[Previous entry: "New Years Eve (Part 1)"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "No DVDs"]

2005-01-01 Entry: "Nibbled To Death By Cats"

After a couple of hours, eating and playing Sam And Max Hit The Road (a game I really should have played and finished years ago...), I've finally gone back to the last two episodes of Babylon 5 Season 1.

"The Quality Of Mercy" sees Londo attempting to befriend Lennier. Of course, Londo asking anyone to trust him is doomed to disaster. Meanwhile, a murdered is convicted, and sentencing is planned.

The real focus of this episode though is the alien healing device that one of the station residents is using to aid the poorer residents. Ignoring the ethical dilemmas involved with draining one person's life force to heal another, this device gets two big uses later in the series, for Garibaldi, and for Ivanova. Of course, the outcomes for the other party in each case are very different...

The murderer is sentenced to a mindwipe, or death of personality, and obviously he's less than eager to suffer that fate.

It's interesting that the doctor who's using the alien device in down below lost her license due to addiction to stims... you would have thought Dr. Franklin would have taken the hint... but I guess the coming war pushes him a bit too far.

And finally, "Chrysalis" - and Londo gets in over his head with Mr Morden over the Narn holding of Quadrant 37. One of Garibaldi's informants dies with the knowledge that the President's life is in danger, and shortly, so will be Garibaldi's. Delenn needs to talk to Sinclair, but there's a deadline, and Sinclair's day is pretty hectic (especially after proposing to Catherine... who mysteriously disappears after this episode... she's never seen on Minbar after all).

And yes, this episode is supposed to be part 2 of my New Years Eve entry, but I just love the Londo-Vir discussion where they get from feathers, webbed feet, goes Quack, to cats.

And we get the first hints of the telepath railroad in this episode... or they just re-use the actor when that story comes up...

It's interesting that they've gone from barely enough space to set aside enough for a Zen Stone Garden, to having a whole hedge maze... but I guess the symbolism of Londo wandering into the maze is just too good to pass up.

But I guess this is apt as a New Years Eve episode, considering it's set on December 31st.

And now, I'm apparently seeing in the new year with Celebrity Poker Showdown - I can't find a film I want to watch, although I'm going to keep looking... Ooh... episode of Kim Possible I haven't seen - Kim and Shego accidentally pick up some emotion controlling doohickeys, and the device controlling them keeps getting passed around to people who think it's a video game. Alright, back to the poker... and Dennis Rodman has just left the table in a huff... and not because he'd lost the hand, but because they thought he'd folded the hand! Huh?!

Okay, he came back... and he seems to bet absolutely everything. It's difficult to know if he's bluffing or not when he's willing to play a 10-8 hand... but he was finally killed off by Mekhi Phifer.

And no, I've no idea who's going to win this, but Doogie Howser and Mekhi Phifer seem to be the most likely two at the moment... but I'm going to call this entry a day here.

Happy new year everyone (unless you're in Hawaii, in which case you've got a few more hours to go), and I'll be back with more abbreviated DVD reviews, and if you're really lucky, an update to the Graveyard... hell, I might even dig out the next episode I'm supposed to be transcribing...