Babylon 5: And Now For a Word

July 21, 2018 10:26 AM - Season 2, Episode 15

This is the semi-mandatory fake documentary/fake news show episode. Like all other fake documentary episodes, it is awful. "The job of Babylon 5 is not to enforce the peace. It's to create the peace."

-PsiCorps has an ad budget. So does IPX (Interplanetary Expeditions), which has been mentioned a few times for rim exploration (remember Sakai?).
-Delenn cries over being confronted by yet another example of people not liking her transformation.
-Ivanova is Definitely not An Angry Boss, oh no.
-The Narn and Centauri have a space-based slapfight just outside of Babylon 5, which is the main thrust of the episode. The tl;dr is that the Centauri are using B5 to smuggle weapons, which pisses everyone else off and causes a series of escalating military actions. B5 is damaged during the ongoing shitshow, and eventually Sheridan orders Starfuries to end hostilities by force.
-Londo and G'Kar both go on a propaganda offensive: G'Kar talking about being a "pouchling" under Centauri occupation and how his father, a slave, was hung for the crime of spilling a hot drink on a Centauri; Londo about how inherently violent the Narn are. This is ironic as he spends the entire damn episode pointlessly escalating the military conflict.

posted by flibbertigibbet (6 comments total)

Oh, yeah: and a politician interviewed for the fake episode basically blows off B5 as Santiago's good-for-nothing legacy project. It would be kind to keep it running in his memory even though it is a phenomenal waste of energy, etc.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 10:31 AM on July 21, 2018

Sure predicted drones though, that floating camera device.
posted by Freedomboy at 2:34 PM on July 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best part is the subliminal messaging in the PsyCorps advertising.
posted by corb at 8:34 PM on March 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

"Mom, look! A Psi-Cop!"

That kid's delivery is perfect and I love it every time.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:25 PM on February 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

What I like about this episode is the character exposition. Straczynski uses the interview format as an excuse to write monologues, and there are some I've never forgotten since first seeing them. Biggs and Katsulas are particular standouts. And Claudia Christian's wonderful terseness in Ivanova's refusal to share her story, which is the most Ivanova thing ever.

(Basically, I'm always here for character exposition. B5 is its cast, and a sad number of them are gone forever.)
posted by Pallas Athena at 5:14 PM on April 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

Cute but obviously a filler episode. Have to say, though, that in this brave new world where 13 episodes is a LONG season run, I miss filler episodes. Take Next Generation as an example. Sure, it was annoying to get yet another transporter accident and Wesley teching the tech to save the day. But you got to spend more time with the characters and get to know a bigger cast in a way you just can't on Strange New Worlds. If B5 does get a reboot, it won't be for 22 episodes a season, and it's a series that kind of needs some filler to take a breath between the big story elements that are constantly going down.
posted by rikschell at 7:46 AM on November 12