cahn let me know about the rewatch, and then winter happened. I'm going to see if I can catch up.
I watched B5 out of sequence, somehow seeing "The Gathering" and then missing everything on air until S2, when I found the show while flipping channels on broadcast TV. I wasn't able to pick up S1 until either during the TNT era or when the DVDs started coming out. So, I've never watched "Midnight on the Firing Line" without some B5 background.
But now I am older, perhaps wiser, and can look at old stories with new eyes.
I appreciate your comments about some of the early continuity established in this episode.
The first time I watched S1, I didn't like Sinclair much at all (teenage me: "...stiff, low energy. Meh."), but 20 or 25 (!) years later, he reads as thoughtful and a little more contemplative rather than disengaged.
Londo and G'Kar do not read as either contemplative or disengaged. Ahem.
"Midnight on the Firing Line" juggles a lot of elements, but through interconnection and resolution, makes the episode feel reasonably resolved at the close. This is a big difference from how some contemporary shows feel - maybe I've been doing too many marathons of shows from Disney / Netflix / etc with 10 - 13 episode seasons, but a lot of episodes seem to surrender closure in favor of a multi-episode plot arc, and somehow diminish both the episode and the longer arc in the process.
"Soul Hunter" - now this feels like '90s cinematography, CGI, special effects, and writing. Straight on A plot, with feeder elements, like Dr. Franklin's arrival.
I mean, JMS is a bit coy here, trying to make it sound as if Delenn is Up To No Good, but I'm not sure whether I ever believed that, and certainly rewatching the scene reawakens my annoyance that with a very few exceptions, characters who critique Delenn and Sheridan in this show are either mistaken or villainous or both.
I wish I could disagree with you, but... I think you're on to something younger me didn't notice, and would not have questioned if she did notice.
no subject
I watched B5 out of sequence, somehow seeing "The Gathering" and then missing everything on air until S2, when I found the show while flipping channels on broadcast TV. I wasn't able to pick up S1 until either during the TNT era or when the DVDs started coming out. So, I've never watched "Midnight on the Firing Line" without some B5 background.
But now I am older, perhaps wiser, and can look at old stories with new eyes.
I appreciate your comments about some of the early continuity established in this episode.
The first time I watched S1, I didn't like Sinclair much at all (teenage me: "...stiff, low energy. Meh."), but 20 or 25 (!) years later, he reads as thoughtful and a little more contemplative rather than disengaged.
Londo and G'Kar do not read as either contemplative or disengaged. Ahem.
"Midnight on the Firing Line" juggles a lot of elements, but through interconnection and resolution, makes the episode feel reasonably resolved at the close. This is a big difference from how some contemporary shows feel - maybe I've been doing too many marathons of shows from Disney / Netflix / etc with 10 - 13 episode seasons, but a lot of episodes seem to surrender closure in favor of a multi-episode plot arc, and somehow diminish both the episode and the longer arc in the process.
"Soul Hunter" - now this feels like '90s cinematography, CGI, special effects, and writing. Straight on A plot, with feeder elements, like Dr. Franklin's arrival.
I mean, JMS is a bit coy here, trying to make it sound as if Delenn is Up To No Good, but I'm not sure whether I ever believed that, and certainly rewatching the scene reawakens my annoyance that with a very few exceptions, characters who critique Delenn and Sheridan in this show are either mistaken or villainous or both.
I wish I could disagree with you, but... I think you're on to something younger me didn't notice, and would not have questioned if she did notice.