelsey disintegrates. Bester retreats, to formulate a new plan. Meanwhile, Talia admits to Sinclair that she knows where Ironheart is and that he should talk to the man. The commander agrees, and when he hears what the telepath has to say about the growing power of Psi Corps, what has been done to him personally and that such power should never be allowed fall into the hands of humans, who are not ready yet, he agrees to help Jason escape.

When Ironheart gets outside his ship begins to glow, pulse, then in a rush of light it doesn't quite explode but vanishes, and standing there is a galactic superbeing, basically made of light. Jason Ironheart is gone, and what speaks to Sinclair now is a totally new lifeform; Ironheart has made the transition from human telepath to .... who knows? God? Alien? Higher consciousness? Forever out of reach now of Bester and the Corps, he slowly turns and vanishes.

There's a subplot in the story too, which concerns Catherine Sakai exploring a planet called Sigma-957. It seems at the time it might be part of the plot --- and in a way, it is --- but is essentially unimportant, as are most of the scenes with her. I'm not sure why JMS put her in the story: as a love interest for Sinclair, she does very little and as a character quite a lot less. But the one thing that's good about the "Sigma-957" subplot is that it does give us a chance to see the great, late and lamented Andreas Katsulas in his role as G'Kar, betraying a more philosophical image, which will come to dominate his personality over the next few seasons. It also hints at big revelations yet to come.

Important Plot Arc Points:
Bester/Psi Corps
Arc Level: Red
As already alluded to, Psi Corps have a huge role to play in the drama that will unfold over the next four seasons (not so much in the fifth) and their lodestone will always be Bester. Although he is a cold, dark, calculating man, played to a "t" by a villianous Walter Koenig, even his motives get a little confused as the seasons wind on. What does not change though is that Psi Corps is marshalling its forces, preparing to make a powerplay, much of which will begin to come to fruition in season two and three. Because of the importance of Psi Corps to the story arc, I have included below a selection of quotes, mostly from Ironheart, that lay the groundwork for what is to come.

Sigma-957
Arc Level: Green
This enigmatic planet will be mentioned again, but just the once I think and only then in back-reference to this subplot. It will not, in the end, really feature very much in the overall plot, which is a pity really, as it was foreshadowed as being quite integral.

Talia and her association with the Psi Corps
Arc Level: Orange
Nobody really trusts telepaths. I mean, not really. Not ever. Would you trust someone who could just look into your mind to see if you were telling the truth? So Talia is never that trusted on the station, although Garibaldi does fall for her. There's never any relationship though, and that's kind of a pity because it would have been a pretty big blow considering what's due to happen later. Talia is clearly afraid of Bester, and with good reason: his reputation precedes him. And yet she is fiercely loyal to her organisation, believing the mantra they hammer into their cadets: "The Corps is mother, the Corps is father".

Quotes:
As I said, Jason Ironheart warns us of the danger Psi Corps presents to the current order. He knows more than he will say, but he alludes to much. Here are some of his warnings from this episode.
(Note: these quotes may not be exact. No scripts for Babylon 5 episodes exist online, so I'm mostly taking these from my memory. If I have to, I'll watch episodes back to confirm, but I will not always have the time for that. So if anyone knows these quotes and realises they're inaccurate, don't bother contacting me. I know. But they're close enough to give a general sense of what was said.)

"I thought they wanted big, but they weren't interested in big. Small, that's what they wanted. Control of smaller objects - the smaller the better. If precise control over small objects were perfected, telekinetics could become the ideal assassins: Murder without a trace. No fingerprints, no poisons. Imagine, you could just reach inside someone's heart, and pinch the valve shut, cutting off the flow of blood and therby making it seem like a heart attack. No-one would ever know."

"The Psi-Corps is dedicated to one thing, Commander: control. But there is something even more powerful - something they didn't even know existed until I crossed the line. Not mind over matter, mind over energy.... I look at you, Commander, and I see not a man, but a galaxy of subatomic particles which I can ... rearrange with a casual thought."

"People believe that the government controls the Corps, the reverse is coming to be true. The Psi-Corps is more powerful than you can begin to imagine. Telepaths make the ultimate blackmailers, Talia. I've seen it all."

There are other references to the Corps, some good, some bad, some funny. When Garibaldi confronts Bester and "thinks" something at him as he leaves, the Psi Cop replies "Anatomically impossible, Mr. Garibaldi. But you're welcome to try."

Garibaldi says he feels there's something "creepy" about Psi Cops --- "The way they look at you as if you're some sort of bug", and even Sinclair snaps at Bester that he doesn't like people "rummaging about in his mind". Ivanova, of course, has good reason to hate the Corps already, and none to trust Bester or any of its representatives.

With the escape of Jason Ironheart --- although there will be a coverup to prevent Bester being reported for putting the station in danger --- the battle lines are drawn, and Babylon 5 becomes a target for Bester and Psi Corps, the two mutual enemies, even if they will be forced to work together on occasion. The uneasy alliance will break without much effort, and the two will diverge to stand on opposing factions of the coming darkness.

On a lighter note, as mentioned, G'Kar gets to shine in his spiritual discussion of the planet Sigma-957. To quickly summarise a pretty aimless subplot, Catherine Sakai heads to the planet to check if it is uninhabited and to lay claim to it on behalf of a business consortium for which she is surveying it and to whom she intends to sell the mining rights. In orbit, she is suddenly approached by a massive alien craft --- or alien being --- which although it does not attack her (in fact, goes right past her seemingly unaware or uncaring of her presence) her computer is knocked out and she has no power to return to Babylon 5. Left drifting in space, she is rescued by Narn ships sent by G'Kar, who had tried to dissuade her from going to that sector, and who arranged her rescue because of the relationship (he says) he has with Sinclair.

When she returns home she asks him what was it that she saw, and G'Kar illustrates the point beautifully and poetically by picking up on his forefinger an ant which had been crawling on a nearby plant. He holds it for a moment then returns it to the leaf. "Now", he asks Sakai, "if that ant should now ask another ant What was that?, how should it reply? There are things in this universe, Ms. Sakai, billions of years older than either of our races. They are vast, timeless ... They are a mystery, and I am both terrified and reassured to know that there are still wonders in the universe ; that we have not yet explained everything. Whatever they are, Ms. Sakai, they walk near Sigma-957. They must walk there alone."

The episode ends with a closeup shot of the ant, back on the leaf, busily scurrying about its business, and the message is clear: to some intelligences out there we are of no more importance, threat or interest than ants are to us. We are not the masters of the universe, and we would do well to remember that.

I've now watched the pilot and the first three episodes of season one and I've got to say that it would be a travesty if you didn't review every episode of the series now that you've started them. As you say some episodes are much better or more important than others, so I know you'll going to include them. For the others you could just do a few lines etc stating any important stuff (as I've noticed you're doing) Another idea of mine, might be an episode rating guide:) Your episode guides are concise, thorough and seem to miss nothing out.

I also really think you should do a feature on the other Doctors to be a companion to modern Doctor Who. It's like somebody doing a big feature on heavy metal and not mentioning anything pre-1990s. You could for example do a feature on each Doctor and the key stories, enemies and key companions etc. I'm a real Doctor Who buff from this period, so I for one would read it with real vigour and notice any errors you'd make;)

That's not strictly true, during the 60s it was very much seen as a family show. You only have to look at the casting of the original Tardis crew to see that.

During the 70s & early 80s several producers of the show said they were aiming it at 'Intelligent 13 to 14 year olds'.

I would say that The Weeping Angels are just as scary now as the Daleks were in the 60s. Or the Glass Mutant Dalek that scared the crap out of me in Revelation of the Daleks when I was a kid...

http://images.wikia.com/scifi/images...lek_Mutant.jpg

Yeah, I get what you're saying, and yes some of the DW episodes today have been on a certain level of scarifyingness, but when you compare how scared we as kids (well, me anyway) were at things like Daleks, Cybermen and so forth, and just looking back at the "old" Who, there's a definite darker sense about it back then, a more "serious" side, than there is today. I mean, can you see the old Who doing Christmas specials or featuring historical figures as guests?

Mind you, see my reply to US: I'm not that familiar with "old" or "classic" Who and only vaguely remember being scared/enthralled by it as a kid. I was more a Star Trek fan really.... ;)

Well, as far as episode reviews are concerned, I certainly won't be missing out a single one. I mean, if I covered "Infection" then surely I can't leave anything else out, can I? ;) What I had originally intended to do was run a storyline and refer back to episodes, but that hasn't really worked out because B5 is such a complex story, so yeah, I'll be reviewing each episode. As you can see, due to the character max limit that leave me only getting through 2 or 3 episodes per post, which is going to take some time, but hey...

Ratings is a good idea, I may look at that.

As for Who, well the problem here is twofold. Classic Who has about twenty seasons, so even doing a few lines per episode would take me one hell of a long time. But more importantly, it was on when I was at school, so I remember very little about it other than the obvious, and though I could go back and rewatch the episodes (yeah...) I have so many other series to get through, not to mention my other two journals, that it would be time I couldn't afford.

So if I do Dr Who at all, it will be only the new versions, no BCE unfortunately. I don't even remember enough about classic Who to refer back. I mean, I have a rough remembrance of companions, doctors, K-9, a few stories, but it's all quite fragmented, and I really wouldn't be able to do a good job.

Tell you what: if you want to, you can do a section on Dr Who here yourself... once you get back from 1972 that is...

Thanks for the comments: keep em coming! Supernatural up next!

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1.1 "Pilot"

Supernatural differs from many current US shows in that its episodes are always titled, and shown onscreen (Buffy, conversely, uses episode titles but never show them onscreen: what, as they say, is the deal with that?) however the first episode is not titled, being the pilot one. We're introduced to the two heroes, Sam and Dean Winchester, and given insight into what drives them, as the incident from their childhood is recounted, and will be usually before each subsequent episode. Twenty-two years on, Sam is now living with a girl whom he intends to marry, and studying for a law degree, when his brother comes calling in the dead of night (Sam hears him downstairs breaking in and takes him for a prowler, not unreasonably) to tell him that their father is missing. Dean uses the codewords "Dad's been hunting" so that his brother knows that their father has been trying, as he has been for the past two decades, to track down the demon that killed his wife, their mother. Sam has his own life but loves his father and agrees to help Dean find him.

Dean plays Sam a voicemail from their father, which appears to be some sort of recording with a ghostly voice on it that complains "I can never go home". He shows his brother newspaper clippings about men disappearing over the last twenty years at a place called Centennial Highway. The two go to investigate, as the scene shifts to a man driving down the highway. He picks up a female hitch-hiker, a woman in white who entices him back to her place, which appears deserted and abandoned. She tells him "I can never go home", then attacks and kills him. His car crashes through a bridge.

Dean is used to impersonating authority figures in the somewhat colourful life he has led, helping his father look for the demon, and as they come across the scene of the accident he uses the ID of a US Marshall to find out what's going on. Sam is less than impressed, as he has already been on Dean's case over using credit card scams to fund the hunting expeditions, but the cop at the scene tells them they did not recover a body from the accident. He gives them the guy's name and they go to visit his girlfriend. She tells them of an urban legend which holds that a woman in white is said to hitch-hike at night and kill anyone who stops to pick her up.

Dean has better experience with determining between what is a legend and what has its basis in nasty truth, and the two brothers begin researching the story, turning up an article about a woman, Constance Welch, who jumped from a bridge on Centennial Highway, committing suicide after her two children had drowned in mysterious circumstances, back in 1981. Dean and Sam visit the bridge where the suicide took place later that night, and see a ghostly form jump off the bridge. Next moment, Dean's car starts up of its own accord and tries to run him over, but he escapes by diving off the bridge.

The boys check into the hotel their dad stayed in while here, and see pictures on the wall that show them that their father has discovered Constance Welch to be a "woman in white", a spirit who lures others to their deaths out of revenge or remorse, and they decide to go talk to her husband. Turns out he was unfaithful to her, Constance found out and killed herself and her two children in despair. The brothers are on their way to the abandoned house to destroy her corpse when Constance suddenly appears in Sam's car and, taking control of it when Sam refuses her offer to take her home, drives it to the house. Dean distracts her though before she can kill Sam and the younger Winchester ploughs the car through the house, returning Constance to the spirits of her children, who take her down into the depths with them. This then is the reason she kept saying "I can never go home", not being able to face her children as she knows she is responsible for their deaths.

Having unearthed clues to where their father might now be, Dean decides to follow the trail but Sam wants to get back for his interview, and asks to be dropped home. Once there, however, he is devastated to see Jessica, his fiancee, pinned to the ceiling and explode into fire, just like their mother did, twenty-two years ago. Trapped in the suddenly-burning house, he is rescued by Dean who charges in, and though heartbroken over the loss of his girlfriend he agrees to go with his brother to find their father, new purpose in his heart. Now, it's not just their mother the two are seeking revenge for.

As they prepare to leave the house, Sam looks at Dean and says "We've got some work to do."

MUSIC
As mentioned in the intro, one of the great things about this show is its use of rock and classic rock music. Here I'll be listing all the songs used in each episode, as well as featuring, if there are any, YouTube videos of the songs.

The Living Daylights: "Gasoline"

Classic: "What cha gonna do?" (Okay, not every song is rock!)

Eagles of Death Metal: "Speaking in tongues"

Allman Brothers Band: "Ramblin' man"

AC/DC: "Back in black"

AC/DC: "Highway to Hell"

Kid Gloves Music: "My cheatin' ways"


QUESTIONS?
The obvious big one right from the start is, why does the demon want Sam? Allied to that, you have to ask where is the boys' father and what is he doing?

The "WTF?!!" moment
Supernatural is full of surprises, twists and turns, but most episodes have a point where you just go "WTF?" I think it's fair to say that moment in the pilot is when Sam returns home after dealing with the woman in white, relaxes on his bed and then notices blood falling on his face, looks up and see Jessica pinned to the ceiling, just moments before she bursts into flame and the whole episode from his babyhood is repeated with terrifying clarity and new horror.

POP CULTURE REFERENCES (PCRs)
Supernatural uses the fact that most of its fans are "tuned in" to other horror/fantasy/sc-fi shows to drop in witty, knowing and relevant pop culture references (which I'll be shortening to PCRs from now on) that "share a private joke" for those who know what they're talking about, and have the cognoscenti nodding knowingly. Where these are used in an episode I'll be mentioning them, and the context in which they're used. Many times, this context will be obvious, but just in case there are any hermits among my readership I'll explain them anyway.


Questioned by the cops as to his name, Dean says it's Ted Nugent. Ted Nugent is a rock star, famed for his excesses and also for his love of guns.

Impersonating Federal marshals, Dean and Sam catch sight of the real investigators coming up the road and leave. As they go, Dean quips "Agent Scully. Agent Mulder." This obviously refers to Mulder and Scully from "The X-Files", FBI agents who investigate weird or paranormal cases in Chris Carter's hit series.

When Sam tells Amy that the pentagram on her t-shirt, rather than being a sign of evil is meant to ward off evil, Dean nods "Thank you, "Unsolved Mysteries". Obviously referencing the show that seeks to, er, solve mysteries.

When arrested by the cops for impersonating US Marshals, Dean is told he's in a lot of trouble. He grins and asks "Misdemeanour type trouble? Or "squeal like a pig" trouble?" This references the classic cult movie "Deliverance". If you don't know what it means watch the movie, I ain't gonna spoil it for ya!

1.2 "Wendigo" (Officially it's 1.1, as the pilot is numbered 1.0. but hey...)

The first episode proper of the series sets the tone for much of the first season, where Supernatural will and can be seen as a monster-of-the-week show. Dean and Sam, trying to track down their dad, arrive at Blackwater Ridge, his last known whereabouts, and investigate the disappearance of young boys and men from camping sites, and discover that a Wendigo is responsible. A Wendigo is a creature who was once human but having turned to cannibalism is now nothing more than a monster that craves human flesh. Nice! Wendigos also turned up in the much-inferior but still all right "Charmed".

Essentially, this episode is pedestrian and unremarkable. It offers no clues to the location of John Winchester, there are no plot arc developments and it could really in fairness have cropped up in anything from "Grimm" to, indeed, "Charmed" or "Buffy". As a second episode --- and first real one --- it's a big disappointment and not really worth any sort of full review. The only thing it's really remarkable for at all, as below, is the music in the episode.

MUSIC
Foreigner: "Hot blooded"

Lynyrd Skynyrd: "Down south jukin'"

Rush: "Fly by night"


QUESTIONS?
None.

The "WTF?!!" moment:
Not present.

PCRs
Just the one: at the start of the search Dean, ever the wiseass, turns to Roy the hunter and asks "Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?" Referring to Bambi, the lovable baby deer in the Disney movie, and Yogi Bear, creation of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons and a favourite with the kids of my age; Yogi was forever thwarting Ranger Smith and stealing the picnic baskets of visitors to Jellystone Park. The fact that one is a deer and one a bear, two of the most popular prey for hunters, speaks for itself.

1.3 "Dead in the water"

MUCH better. There have been a lot of unexplained drownings in Wisconsin, with no bodies ever being found. Dean and Sam investigate, and here the two share a difference of opinion: Sam thinks they should not be getting sidetracked, and should be concentrating all their energy on finding their father. Dean however remarks that while this is indeed their main objective, their quest if you will, there's nothing wrong with killing anything evil along the way, and Sam can't really argue with that. It's clear though that Dean, being the more experienced hunter, is more willing to go after these monsters than his little brother is.

They make contact with the sheriff of Lake Manitoc, and he confirms that the dam is leaking so perhaps that's why people are drowning, but that the town can't get a grant to repair it. He introduces them to his daughter and her son, the latter of whom is quiet and withdrawn. The sheriff will only say that he's "been through a lot". Later the brother of the most recent victim, a young girl called Sophie, is drowned himself in a sink! He thinks it's blocked but when he reaches in to unblock it something grabs him and holds his head under the water till he dies. Sam and Dean now know that they're dealing with something, er, supernatural, rather than a series of tragic accidents.

Lucas, the son of the sheriff's daughter, has become a little more relaxed around Dean, and draws him a picture of an old house and then later a house near a church with a drawing of a boy with a red bike. When the brothers find this house and ask after the boy in the picture, who's called Peter, they're told he went missing 35 years ago, his body never found, and they begin to suspect that Billy, Will and Sophie's father, had something to do with it when they find a photograph of the two together. Meanwhile Billy is at the lake, seemingly talking to it, and nods that he knows now what he has to do.

When the boys return he is already on the lake in a boat, and as they call to him it explodes. Back in Lucas's house, his mother is taking a bath when suddenly something reaches up from the water and begins to drag her under. In the nick of time Dean and Sam arrive, and rescue her. The next morning, as they're going through some photo albums, they notice a picture of her father with Billy and Peter, and believe the sheriff may also be involved in the boy's death. Lucas suddenly leads them out to a plot of land where they discover Peter's bike buried, and then the sheriff arrives, forcing them back at gunpoint.

Dean accuses the sheriff of killing the boy with Billy, but he denies it until his daughter points out all the horrible things that have been happening due to his evil deed, and that she herself just yesterday became a target. He breaks down and confesses, and Dean and Sam tell him that in order to lay Peter's spirit to rest they need to burn the body. Problem: the corpse was dumped in the lake, hence all the drownings. Before they can think any further on the problem though, Lucas is pulled under the water, and seeing that everyone he loves or cares about may die because of what he did, the sheriff offers himself up to Peter's spirit. Dean dives in to save Lucas, but although he surfaces with the boy again it looks like he's too late.

The epilogue however shows us that Lucas not only survived, but is now talking for the first time in years, and seems a lot happier. Having solved the case, but come no closer to finding their father, Dean and Sam leave town.

MUSIC
Black Toast: "What a way to go"

Ratt: "Round and round"

Billy Squier: "Too daze gone"

Bad Company: "Movin' on"



QUESTIONS?
None really; all mostly wrapped up in the episode.

