Two veteran Star Trek podcasters watch Babylon 5 for the first time. Brent Allen and Jeff Akin search for Star Trek like messages in this series, deciding if they should have watched it sooner.
The Shadows are smuggling “weapons components” back and forth with Earth. Jeff and Brent debate Bester’s alignment and ask: is he one of the good guys now?
This show is produced in association with the Akin Collective, Mulberry Entertainment, and Framed Games. Find out how you can support the show and get great bonus content like access to notes, a Discord server, unedited reaction videos, and more: https://www.patreon.com/babylon5first
Executive Producers:
Addryc
Andrew
Chris Aufenthie
ClubPro70
David
Ian Maurer
Jeffrey
Jeffrey Hayes
Mega Reacts
Michael
Peter Schuller
Rob Bent
Ron H
Starfury 5470
TrekkieTreyTheTrekker
Delenn Drennan
Terrafan
Producers:
Adam Pasztory
David Blau
Guy Kovel
John Koniges
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When Brent yelled Touch Down! all I could think was "don't thump the book of G'Quan". I'm only 1/3 through the discussion but I can't wait for your predictions about Interludes and Examinations (my favorite game on the show).
Let's just say, without giving you spoilers, I don't really think the Shadows being weak to telepaths is as much of a plot hole as you think it is. I think you'll come to understand better in the future.
The Brakiri are the fairly humanoid guys with the big wrinkles running down their faces. They are a league world and always at the meetings.
Great episode, guys! Now that I'm caught up my only problem with the show is that it's weekly. I was doing like two a day so to quote everyone's favorite doctor, "I think I have a problem."
About Bester being a goody, I have some thoughts and a comparison I want to look at. However, because I respect the NO SPOILERS rule it will have to wait until the end of the season. I am placing a marker down now that I want to throw an idea at you guys and get your reactions. I promise I'll do it after the last episode but before the Season 3 wrap-up.
Thanks again for doing such a great show!
I would totally be there for a Brent Plays Mass Effect
Would Brent be a renegade or a paragon, if he played through Mass Effect?
From here on out
Only thing I can think off to say "hold on to your butts"
She could have gotten the telepaths from the station (may have been there for trade or any number of other reasons). They were also may at a P6 rating vs Besters P12 rating. And I get the feeling that P12s are even rarer in non-humans (even speises that have a much higher rate of telepaths on average or even races that all members have some telepathic abilities) then they are in humans and they are already very rare in humans. As to the narn thing it is because the Minbari didn't know what happened the the narns 1,000 years ago. And G'Kar didn't know about the war other places other then narn 1,000 years ago. Each has only part of the information only Garibaldi has all the pieces to put together. He knows about the war, he knows about the narns nit having telepaths and he knows what is written in the book. G'Kar knows about the narns not having telepaths and about what was in the book. Delenn knows about the war and about narns not having telepaths but not about what is in the book/the details on why narns don't have
Telepaths.
The next episode. It's a thing. That is all I am going to say. As for predictions well you may be very close or you may be completely wrong.
The thunderbolt starfury is closer to an A-10 thunderbolt fighter jet than an x-wing. It is a really cool new fighter!
Also the black omega starfury is quite cool with the specialized Psi Corps logo and black paint.
About the plot hole that the importance of telepaths for the war should have been known since the last war: We have no on-screen evidence that there were any Minbari telepaths back then, the Narn telepath genocide didn't come with an explanation of why the Shadows did that, and there's no on-screen evidence that any of the younger species knew how the First Ones won. That just leaves the Vorlons, and we already know they prefer to be mysterious and have events play out in ways we wouldn't expect.
I always assumed Bester scanned Ivanova whilst she was upset about the reference to her mother.
Just one prediction. Your top 5 is going to change. Soon.
I understand what you're saying about Garibaldi 'discovering' the telepath link. But I think there's a deeper message here about the decay of information over 1000 years. We sort of assume that because all the knowledge we have now is stored digitally and backed-up in various ways, it will always be useful and available in 1000 years time. But Douglas Adams had thoughts on that. It's already difficult to read a floppy disk from 20-30 years ago. I think JMS thinks the same way. We find it difficult to know exactly what happened 1000 years ago, event more 2000 years ago in the (maybe) important time of Christ. It's arrogant to think that people in 1000 years time will be able to exactly work out what was happening now just because we're 'better' at recording knowledge – it'll be the stuff of historical speculation and even myth. We'll return to these thoughts again I'm sure.
When I talk about how much I love B5 most of the time it's because of season 3. There are so many just amazingly stand out episodes in season 3 that the end of season ranking is gonna be really tough.
As always, Thanks for doing the podcast.
Btw, did y'all ever figure out what format to use for the future two parter? I recall y'all regretting doing "A Voice in the Wilderness 1 and 2" as two episodes. I'm pretty sure there is another two parter approaching somewhere in the nearish future.
65! Great discussion. A B5 marathon…. what an interesting idea 😉🤣
When you do a 'Babylon 5 for a second time' , would you talk about the season intros as well?
I think its fair to say the Mass Effect writers may have seen an episode or two of Babylon 5
I would love to see Brent play Mass Effect. My favorite game of all time.
Bester is not good or evil, he is lawful neutral
POINT OF CLARIFICATION: the aliens doing the surgery in Carolyn's vision ARE NOT STREIB. They are unnamed species. JMS confirmed that long ago.
Didn't read all the comments, I'm pretty sure, guys there have already explained to you why the revelation about telepaths is really a revelation. But what I don't get is why the Shadows DID NOT destroy the White Star because of Bester. They wiped out the Narn telepaths ! For all intents and purposes, the presence of Bester onboard the ship should have given them all the more reason to destroy her!
id love for him to play mass effect, going to the patreon now lol
There was some Major Assumptions going on with your telepath theories. There were zero indications that Minbari telepaths were aboard the White Star.