The "WTF?!!" moment:
Meh, hard to say. Maybe it's at the end, when Sam says to Dean, "You can't save everyone", and you naturally expect this to relate to the fact that the didn't manage to save Lucas, and then he comes running up with sandwiches for them. Maybe. I think the real one though is the first time you see Will, the brother of Sophie, get pulled in and drowned in the sink...!

PCRs
Again, just the one. Once more impersonating government officials, Dean introduces Sam and himself as "Agent Ford, Agent Hammill". This is in reference to Harrison Ford and Mark Hammill, who played Han Solo and Luke Skywalker respectively in "Star Wars".

As much as I'd like to do something on Doctor Who, I just haven't got the time, but if you decide to do something on older Doctor Who then I could easily point you in the right direction on what stuff to watch etc.

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Season 1: "Three million years from Earth..."

Episode 3: "Balance of power"

Holly's joke at the opening: "In the 3 million years we've been away, it is my fond hope that mankind has abolished war, cured all disease, and gotten rid of those little western saloon doors you get in trendy clothes shops."

It's Saturday night (even though they're in deep space and the planet upon whose rotation the days are based is probably now dust) and Lister wants to have some fun. Rimmer's idea of fun --- ship's inventory --- is not what he has in mind! After arguing with his dead superior, Lister heads off to the ship's disco on his spacebike, where he sits alone, remembering all the good times he used to have there with his friends. He finally decides, after remembering a conversation centreing around Kristine Kochanski, his crush, that he wants to go on a date with her. Trouble is, she's dead.

No problem. All he has to do is get Rimmer to agree to be switched off for twenty-four hours, and he can take Kochanski's personality disc, replace Rimmer's in the hologram and hey presto! The love of his life will live again. Well, for a day anyway. Only problem is, Rimmer ain't having it. He knows Lister hates him, and fears that should his bunkmate get a chance with Kochanski he'll have no reason to return Rimmer to the hologram. Which is probably true. Plus Lister doesn't know where the hologram discs are kept, and Rimmer's unlikely to tell him.

The only solution to the problem Lister can see is to somehow become Rimmer's superior. The one thing Arnold worships above all else is authority, and even if it was Lister, were he a rank higher than Rimmer the hologram would have to obey him. So Lister decides to study and take the officers' exam, in order to become Rimmer's superior. Laughing at such a notion, Rimmer says he's not worried, as he knows the extent of Lister's dedication to study. Nevertheless he keeps a close eye on him.

He soon has other things to concern himself about though, when he wakes and finds that "somehow" his hologram disc has become corrupted, and one of his arms has been replaced with that of Olaf Petersen, one of Lister's laddish mates. The arm seems to have a life of its own, and attacks him. After being poked and punched by it, he apologises to Holly --- whom he had insulted earlier, thus leading to the "corruption" of the disc and the wayward arm --- and his own arm is reinitialised. Still smarting both physically and emotionally, he goes to see what Lister is up to.

Finding him in the teaching room, he ridicules Lister's preparedness and his lack of knowledge, until he realises that Dave is not sitting the flight navigation exam, but the chef's. Disbelievingly, he asks Lister does he really want to be a chef, which Lister admits he does not: he just wants to outrank Rimmer so he can get the disc he wants. In a final attempt to stop Lister taking --- and god forbid, passing! --- the exam, Rimmer gets Kochanski's disc and has Holly swap it with his, then goes to Lister telling him "she" never loved him, and so all his preparation and studying is for nothing, so he might as well give up. But Lister is suspicious, and sees through Rimmer's plan.

Rimmer needn't have worried though, because true to form, Lister couldn't pass an exam if he was given all the answers beforehand. But he pretends he does, just to get up Rimmer's nose.

Best lines/quotes/scenes

There's a lot in this episode that became cult quotable Red Dwarf but does not really relate directly to the episode. Here are some of the best ones.

Rimmer, in the exam room: "And Lister, what's this? Learning drugs? They're illegal, matey! I'm afraid you're in very serious, grave, deep trouble, Lister. Where did you get them? I want names. I want places. I want dates."
Lister: "Arnold Rimmer. His locker. This morning."

Arnie is attacked by Petersen's hologrammatic arm:
Rimmer: "And when are you going to give me my own arm back? I refuse to walk around all day with Petersen's arm. You know what he was like. God only knows where this arm's been!"

The arm suddenly slaps him in the face.

Rimmer: "Ahh! What's he doing?"
Holly: "Beats me, Arnie. Seems to have a mind of its own."

The arm sticks out two fingers and goes for Rimmer's eyes. He grabs it with his other hand and tries to stop it.

Rimmer: "Tell him to stop it!"
Cat: "What is this? Cabaret? Entertainment while you eat?"
Rimmer: "No, no, no!"
Cat: "Hey, can you place bets? My bet is on this arm! (pointing at Petersen's.)

The arm finally succeeds in jabbing Rimmer in the eyes.

Rimmer: "Aagh!" A bit late, he finally thinks of putting his hand over his eyes. The other arm continues trying to jab at them. "Holly, you're absolutely gorgeous and handsome and delicious, please tell him to stop it!"
Holly: "All right. Just give me a couple of seconds."

Petersen's arm gives up jabbing at Rimmer's other hand, trying to reach his eyes.

Rimmer: "Ah, look at that. I've outwitted him. He's given up. Look, he's given up."

The hand suddenly jabs Rimmer in the balls.

Rimmer: "OOOOOO!!!"
He doubles up in pain, and the arm takes the opportunity to punch him in the head.

Holly: "There. Done it. Just in time."
Cat: "Hey! That was good! You should have finished on a song, it would have been perfect!"
Rimmer: (Still doubled up on the floor) "I hate everything."

Rimmer has shown the Cat how to get his own meals from the dispenser, in return for giving him back Lister's cigarette stash, which the feisty feline had found earlier. He is sitting at one of the consoles, eating. He finishes the meal and goes over to the food dispenser for another.

CAT: "Mmm-mmm!"
DISPENSING MACHINE: "Hello. How can I help you?"
CAT: "Fish!"
DISPENSING MACHINE: "Today's fish is trout a la creme." (Produces a dish.)
"Enjoy your meal."
CAT: "Fish!"
DISPENSING MACHINE: "Today's fish is trout a la creme." (Produces a dish.)
"Enjoy your meal."
CAT: "Fish!"
DISPENSING MACHINE: "Today's fish is trout a la creme." (Produces a dish.)
"Enjoy your meal."
CAT: "Fish!"
DISPENSING MACHINE: "Today's fish is trout a la creme." (Produces a dish.)
"Enjoy your meal."
CAT: "Fish!"
DISPENSING MACHINE: "Today's fish is trout a la creme." (Produces a dish.)
"Enjoy your meal."
CAT: "Fish!"
DISPENSING MACHINE: "Today's fish is trout a la creme." (Produces a dish.)
"Enjoy your meal."
CAT: "I will!"

Rimmer wakes up late, leaps out of bed, and begins some jumping jacks. "Lister! Rise and shine, el slobbo! Come on, I've been awake for hours, Lister! Up, up, up! Come on! Exercise, Lister! Exercise, sonny boy!"
He finally notices that Lister's bunk is empty and looks at the clock.
"Quarter to two? I didn't set my motivator! I was supposed to be up at seven! Why didn't he wake me? He knows I'm a heavy sleeper. Have I got to remind him to do everything for me? He's so irresponsible!"

A "Black Card" situation...
Lister: "Look, what is it, man? Don't you trust me?"
Rimmer: (Mimes holding up an imaginary card) "Black card, Lister. I'm holding up a black card. Conversation over."
Lister: "I've always been crazy about her. I never did anything about it."
Rimmer: "Oh, Lister, you've forgotten the colour code. White. The white card is to continue the discussion, but this is a black card situation. Discussion over."
Lister: "Listen..."
Rimmer (singing): "Da da da, black card, black card, black card, da da da, black card..."
Lister: "I was talking about something else!"
Rimmer: "White card. Go on."
Lister: "Right, for a start, I want to stop all this black card and white card smeg, it's driving me crazy!"
Rimmer: "Black card!"

Rimmer: "I think I've gone video-blind. Is that painting yours? It's rubbish!"
Lister: "It's a mirror."

Lister is listening to his favourite, Rastabilly Skank. Rimmer is not impressed.
Rimmer: "Why don't you listen to something really classical, like Mozart, Mendelssohn, or Motorhead?"

The Cat checks his look:
" Aaaoooww! Ooh, babe! Hey Yeah! Jump back! Come back! Hep!" (Stops) "How'm I looking?" (Pulling out a little mirror) "I'm looking nice. My hair is nice. My face is nice. My suit is nice. I'm looking really nice! Aaaooowww! Jump back! Hoo! Ack! Hey!" (Stops again) "I wonder how I'm looking now?" (Pulling out the mirror) "Still looking nice. My hair's still nice. My face is still nice. My suit -- I'm just nice, period. Aaaoooww! Jump back! Get down! Hoo!"

At the disco, in the past...
Rimmer: "Ha ha ha. Lister, where's my revision timetable?"
Chen: "Sure, it's Saturday night!"
Lister: "Come on, no one works Saturday night!"
Rimmer: "You don't work any night. You don't work any day!
Lister: "Skive hard, play hard! That's our motto!"
Rimmer: "Look, I've got my engineering re-sit on Monday. I don't know anything. Where's my revision timetable?"
Lister: "Wait, is this the thing in all different colours, with all the subjects divided into study periods and rest periods and self testing time?"
Rimmer: "It took me seven weeks to make it. I've got to cram my whole revision into one night."
Lister: "Hang on, is this the thing with the note on it in red which said, "Vital. Valuable. Urgent. Do not touch on pain of death?"
Rimmer: "Yes!"
Lister: "I threw it away."

And prior to that, Rimmer's less-than-graceful entry into the disco (you really have to see this one...)
Rimmer: "Excuse me, please. Could you please excuse me? Some of us have more important things to do than wiggle our posteriors. Could you move please? Please? Thank you. Could you move? Excuse me, please. Excuse me. Excuse me, please. Excuse me!"

He runs into Kochanski, who drops her purse. Rimmer picks it up and
throws it away.

Rimmer: "If you want to dance, do it over there!"(Calling in the direction he threw the purse) "Sorry!"

Holly explains to Lister how he worked out who to bring back to keep him sane:
Lister: "Holly, why Rimmer's hologram? Why did you have to bring Rimmer's hologram back? He was the most unpopular man on board this ship. I mean, he even had to organise his own surprise birthday parties!"
Holly: "And who should I have brought back, then?"
Lister: "Anyone! Chen. Petersen. I mean, Hermann Goerring would have been more of a laugh than Rimmer! I mean, OK, he was a drug-crazed transvestite, but at least we could have gone dancing!"
Holly: "I brought Rimmer back because he's the best person to keep you sane.
Lister: "Oh, crap!"

(A panel on the wall swings around to reveal a toilet. A sign over the
toilet reads, "NOW IRRADIATE YOUR HANDS.")

Lister "Not you!"
Toilet: "I do apologise, I wasn't paying attention. See you later!"
Lister: "What about Kristine Kochanski? You could have brought Kristine back."
Holly: "In your entire life, your shared conversations with her totalled 173 words."
Lister: "So?"
Holly: "In terms of wordage, you actually had a better relationship with your rubber plant."
Lister: "I know, but Rimmer?!"
Holly: "He's the person you knew best. Over 14 million words in all."
Lister: "Holly, 7 million of those were me telling him to smeg off, and the other 7 million were him putting me on report for telling him to smeg off!"
Holly: "Jean Paul Sartre said Hell was being locked forever in a room with your friends."
Lister: "Holly, all his mates were French."

And finally... four thousand, six hundred and ninety-one irradiated haggis!

Rimmer is standing, Lister sitting with his feet up on a console. He's
checking things off on a clipboard as Rimmer lists them.

Rimmer: "140,000 rehydratable chickens."
Lister: (Extremely bored) "Check."
Rimmer: "72 tons of reconstituted sausage pate."
Lister: "Check."
Rimmer: "4,691 irradiated haggis."
Lister: "Oh, Rimmer, it's Saturday night! I've had enough."
Rimmer: "4,691 irradiated haggis."
Lister: "Rimmer, it's Saturday night! I want to boogie on down!"
Rimmer: "4,691 irradiated haggis."
Lister: "We've been doing this for four hours! Let's have a break!"
Rimmer: "4,691 irradiated hag-g-gis."
Lister: "Rimmer, will you stop saying 4,981 irradiated haggis and speak to
me!"
Rimmer: "4,691 irradiated haggis."
Lister: (Beginning to lose his temper) "Rimmer, I want to go for a
drink!"
Rimmer: "4,691 irradiated haggis!"
Lister: "I want to have some fun!"
Rimmer: "This is fun! Are you mad?"
Lister: "You read something out. I say check. Where's the fun?"
Rimmer: "All right. We'll put you in command for a few seconds, Capitaine. (Salutes.) What's the plan, sir? Come on, lickety split!"
Lister: "Go back to Earth."
Rimmer: "And in the meantime?"
Lister: "I don't know, generally slob around, have a few laughs."
Rimmer: "Excellent plan, Lister! Excellent plan! Brilliant plan! There was me thinking you hadn't thought about it, when clearly you have. Right, I'll just stand over here and laugh slobbily, shall I?"
Lister: "Rimmer, I'm going for a drink."

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Season One: "Signs and portents" (Part three)
Yeah it's definitely me: writing too much on each episode, so much so that when I tried to upload the next TWO episodes in the one post, I had already overrun the max character allowance. Dammit! So this is part three, in two parts, as it were, cos I don't want to just put up the one episode and besides, there's one here that's really crucial to the storyline...

1.7 "The war prayer"

Prejudice and hatred rear their ugly heads as a wave of attacks on Earth and Mars spreads to Babylon 5, where a Minbari poet, and friend of Delenn, is attacked and branded with a symbol recognised as that of Home Guard, a violent, militant pro-Earth group who are growing in power. Sinclair sets about rooting out their henchmen on the station. Meanwhile, an old associate of Ivanova's arrives onboard, and when it turns out that it is in fact he who is orchestrating the attacks --- of which more follow the one on Delenn's friend --- he decides the best way to combat them is to pretend to be interested in joining them. A man of his authority and power, a respected and dedicated officer who fought on the Battle of the Line and is known to have no special love for aliens, should easily convince the hatemongers that he is a recruit worth targeting.

The subplot concerns Londo and Vir, and two young Centauri who have run away from their arranged marriages to other people, in order to be together. It's an old story, and Londo is unimpressed by the two young lovers' disregard for centuries of tradition. Vir, however, who is related to the male Centuari, thinks tradition is overrated and love should be given a chance. Through the intercession of the Minbari poet, Londo eventually agrees, after the two have been attacked by the Home Guard, to allow the two lovers to be taken into a period of fosterage, by his second cousin, which not only will greatly enhance their two families' standing in the Republic, but is an old but seldom-practiced custom, and will appeal to the traditionalist values of both the parents of the young Centauri.

Sinclair is almost pushed into a corner, meanwhile, when he goes to meet with Biggs, the leader of the Home Guard presence on B5, and is ordered to prove his allegiance by killing an alien. He demurs, and luckily the cavalry arrive in the shape of Garibaldi and his security force. Biggs and his men are arrested and deported from the station. Sinclair and his security chief however realise this is not something that will go away, and with anti-alien resentment being stirred up and driven by hate groups on Earth and elsewhere, things will only escalate and get a lot worse before they get better.

Important Plot Arc Points
Home Guard
Arc Level: Orange
Though essentially a neo-fascist organisation that uses distrust and dissatisfaction with the alien influx to Earth and its presence on Babylon 5, Home Guard will later be seen as "small potatoes", the springboard for a much larger, planetwide and well-funded and backed organisation that will take Earth into shadowy, dark places and bring a curtain of fear, suspicion and paranoia down over the home planet not seen since George Orwell's totalitarian society in "Nineteen eighty-four". The presence of Home Guard on Babylon 5 will also impact personally on Garibaldi. Literally.

The Centauri Republic
Arc Level: Orange
Here again we are allowed a peek into the workings of Centauri society, and we see they are a duty-bound, honourable people who cling to their traditions and their beliefs almost doggedly, desperate to retain something from their old glory days, and not fade away entirely. Someone once said "Our past defines us", and it is certainly true for the Centauri Republic. More about them will of course emerge as we progress. It's also interesting to see that Londo, though he puts up the front of a jaded, disinterested bureaucrat and seems to have no time for the "childish" notion of young love, is at heart an old romantic. Perhaps this is a carryover from his recent affair in "Born to the purple". If so, sad to say, events will soon conspire to disabuse him of this somewhat optimistic view of the world.

G'Kar
Arc Level: Red
Here we see too the bad side of G'Kar, whereas in the previous episode his beneficent side was on show, as he rescued Catherine Sakai and spoke philosophy about the universe. Here, he is a rabble-rouser, a stirrer-up of trouble, determined that the humans will not hurt his people and prepared to defend them by any means to hand. Even though, however, he takes this militant stance, it is perhaps in his character that he, as highest-ranking member of his people on the station, and charged therefore with their safety, takes this responsibilty very seriously. This love of his people and his leadership qualities will come more to the surface in later seasons, and we will see deeper into Ambassador G'Kar, peer past the mask of nationalism and pride, and hidden depths to this man will be revealed.

Best quotes:
The best lines in this episode, rather surprisingly, don't come from the main plot but from the backstory, although it is perhaps no surprise that they come from Londo Mollari. They also help to give us more of an insight into who he is as a person, and what his outlook on life is.

"Sometimes," says Londo, "these marriages call for sacrifice [he looks at the pictures of his own wives on his desk]. Great sacrifice. But we make this sacrifice because this is what it means to be Centauri!"

"Love, pah! Overrated!" Londo cries out. "[He points to the pictures of his wives.] These are my three wives - pestilence, famine, and death. Do you think I married them for their personalities? Their personalities could shatter worlds! Arranged marriages, every one. But they worked out; they inspired me. Knowing that they are waiting at home for me is what keeps me here, 75 light-years away!"

"'My shoes are too tight,'" says Londo, sadly. "Something my father said. He was old, very old at the time. I went into his room, and he was sitting alone in the dark, crying. So I asked him what was wrong, and he said, 'My shoes are too tight, but it doesn't matter, because I have forgotten how to dance.' I never understood what that meant until now. My shoes are too tight, and I have forgotten how to dance."

and following on from that...

When asked by the Centauri couple why he helped them, he responds happily "Because you are still children, and children should be allowed to dance."

Elsewhere, Garibaldi muses on why Home Guard are becoming so powerful back on Earth: ""The problem is, there are many who agree with them, and even more who just don't give a damn."

Sinclair, when trying to project himself as a candidate for recruitment to Home Guard, tells Malcolm Biggs of his feelings about the Battle of the Line: "The Minbari let us win. You know what that victory tasted like? Ashes."

Although he is using this as a means to an end, playing a part, it can't be denied that part of the commander does, or did, indeed feel that way, and even now he still retains a desire to know why the Minbari surrendered. It is this refusal to just accept it as one of life's never-to-be-solved mysteries that is crucial to the plot, and will lead him to his destiny. So there is some truth in what he says, and the question bothers him constantly, occupying every waking moment, as we'll see from the next episode, which is a crucial one, and one of the first real arc-centric ones.

1.8 "And the sky full of stars"

Here we see the first real attempts to get to the truth behind the Battle of the Line, why the Minbari surrendered and what happened during that twenty-four hour gap in Sinclair's mind. Persons identified only by codenames (Knight One and Knight Two) arrive at the station and rent quarters in one of the more deserted, rundown sectors, setting up some elaborate machinery. With the help of one of Babylon 5's security personnel, who has got in over his head in debt, they set up a virtual reality cybernet matrix which allows them to create a nightmarish world in which Sinclair is held against his will. In effect, they enter his mind through the use of the machine they have installed, and to which Knight Two is now hooked up.

Using every sort of interrogation method they can, the two try to break Sinclair and make him tell them what they want to know. They're unaware, or refuse to believe, that the commander is as much in the dark about what happened when he "went dark" for twenty-four hours as they are, and that even if he wanted to tell them, he couldn't. But the two men are convinced he sold out Earth to the Minbari, was turned into an agent for the aliens and that's why the Minbari surrendered. Unable to defeat humanity, Knight Two says (blissfully ignoring the fact that the aliens had very much defeated Earth and were about to consolidate their victory) they decided to recruit a "fifth column", a band of traitors and inside men who would pass back information to them and help them move to the highest positions of authority on Earth. Defeat from within, sleeper agents helping to procure for the Minbari the victory they could not achieve through force of arms. Again...?

It's the first time we see a re-enactment of the Battle of the Line, though it won't be the last. The title of the episode comes from Sinclair's despairing description of their hopeless task: "And the sky was full of stars, and every star an exploding ship!" He knew then that the game was up, that Earth was defeated and determined to go out fighting he set his Starfury fighter on a collision course with one of the Minbari cruisers, but blacked out before it hit. When he woke, the war was over. Nothing the two Knights can force from him will change that story, as it is all he remembers. His mind is a total blank for that period.

However, the virtual reality cybernet does conjure up, whether from his mind or from somewhere else, an image he has not seen before. Or at least, does not remember seeing. Or does he? It does look familiar. He is surrounded by grey hooded and cloaked figures, beyond them it's dark and Sinclair cannot make out his surroundings. One of the figures shoots a beam of light at him and he collapses. Seizing upon this new information, Knight Two asks Sinclair what he's hiding, but Sinclair does not know; as far as he's aware, he isn't hiding anything. And yet...

Knight Two counters his hot retort that he did not betray Earth with a smart question as to how he could know that, if he can't remember what transpired during those twenty-four hours? Sinclair admits to himself he has no answer to that, but he does agree that something has been bothering him, something that has made him question just how much he actually blacked out, and what may have taken place during that time. It refers back to the pilot episode, where he confronted the Minbari who had been sent to kill Kosh. Just before he took his own life, the warrior told Sinclair "You have a hole in your mind", which is true, he does: there's a whole day he can't account for, and it worries him.

As they re-enter the virtual world at the behest of Knight Two, more details begin to coalesce, dragged, it would seem, from Sinclair's memory, and now he begins to remember. He sees his ship, on a collision course with a massive Minbari cruiser. He sees it loom large in his viewscreen, then be pulled in to the ship on some sort of tractor beam. He sees himself again surrounded by the grey figures. He is restrained to a large triangular structure. One of the figures approaches him and hold up a small grey metal triangular device before his face, and it glows. He somehow is free, and moves towards one of the figures, pulling back the hood and gasping as he realises he recognises the face underneath the cowl. But again he is shot, and collapses, and his memories dissolve.

Pushed to breaking point, Sinclair marshalls the strength to break free and the feedback knocks Knight Two out. Sinclair runs and punches Knight One, who has come into the room to check if all is okay, and Sinclair grabs a gun and runs out. The psychological torture has been such though that he no longer knows where he is, and believes himself back at the Battle of the Line. When Garibaldi, who has been searching for him, finds him he is ready to shoot, but Delenn approaches him. He however seems to recognise her as an enemy, but she convinces him otherwise and leads him out.

Later, as Knight Two is being taken back to Earth for trial, Sinclair speaks to him but the man's mind has been fried and he makes no sense. Garibaldi tells the commander that he believes the two --- the other of whom is dead --- were part of a covert, deep-cover Earthforce mission to try to either uncover traitors in its command structure or paint those individuals as such, and he doubts they'll hear much about the trial, or Knight Two, once he returns to Earth. Delenn later asks Sinclair if he remembers anything about the Battle of the Line, and he says no he does not.

But he does. The virtual reality cybernet has awoken in him memories that have been, it would seem, suppressed, and that twenty-four hour period is no longer dark or blank to him. However, the answer has raised even more questions, important, possibly crucial ones, and Sinclair is determined to get to the bottom of the matter.

Important Plot Arc Points
(This is, as I mentioned, the first proper "arc" episode, where all those little clues we've been getting, dropped like breadcrumbs along the path, tidbits of information, pointers and indications that something larger might be taking place, begin for the first time to fall into place. There's a long way to go before we know the whole story, certainly, but at least here we can start to fit one piece into the jigsaw, and Babylon 5 begins to be seen as something more than just an episodic sci-fi show.)

The Battle of the Line
Arc Level: Red
Finally we see the famous battle; we hear Sinclair in his position as squad leader advise his men, lead them and then quickly see a trap is being sprung, but finds himself unable to stop his men being slaughtered by the Minbari. Angry, vengeful and with no real hope of survival anyway, he resolves to take down one of the enemy cruisers and sets his ship on a collision course with it. Up to now, that's as much as we have known. Sinclair blacked out, came to twenty-four hours later and the war was over.

Now, more details are beginning to emerge, details that start to fill in that missing blank period in his life, the "hole in his mind" that the Minbari assassin spoke of. We see that he was taken onboard the cruiser, seemingly tortured, examined and probed by what appear to be members of the Grey Council, the shadowy rulers of the Minbari. He also sees that he recognised one of the members, and now sees the face of Ambassador Delenn behind the cowl he pulled back. What was she doing on that cruiser? This also plays into her warning to Lennier, on his arrival, not to call her by her title "Satai", so that no-one will know she is a member of the Grey Council. Clearly, the Minbari blanked Sinclair's memory, but why? What did they not want him to remember? And why does Delenn want her membership of the Grey Council kept from everyone?

Sinclair's partially-returning memories of the Battle of the Line are of course the main arc plot point in this episode, but there are also foreshadowings of a change in the power structure back home, with dark elements within the government getting stronger and coming a little more out of the shadows, as if they are no longer afraid to be discovered. We've already seen Home Guard, and of course the Psi Corps flexing their muscle. Before long, we will see pretty cataclysmic changes in the balance of power, which will impact on the series right up and into the fourth season.

The Grey Council
Arc Level: Red
Who are the Grey Council? Nothing is known of them, save that they are a shadowy conclave who speak for, make policy for and direct the Minbari people. Like a ruling body of high priests, their word seems to be law and their edicts unchallenged. Delenn is a member, so what does that mean for Babylon 5, and for Sinclair in particular, who must assume now, with his memories partially regained, that she was complicit in, and may even have taken an active role in, his abduction and torture?


Some additional notes:
Although not a part of the main arc, per se, we do see into the soul of Dr. Franklin here, when he is asked by Delenn what he did during the war? He replies that toward the end of the war, all xenobiologists were asked by Earth Force to turn over their notes on Minbari physiology so that effective genetic and biological weapons could be created. Delenn asks him if he did, indeed, hand over his notes. "I took an oath that all life is sacred. I destroyed my notes rather than have them used for killing," he answers.

This tells us more about the man than a hundred action scenes could. We will find, as the series goes on, that the good doctor certainly knows how to handle himself. He may kill, if it is unavoidable, but at heart he is a man of peace, a healer who is just as likely to run to the aid of a fallen enemy as a comrade. He does not generally differentiate between the wounded on either side: to him, a patient is a patient, even if an hour ago that patient was trying to blow the doctor's head off. He has taken the hippocratic oath, and nothing is more sacred to him. This will later put him in a very tough position, when he has to reconcile that belief with carrying out acts he would never have thought himself capable of, for the greater good.

"Oh dear, JMS...!"
Although there is some great dialogue in this episode, one line stands out to me as just terrible. JMS is a great writer, of that there is no doubt, and even a genius can have an off-day, so we can forgive him the odd slip. However, this quote made me think that maybe he was tired when writing this, or just wanted to finish something and so didn't give it too much thought. It's only one line really, so nothing to make a big fuss over, but its banality and lack of originality disappointed me. Sinclair speaks about the truth to Garibaldi. ""Everyone lies, Michael. The innocent lie because they don't want to be blamed for something they didn't do, and the guilty lie because they don't have any other choice."

Even ignoring the terrible lines, the concept is flawed. The innocent do NOT lie: they almost always tell the truth, and the guilty CAN lie, but it's not like they have no choice, as Sinclair asserts. If anything, in fact, the guilty are more likely to lie than the innocent, as the former have something to hide while those who do not have no real reason, normally, to lie. So the whole thing is a really badly-thought-out and badly-written line. It's only a few words, but perhaps because of how good some of the other dialogue is, it tends to stand out to me, and annoys me.

Quotes
Knight Two speaks in a very grand, pompous voice, but he has some excellent lines as he speaks to Sinclair (the only person he does talk to, other than his partner in crime).

"Maybe you're asleep. Maybe you're insane. Maybe you're dead. Maybe you're in Hell. Not that it matters much, Commander Sinclair, because wherever you are, wherever you go, you're mine!"

"It's shadow-play, without form or substance".

"We'll walk together across the bridge of synapses and neurons, into the very heart of your memories, to find the truth about what happened at the Battle of the Line!"

"They took you aboard, fixed you some milk and cookies. Asked you to work for them. Nobody wants to die, Commander, especially in the cold of space. You agreed."

And Commander Sinclair waxes tragic about the Battle:
"They were my friends. I watched them die, one by one. For years afterwards, whenever I saw a Minbari, I had to fight the urge to strangle them with my bare hands.... We never had a chance.... When I looked at those ships, I didn't just see my death. I saw the death of the whole damn human race."

Most interestingly, when Sinclair is taken aboard the Minbari cruiser and the grey figures silently circle him, he shouts at them "What do you want?" The significance of this, whether intentional or not (and one always has to assume the former with Straczynski!) will become clearer soon, and certainly as season two gets going.

Sinclair's vow, as the episode fades to credits, is also telling, and a marker for the future: "Personal Log. I remember. I was taken inside a Minbari cruiser, interrogated, tortured. Was that the Grey Council? Maybe. Maybe. Before they surrendered, they must have blanked my memory and let me go. And Delenn--what was she doing there? What is it they don't want me to remember? I have to find out. I have to!"

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1.04 "Phantom traveller"

Tapping into the fear of flying many people have, this episode sees a man named George boarding an airliner --- who is himself uneasy about taking a plane --- be possessed by a strange, black mist-like creature, and under its influence while in flight, he opens the emergency door and the plane goes down. Only seven survive, and Dean and Sam are called in by the airport manager, who says that their father once helped him with a ghost he had in his house, and as he can't contact John he has turned to the two sons. They ask for all relevant information on the crash, and listen to a strange sound on the CVR (Cockpit Voice Recorder): a low moaning, whistling sound. The investigators have taken that to indicate some sort of technical problem on the aircraft, leading to its downing, but Jerry, the airport guy, is not convinced.

Listening to the CVR recording the brothers make out the words "No survivors" and are convinced there was some otherworldly explanation for the crash. They go to see one of the survivors, in fact the guy who last saw George as he opened the emergency exit. He has checked himself into a psychiatric hospital, as he believes he has gone mad: there is two tons of pressure behind the emergency release --- how could one man have opened in midflight? He also tells Dean and Sam that George had weird black eyes. The boys visit George's widow, but can find out nothing interesting about him: he was just an ordinary guy, a dentist on his way to a conference.

They next pose as Homeland Security in order to get access to the plane's wreckage. They find some sort of odd residue on the emergency exit and take it back with them for analysis. Meanwhile, the pilot of the downed plane, who is one of the survivors, is about to take command of his next flight. As he does, the weird black entity seeps into his eyes. He quickly loses control of the small aircraft and crashes into a field. The brothers meanwhile have identified the substance on the door as sulphur, clear evidence of demonic possession.

Travelling to the scene of the second accident, they again find sulphur traces in the wreckage, and conclude that the demon, which is obviously taking possession of people, is going after all of the survivors of the original crash, to ensure nobody escapes. With this information in hand, the brothers contact all of the remaining survivors to see if any intend flying that day. Only one does, the stewardess from the original flight, and unable to stop her the boys have to board the plane themselves, in order to exorcise the demon and save everyone on board. One small problem: big bad Dean has a fear of flying!

Onboard the plane the boys think it may be the stewardess, Amanda, who the demon has possessed but their test --- pronouncing God's name in latin backwards --- does not support that hypothesis. After checking most of the passengers they come to believe it's the co-pilot. Trying to explain the situation to Amanda at thirty thousand feet is not easy, but she believes them --- partially at least --- as she says on the original flight she thought she noticed something weird about George's eyes, but had just shrugged it off. She helps the boys lure the co-pilot out and after some trouble with air turbulence they perform the exorcism that forces the demon to exit the man's body. As it does, it screams at Sam that it knows what happened to his fiancee, but Sam finishes the ritual after Dean drops the book they have been reading the verses from, and the demon vanishes, an electrical charge buzzing around the plane before it rights itself.

Back on the ground, Dean is interested as to how Jerry got his number, and he says he got it from their dad's voicemail. The brothers are surprised at this, since last time they checked their father's voicemail was not working. They call it and do indeed get the voicemail, with the additional message that if someone is in trouble they can call Dean. This is a big relief to them, as it means their father is still alive and out there somewhere. Still, why hasn't he then contacted them directly?

MUSIC
Black Sabbath: "Paranoid"

Rush: "Working man"

Nichion Sounds Library: "Load rage"


QUESTIONS?
Was the demon just playing on Sam's fears when it said it knew about his fiancee, or does it really know what happened to her? And what did happen to her? We saw her explode into flames: what else can there be?

Is John Winchester alive, and if so, why has he not contacted his sons? Is he trying to prevent attention being drawn to them? Is he unable to get in touch? Is there another reason?

The "WTF?!!" moment
Sort of not really one here, but the climax of the story with the turbulence and Dean dropping the prayer book is pretty stunning: the whole exorcism scene on the plane is pretty breathtaking.

PCRs
As Dean Sam and Jerry discuss the poltergeist their father helped Jerry out with some years back, a passing employee remarks "Poltergeist? Man, I love that movie!" Referencing the eponymous horror flick that had most of us checking under our beds back in the eighties.

As the boys "suit up" to look more respectable if posing as members of the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Bureau --- don't you ever watch "Air crash investigations"? --- they investigate any aircraft disasters, crashes, downed aircraft etc) Dean mumbles "Man, I look like one of the Blues Brothers!" A reference to the cult 80s film of the same name, starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.

When Dean is trying to get Amanda the stewardess not to board the plane the possessed co-pilot is flying, he calls her and tells her there has been an emergency with her sister. He pretends to be a doctor, and uses the name James Headfield. This is far too close to James Hetfield, lead vocalist with Metallica, to be coincidence, especially given the fact that the band were namechecked by Sam as he perused Sam's "dubious" choice of music in the car in the pilot episode. (Just to back this up, later on the plane as Dean tries to remain calm he is humming, and Sam asks him if it is Metallica he's humming. It is.)

As Deam tries to explain to Amanda about the spirit possessing the co-pilot, he remarks "I don't have time for the whole "The truth is out there" speech right now". Another reference to the X-Files, of course.

1.05 "Bloody Mary"

Investigating the death of a man whose eyes appear to have liquefied, Sam and Dean speak to the dead man's daughters, one of whom blames his death on her sister, saying that on a dare she faced the mirror in the bathroom and spoke the words "Bloody Mary" three times. There is a legend about a vengeful spirit who will come for anyone who does that, but the older sister does not believe such stories. Later two of the other girls are messing about, talking on the phone, and one, Charley, listens as the other, Jill, making light of the legend says the name three times while standing in front of a mirror. She screams, and Charley screams back, but then she laughs as it was all a joke. When Jill hangs up the phone though, she sees her eyes begin to bleed. She is found dead the next day.

Gaining access to Jill's room the boys shine a blacklight on the mirror and reveal on the back the name "Gary Bryman" carved on it. There is also what looks like a handprint. Turns out he was an eight-year old who was killed in a hit and run, and Jill the one driving the car. Back in the house where the original death took place, they reveal another name: "Linda Shoemaker". This is the wife of Stephen, the man whose death brought the boys here, and they're told she died of an overdose, though they wonder if the father killed the mother? There is another handprint to accompany the name.

The brothers are forming something of a working hypothesis now. As both victims of "Bloody Mary" were involved in fatal acts that may have gone unpunished or even unknown, she must be wreaking revenge on those sort of people. This would lead to the conclusion that she too was murdered and her killer never brought to justice. They turn up the name Mary Worthington, and find that indeed she was killed: her eyes were removed with almost surgical precision, but no-one was ever charged with her murder. She did apparently manage to scrawl three letters on a mirror --- "tre" --- which could refer to a surgeon whose name is Trevor Sampson. This also fits in with the fact that she was having an affair with a man whom she referred to in her journal only as "T", and that she had intended to tell his wife.

Donna Shoemaker is angry with her friend Charley for having stirred up trouble and bringing the boys in on the case, thus reopening the old wound of her mother's "tragic" death. She snaps "Bloody Mary" three times in a mirror in front of Charley. Nothing happens but it scares Charley, and a few moments later she starts to see the apparition in every reflective surface: mirrors, windows, glasses ... and her eyes begin to bleed. Sam and Dean meanwhile have tracked down the mirror on which Mary Worthington wrote, but just then they get a call from Charley, who is hysterical, and they have to take her to their hotel.

They cover all reflective surfaces so that the ghost has no medium through which to travel and wreak her vengeance, and Charley admits that her boyfriend committed suicide over her, something the harpie may blame her for. Dean and Sam leave her in the hotel and go to find the original mirror. Luckily it was sold to a shop in the town, so they break in and smash every mirror while calling her name three times, forcing her eventually into the only mirror left, the one she wrote on. When Dean smashes this --- as Sam's eyes begin to bleed and he drops to the floor --- he thinks he has saved the day, but Bloody Mary comes out of the mirror in person, so to speak. Dean grabs one more mirror and reflects her own image back at her, finally destroying her.

MUSIC
The Rolling Stones: "Laugh? I nearly died."

Def Leppard: "Rock of ages"

Fall Out Boy: "Sugar, we're going down"


QUESTIONS?
What is it Sam is hiding from Dean about Jessica's death. When he faces Bloody Mary in the mirror, she taunts him by saying "You never told her the truth—who you really were. But it’s more than that, isn’t it? Those nightmares you’ve been having of Jessica dying, screaming, burning—You had them for days before she died. Didn’t you!?! You were so desperate to ignore them, to believe they were just dreams. How could you ignore them like that? How could you leave her alone to die!?! You dreamt it would happen!!!"
Can that be true? Could Sam have had foreknowledge of what was about to happen, and if so, why didn't he warn Jessica, move, do something?

Although it's not totally integral to the plot, the murder of Mary Worthington seems to have sparked the malevolent spirit that drew her into the mirror. So was she killed by the surgeon? Was it Trevor Sampson? We're never told, but if it wasn't then perhaps her quest for vengeance has been misplaced. Although she was killed and her murderer never brought to justice, so perhaps in the long run it doesn't really matter who killed her, just that her death went unavenged, spurring her to a supernatural killing spree. Still, the facts do seem to stack up.

The "WTF?!!" moment
When Dean smashes the mirror at the end, and Bloody Mary lunges OUT of it at him!

PCRs
None

Note: This is a dark episode, light on laughs and very bleak. It opens on a girls' slumber party, truth-or-dare but it quickly turns chillingly horrific and as the secrets come out and the story unfolds, it's pretty clear this is a serious one. That's probably borne out in the fact that there are no PCRs at all in this, and the only moment of light relief that comes in the whole thing is when Dean rushes outside, as they ransack the shop near the end, and claims to be the owner's kid. A disbelieving cop squints: "You're Mr. Yamashiro's kid?"

There's even a dark subtext in the story, as if the main plot wasn't bleak enough, hinting that Sam may have known about Jessica's impending death, as he follows through on the guilt that must be eating him up inside by trying to sacrifice himself to Bloody Mary, or at least being the decoy. As the episode ends, it looks as if he sees Jessica standing on the road, but as she disappears we're no wiser as to whether she was really there, or if his tortured brain is just playing tricks on him.

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Season One: "Signs and portents" (Part Four)

Same problem persists: twenty thousand characters might seem like a lot, but when you're a motormouth with a pen/keyboard like me, it's not even close. So, once again, splitting this next post up into two parts, otherwise I'd just have the one episode to post, which is not how I want to approach this. Apologies, mods!

1.9 "Deathwalker"

The arrival of an alien at the station causes controversy when it's rumoured that she is an infamous war criminal, Warmaster Jha'Dur of the Dilgar, whose name is whispered in hatred and anger as Deathwalker. She is responsible for countless atrocities, among them war crimes against G'Kar's people, as the Dilgar fought against both the Narn and Earth in the past. That war, however, ended over thirty years ago and all remaining Dilgar died when their sun went nova, so Sinclair and Garibaldi, and Franklin, who examines the woman purported to be Deathwalker after Na'Toth, who has sworn a blood oath against her, attacks her at the docking bay, are all skeptical that this could be the same person.

However, after a search of her ship reveals a Dilgar uniform with insignia on it which seems to confirm the patient as Jha'dur, the infamous Deathwalker, and a strange chemical is also recovered, there seems little doubt, strange and unlikely as it may be, that this is the same person who led the Dilgar invasion of 2230. Sinclair gets a communication from Earth, where a senator there tells him he is to make arrangements to send the mystery woman to Earth as soon as she is fit to travel. Sinclair's protestations that they believe her to be Deathwalker, and thus a war criminal more deserving of imprisonment and trial than free passage to Earth, fall on deaf ears, and he is ordered to carry out the senator's directions.

Meanwhile, G'Kar, who has taken the arrested Na'Toth into his custody, explains that although he understands and agrees with his aide's blood oath, Deathwalker has discovered something that could help the Narn in their quest to become stronger and take their place among the superpowers of the galaxy, and that this once, she must put her revenge on hold. Like Sinclair, he has orders too to convey the Warmaster to his home planet.

Summoned to medlab as the patient regains consciousness, Sinclair is told by her that she is indeed the war criminal, and that she has been sheltered and protected by a Minbari warrior clan, which is why when she arrived at the station she was onboard a Minbari vessel. She tells the commander that she has developed an anti-ageing drug, which she calls an anti-agapic, and is prepared to bring it to Earth so it may be further refined and then distributed to all. Sinclair is stunned: Deathwalker has in effect discovered the fountain of youth, the secret of immortality. She herself is living proof that it works, and she knows the value and importance of her discovery.

G'Kar, meanwhile, has made a very generous offer to Jha'dur to try to get her to take her drug to Narn instead of Earth, and she agrees to consider it, providing she's given Na'Toth's head on a platter! Angry, G'Kar leaves, and stirs up trouble by making it known to the other alien representatives that the Earthers are trying to "smuggle" Deathwalker off the station. Deathwalker is a horror figure in many of their histories, and most have encountered tales of her cruelty and barbarism, and they are loath to let her leave. They demand a full session of the council be convened, to instigate a trial of the war criminal. Faced with a fullscale riot and the very real possibility of the deaths of many, Sinclair has no choice but to accept their terms.

The session does not go well. Although Londo votes against the trial --- as he has nothing to gain from it, and Deathwalker never attacked his people --- G'Kar unsurprisingly votes yes, but with a caveat: the trial must take place on his home planet. When that idea is shouted down, he changes his vote to no. Although Sinclair had expected the Minbari to vote yes, they do not, as they have a dirty secret they need to keep about Deathwalker. With only Earth and the League of Non-Aligned Worlds voting yes, and Kosh as ever abstaining, the vote is defeated and the trial cannot take place.

Angered at how the vote turned out, some of the races call in ships from their forces to blockade Babylon 5, demanding Deathwalker not be allowed leave the station. Placing Babylon 5's defences on full alert, Ivanova warns the ships off but the situation is deteriorating. Sinclair sees he has no choice but to call another session of the council and reveal the truth about Jha'dur's amazing discovery. They all agree it is a huge opportunity for all races to benefit, and agree it should be developed, but want Deathwalker tried afterwards. Sinclair agrees that once they have synthesised the serum and can make it without her assistance, the Warmaster will be turned over to the League. The compromise is accepted, and a ship made ready to take Jha'dur to Earth.

Before she leaves though, Deathwalker can't resist telling Sinclair the truth behind the anti-agapic: its main ingredient must be taken from living beings, so people will have to die, probably in the millions or even billions, for others to live. She is very pleased with the dark symmetry of the situation, but Sinclair snarls at her to get off his station.

As the ship departs, the jumpgate opens and a Vorlon ship comes through. Without hesitation it destroys the ship carrying Deathwalker, to the surprised cheers of all watching. Kosh, who has come out to witness the attack, tells Sinclair humanity is not ready for immortality.

Great as this episode is, there's a really stupid, pointless subplot where Kosh engages Talia Winters to mediate in negotitations he is having with a weird alien being called Abutt. The two speak in riddles, and it seems Abbut is a "Vicar", or VCR --- a human recording device. But the story goes and went nowhere, and whether it was part of JMS's original plan or not to use it, I don't know but it now stands as a completely unrelated and loose thread that was never tied into the massive tapesty of Babylon 5. It's a loose end, and there are seldom any of those in this story, which is why I think it annoys me so much.

Important Plot Arc Points:
Kosh/Vorlons
Arc Level: Red
To be fair, there aren't really any important arc elements here. It's interesting though to see that Kosh, the Vorlon ambassador, finally takes an active role in events, as his people decide the younger races are not ready for the tremendous power that living forever brings, and take steps to make sure they do not get the chance. Kosh will now again retreat into the shadows, and we won't really hear from him again for a few more episodes, though he will always be around, waiting, listening, observing, perhaps planning.

The Wind Swords/Hole in your mind
Arc Level: Green
It's clear from what Jha'dur says that the Minbari war clan The Wind Swords sheltered her, and in truth it turns out that they did more than that, because Lenier later tells Sinclair that during the war against Earth they came to the Grey Council with weapons of mass destruction which they had obtained from Deathwalker. The Council had been at the time unaware of their involvement with the Dilgar Warmaster, and being an honourable people were and are embarrassed by the revelation. This is why they voted against the trial, because in such a proceeding, surely this most damaging skeleton would have been dragged from its closet, tarnishing their reputation and perhaps making them complicit in the Dilgar's warcrimes?

Also, Deathwalker mentions that the Wind Swords have spoken often about Sinclair, and that they say, yes you guessed it, he has a hole in his mind.

Quotes
Unsurprisingly, Warmaster Jha'dur gets the lion's share of the best quotes from this episode, and Sarah Douglas, in the role of Deathwalker, delivers these lines with the chilling contempt of a serial killer who knows she will never be brought to justice for her crimes, for she has in her possession something far more valuable to any living being than revenge.

Deathwalker to G'Kar, on his offer to have her come to Narn: "I will consider it, Ambassador, if in addition I may have just one thing: the head of the animal who attacked me in the landing bay!"

Deathwalker to Sinclair: "You know the way of command. Yes, the Wind Swords are right to fear you.... they have sheltered me for many years, in return for certain services. They speak of you often, Sinclair. They say you have a hole in your mind."

Deathwalker to G'Kar: "You're very well informed, G'Kar. Our reports always said you were a clever one--and a good resistance leader, too. If Earth Alliance hadn't taken a hand in our invasion, we might have helped your kind wipe the Centauri out completely."

Garibaldi on Deathwalker's intentions: "She wiped out entire races, destroyed whole planets, experimented on living beings. Now she wants to make everybody immortal?"

Garibaldi to Sinclair, on his plan to get Jha'dur off the station and back to Earth, as ordered: "Better pray to that God of yours you're right, Jeff, because if any of the League ambassadors find out about this 'deal,' they'll tear Babylon 5 to pieces."

Deathwalker, on the effect her drug will have on the galaxy: "Delicious irony ... that those who cursed us will have to thank us for the rest of time."

Deathwalker's last words to Sinclair: "You and the rest of your kind take blind confidence in the belief that we are monsters--that you could never do what we did. The key ingredient in the serum cannot be synthesized; it must be taken from living beings. For one to live forever, another one must die. You will fall upon one another like wolves. It'll make what we did pale by comparison. The billions who live forever will be a testimony to my work, and the billions who are murdered to buy that immortality will be the continuance of my work. Not like us? You will become us. That's my monument, Commander."

Kosh (after the Vorlon ship has destroyed Deathwalker's vessel) to Sinclair: "You are not ready for immortality".

1.10 "Believers"

This was the point when I sat back in shock and realised once and for all that Babylon 5 was going to be nothing like Star Trek, or at least, the Star Trek I had seen up to this point, where when a major or even minor character is due to die, they always find some way to save him/her/it at the last moment, in some cases actually bringing them back from the dead. In at least the early seasons of Star Trek the Next Generation, and of course the original Trek, and before Deep Space Nine rewrote Roddenberry's "everything will work out by the closing credits" playbook, you knew that no matter what danger they faced, the crew of the USS "Enterprise" were going to make it through. Sure, Captain Kirk or Data or Crusher might SEEM to be in a hopeless situation, near death, or impossible to rescue, but you knew that they'd find a way. The good guys always won, and the innocent were protected.

Yeah. :rolleyes:

But Babylon 5, and particularly this episode, changed all that. Surprisingly for its pivotal nature, it's one of the very few episodes not written by JMS, penned instead by science-fiction author David Gerrold, (though the main plot and idea wre from the mind of the series creator) and it's a total gem. Essentially this episode lays out the fundamental challenges in dealing with a race (read, religious group) who have strong views against surgery, to the point where they will refuse to allow a procedure that may save their lives, or that of their loved one, if it goes against their beliefs. This is the situation Dr. Franklin finds himself in, when Shon, a young boy suffering from a respiratory condition fatal if not treated, comes onboard the station with his parents, aliens who call themselves The People of the Egg, and about whom little is known.

The condition is easily treatable, Franklin tells the parents, but when they learn there is surgery involved they refuse to give their consent, for their people believe the soul is housed within the body --- literally --- and will escape if the body is cut open. Franklin can't believe anyone would give such superstitious nonsense credence, but is bound by his office to respect the wishes of the parents. Unfortunately, this conflicts directly with the oath he took as a doctor, and he petitions Sinclair to allow him --- and when he will not, to order him --- to operate on the boy. Sinclair says he must be the parents' advocate, as there is no-one else on the station to whom they can turn, and Franklin testily reminds him of the commander's instruction to his predecessor to operate on Ambassador Kosh, against the Vorlon government's express wishes. Sinclair demurs, saying it's not the same thing.

Franklin advises the parents there is another, less reliable procedure he can try on Shon, which does not involve surgery, and though he and his assistant doctor know this is a faint hope and only putting off the inevitable, they use it to play for time. When it's clear the alternative method is not working, he feels, the parents will cave and ask him to save their son, as you would expect any mother and father to when their child is in danger. He has reckoned though without the aliens' unshakeable faith and their belief that their son will lose his soul if cut, and they again refuse to allow the procedure, even though it looks like the only other option is to allow their son to die.

Franklin then forces Sinclair's hand by making a formal request for the commander to intervene and order him to operate on the boy. Sinclair says he will consider his options, and the parents, believing the commander will vote against them and with his CMO, seek the help of the ambassadors on the station. However, for various and different reasons, each decline to get involved. No-one wants to pick up this particular hot potato. And even Earth Central, whom Sinclair has contacted for orders and/or guidance, pass the buck back to him, telling him it's his decision and nothing to do with Earth. Babylon 5 is a neutral station, and so Earthforce can't apply their own rules and regulations to visitors. Of course, they do so when it suits them: this is just a handy way out for the authorities back home.

Sinclair eventually tells Franklin he has decided to support the parents' decision, after much agonising, and Franklin, furious that the child will die --- even though Shon himself has confirmed he does not want the surgery if it would "cost him his soul" --- goes against his CO's orders and performs the operation. It's a success, and Shon is saved, but when the parents realise what Franklin has done they are aghast, and take the child away with them. Franklin, congratulating himself for having stood up to the commander and done "the right thing", is idly researching what little information they have on the People of the Egg when his blood freezes. Tearing out of medlab and towards the visitors' quarters, he arrives too late, to see that the parents have killed their son, whom they considered to be only a empty husk, devoid of its soul after Franklin's procedure.

Stunned, Franklin can do nothing. It is already too late; the child is dead and the parents are leaving the station. He is inconsolable as he talks to Sinclair in the garden, but the commander, who says he should really ask for the doctor's resignation, admits that it was a hard decision, especially involving a child, and agrees to let the matter rest. Franklin has, after all, his own personal hell to deal with now, as he mulls over whether he was right to discount a people's beliefs and go against the parents' wishes. Now, they have not only lost their son, but believe him to be an evil spirit, and can never feel about him as they once did. In trying to save Shon, he has damned him, and the boy's family, for eternity.

This episode, apart from being a total shock ending, gives us our first real insight into the mind and heart of Dr. Stephen Franklin. On the surface he's a competent, even brilliant surgeon with an almost pathological desire to do right by his patients --- witness his destruction of his xenobiological files, rather than let them be used to create weapons --- but underlying all this is a deep arrogance that as a doctor he knows better than most, if not all. In many ways, and he says it himself in this episode, Franklin plays God, although he does not actually believe in God. This incident will however shake his previously rock solid belief in his own judgement, and will make him question if the right thing to do is always the best thing.

Important Plot Arc Points
None, really. The episode is pretty self-contained, and even the subplot in which Ivanova chases Raiders who are attacking freighters is pretty nondescript and not important to the overall story.

Quotes
Sinclair to Franklin, as he informs the doctor of his decision not to allow him perform the lifesaving operation: "Who should I believe? You, because we share the same beliefs? Or do we? ... What makes a religion false? If any religion is right, then maybe they all have to be right. Maybe God doesn't care how you say your prayers, just as long as you say them ... What we hold sacred gives our lives meaning. What are we taking away from this child? ... I have to refuse to sign the order. I can't allow you to perform the operation."

Kosh, when asked to intervene by the parents, is typically cryptic and no help at all: "The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."

Sinclair, furious at Franklin for going against his explicit orders, and ignoring the express wishes of the parents: "Who asked you to play God?"
Franklin: "Every damn patient who comes through that door! They want me to make it go away, or make it better, or make it not so. Well, if I have to accept the responsibility then I claim the credit too! I did good!" (Rather worryingly, here the doctor is comparing himself to God, and quite believes it, within this restricted frame of reference admittedly)

Sinclair, after the tragedy: "What makes us human is that we care - and because we care, we never stop trying."
Franklin: "No, what makes us human is that we have so many different ways to hurt." (Personally, though this is an important line, I'm still not quite sure if he means we have so many different ways to hurt each other or ourselves, or if he means we hurt in so many different ways by the choices we make).

Mother alien: "My husband cannot forgive you for what you have done, Doctor. I am not allowed to forgive either, but if it was in my power, I would."
(Whether this represents a cultural shift beginning with the mother, in which she realises that sometimes their rigid faith should not always be adhered to in every situation, or whether she is just recognising the fact that Franklin tried to save her son, at the expense of possibly his own job, is unclear.)

The different reasons/excuses proferred by the various ambassadors for turning down the parents' request are interesting, not only in how different they are and what a slant they put on the situation as seen through alien eyes (other than those of the People of the Egg, I mean) but in that they are all, to one extent or another, right and understandable. Why should an alien government interfere in what is basically none of their business, and more, go essentially up against Earthforce and the command structure of the station on which they all depend to conduct their business in a neutral environment? Nevertheless, the replies and responses are interesting to list:

The Narn view:

G'Kar: "I'd never even heard of your world until two days ago, when my research staff acknowledged your arrival. Interesting little place, but it has really nothing to offer the Narn Regime. You see, alliances are built on mutual advantage."
Mother alien: "We're not asking you to negotiate a treaty: we're asking you to help save our child."
G'Kar: "But you're asking me to exercise my authority on your behalf. What were you thinking when you petitioned us?"
Father alien: "We thought your dislike of the Earthers would be enough."
G'Kar: "Enough for us. Not for you. We do not casually entangle ourselves in the affairs of other species."

Centauri policy:
Londo: "Ah, I sympathise entirely, my dear. This is a difficult and distressing situation."
Father alien: "Will you help us?"
Londo: "Well, I would have to go to the Council, and request injunctive relief. The Council could have Commander Sinclair's decision set aside once he makes it, but I would have to get approval from my world. And I am certain that they would want me to justify the cost, yes?"
Father alien: "Cost?"
Londo: "Research. Committee hearings. All the necessary paperwork involved. Unfortunately, we are on a budget here. We cannot justify such expenses for non-Centauri. Just how much justice can you afford?"

The Minbari position:
Delenn: "I understand your frustration. It must be difficult for you to feel so powerless."
Mother alien: "You cannot imagine. We cannot eat, we cannot sleep. We can no longer focus our thoughts on our daily meditations. We are consumed by this. And no-one listens, no-one hears."
Delenn: "I cannot tell you how much all this troubles me."
Father alien: "Then you will help?"
Delenn: "We Minbari have our own relationship with the lengerdemains of the Universe. Matters of the soul are very private, very personal to us. We have suffered the interference of others in this area, and are thus ourselves forbidden to intervene in matters such as this."
Mother alien: "You're refusing because of your beliefs?"
Father alien: "We thought the Minbari were the most intelligent of the races."
Mother alien: "We are only trying to save our child".
Delenn: "That is also what Dr. Franklin believes he is doing. Whose belief is correct, and how do we prove it? No. On this issue, the Minbari cannot take sides."

In the case of the Narn, G'Kar is only interested in building alliances, making allies and strengthening his people's position in the Council, and indeed in the galaxy. Interestingly, he is led in this direction anyway --- not that this is not the standpoint he would have spoken from anyway --- by the way in which the aliens approach him, commenting on the strength of the Narn and asking for their protection: asylum, of a sort. Kosh of course is not worth noting. The Vorlons could care less about the affairs of other races than they do about ants, and unless they are seen as important or connected to their plans, they may as well not be there. However, the mother's question put to Kosh is telling, as she asks him what if it were he that the doctor wanted to operate on, without his permission? This is of course exactly what happened in the pilot, albeit in different circumstances.

Londo can always be counted on to want to see the bottom line. The Centauri are all about profit and loss, and do little if anything that does not benefit them in one way or another. As the ambassador to Babylon 5, Londo tells the aliens he only has a modest budget, and like any bureaucrat must justify any expenses he incurs. His closing remarks could be taken out of the mouth of any high-priced lawyer here on Earth. And when Delenn speaks of interference from others in the spiritual matters of the Minbari, she is obviously referring to the soul hunters, who collected the souls of so many of their great leaders, preventing them reaching whatever afterlife awaits them. It is somewhat hypocritical of the mother to castigate Delenn though for using her beliefs as a reason not to help: is she not trying to do the same thing, in reverse? So as always with religion and faith, it's fine for us to do it but not for you.

I've actually watched quite a bit of the first season of Babylon 5 again (I've seen the first 16 episodes now) and here are some thoughts to add on my previous post. Michael O'Hare who I dismissed as a cardboard type character and actor has grown on me hugely, I now find that I'm very fond of him and he's very good in the role. Talia Winters what can I say:love: But the most intriguing is the relationship between Londo and G'Kar. My preference and allegiance has constantly shifted between the two and they're great characters in their own right and I can never decide who's right and who's wrong. I think the writers have done a great job here in leaving this in the first season as an open-ended question. The worst actor in the series though has to be Jerry Doyle, but even then I really like his character.

Oh there's no question Londo and G'Kar were the stars of the show, almost a comedy act, and as you say one was never sure who was the straight man and who the comic. The scene at the lift in "Signs and portents", a very heavy episode with just the one bit of comic relief, is incredibly well-written, especially when you know what happens later. And yes it's hard to decide who is in the right and who is in the wrong; the balance shifts all the time, just like the various races are shown alternately as good and then bad, if such simple concepts can be applied to a show as complex as Babylon 5.

Jerry Doyle will surprise you as season three and four get going, believe me. He may seem a little stilted but he really comes into his own. Talia I never liked: she always sounded like she was going to burst into tears, and paradoxically looked at everyone with rather an icy stare, as if they were insects. Bleh. You DO know what happens later, yes? If not I won't spoil it for you... :D

And yes, once you see the role he was required to play, and compare it to the more action-hero role of Bruce Boxleitner in later seasons, you can see that it's all a question of style. I've often likened them to an old grizzled veteran and his hothead son, and the roles each play are perfect for the men they are.

Thanks for the comments: how far are you into the season now?

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Season 1: "Three million years from Earth..."

Episode 4: "Waiting for God"

Holly's joke: The most interesting event that happened recently was that Lister pretended he passed the chef's exam, although really he failed. That gives you some idea of how truly exciting some days can be around here.

Rimmer orders Holly to give him access to the crew's confidential reports, and is happy when he hears Captain Hollister's remarks about Lister, less than complimentary. However, he is less than pleased to hear his own report, which is little better. Holly tells Rimmer that he has detected a UO (Unidentified Object), but Rimmer stalks off in a huff. Meanwhile, Lister is reading a book the Cat has given him; Cats read differently than humans, by sniffing scents impregnated into the paper on their books. As he is reading, Talkie the Toaster bemoans the fact that no-one wants to eat toast.

Rimmer comes in, and is more than annoyed that Lister is using his clothes. Even though he's dead, he doesn't like Lister taking his things. The two discuss the possibility that they are alone in the cosmos. The Cat returns with the Holy Book, which tells the Cat people's history, and Lister sees that there are pictures in this one, which depict him as Cloister, the Cats' god. All the facts fit, and in truth this is the case --- Lister is their god, but the Cat scoffs at the idea. Lister asks Holly to translate the Holy Book for him, and Holly says he'll give it a go.

Rimmer runs in, excited and tells Lister that the UO is in fact a pod. Lister goes into the quarantine, and when Rimmer tells him he's to stay there for a month, he walks right out again. When Rimmer goes off to get the scutters, Lister discovers that the pod is in fact one of Red Dwarf's old garbage pods! He asks Holly why he didn't tell Rimmer, and Holly replies that "Well, it's a laugh, innit?" Later, Lister and Rimmer discuss their beliefs, and Lister puts forward the theory that humans may be regarded as a galactic disease, with the result that aliens stay away from Earth. Rimmer, however, dreams of aliens giving him a new body...

The next morning, Holly has deciphered the Holy Book, and reveals that indeed Lister and Cloister are the one person. He tells Lister of a great war that broke out on Red Dwarf between the Cats, as they took Lister's plan to open a hotdog stand on Fiji as their holy doctrine. The Cats fought over the colour the hats were supposed to be that they would wear in the diner, and after the war the two factions piled into space arks, one of them smashing into an asteroid, having used Lister's old laundry list as their starchart! Rimmer has no sympathy or time for Lister, who is somewhat shaken by the amount of destruction and carnage his plan has caused.

Finding no joy with Rimmer, Lister heads off in search of the Cat, and comes across him in the cargo bay, in company with an old priest, who regrets wasting his life living the way Cloister preached, and now no longer believes that his god exists. Lister appears to him, dressed as Cloister, and tells the old man that he has in fact performed well, and will be received into Fiji as a loyal worshipper.

Back at the quarantine room, Rimmer waits with bated breath to see the emergence of the Quagaars (a name for the aliens he has made up!), and is a little miffed when Lister draws from the garbage pod.... a rancid chicken carcass!

Notes:
This is where you really start to appreciate that Red Dwarf is more than just a comedy series, indeed, more than just a sci-fi series. Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, the creators and writers of the series, have set up a whole mythology and religion for the race known as Felis sapiens or Cats. But they've put it together in a way that is weirdly logical, if you look at it, and if you don't have all the facts. In fairness, we can't really scoff can we, when some of us revere the memory of, as Douglas Adams once put it, "a guy who was nailed to a tree for saying for great it would be to be nice to each other for a change", and others who believe their god wants them to kill in his name? In fact, in my view, all religion sucks, as Lister points out in this episode when he says of the Cats: "They're just using religion as an excuse to be crappy to each other!" to which Talkie the Toaster replies, "So what else is new?"

But the Cat mythos is all built around a real event, if somewhat distorted through the lens of three millennia of their history. Lister --- whose name has become corrupted to Cloister (perhaps because he was cloistered away in stasis, perhaps not) --- did indeed save his cat Frankenstein's life. She was pregnant, and due to his sacrifice was able to give birth and basically begin a bloodline that would one day lead to the emergence of a sapient species, of whom we believe the creature currently known as Cat is the last survivor. Yea, as it is written in the Holy Book: Cloister, the Holy One, who gave of his life that we might be saved. In a twisted, very funny way, it all fits.

But because Lister was and is such a slob, Frankenstein (or her later sentient descendants) taught their offspring to emulate his ways: be lazy, eat food that's bad for you, never wash, and so on --- none of which of course Dave had ever envisioned happening or he might have explained to them that his life choices weren't for everyone. The Cats then inevitably as they became more humanoid had a war, splitting into two factions and after the war leaving Red Dwarf in search of "Fyushal" (Fiji), their Promised Land. Sadly, one faction used Lister's old laundry list, believing it to be a star chart, and flew straight into an asteroid!

When Lister and the Cat meet the old Cat priest belowdecks he has been left behind, in a typical cat move, because he is old and infirm, and the other cats did not want to have to look after him: cats are of course notoriously selfish. Quite how he's survived down there is not clear --- though it appears the Cat (our Cat) has been bringing him food, and anyway how did he survive on his own for as long as he did before Lister was revived, having no access to Red Dwarf's computers and thus no way of getting food? That's never explained, but cats are hunters and we assume he was able to catch enough food to remain healthy. Of course, there's then the question too of how he manages to keep looking so cool and unruffled if he's foraging for food, but I guess that's one of the never-to-be-solved mysteries of the universe!

There is a change in the script here, and it's pretty obvious, but maybe it can be explained, like much of the Cats' teachings, by the details changing with the passage of time and the story being handed down from generation to generation. Lister's original plan, which he confided to Rimmer in the first episode, is to have a farm on Fiji, however here the Cats have decided it was to open a hotdog stand. It's a small point, but without the change the war would not have made sense, as the main point of contention was over the colour of the hats to be worn. Wouldn't really have worked with a farm, and can you really see Cats labouring on the land?

Best lines/quotes/scenes

Rimmer asks Holly for his confidential report:

RIMMER: "Holly, give me access to the crew's confidential reports."
HOLLY: "Those are for the Captain's eyes only, Arnold."
RIMMER: "Fine. Well, we'll give him ten seconds to come back from the dead, and if he hasn't managed it, we'll presume I'm in charge." (Waits) "No, he hasn't managed it."
HOLLY: (With resignation) "Whose do you want?"
RIMMER: "Give me ... give me Lister's. Just the remarks."
HOLLY: "David Lister, Technician, 3rd class. Captain's remarks: Has requested sick leave due to diarrhea on no less than 500 occasions. Left his previous job as a supermarket trolley attendant after ten years because he didn't want to get tied down to a career. Promotion prospects: zero."
RIMMER: "I always liked Captain Hollister. Such a great reader of men, was Captain Hollister. A marvellous, marvellous man and a tragic loss to us all. All right, Holly, give me ... give me mine."
HOLLY: "Arnold Rimmer, Technician, 2nd Class. Captain's remarks: There's a saying amongst the officers: If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well. If it's not worth doing, give it to Rimmer. He aches for responsibility but constantly fails the engineering exam."
RIMMER: "Whoa, whoa, whoa, Holly, Holly. I want my report. Rimmer. Two M's, E, R."
HOLLY: "Astoundingly zealous. Possibly mad. Probably has more teeth than brain cells. Promotion prospects: comical."
RIMMER: "No no no no no, Holly. I want Rimmer. That's two R's, one at the front, one at the back."
HOLLY: "Arnold, this is your report."
RIMMER: "I always hated that pus-head Hollister. He always resented my popularity. That's why he never put forward my proposal to reduce the minimum haircut length by an eighth of an inch. Small-minded, petty-thinking modo."
HOLLY: "Arnold, I'm picking up an unidentified object."
RIMMER: "Constantly fails the exam? I'd hardly call eleven times constantly. I mean, if you eat roast beef eleven times in your life, one would hardly say that person constantly eats roast beef. No, it would be a rare, nay, freak occurrence. Possibly mad? What is he dribbling about?"



Rimmer is angry that Lister has borrowed one of his shirts:

RIMMER: "What's that down the front?"
LISTER: (Checking the various stains) "That's definitely biscuit, um, that's custard, that's definitely ink, and just general sort of dirty marks."
RIMMER: "You can't just go through my possessions!"
LISTER: "Come on, you don't need them any more."
RIMMER: "Because I'm dead?"
LISTER: "Yeah. You're a hologram, and holograms don't need clothes."
RIMMER: "They're my things, Lister! Would you steal verruca cream from a man with no feet? I mean, how would you like it if I stole your T-shirt? Your favourite one, with the custard stains down the front?"
LISTER: "I wouldn't care".
RIMMER: "You've got no right to go through my wardrobe."
LISTER: "OK, OK. (Grins) "You keep your underpants on coathangers, don't ya?"
RIMMER: "That's private!"
LISTER: "OK, Rimmer, OK. Take the shirt back."
RIMMER: "I don't want it. It's ruined. You've (shudders) sweated in it!"
LISTER: "Well, if you don't want the shirt, what do you want, Rimmer?"
RIMMER: "Just keep out of my things, all right?"

Lister waxes philosophical about the possibility of life in the universe:

LISTER: "Rimmer, there's nothing out there, you know. There's nobody out there. No alien monsters, no Zargon warships, no beautiful blondes with beehive hairdos who say, "Show me some more of this Earth thing called kissing." There's just you, me, the Cat, and a lot of floating smegging rocks. That's it. Finito."

Tha Cat shows Rimmer his "shiny thing"...

CAT: "Hey! You can't have my shiny thing! I found it, it's my shiny thing."
RIMMER: "What are you dribbling about?"
CAT: (Pulls out a silver yo-yo) "This is my shiny thing, and if you try and take it off me, I may have to eat you."
RIMMER: "It's a yo-yo, you modo."
CAT: "It does two amazing things. One, you have the shiny thing at the top, and the string down below, or, and this is the clever part, you have the string at the top, and the shiny thing down here where the string used to be."
RIMMER: "Yeah ... woweeee! You haven't the slightest clue what it's for, do you?"
CAT: "Why sure I do, grease stain. You hold the shiny thing in one hand, and you go ... aaaooowww! The string's moving! Hey! Stop that thing! Catch that string! Aaaooowww!"

Lister reads the Cats' Holy Book and finds out he is their god...

LISTER: "This is me!"

The picture depicts a noble-looking individual, vaguely resembling
Lister, wearing biblical-style robes and carrying a black cat (an
ordinary cat, not a humanoid cat) on his shoulder. Above his head is a
doughnut-shaped halo.

CAT: "No, that's not you, that's Cloister. He was the father of the Cat people. He lived years ago, at the Beginning."
LISTER: (Turns the page) "Who's that?"

The next picture shows the same guy (without the cat) sitting lotus-style
inside what seems to be a giant ice cube.

CAT: "That's him frozen in time."
LISTER: "No, that's me! I was sent into stasis. That's what "frozen in time" is."
CAT: "He did that to save Frankenstein."
LISTER: "Look, Frankenstein was my pet cat! (Points back and forth between himself and the picture) "Look: Lister, Cloister. Cloister, Lister! See?"
CAT: "Listen, you stupid monkey, Cloister's another name for ... for God!"
LISTER: "That's what I'm saying! I am your God!"

CAT looks LISTER up and down. He's not impressed. (Well, who would be?)

CAT: "OK." (Points to his bowl of crispies) "Turn this into a woman."
LISTER: "I'm serious."
CAT: "So am I!"
LISTER: "Look, Frankenstein was my pet cat, right? And she was pregnant. Now, I got put into suspended animation. I was supposed to be there for 18 months, but I didn't get out for three million years."
CAT: "You oversleep? So do I."
LISTER: "No! What I'm saying is that over those three million years, your entire race of people evolved from my pet cat."
CAT: "Ah, I gotta go now, man. But let's do lunch sometime. I'll put it in my diary: 12:30, lunch with God. And, ah, formal dress, you know what I'm saying?"
LISTER: "It is true, you know."
CAT: "Yeah? Then I gotta ask you the ultimate question. If you're God, why that face?"

Lister works out what the "UO" --- the pod --- really is:

LISTER: "Give me an R, give me an E, give me a D ... give me a Red Dwarf Garbage Pod! Holly? Did Rimmer never work in waste disposal?"
HOLLY: "No, Dave."
LISTER: "It's one of our Red Dwarf garbage pods with, like, the writing burnt off in places. Why didn't you tell him?"
HOLLY: "Well, it's a laugh, innit?"

Rimmer, blissfully unaware of what it is, ruminates on what might be inside the pod, and on the nature of, again, intelligent life in the cosmos:

RIMMER: "You can scoff, Lister. That's nothing new. They laughed at Galileo. They laughed at Edison. They laughed at Columbo."
LISTER: "Who's Columbo?"
RIMMER: "The man with the dirty mac who discovered America."
LISTER: "What makes you think these aliens exist?"
RIMMER: "They must do, Lister! There's so many things that are strange and odd. So many things we don't have any explanation for."
LISTER: "Like, um, why do intelligent people buy cinema hot dogs? Do you mean that sort of weird and mysterious thing?"
RIMMER: "No, Lister, I mean like the pyramids. How did they move such massive pieces of stone without the aid of modern technology?"
LISTER: "They had massive whips, Rimmer. Massive, massive whips."
RIMMER: "All right, then, the Bermuda Triangle. Go on, explain that one. You know all the answers."
LISTER: "No, I agree there. That is a genuine mystery. How did a song like that ever become a hit? It defies all reason."
RIMMER: "I just don't know why I bother. I'd get more sense out of a squashed hedgehog. Lister, don't you ever stop and wonder: why are we here? What's the grand purpose?"
LISTER: "Why does it have to be such a big deal? Why can't it be like, like, human beings are a planetary disease? Like the Earth's got German measles or facial herpes, right? And that's why all of the other planets give us such a wide berth. It's like, "Oh, don't go near Earth! It's got human beings on it, they're contagious!"
RIMMER: "So you're saying, Lister, you're an intergalactic, pus-filled cold sore! At last, Lister, we agree on something."
LISTER: "What do you believe in, then? Do you believe in God?"
RIMMER: "God? Certainly not! What a preposterous thought! I believe in aliens, Lister."
LISTER: "Oh, right, fine. Something sensible at last."
RIMMER: "Aliens, Lister, with technology so far in advance of our own we can't even begin to imagine."
LISTER: "Well, that's not difficult. Mankind hasn't even got the technology to create a toupee that doesn't get big laughs."
RIMMER: "Aliens, Lister, who can give me a real body."
LISTER: "Ooohhh, I can't wait to see your face in the morning, I really can't."
RIMMER: "And nor I yours, Lister. When that pod opens and from it emerges a beautiful alien woman with long green hair and six breasts."
LISTER: "Six breasts?! Imagine making love to a woman with six breasts!"
RIMMER: "Imagine making love to a woman!"

Having asked Holly to translate the Cats' Holy Book for him, Lister learns the full truth of what their beliefs are, or were:

LISTER: "Who's Cloister? Is it me?"
HOLLY: "Yes, Dave. The Cats have made you their God."
LISTER: "Hey! Working class kid makes good!"
HOLLY: "Your plan to buy a farm on Fiji and open up a hot dog and doughnut diner has become their image of heaven." (Trollheart's note: this is perhaps a hollow attempt by the writers to claim that Lister's plan all along was to run a farm AND open up a diner. Well if it was he certainly didn't mention it to Rimmer...)
LISTER: "What?"
HOLLY: "And Cloister spake, `Lo, I shall lead you to Fyushal, and there we shall open a temple of food, wherein shall be sausages and doughnuts and all manner of bountiful things.Yea, even individual sachets of mustard. And those who serve shall have hats of great majesty, yea, though they be made of coloured cardboard and have humorous arrows through the top.'"
LISTER: "Does it say what happened to the rest of the Cats?"
HOLLY: "Holy wars. There were thousands of years of fighting, Dave, between the two factions."
LISTER: "What two factions?"
HOLLY: "Well, the ones who believed the hats should be red, and the ones who believed the hats should be blue."
LISTER: "Do you mean they had a war over whether the doughnut diner hats were red or blue?"
HOLLY: "Yeah. Most of them were killed fighting about that. It's daft really, innit?"
LISTER: "You're not kidding. They were supposed to be green! Go on, Hol."
HOLLY: "Well, finally they called a truce, and built two arks and left Red Dwarf in search of Fyushal."
LISTER: "But there's no such place as Fyushal. It's Fiji. I mean, how are they supposed to find it?"
HOLLY: "And Cloister gave to Frankenstein the sacred writing, saying, `Those who have wisdom will know its meaning.' And it was written thus: `Seven socks, one shirt--'"
LISTER: "That's my laundry list! I lined the cat's basket with me laundry list!"
HOLLY: The Blue Hats thought it was a star chart leading to the promised land."
LISTER: "Well it wasn't, it was my dirty washing.What happened next, Hol?"
HOLLY: "And the ark that left first followed the sacred signs, and lo, they flew straight into an asteroid. And the righteous in the second ark flew ever onward, knowing they were indeed righteous."

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Just after "24" aired and began "ground-breakingly" bumping off major characters a small UK series was getting its premiere and taking serious flak from the security services for its "laughable" and "unrealistic" portrayal of MI5. This was the new series from Kudos supremo Jane Featherstone, although credit for its creation is given to David Wolstencroft, its main writer, and it dealt with the hazards faced by a team of MI5 (British Secret Service) agents as they raced to foil plans, stop bombs going off and thwart (or in some cases, engineer) regime changes, all before breakfast.

While the world portrayed in "Spooks" may be far removed from the reality of working for the most secret organisation in the UK --- or may not; they're just that secret you would not know, and if you did, they'd probably have to kill you! --- the dangers they face, the situations they find themselves in and the dramas they go through each week are all too believable. Certainly, there are too many young, sexy, hip people in the organisation, but then, who wants to see a bunch of old spies run around? You have to have a certain suspension of disbelief to enjoy the show, as indeed was necessary with anything from "24" to the new (or old) "Hawaii Five-0", but that's TV drama for you. It rarely accurately reflects reality: when it does, it's called a documentary.

But one of the things that stood Spooks apart from the vast slew of other drama programmes on TV at the time was their willingness to kill of major characters. With an almost gleeful sense of abandon, nobody was safe. 24 may have sprung the odd surprise during its run by allowing some major leads to die, but I don't believe any show before or since has knocked off its main characters so regularly, so much so that it almost became expected. Every few seasons there would be almost an entirely new cast, and while you would think that would grate on viewers, getting used to a whole new bunch of faces, somehow it worked, and we took to the new guys easily, almost but not quite forgetting the older hands.

Even the top man wasn't safe, so much so that when at the end of season seven Harry Pearce, the boss, is kidnapped and a video shown in season eight of his death, you're just not sure. Most series would lead you to think, "Oh, he's the star! They couldn't kill him off! He'll be all right." But with Spooks, you just never knew, and that added an extra element of tension and unease into the programme. When you know the star can't possibly be shot, stabbed, run over, pushed off a bridge or anything else that might lead to his or her death, you get a little inured to the sequences where it looks like he or she has been killed. You know they're going to survive. But not with Spooks.

Anyone was fair game, and you didn't even have to be a big star either. When one of the "back room boys", whom we'd all come to like, meets his end in one of the earlier seasons it's so much a shock it's almost a hammerblow. Even with Spooks' reputation at this point, you think no, there's no way they'd let him die! The guys will come to rescue him. But they don't, and Spooks scores another hit on the disbelief scale. We come to see that anyone --- anyone --- can be bumped off if the story calls for it, and as a result we really worry when one of the guys or girls is in a tight spot and look like they might not make it out, which in most cases they do but there's always the possibility that this time they won't. To add suspense, some of the seasons ended on cliffhangers that hinged on the question of whether someone lives or dies, and you had to wait till next year to find out.

Although the stories seem fanciful, they had an unsettling way of coming true. Without implying that terrorists were watching the show for ideas, there were a lot of parallels in how the stories went and how history turned out soon afterwards. Coincidence of course, but chilling nonetheless. And without the great staple of the spy thriller, the Russians, to take the role of the bad guy in their stories, Spooks found a whole rock-underside full of demagogues, despots, terrorists, oligarchs and corrupt officials, arms dealers, state heads and more to take the part. There are, sadly, no shortage of evil people in the world.

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And so to the cast. As I mentioned, this is fluid to say the least, so each season (or episode) I'll mention any changes. When the series begins we have, working from left to right:

Zoe Reynolds, played by Keeley Hawes. Keeley would of course later find fame in "Ashes to ashes", another Kudos production and spinoff from "Life on Mars", both of which we will be featuring here later in the year. Maybe. Zoe is the youngest recruit to MI5, and desperate to prove herself both as an agent and as something other than the "token girl".

Tom Quinn, played by Matthew McFayden. Tom is the senior agent, the man in charge of the day-to-day operations and the man who takes command "in the field". He comes across as a little cold, as perhaps life in MI5 has made him, having seen so much death and horror.

Tessa Philips, played by Jenny Agutter (yes, the show attracted some major stars, both of TV and film). She is the senior case officer for Section K, the division the Spooks work for.

Sir Harry Pearce, played by Peter Firth. Head of counterterrorism and the overall boss here. Pearce is the only one who would last through all ten seasons (sorry if I gave anything away there!)

Danny Hunter, played by David Oyelowo. Another junior officer, who joins about the same time as Zoe Reynolds. The two find themselves supporting one another emotionally as Tom has little time or patience to ease anyone into a life as a spy.

Helen Flynn, played by Lisa Faulkner. Helen is a junior administation officer, but her role will only last up to the second episode, resulting in a shock scene that flooded the BBC switchboard with complaints when it was first aired, and was the first time Spooks sent a broadside across television viewers' bows, showing they were not going to be just another show.

There are other characters, some who go in and out of the series in various roles, some who become integral to it as support characters, but we will introduce and talk about them as they arrive. For now, the is the main cast that took to the air with the first ever episode of a show that was to pretty much take British (and later American) TV by storm.

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Trollheart's Note: Gaaahh! This max character limit is really starting to get on my tits! :mad: Now I have to split this post up into two, and it was only slightly outside the limit. But I can't shorten it anymore to make it fit while still retaining all the bits I want to post, so here we go again... :rolleyes:
1.06 "Skin"

An old friend of Sam's contacts him to ask for help. Her brother has been accused of murdering his girlfriend, but she doesn't believe he's capable of such a thing. Arriving at Rebecca Warren's house (Sam knows her as Becky) they investigate and are told there is a security tape which shows Zack arriving home just after 22:00, the murder having been committed a half-hour later. Becky tells them that although the tape clearly shows Zack arriving home at 22:30, he was with her till way after midnight. The brothers believe there might be a Doppelganger --- an identical double ---- involved, which would explain the disparity and Zack's apparent ability to be two places at once.

With Sam pretending his brother is a detective, they ask to see Zack's house, and Becky admits she has the security tape --- which was made with the CCTV in a store adjacent to her brother's house --- that she took it from the lawyer's office. They all watch it and Sam and Dean notice Zack's eyes light with an eerie luminescence. There is also the matter of the next-door neighbour's dog, who, up until the murder, had been a pleasant and friendly animal but who now barks and growls at anyone who comes near. Dean realises that although the tape shows "Zack" entering the house it does not show him leaving. Meanwhile, the Doppelganger has struck again, this time attacking a woman who has been left at home while her husband goes to a meeting. Called back at the last moment by a cancelled flight, he is distraught to see his wife tied up and beaten, aghast as she shrinks from him as he frees her, pleading with him not to hurt her any more, and finally confronted by an exact double of himself, who knocks him out with a bat.

When the boys find out about this second incident, they realise they're not dealing with a Doppelganger after all, and change their hypothesis. Perhaps it's a shapeshifter, a creature able to assume any form it wants? But where is it going when it has killed? On both occasions the trail ended when the brothers tried to follow it, and Sam thinks maybe the sewers would be a viable way for the thing to get around, and an easy way to disappear once it's perpetrated its evil crimes. They go down into the sewers and find discarded skin, leading them to the conclusion that the shapeshifter may shed its skin as it changes.

They come across the thing in the sewers, and armed with the only thing that will kill a shapeshifter, a silver bullet, they go after it. It escapes though, and on the surface takes Dean's shape, trying to trick Sam into helping it. Sam is wise to it though and holds his gun trained on it, but there's a tiny smidgeon of doubt in his mind that this isn't really his brother, and he's unable to shoot the shapeshifter, allowing it to get the drop on him. The shapeshifter takes him to its lair and goes off to see if he, in Dean's form, can score with Becky. Meanwhile Sam hears Dean (the real Dean) groan and knows they've been imprisoned together. Great: two heads are better than one, and they're soon free.

In Becky's house, the shapeshifter tries to ingratiate himself with Becky, but she is suspicious. After all, prior to this she hadn't even known Dean, and it was his impersonation of a police officer that angered her so much she pulled them off the case, afraid it would damage her brother's upcoming trial. When the shapeshifter is unsuccessful at flirting with her however he goes for the direct approach, knocking her out and then tying her to a chair so he can cut her. However Sam and Dean know that the shapeshifter is likely to go for Rebecca, and phone in an anonymous tip to the police. A SWAT team is soon at the house, and the shapeshifter barely manages to escape.

However when Sam later thinks he's speaking to Rebecca, it is in fact the shapeshifter again (confusing, no?) and "she" knocks Sam out, and changes back into Dean's form, intending to kill Sam and have it blamed on his older brother. But the real Dean, who has re-entered the sewers and found the real Rebecca in the shapeshifter's lair, turns up just in time and shoots the creature in the heart with a silver bullet.

After explaining things to Rebecca as best they can, the boys leave. The murder Beck's brother was being tried for will be blamed now, unfortunately, on Dean, who the police now believe dead, as once the shapeshifter died it remained in Dean's form. Zack will be released, and Dean ruminates on how it sucks that he won't be able to be present at the burial of the shapeshifter. After all, how many people get to attend their own funeral?

MUSIC
Iron Butterfly: "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"

Lynyrd Skynyrd: "Poison whiskey"

Filter: "Hey man, nice shot"

Free: "All right now"


QUESTIONS?
None really: self-contained episode, although now that Becky knows what Sam and Dean do for a living, is that likely to make her a target of their enemies?

The "WTF??!" moment
Probably right at the beginning really, when we see the killer turn to face the SWAT team and it's ... Dean! Of course, later we learn the truth, that it's the shapeshifter in Dean's form, but it's quite a shock initially.

PCRs
Just the one: Dean mentions "the Vulcan mind meld?" A reference to the ability of the Vulcan race in Star Trek to communicate telepathically and read minds.

1.07 "Hook man"

It's that old urban legend come to life: you know the one, where the boy and the girl are out dating and stop in a forest or somewhere. They hear a noise, the guy gets out, the girl hears banging on the roof of the car, turns out the guy is hanging and his feet are drumming on the roof? But this is Supernatural, and around here, urban legends always have their basis in horrific reality. So it proves with this one: a shadowy figure with a hook for an arm watches the lovers and although we don't see him attack the guy, it's pretty obvious that it's him who has strung up and killed the kid. The girl runs off.

Dean and Sam, reading about the case, think it could be an invisible creature, as the woman in the article, whose name is Lori Sorensen, says she saw nothing and no-one outside. They decide to investigate, and arrive at the campus Lori and her late boyfriend went to. When they talk to Lori and get the full story, they decide that it could be the Hook Man legend. Checking through records of arrest in the area over the last hundred or so years, they come across one of a preacher who was so incensed by the local prostitutes that he killed thirteen of them, and hung some of them upside-down from trees as a warning. His arm was also lost in an accident, and replaced by a hook. As a final confirmation, the incident took place at the same road as this murder occurred. Sounds like they have their man. Trouble is, this happened in 1862.

They go to check it out, but are arrested by the local sheriff for carrying firearms. Meanwhile Lori wakes from her slumber party to find her roommate dead, and scrawled in blood on the wall the words "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?" --- this refers to when she came home and found her roommate asleep (as she thought) and went straight to bed --- along with four crosses. As Dean and Sam are released on the understanding that Sam was being hazed as a pledge, they see the police responding to a 911 and hear it's Lori again. Making their way into her house they wait till the cops are gone and find the writing on the wall, literally. They now know this is "classic Hook Man legend", but are surprised that the creature left its haunt, as it's supposed to stay where it died and just catch people along that path.

They try to find out where the preacher, Jacob Karn, was buried, but there is no grave so the chances of finding it and destroying the body are zero. There is also a strong smell of ozone in the air. Checking further into the history of crimes in the town they find there were two more clergymen arrested for the murder of prostitutes or other "undesirables", but who both claimed some "invisible force" was responsible. Murder weapon in both cases was a sharp object. So now they're beginning to suspect the reverend, Lori's father, might be inadvertently summoning the Hook Man, the spirit picking up on his repressed emotions and troubled view of society. As a man of God, Reverend Sorensen would deplore the state of the world, and be anxious to protect his daughter. This could be all the Hook Man needs to manifest.

Having no other choice but to try to find the unmarked grave, they split up and Sam goes to talk to Lori, while Dean heads to the cemetery noted in the report and is lucky enough to find one with the cross symbol that was scratched on the wall engraved into it. He begins to dig. Once he finds the corpse he sets it alight and stands back, watching it burn. Meanwhile, Lori's father takes exception to the time she is spending with Sam, and she gets annoyed at the preacher. Suddenly, the Hook Man appears and attacks her father. Lori screams and Sam pursues the creature into the house. He shoots it and it turns to dust.

The preacher is wounded but still alive. When Sam meets back up with Dean he asks him in annoyance why he didn't burn Jason Karn's corpse, but Dean says he did, and with salt too: the nightmare should be over. Then Sam wonders about the metal hook: perhaps that is the source of the Hook Man's power. They check and find that when Karn was executed his effects were all sent to St. Barnarbas' Church --- which coincidentally is the same church Lori's father preaches at, and where they both live. Reading the parish records they find the hook was melted down, but they don't know into what, so to be on the safe side they break in and destroy everything silver.

They find Lori crying in the chapel (anyone mentions that Elvis song gets a slap!) and she admits she believes herself responsible for the two deaths and one injury, that she was angry but she thinks her anger was misplaced. She believes she is the one who should be punished, and indeed at that the Hook Man comes for her. As they battle him and frantically try to work out what silver item has been missed in their purge of the church inventory, they notice a silver necklace around Lori's neck. She says it's a church heirloom, her father gave it to her. Snapping it off, Dean legs it down to the basement where he melts it, and just at the last moment the Hook Man dissolves.

MUSIC
Split Habit: "Merry go round"

Quiet Riot: "Bang your head (Metal health)"

Low Five: "Noise"

APM: "At rest"

APM: "Royal Bethlehem"

Paul Richards: "U do 2 me"

Boston: "Peace of mind"


QUESTIONS?
None really: self-contained again, as many of the first season episodes are.

PCRs
Dean compliments Sam: "Nice job, Dr. Venkman!" He's referring to Venkman, one of the characters in the movie "Ghostbusters".

Dean tells Sam: "Dude, I am Matlock." Matlock was one of those eighties terrible private-eye TV shows, this one about an attorney who solved crimes. Yeah. Matlock is seen to be beloved of the seniors in "The Simpsons"; when they are asked by the mayor what they enjoy, one of the main concensuses seems to be "Matlock!" so much so that the new expressway is named in his honour.

1.08 "Bugs"

Urgh! If you have an aversion to cockroaches and other crawlie things (and who doesn't?) approach this episode with caution. Having struggled through it the once I've never gone back to watch it before now. Blechh! God I hate insects! But anyway, to the story: Sam is reading about a guy in Oklahoma who apparently died of CJD, also known as Mad Cow Disease. However, when Dean asks how that is anything to do with them Sam points out that people who die from CJD usually deteriorate over months, years, and usually with some outward signs --- loss of motor control, dementia etc. --- but this guy died in an hour. It's strange enough to merit their investigation, the boys decide, and so head for Oklahoma.

After quizzing the dead man's co-worker the two decide to investigate the sinkhole that he was found in --- the men were part of a construction team building houses in the area when the victim had his "attack". Descending into the hole, Sam finds some dead beetles and is formulating a theory about the insects having eaten out the dead man's brain, but Dean scoffs at such notions, saying that would take a lot more than ten beetles. They attend a local barbeque posing as potential buyers at a showhouse, and find that the son of the owner has a great interest in insects. There are jars of them in the house, and he has pet spiders. He seems a little weird, though Sam takes to him.

That night one of the residents is killed in the shower, apparently by an attack of spiders. When the boys quiz Matt, the kid, who would be the prime suspect as far as they are concerned, he surprises them by revealing his knowledge about the other insect-related deaths in the town. He says that as he is interested in and studies insects, he has noticed a massive coming-together of many different species to his hometown, but he has no idea what it means. While searching for clues, the boys turn up what appears to be an unmarked grave, which, when they take the bones to an anthropology professor in the local college, turn out to be Native American, about 170 years old.

"Oh no! I hear you say! Not the old "Indian burial ground" --- sorry, Native American burial ground story!" --- wait, just wait. It gets better.

Dean and Sam speak to a Native American who tells them that there was indeed once a reservation of his people in this land, but that over six brutal days the US Cavalry, impatient with their slow progress in relocating the tribe, raped and murdered them all. On the final day, the sixth, the dying chief of the tribe cursed the land and declared no white man should live on it, and that nature itself should rise up should they try, and defend the land. And on the sixth day, he tells them, none would survive. The brothers now have a working hypothesis: and tonight is the sixth day since the first death.

Sam and Dean race back to town, trying via phone to get the families out of the neighbourhood, but Matt's father won't listen. When they arrive they continue to argue until suddenly a massive cloud of insects blots out the sun and suddenly everyone is convinced. Running inside the house with the family, the brothers try to stop up all the gaps but there is no way to prevent at least some of the insects from gaining entrance to the house, and it is soon swarming, crawling and flying with bugs. As they try to protect themselves though, the sun rises and the sixth day ends, and with that the insects fly or crawl or slither away.

Convinced now that the house is built on cursed ground, Matt's father packs up and they leave, but Sam is glad to see that at least the two are now getting on better. Matt has lost his interest in insects, unsurprisingly, having come this close to being killed by a massive swarm of them.

MUSIC
Scorpions: "No one like you"

Extreme Music: "Poke in tha butt"


(Note: seems Def Leppard's "Rock of ages" is used here again, but as we've already featured that there's no point in repeating ourselves. There are also a few other songs used but I was unable to find videos for them, so have not included them.)


QUESTIONS?
No, not really.

PCRs
Dean mentions: "Mad cow. Wasn’t that on Oprah?" Referencing Oprah Winfrey's famous talk show

Again, Dean responds to Sam's contention that some people form bonds with animals by replying "Yeah, that whole Timmy-Lassie thing." Reference to the "Lassie" movies of the 50s and 60s; Lassie being the famous border collie dog that starred.

And Dean taunts Sam with "Yeah, you were kind of like the blonde chick in The Munsters." Which obviously references the hit show "The Munsters", similar to "The Addams Family".

BROTHERS
Here I'd like to start a new post-section. As I mentioned in the introduction to this show, although it concerns itself with monsters, ghosts and helping people, and later widens to a major plotline, Supernatural is at its centre a story about two brothers. As the episodes and seasons evolve, we see deeper into the heart of each and come to appreciate more the relationship between the two, the problems they face and how they overcome their fractured past. Not every episode tackles these, but in those that do I'll be talking about them.

This is probably the first real episode in which we get an insight into the relationship. Sam, who refused to follow their father into a life of demon-hunting like his brother, has always felt both that he is seen as the black sheep of the family, and that he in some way let his father down. All he wanted was a normal life --- to go to college, get a law degree, marry Jessica --- but eventually all of that was blown apart by their troubled past coming back to haunt them, and he is now irrevocably set on the path of revenge, like his older brother.

However, he is there because he has been more or less forced there by circumstances, unlike Dean, who chose this path. He therefore feels a little inferior to his bigger brother, feels he is perhaps not the man Dean is, and possibly feels too a little ashamed that he deserted he and his father. We see all this come to a head in his contact with Matt, when he advises the kid, who is not getting along with his father, that he only has to wait two more years and then he can escape to college. Dean, of course, sees it another way and is angry with Sam's view. He thinks the boy should try to reconcile with his father, perhaps give him the respect he is not getting.

Dean and Sam argue about how Matt should be advised, but it's crystal clear that they're in fact arguing about their own father and how they both individually and differently approached the man. Sam later confides to Dean that he misses his father too, and although he wants to find him he is worried that John will not want to see him, feeling betrayed by his son. Dean reveals that their father used to swing by the campus to check up on Sam, and assures him that he loves him and will definitely be happy to see him.

Dean also takes capricious delight in embarrassing Sam whenever he can. In the previous episode, he tricked his younger brother into helping one of the frat guys paint his body, and here he pretends he and Sam are lovers when this is the mistaken impression the house owner gets from them. Of course there's nothing malicious in this; Dean is just a fun guy, but he probably feels his brother is too rigid and proper, and needs to be taken down a peg or two from time to time. Sam of course feels the reverse about Dean: he takes too many chances, seems to have a somewhat negotiable moral compass --- at the beginning of this episode Sam is chiding him for making money as a poker shark --- and probably flirts too much for his younger brother's liking, showing no real intention of ever settling down.

Two brothers who are the same on the surface but beneath are as different as can be, but who stick together and have each other's backs, as they will need to once this series gets going properly and they realise the full enormity of the task they have taken on, and the truth about the forces they face makes itself known.

1.09 "Home"

After having a premonition of danger, in fact dreaming a dream which shows the opening scene of the episode, where a little girl is menaced in her bedroom by a man made of fire, Sam tells Dean they must return home. He has been drawing a picture of a tree, unable to say where the inspiration came from, until he realises it's a tree that stands or stood outside their old house in Lawrence. He tells Dean that he can't say how, or understand why, but he knows that the house is now reoccupied and that the new tenants are in danger. When Dean presses him, he admits he sometimes has dreamed of things that then come true. Jessica's death was one such dream.

This is the first Dean has heard of this. He knows Sam has had some pretty bad nightmares, but for them to come true? And now his brother blames himself for his fiancee's death, saying he saw it beforehand in a dream but did nothing about it because he didn't believe it. If he'd had a bit more faith in his "visions", perhaps she would still be alive? Dean does not want to return to the site of his own personal nightmare --- Sam was too little to be able to adequately remember what happened that night twenty-two years ago, but it's etched in fire and blood on Dean's memory, and he has no wish to reawaken those feelings. However, Sam is insistent and so they go back home.

When they speak to the lady living there, Jenny, everything seems more or less normal, though she complains of things like scratching noises and the lights flickering, but it's when her daughter, Sari, tells the boys that a "man made of fire" is in her closet that Dean begins to believe that perhaps Sam is on to something. In desperation, when alone, Dean phones their father's voicemail and leaves a shaken message: he is really worried and for once does not know what to do. The usual bravado and chirpy humour that is his trademark has totally vanished, and for once, perhaps twice in his life, he is really scared.

Trying to follow their standard modus operandi the boys check into the history of their old house --- they lived there but don't know much about it really, and haven't been back for more than two decades --- and talk to their father's neighbours and friends (incognito of course). This leads them to a psychic called, er, Missouri Moseley, whose name John Winchester has mentioned in their journal. Amazing the two boys, she recognises them and seems to know what they're thinking. She says she has an idea what started the fire but is unable or unwilling to elaborate. It seems to upset her greatly though, and she calls it evil.

As they talk to Missouri, things are happening back at the old Winchester house. A plumber has lost his hand in an "accident" when the garbage disposal he was fixing suddenly snapped on, and now the baby has been led into the fridge and trapped there, Jenny only barely realising where he was and saving him in time. Dean, Sam and Missouri go to the house and tell Jenny they can help. They go into Sari's room, where the psychic says the "dark energy" is concentrated. She reveals that the room Jenny's daughter is sleeping in was once Sam's nursery, the epicentre of all that happened twenty-two years ago.

Missouri tells the boys that though the thing in Sari's closet is certainly evil, it's not what killed their mother. Dark things, she says, get attracted to anywhere that true evil has been, and this appears to be one or more poltergeists, whose only aim is to kill the new occupants of the house. Without of course telling Jenny and her family about this, the trio convince her to leave the house for a few hours while they try to purify it with magic herbs and things like crossroad dirt. During the exorcism, the spirits try to kill Sam but Dean saves him and the house is cleansed. Jenny returns and Missouri tells them all is well, and leaves.

The end, right?

Er, no. Because unconvinced that everything is sorted, Dean and Sam remain in their car outside the house that night, and sure enough things start to happen. They see Sari screaming at the window and dash into the house, to see the figure of fire standing in front of her. Sam rescues Sari and Dean gets Jenny, and with Ritchie in tow they exit the house. But Sam has been trapped, held by another spirit and Dean goes back in to save him. As he approaches the figure of fire though Sam tells him to put down the gun, because he can recognise the person behind all the flames.

It's their mother.

She threatens the force holding Sam and it disappears, and she vanishes in flames into the ceiling.

The next morning Missouri apologises for misleading the boys, thinking all the spirits were gone when one remained behind. She remarks that even though she couldn't sense evil was still in the house, Sam could, but he does not know why. She bids them farewell and returns to her house where she talks to ...

... John Winchester! The boys' father says he wants desperately to talk to his sons, but he can't. Not until he knows "the truth".

MUSIC
This is the first (only?) episode not to feature any songs in it at all.

The "WTF?!!" moment
Two, really, both centred around the boys' parents. The first shock is when the fiery figure --- which we have all mistakenly taken for an evil entity --- turns out to be Mary Winchester, and the second, perhaps almost bigger revelation is that their father was there all along, in Missouri's house. The boys were only moments away from being reunited with their father, but he avoided them, for reasons which will become clear later.

QUESTIONS?
The big one: why does John Winchester not take the opportunity to talk to his sons, at least confirm to them that he's alive, and what is this "truth" he must find out before he can make contact?

Is Mary Winchester now dead? Was her spirit trapped in their house, awaiting the return of the boys and did she know she would need to save them? Has her soul now been saved, and if she "survived", even in spirit form, two decades, what can we really assume happened to Jessica, and where is she?

What connection has Missouri Moseley to what happened? Does she know, and is holding back the information at John's behest?

Did Sam really have a vision? Is he psychic or is there more to it, and if so, why could he not sense his father so close by?

The boys' mother tells them she is sorry. What is she sorry for? Is it just for their having to flee their home, for leaving them or is it something deeper that they don't know about? Can it be that in some way Mary Winchester knows more about the incident 22 years ago than she ever said? Certainly, in the opening episode, she almost seemed to recognise the shadowy figure holding Sam...

PCRs
Just the one. After being told by Sam about his visions, Dean is somewhat fazed. He tells him "I mean, first you tell me that you’ve got the Shining?" Referring to the Stephen King novel and movie starring Jack Nicholson, about a boy who can predict the future through visions. Or something. Never saw it myself; scary movies are not my thing.

BROTHERS
It's interesting to note that this is the first time we really see Dean vulnerable. He's shaking and in tears when he tries to contact their father; for once he's completely out of his depth and the situation is beyond his control. He's too close to this; it's too hard to look at it dispassionately. Although he was only young when his mother died, he remembers part of that night --- mostly just fire and running --- and is reluctant to return to where it all happened.

Sam reveals to Dean that he has these dreams of people in danger, which then seem to come true. It's news to his brother, and he needs time to assimilate that information. He tries to console Sam that there was nothing he could do about Jessica, but part of him must wonder why Sam didn't at least try? However he does support his brother, not having the faintest clue what carrying such a burden must be like.

Although their mother acknowledges them both, it must hurt Dean that she seems to concentate more on his younger brother. Of course, it is Sam who is trapped, but Mary seems more interested in him and only says Dean's name and smiles at him. Seeing their mother again has a profound emotional effect on Dean, and again we see the tough-guy wisecracker facade fall and shatter like cheap glass.

Just watched the first part of "Voice in the Wilderness" so quite near the end of the first season.

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I'm sure nobody (who cares) will be surprised to see this section migrating to The Couch Potato from my original journal, The Playlist of Life. As I now have a journal dedicated to TV (and some films: be patient, they're coming. What? So is Christmas? Right then, just for that you can wait!) it seems the natural progression to move "Series Link" here, so in future this is where you'll find it.

Before I go into the new shows I'm watching or have watched, a quick recap (for those who remember/care) on the ones I mentioned at the end of the last --- which was also the first, under the new title --- installment of this feature.

"Unforgettable" --- Sorry it may have been, but a major systems malfunction on my Sky Box meant I lost the whole series, so whether it was any good or not I don't know. The premise was interesting: Carrie Wells is a detective with the unusual --- though hardly supernatural --- ability to remember everything she sees and hears, this talent supposedly coming in handy in her role as a detective. I guess. Looks to be coming back for a second season, though that is of course no indication it was any good. If I catch it again I'll give it another shot.

"The Newsroom" --- Now this I loved, but then I expected to, when Mama Sorkin's little boy is involved! A sort of an upgraded "Studio 60 on the sunset strip" with elements of "The West Wing" in it, I thoroughly enjoyed it and am glad to see it's returning too, in June. Even if the obligatory English female character did get up my nose.

"Lost Girl" --- Heard good things about it, but it also became a victim of the Great Crash of '12, so I lost it all. Currently on season 2 on SyFy, but it's reported to be so weird that I have no intention of jumping in a season late, so will have to wait till it either airs again from the start or I get round to downloading it. I reckon I would like it though, so it's a pity it went bye-bye...

"Being human" --- Although this is currently in something like season four or five, I finally managed to get a look at season one and I really liked what I saw. Like "Lost Girl", now waiting for someone to show season two or I may download it, but with so much to watch I'm in no hurry to do so just at the moment.

"A touch of cloth" --- Lost to the crash. I would have liked to have seen it, hopefully will some day. It sounded good: a kind of satire on all those cop shows you either watch and love or laugh at.

"Sinbad" --- Was really looking forward to this but, yes you guessed it, thank you Sky it got erased and I never got to see it. It's on the list for future viewing. Probably be in season two by the time I get around to it...

"Teen Wolf" --- Damn damn damn! Had both seasons one AND two, and all lost in the great crash! Gaah! Okay, calm, calm... hope to catch this again some day from the start.

"Good cop" --- Watched three out of four episodes of this. Thought it was okay but by the third I was so bored and unimpressed with it that I really couldn't see it ending any other way than the way I saw it ending and so didn't bother finishing it. Got erased on purpose, and looking back on it now, the first three episodes weren't all that great. In the end, not a very original show when it had promised much.

And that's the roundup. So, what have I been watching recently? What's caught my eye and impressed me enough to hit the green button and series link it? And what's made me yawn and just hit delete? Here are some of the ones I've been looking at.

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Another in the long line of "interesting jobs that might make an interesting programme" shows that have come out of the likes of History, NatGeo and Discovery in the last few years. Some have been good (Pawn Stars, American Restoration, Storage Wars etc) and some not so good (Hard Core Pawn) but most of these shows I do like. This one concerns two "demo" guys (annoys me because everyone knows demo is short for demonstration, but they use it for demolition) who bid to, well, demolish houses and other buildings, and are allowed to keep anything they find. The balance they have to strike between bidding low enough to get the job and still either making a profit or breaking even, and the score they hope to make in the retrieval of items from the property is quite interesting, and there's a sort of sense of suspense as they knock down walls, open doors and investigate attics and cellars to see if there are treasures therein. Definitely worth a look, and passes a half hour pleasantly.

Verdict: http://s5.postimg.org/5wb9nb4nn/serieslinksmaller.jpg

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I was looking forward to this and I haven't been disappointed. The story of the building of the US railroad with all the pitfalls, fights, obstacles and deaths thrown in, along with a heady mix of political corruption, greed and betrayal, with a healthy slice of revenge on the side. Star Anson Mount is chilling as the main character, reminding me of John wotsit from the game "Red Dead Redemption" (why isn't that available for the PC? :() and Star Trek's Colm Meaney a revelation as the scheming, conniving and unscrupulous man in charge of building the railroad. There's a subplot interwoven with the railroad story as Bohannon, the main character, is an ex-Rebel seeking to bring to swift and brutal justice the men who killed his wife in the Civil War.

Renewed for a second season, which I'm currently watching (the first only having been an odd 10 episodes long) I see it's now got a third, which is great news. One of my favourite shows at the moment, both authentic and gritty, with quite the blurring of the lines between "good" and "bad" guys.

Verdict: http://s5.postimg.org/5wb9nb4nn/serieslinksmaller.jpgg

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Another "fly-on-the-wall" documentary-style show in the vein of the likes of "A life of grime" or "Ax men", "Grave Trade" is an odd one. Just recently begun, it goes behind the scenes at one of Britain's oldest undertakers, showing us everything from the preparation of coffins to the embalming of bodies. In fairness, anything showing a dead body is blurred out --- remember, these are real people even if they're no longer with us --- and there is a very deep sense of respect running through the show. There's no way it aims to poke fun at or make light of the traumatic ordeal of a funeral, or the absolute mind-numbing pain of losing a loved one. But even so...

I wonder about it. I watched a few episodes and it's certainly interesting, but as a matter of course every episode has featured a real funeral, and I kind of feel like I'm intruding on people's private grief. I know they have obviously given their permission for the footage to be used, but nevertheless, it just seems, I don't know, unpleasant or tasteless somehow. It's got a lot going for it, but to make the subject of funerals, coffins and corpses palatable is a tall order, and I'm not sure they're going to manage it. To be honest, I can't see this lasting past one season, though of course I could be wrong: the public's desire for taboo subjects in television is well documented, and it may end up being a winner.

But I think I may find it hard to continue. I'm probably going to watch the two or three episodes I have recorded on my box, and make a decision after that. It's not that I'm squeamish (though I am) --- that really has nothing to do with this, as like I say they're very careful to not show anything you wouldn't really want to see, like embalming or an actual shot of someone in their coffin. It's more a case of personal taste. I can't really watch something if I'm not comfortable with the subject matter, and this is a programme that is, I have to admit, making me feel more uncomfortable each episode I view.

Verdict: Undecided

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THIS I love! Kurt Sutter, creator of "Sons of Anarchy", is granted unprecedented access to the men and the stories behind some of the world's biggest and baddest gangs. Interviewing past members, he makes it clear from the start that he is not judging, nor condoning what he is told: he's simply giving the ex-members the chance to tell their stories. And what stories! The first two episodes focussed on the Boston Irish Mob and Nuestra Familia, the Mexican mafia. Some of the stories are just incredible, like the guy who was so devoted to the mob that he agreed to help murder his own mother!

Kurt Sutter has gained a great amount of respect it would seem among gang members for the sympathetic and yet authentic way he has presented the biker gangs in "Sons of Anarchy", and there really could only be one person who would manage a project like this. It doesn't look to be too long, six episodes I think, but they seem to pack a hell of a lot of history into each episode. Miss at your peril!

Verdict: http://s5.postimg.org/5wb9nb4nn/serieslinksmaller.jpg

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Started off promisingly, in a dystopian future (don't you just love those?) but quickly (and more cost-efficiently) relocated to the present day, where a cop from the future tries to track down several criminals who have escaped justice in her time. The whole "fish-out-of-water" thing works for about half an episode, then suddenly everyone acclimatises to their situation and we end up with what is basically a cop show with some futuristic or sci-fi elements.

Add to that the ridiculous way the criminals are first shown to be noble freedom fighters battling a repressive government run by mega-corporations, then quite pointlessly become bloodthirsty desperadoes, forcing you to change your originally somewhat sympathetic view of them. Cardboard characters acting out a one-dimensional cop series that tries to take itself seriously as a sci-fi programme but fails miserably. I soon gave up. I see it's being renewed for another season. Just shows you.

Verdict: http://s5.postimg.org/8u88h0cb7/delete1.jpg

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I've always liked Damian Lewis since I saw him in the quirky, one-season "Life", and here he shows just how versatile an actor he can be. You surely know the show: it's won Emmys and been voted one of the best shows of the year, and quite rightly in my opinion. Although not an original idea --- it's a rewrite of an Israeli series called "Prisoner of war", which I'm really annoyed I just missed the first showing of --- but it's a great subject. In case you've been living on Mars for the last year or so, it concerns a US soldier who is found alive when he was presumed dead. He returns to the US as a hero but nobody knows he has been turned, and is working for his erstwhile captors to bring down the US Government. No-one, that is, except one CIA operative, and she has a history of mental illness, so who's going to listen to her?

Heading into its third season, this is a show you should really make time to see. If you thought "24" was unrealistic (it was), this is on the far end of the scale. A human story as much as a terrorist one, it's a programme that successfully blurs the lines between what is a freedom fighter and what is a terrorist, even what is a patriot, and asks some unsettling questions. It's also a deep journey into one man's mind, to see what makes him turn against his country, and if he is in fact justified in doing so.

Verdict: http://s5.postimg.org/5wb9nb4nn/serieslinksmaller.jpg (When it returns later in the year for a third season)

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I like a good political satire, and over twenty years ago, no-one did it better than "Yes Prime Minister" and its prequel "Yes Minister". Now that show has been revitalised for the twenty-first century, but rather than being a simple "re-imagining" of the original, it's got the writers who created the first series working on it, so in every sense possible it's the new, improved "Yes Prime Minister."

So they say. But I don't know. When something is as loved and deeply ingrained in the TV audience's consciousness as this series, how can you really remake it? It would be like trying to resurrect "Last of the summer wine" or "Fawlty Towers" with a whole new cast. Doesn't sound likely. And yet to a degree this is working, mostly due to two things: firstly, writers Anthony Jay and Jonathan Lynn have duplicated the situation of the coalition government currently in power in Britain, and have relocated their new Jim Hacker, the PM, to Chequers, country retreat of the PM, with his duplicitous Permanent Private Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby to keep an eye on him.

The second thing is that the spirit of the original show has been kept very much alive, with Sir Humphrey running vocabularistic rings around poor old Hacker, and confusing him so much that the PM often doesn't know what he's doing. They've also kept in the long, rambling, often almost incomprehensible speeches Sir Humphrey will sometimes give in answer to a simple question, and they're minor masterpieces in themselves. However, moving with the times they've included a female character, and really I don't see her working as other than, well, a token female.

Time will tell if the new show will end up being as popular as the old one, but let's be honest about this: the new guys have got some pretty big shoes to fill!

Verdict: http://s5.postimg.org/5wb9nb4nn/serieslinksmaller.jpg

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This is a very clever show about what we would call here in Ireland a "chancer", a con-man who blags his way into a law firm without ever even having attended law school, never mind graduate! He has however an analytical mind and a seemingly photographic memory, and he soon begins to not only learn from his new boss but teach him a thing or two about morals and ethics himself.

Sounds a little hackneyed yes, and to be fair it is, but the style and wit of the show save it from descending into being just "another show about lawyers", and god knows we've plenty of them! The leads are charismatic, the stories interesting and the subplots engaging. "Suits" also throws you the odd curveball, so that when you think a story will end happily it doesn't, which makes it in my book a little more realistic than a lot of the shows out there, legal or otherwise.

Finished the first season and I see the second is about to start, so looking forward to that.

Verdict: http://s5.postimg.org/5wb9nb4nn/serieslinksmaller.jpg

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Surprisingly, for something a) created by Steven Spielberg and b) touted by all my favourite sci-fi mags as being the next big thing, this bored the hell out of me. The idea in itself is not too bad: Earth is overcrowded, to the point that people are restricted as to how many children they can have and they live in cubicle-like apartments. The discovery of time travel allows those who want to start a new life to travel back to the Triassic or Cetaceus or something period --- the time the dinosaurs were stomping around, anyway --- and re-colonise the planet in that time, to try to build a new world which will avoid the mistakes of the current one. Only one catch: the time machine only works in reverse so the trip is strictly one-way. If you change your mind later, tough: you can never go home.

Well, two catches really. The other is that it's crap. I was bored by the fourth episode and just deleted the rest of the ones on my box. I found I couldn't care less about the characters, which is never a good thing and always a good indication as to my own level of interest and investment in the series. It seemed to be moving too slow, and you know, the idea wasn't bad if a bit "Jurassic Park"; maybe if I'd given it a chance it might have developed.

But I'm a busy man and have much to watch. If something doesn't hook me from the third or fourth episode I have to assume that it's not going to, and that's when I press the delete button. As I did here.

Verdict: http://s5.postimg.org/8u88h0cb7/delete1.jpg

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Another show lacking in the originality stakes but still coming up trumps is this one, where a con-man is given the chance to cut short his sentence by working with an FBI agent to catch a fellow conman. Sure, we've all seen "48 hours" and we all know the maxim "set a thief to catch a thief", but again "White collar" is one of those new breed of hip, sexy, intelligent, snappy shows that while it dazzles you with its glitz and glamour has yet something underneath the gloss.

The old idea of the young gun teaming up with the grizzled veteran is certainly not a new one, but the twist that some of the crimes they investigate are similar to ones the conman has perpetrated, and that he knows most of the people in the shady world of the hustle is pretty cool. In fact, pretty cool really describes this show. It's hard not to like Matthew Bomer in the lead role and like "Suits" you kind of root for him even if he is technically the bad guy. Decent subplot in it too.

Going into season four I believe, so obviously very successful; over this side of the water we're just about to hit season two. So lots to look forward to!

Verdict: http://www.trollheart.com/serieslinksmaller.jpg

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There just aren't too many new ideas out there, are there? Again from the mind of Spielberg, this show takes place against the backdrop not only of an alien invasion, but of the defeat of humanity and their attempts to mount a belated resistance and "take their planet back".

Yeah. It's just that, rather like his other series, I didn't feel this at all. In fact, compared to the lack of interest in and empathy with the characters in "Terra Nova", this makes me feel like they were all good friends of mine. These guys are wooden, almost hilarious caricatures that could have popped up in any post-apocalyptic or alien invasion movie. Granted, I didn't give it much of a chance (again I think I survived four episodes before giving up) but again, I believe a show should hook you from the start. Look at the shows I'm featuring here --- Babylon 5, Red Dwarf, Supernatural, Spooks --- these all pulled me in from episode one and did not let go until there was no more to consume. In the case of Supernatural I'm still catching up, though happy to do so.

Rather surprisingly to me, this has been awarded a third season recently. Maybe it's the name of the Big S that's doing it, because unless I really missed something in later episodes, it's not the characters. Or the story. Or the setting. Or the aliens. No, not even the aliens can save this, for me.

Verdict: http://s5.postimg.org/8u88h0cb7/delete1.jpg

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You know a show is not going to appeal to you when you hate every character and wish they'd die. I had hoped this might be a bit of a laugh, a bit satirical but it tries too hard. I think it wants to be "Hustle" but fails miserably. The premise is that the main cast are all lawyers who go in to downsize, reorganise and try to save companies, or at least, the big fat salaries of their big fat bosses. But instead of pointing out how immoral such firms are, the series seems to glory in the fact that the company can charge its poor (not really) clients anything they want, from first-class airfares and five-star hotel rooms to tabs at strip joints, and no-one will say boo to them.

One of the characters thinks he's God's gift to women, one is a bit of a nerd and one is just so cocksure and arrogant that you want to punch him in the face. And that's Don Cheadle! Man I just got so sick and tired of him doing a "Hustle" to the camera, where everything freezes and he explains, "breaking the third wall" as it were, what they're up to. In the end, I don't care. All you're doing is saving bloated megacorporations millions of dollars while their underpaid workers get laid off so the boss can have his six homes and his fat pension. I KNOW it's just a show, but this really goes on, and I don't think making it funny works, especially when the series does nothing to challenge the perception that everything is for sale, and nobody's feelings get in the way of the deal.

Verdict: http://s5.postimg.org/8u88h0cb7/delete1.jpg

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If you want your crime drama actually dripping with corruption, this is your show! I've seen the first season, missed the second (twice! D'oh!) and seen the third, which was subtitled "The Golden Mile". All I can say is it's gritty in a way crime shows usually are not, with really shady and yet sympathetic characters on both sides of the law, though in TGM there is very little to feel sympathy with, at least as far as the cops are concerned.

Even more shocking is the fact that this is all based on true life events (ask Rjinn, she lives there!) so when you see someone come running up to a van and shoot another guy in front of his kids, or when there's a drive-by in the middle of the day, bullets glass and blood everywhere, this ain't fiction. It really happened that way, and although names may have been changed in some cases, in most they're not, as the voiceover tells you what happened to them (serving life, killed in a disco, run over, on the run etc) so you really feel a chilling connection to well pretty much most of the characters. Think "The Wire" is tough and realistic? Try this!

Verdict: http://s5.postimg.org/5wb9nb4nn/serieslinksmaller.jpg (And try, finally, to get season two!)

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Four lads head off to Spain to meet their old buddy, who has made it and has invited them over for a holiday at his expense. There is, however, no such thing as a free lunch and the boys quickly realise that not all is as it seems, as they become embroiled in some very unsavoury dealings that leave them quite literally running for their lives! Boasting some major stars in the likes of John Simm (Life on Mars/Doctor Who), Philip Glenister (Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes), Max Beesley (Survivors) and Marc Warren (Hustle) this is a clever, well-written tale with a twist that turns the old idea of the booze cruise on its head.

Currently running into season three, it's been very well received and though the original premise looks like it may be in danger of being stretched to breaking point, it will be interesting to see how season three develops, and if they decide to leave it there. I mean, how much more trouble can four gullible guys from England get into abroad?

Verdict: http://s5.postimg.org/5wb9nb4nn/serieslinksmaller.jpg

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Ireland has always been on the fringes when it comes to TV drama. Sure, we do rural stuff fine, and our soaps are as good (or bad) as the ones 'cross the water, and we can make reality shows just as terrible as those on "the Mainland", but we lag seriously behind when you start talking about true, gritty, cutting-edge drama. We just don't do it well. We've had the odd success, but they've almost exclusively been insular accolades, and due to the nature of RTE (Radio Telifis Eireann, pronounced rah-dee-oh tel-ee-feesh air-un, the Irish national TV channel) it's almost universally unavailable outside of Ireland, so the chances of anyone seeing anything good we do are minimal to say the least.

Love/Hate has managed to break that chain, mostly I guess due to the proliferation of DVD. Now, people can buy the series and watch it even if they're not in Ireland and don't get RTE as part of their package. In fact, Love/Hate is so good that I would not be too surprised if one of the UK channels like Dave or Channel Four bid to show it. Written by Irish playwright Stuart Carolan, it's based on the lives of a team of ne'er-do-wells, criminals who run with an Irish gang and who are all, in one way or another, on the opposite side of the law. Its gritty and realistic portrayal of Irish gangland culture has won it many adherents, and the initial first season has now turned into three.

The series follows a basic plotline, filling in around the edges various activities and crimes engaged in by the gang, as they take on rival gangs, local law enforcement and even each other. You could compare it to "Sons of anarchy" more than "The Sopranos", though it's nowhere near as glossy or well-written as either of those, I have to admit. Also, in both those shows there's a sense of family, of belonging, of "us against them". In Love/Hate it's not so much love or mutual respect that keeps the gang together but what Ambassador G'Kar (see my Babylon 5 write-ups) called "enlightened self-interest". Each knows too much about the others to be allowed to fall out with the gang, and any attempt at disloyalty or "grassing" is met with brutal retribution. Everyone knows their place, and is wise enough not to step out of line.

But underneath it all there's a sense that most of these guys are not engaging in crime because they enjoy it. For some, it's their only means of support. For others, it's all they've ever known. There are the psychos and "headbangers" in the gang, and outside it, who get a thrill out of shooting guns and scaring people, but in general it's almost seen more as a job they go into than something they take pleasure in, or look forward to. Supplementing your income, as they say.

Like all good crime-based drama though, the emphasis is on the relationships between the gang members. A show wouldn't be much good if you didn't feel for the characters, understand them to a degree and perhaps even sympathise with them on occasion. Love/Hate does this very well, while at the same time never condoning what the guys get up to. In the end, it's just the way things are. It may not be right, but what else can they do?

CAST
In season one and two the gang is run by John Boy Power, played by Aiden Gillen, but the main protagonist is Darren, played by Robert Sheehan, whom you may know from "Misfits", but I don't.

Darren Treacy, played by Robert Sheehan: At the beginning of the series, Darren returns to Dublin from Spain, where he has been hiding out since running from arms charges some years ago. It's dangerous for him to return but he has come back to see his brother, Robbie, who is being released from prison that day. Robbie though is shot, and part of the "arc" of the first series sees Darren trying to find out who killed his brother and to bring them to the gang's own vicious and permanent brand of justice.

Nidge, played by Tom Vaughan-Lawlor. Nidge is second-in-command to John Boy, and a tough little nut. He lives with his wife and son and does everything he can to protect them. He is often the butt of his boss's jokes, but bides his time, knowing his chance will eventually come.

John Boy Power, played by Aiden Gillen. The cold psycho of the gang, its brains and its leader. No-one dares go up against John Boy. He's a criminal boss, feared and respected, though there are rumours that he's a little soft in the head, as he seems to think he can see ghosts...

Tommy, played by Killian Scott. One of John Boy's footsoldiers, desperately hoping to get up the ladder of power. Tommy is supposed to collect Darren's brother from jail when he's let out in the pilot episode, but is sleeping with Mary, who is both Darren and Robbie's sister, and doesn't make the rendezvous. He also has a somewhat unhealthy attraction to a local junkie, Debbie.

Hughie Power, played by Brian Gleeson (son of Irish actor Brendan). Hughie is John Boy's brother and a total whack job. If John Boy is the cold psycho, Hughie is the psycho psycho. He's the kind of guy who will shoot you in the face "just for a laugh". Even the gang members think he's off his head. One dangerous man.

Trish, played by Aoibhinn McGinty. Nidge's wife. She's a hard-as-nails, heart-of-gold Dublin slapper who is fiercely loyal to Nidge but in her heart just wants a normal, quiet life for her and her son. She doesn't say no to all the expensive gifts her husband gets her though. She is however tired of the constant knocks on the door at all hours, Nidge being taken away by the Gardai to "assist in their enquiries".

Rosie, played by Ruth Negga. Darren's love interest though she's with someone else. They knew each other before Darren went away to Spain, now they're unsure if they should try to rekindle the relationship. And then there's Stumpy!

Stumpy, played by Peter Campion. A real hard case, he's with Ruth now and knocks her about. Darren is just looking for a chance to kill him, but John Boy needs him and forbids it.

These then are the main characters in the series, at least for season one. Some will die, move on, not be needed for seasons two and three, but the main core cast will remain. Love/Hate has many twists and surprises, not a little humour and as a Dublin guy makes me wonder just how safe those streets I avoid at night really are?

An interesting thing about the series is that the first season ran to a mere four episodes, whereas seasons two and three were expanded to six episodes each. That I think demonstrates how popular it became. To be fair, six episodes per season didn't seem like nearly enough, though Carolan covered all the plot points and basically tied up all the loose ends in each --- apart from those which weren't supposed to be resolved, carrying through into future seasons. I don't know if there's a fourth season planned: it would seem unlikely, given the circumstances of the finale, but you never know and if the right amount of money is offered then hopefully we may see more of this surprisingly excellent Irish drama series.

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Disclaimer: I wrote these character profiles of the Red Dwarf crew over ten years ago, for my Red Dwarf website which is now defunct thanks to the hoster going belly-up, and I thought it might be nice to resurrect them here. But be warned! These profiles give away a LOT of information about the show, so if you haven't seen the programme or are currently watching it for the first time, you might want to skip these sections till you finish watching, as there will definitely be spoilers here you'll want to avoid.

These profiles only cover up to season seven (though I may update them later) and do not take into account the events in "Back to Earth" or the current new season (season ten) that showed recently on TV.
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Arnold Rimmer
An officer and a gentleman, respected and admired by all his fellows, a lover of women, hero, space adventurer and model for future generations... these are just a few of the many things that Arnold Rimmer is not. With his three high-flying brothers, John, Frank and Howard top-notch members of the Space Corps, Arnold is looked down upon by his mother and his father.

Early on in life, the father of the Rimmer family had bought a rack, and every morning he would measure his sons to see if they had grown overnight. If they hadn't, then they would go on the rack! This was due to their father's irrational fear that his four sons would miss out on joining the Space Corps by failing to reach the regulation minimum height, as he himself had done. Rimmer's father also tested his sons on astro-navigation and engineering theory before they were allowed to be fed: no correct answers, no food. Arnold nearly died of malnutrition!

When he is old enough, Rimmer applies to the Space Corps academy but fails every test. Scorned by his parents, ashamed that he will be unable to live up to their expectations and also jealous of the success his brothers are enjoying, Arnold joins the crew of the Jupiter Mining Corporation vessel, Red Dwarf, in the hope that he can sit the exams independently, but even in this he proves useless, and is doomed to remain at the rank at which he joined the ship: Second Technician, which essentially means that he and his ilk check vending machines around the huge vessel and ensure they don't run out of chocolate bars or chicken soup!

In this he is joined by Dave Lister, who is part of his Z Shift, the very worst of the dregs of the technicians. Lister and Rimmer take to each other like a dog to a cat, hating each other on sight, and indeed Red Dwarf is not their first meeting place: Lister had in point of fact ferried Rimmer (using the name of one of his superiors as cover) to a brothel on Mimas, an incident which had haphazardly led to Lister's joining the Red Dwarf crew.

To others, especially Lister, Rimmer is a small-minded, petty man who delights in enforcing and observing pernickity regulations and awards the slightest breach of such by putting his subordinate (usually Lister) on report. The tale is related of how Rimmer accused and put Lister on report for mutiny! He tells Lister that he stepped on his foot, thereby impairing his ability to perform his duties, thereby clearly putting the ship at risk and thereby clearly mutiny!

This small episode gives a good idea of what the man known as Arnold J. Rimmer is like. Rimmer spends so much time in the run-up to his exams devising a revision chart, complete with symbols for rest periods, cram periods and so forth, that by the time he is finished making the chart it is time to take the exam. He thereafter decides to cheat, by copying out as much of the textbooks onto his arms and legs as he can, intending to glean the answers from his tattooed body and thus pass. His plan is foiled however when the ink runs, and he can't make out any of the writing. Once again, he fails. This is, however, to be his last attempt at this exam, or any exam, as shortly afterwards the entire crew of Red Dwarf is subjected to a lethal dose of radiation, which leaves the mighty ship lumbering on through space, a massive graveyard with Holly, the ship's AI computer, ensuring that the leviathan remains on course.

Lister has, a short time previous, been put into stasis, and therefore he manages to survive the holocaust that wipes out the rest of the crew. Reviving him some three million years later, Holly decides that the last human being alive needs some companionship to save him from going insane due to loneliness, and settles on Rimmer as his partner. He reinitialises Rimmer's personality from the computer disk every member of Red Dwarf was required to download onto before departure, and brings Arnie back as a hologram.

Being a hologram means that though Rimmer can talk and see and hear, and has the same memories, ambitions, drives and desires as the man he once was, he cannot touch anything, nor can anyone touch him: he is entirely composed of light, a computer simulation maintained by Holly, and dependent on the power source of the huge ship. This does not, however, stop him from haranguing Lister as soon as he meets him again, blaming him for not being there to help him seal the drive plate that allowed the lethal radiation to escape and poison the ship.

Rimmer has never been able to accept failure, or the responsibility for failure or indeed anything. He blames his parents for his upbringing, his lack of contacts for the pathetic way his career went, and Lister for just about everything else. He says that if people had not kept dragging him back he could have achieved the rank of an officer that he so desperately desired. He never once stops to consider that the reason he has not achieved any of his goals, least of all promotion, might just be down to the fact that he is arrogant, overbearing, incredibly hard to get on with and not in the least reasonable or likeable. In short, he is a total and utter smeghead.

But Rimmer does not believe this, and continues, even after his death, to blame Lister for everything he can, and find fault with him at every opportunity. When they encounter the Cat, he wants to throw it off the ship, but having no physical presence must bow to the wishes of his erstwhile subordinate. Even though he is dead, Rimmer still retains his right of rank over Lister, despite the fact that Lister points out to him that both of them were ranked lower than the man who changed the bog-rolls in the ladies' toilets! Rimmer is unanimously despised and scorned by everyone aboard the ship: Holly can't stand him, the Cat thinks he's a waste of space, and when Kryten joins the crew later on, he fights against his programming until he can call Rimmer a smeghead! Even the scutters hate Rimmer!

When Lister, who has been trying to get Rimmer to allow him to switch his former superior off for a short time so that he can reinitialise the hologram personality disk of Christine Kochanski, and go on a date with her, finally declares that he is going to sit the exam for chef, Rimmer worries, as this would mean that Lister would technically outrank him, a situation which could not be allowed to develop! Having failed to talk Lister out of the exam, Rimmer poses as Kochanski and tries to trick Lister into giving it up, but Dave sees through the disguise and goes ahead with the exam, which in the end he fails.

Rimmer is constantly on the lookout for aliens with a technology in advance of Earth's, aliens who can replace his hologrammatic form with a real, solid human body, so when Holly picks up a pod on the scope he is disappointed to find that it is nothing more than a garbage pod. His disappointment comes hot on the heels of anger at Lister, who has discovered, somewhat to his dismay, that he is the being the Cat race revere as Cloister, their god, and is indirectly responsible for the war that wiped out thousands of their kind. Sneering at Lister, he declares "I could have been God, given the lucky showbiz break you got!"

When Lister finally succeeds in getting his hands on the disk he believes to be that of Kochanski, Rimmer warns him that the disk will only bring him misery. How right he is! Rimmer has swapped the disks, and what energises in front of Lister is not his long-lost love, but a second Rimmer! Delighted to have another him to talk to, Rimmer the Original decides to move in next door with his double, and packs up his things. Lister, glad to help his former bunkmate move out, comes across a video, which Rimmer tells him is a tape of his own death. Watching the video surreptitously, Lister hears Rimmer's final words as "Gazpacho soup!", and wonders why Rimmer would end his life with such a phrase on his lips. He asks Rimmer, but of course the hologram will not tell him.

However, it soon turns out that life with Rimmer is not working out for Rimmer. The two holograms are not getting on as well as they would have thought they would. Because Rimmer in any incarnation (with the exception of Ace Rimmer) is a pain in the neck, the two snipe at and fight with each other, and it is not long before they are at each other's throats. As their quarrel turns to petty bickering and spills over to encompass Lister and the Cat, one of them has to go. But before he erases the orginal Rimmer, Lister must know about Gazpacho soup. Seeing as he is to "die" anyway, Rimmer tells him. Gazpacho Soup Day: it was the greatest day of his life, he tells Lister.

After only being with the company fourteen years (!) he was invited to dinner at the captain's table. Unfortunately for him, they had gazpacho soup for starters, which Rimmer didn't realise was supposed to be served cold. He made the chef take it away and bring it back hot, and believes that this rather small faux pas in front of the men he had hoped one day to join was instrumental --- nay, directly responsible for his never being promoted.

He soon has other things to occupy his mind however, when the crew pick up a distress call from a ship called the Nova 5. The service mechanoid, Kryten, tells them that there are only three survivors, all female, and the boys rush to the scene, Rimmer kitting himself out in his best officer's uniform, complete with rows and rows of medals, and an extra pair of socks shoved down the front of his trousers! He asks Lister not to put him down in front of the girls they are about to meet, saying that Lister should mention the fact that Arnie died and was pretty brave about it. He wants his shipmate to refer to him as something other than Rimmer: Ace, perhaps, or Big Man.

However, romantic liaisons are not to be, as the three women in question are in fact dead, and have been for centuries. Left alone for so long, Kryten has turned somewhat peculiar, and at first refuses to believe that his young female charges have passed on. Eventually though he is convinced, and the crew take him back to Red Dwarf, where Rimmer wastes no time in taking advantage of the fact that they now have a live-in servant: and what's more, he doesn't backtalk or outright refuse to do things as Lister does. Kryten is happiest when serving, and Rimmer is happiest when being served, so the two should get on famously. But Lister is not standing for this, and urges Kryten to break his programming, which after some effort he does, flipping the bird to Rimmer and heading off on Lister's spacebike.

Some time later a post pod catches up with Red Dwarf, and Rimmer learns in a letter from his mother that his father is dead. Seeing how totally blown away by this news the hologram is, Lister tries to comfort him, but it emerges that Rimmer hated his father, for the reasons outlined at the beginning of this piece. To help him forget about the bad news he has just received, the Cat and Lister offer to take him with them into a TIV: Total Immersion Video game, called Better Than Life. Here, one can live out all one's fantasies, and be whatever they want to be. Rimmer enjoys it for a while, being made an admiral, getting a solid body and making love again to Yvonne McGruder, his one and only romantic tryst, but soon his brain rebels at nice things happening to him, and he ends up ruining it for everyone.

On his Deathday however (the anniversary of the day he, and all of Red Dwarf's crew except Lister met their deaths), he puts himself in a tight corner by getting drunk and telling Lister how many times he has ever made love. Lister, unable to listen to Arnie's whimpering any longer, goes down to the hologram simulation suite and downloads eight months of his own memory into that of Rimmer, giving him a love affair that Lister experienced. Dave's memories of this period are now Rimmer's, and he indeed believes that he, not Lister, loved the beautiful Lisa Yates. The ruse eventually comes to light though, and Rimmer is even more upset.

When they find a stasis leak on one of the decks, Rimmer encounters his own self, three million years in the past, after Lister reads from Rimmer's diary, telling him that what the then Rimmer thought was a hallucination may in fact have been the now Rimmer coming back in time to warn his past self that he would be dead in three million years (which comes as no surprise to Arnie-three-million-years-ago!). Lister goes back himself with the Cat to try to rescue Kochanski, but Rimmer has as much success convincing himself that he must go into stasis to avoid the accident as Lister has with Chrissie. It's interesting to note that even after the "double Rimmer" episode earlier, Arnie has not learned his lesson, and still thinks that a second him on the ship would be a good idea.

When Holly is replaced by Queeg, the Red Dwarf backup computer, things begin to go very badly for Rimmer! Advised by the computer that the company is paying to keep him online, Queeg takes control of Rimmer's hologrammatic body, and forces him to exercise, go for runs, and revise! It's only when Holly regains control of the ship that Rimmer is let off the hook.

Some time later the fruitbat computer mistakenly brings Red Dwarf into an alternate dimension, where female opposites of Rimmer and Lister exist. Faced with his own sexual attitudes and manners in Arlene Rimmer, the hologram refuses to accept that this is in fact the way he behaves towards women! Arlene tries everything to get him into bed, including attempting to hypnotise him, a trick Rimmer had used once before himself, to convince a girl to go out with him. However, it is in fact Lister who ends up in bed with his female double, and the Rimmers both look down their noses at them for it, and enjoy every minute of Lister's discomfort, especially when, after they return to their own dimension, Lister's pregnancy test proves positive!