... and the first results:
Jan. 13th, 2006 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakFor ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wychwood:
Top Five Reasons Why Babylon 5 Rocks
1) Still holds the crown for five years of unbeaten multistoryline continuity. The arc show to end all arc shows.
2) Best fall and redemption arc for most tragic character on tv ever, who simultanously gets some of the funniest lines ( Londo Mollari)
3) Good guys like Vir, Garibaldi or Ivanova are as interesting (if not more) and get as much attention and fannish love as the villains
4) Bad guys don't team up by virtue of being bad (tm); they have their own agendas and convictions, which mains a villain like Bester does not side with the Shadows but has a temporary alliance with Our Heroes against them
5) Gorgeous soundtrack by Christoph Franke; the one for the very last episode Sleeping in Light still makes me cry, and I'm not prone to do that on tv.
Foryahtzee63:
Top Five Best Days Jack Bristow and Arvin Sloane Spent Together
The Day Nothing Much Happened At All. This was about two months after they met, in 1970. They just got into a conversation which somehow didn't stop after "office hours" and ended up walking and talking till well in the night about everything from Nixon to current films (they both liked The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, totally missed THX 1138 and finally admitted to each other Rio Lobo was the film they liked best this year, despite denying they were fond of Westerns in general) to why Californian wines could compete with French ones.
The Day They Almost Got Killed In Berlin (1973). This was because their contact turned out to be a double. Which left them, after shooting the guy and his allies who were shooting at them, with a day and night to kill before they could leave the city. They ended up visiting the Egyptian Museum in Charlottenburg (where Jack took a fancy to the head of Nefertiti, though he would never have admitted that, except for telling Irina when he met her years later that there was a resemblance), and a revue featuring Marlene Dietrich in one of her last public appearances. Arvin insisted later she totally gave Jack the eye from the stage. Jack denies this.
The Day Sydney Was Born, in Vietnam, when they got drunk together for the occasion. Jack was deliriously happy anyway, and Arvin - this was pre-Jaquelyne - was able to shove his mixed feelings about "Laura" aside. There might have been a subconscious satisfaction lurking somewhere Jack was with him on that particular day, not with her, which made the new baby his as well, in a way.
The Last Day Before SD-6. In some ways. Just before Sloane decided to co-found the Alliance and thus before Jack got asked by him to join and by the CIA to spy. As it happened, this was one of the few days when Sloane didn't think of Jaquelyne or Rambaldi or his impending Evil Overlorddom (not that he'd have called it thusly) and Jack didn't think about Laura and being played, and had actually managed to attend one of Sydney's school concerts. Which put him in a good mood. They had lunch, Sloane suggested Jack should call in vacation time and make a trip to Europe with Sydney as a way of getting closer, and Jack made notes of destinations. Of course, then the Alliance happened and the trip did not.
The Day They Broke Sydney Out of Jail. Aka Breaking Point. Sure, Sloane got shot, but he and Jack worked together again, they managed to save Sydney, and Arvin got to tease Jack about Jack being too clever for his own good re: the reason why he saved him. Jack thought it was a great day himself, what with the saving Syd and her putting her head on his shoulder, but also because he actually enjoyed working with Arvin again, though he never would have admitted that.
Forartaxastra:
Top Five Star Trek Episodes And Why
In no particular order, because each is so good it might as well be the top
1) In the Pale Moonlight (DS9) - captures the essence of DS9 and why I consider it the best written of all the Trek shows, its moral ambiguity and tough choices, has the best use over of that traditional ST narrative tool, the Captain's log, and features two great performances by Avery Brooks as Sisko and Andy Robinson as Garak.
2) City at the Edge of Forever (TOS) - yeah, joining the club. Great for the Kirk and Spock friendship, for the best use of a Kirk love interest ever - and Edith Keeler is interesting in her own right, so much so I always wanted to read more about her - and a genuinenly tragic ending.
3) All Good Things... (TNG): Best Trek Finale ever. Captures all I love about ST: The Next Generation (among other things, the ensemble nature which was then a change compared to TOS, the Picard/Q relationship, Beverly - for the last time, sniff - as a strong woman, Data's growth (showcased by the three time periods structure), and the optimism of that show. The sky's the limit, indeed.
4) Trials and Tribble-ations (DS9): A comedy episode had to be there, because Trek can be pretty damm funny, and this one has the virtue of including the funniest TOS ep as well, thus allowing me to score for two shows. Anyway, the episode is both a great tribute to TOS, an exercise in nostalgia, and a terrific DS9 outing. And more quotable lines than you can count, from "he had the hands of a surgeon" (Dax casually dropping the fact she slept with MacCoy back in the day) to Bashir's entire "maybe I'm my own great grandfather" rant to Worf's non-explanation for the difference between TOS Klingons and later Trek Klingons ("we don't talk about it with outsiders"). A masterpiece.
5) Maybe I should include something from good old Voyager - which did have some good eps, too, contrary to reputation - or Enterprise here, but... Best of Both Worlds, Part I (TNG): aka The One Which Changed Trek. (Well, together with Part II and Family.) Picard gests assimilated by the Borg, resulting in the first and still most stunning Trek cliffhanger. This sort of thing never happened to Kirk and made TNG eminently more real for me, because it did happen to Picard, and he would never be able to forget what he did as Locutus of Borg. (Oh, and we'd get to revisit this from Sisko's pov in the DS9 pilot, too.) The Borg were at their scariest, and it was a good ensemble episode as well, with particular good roles for Riker and the guest star, Shelby.
Forhonorh and hmpf:
(Personal) Top Five Highlander Moments Not Involving Methos
1) Duncan and Amanda Dance On The Eiffel Tower. Sums up their relationship for me. Only Amanda could get Duncan to do something that crazy, and bear in mind the dancing, instead of jumping, was his idea. Love, love, love it. (And the Duncan/Amanda relationship in general, which wasn't your traditional tv romance - the show made it always very clear she wasn't his True Love (tm), which gave it a mixture of friendship, relaxed sexiness and emotional depth when you least expect it that I adored.)
2) Drunken Fitzcairn Apologizes To Duncan. For cheating on him at golf, on top of him, while Amanda watches, amused. The Stone of Scone is probably my favourite HL comedy episode. Fitz and Duncan together were a riot act anyway, and Roger Daltrey had great fun in that role.
3) Duncan And Ingrid Meet For The Last Time. In The Valkyrie. (Which is actually one of the Methos eps, but he's not in the scene, so I'm not cheating.) It was just so damm tragic, illustrating beautifully the best HL as a show could be, the shades of grey, and the lack of good way out. Ingrid was a very sympathetic guest star, and the consequence she drew from having failed to kill Hitler emotionally understandable. And so was Duncan deciding that he can't let her continue to kill. Great performance by guest star Musetta Vander and by Adrian Paul as Duncan cries while he takes her head. (Sidenote I: thank you, writers, for not making Ingrid and Duncan old lovers, because that really wasn't needed here. Sidenote II: it always annoys me when this episode is cited to illustrate MacLeod "seeing things in black and white" and Methos seeing them in shades of grey, because Methos actually is all about black and white - he tells Duncan he should just kill Ingrid from the get go, while Duncan tries basically everything to avoid this and find another way to make her stop throughout the episode.)
4) Temptation Of Joe Dawson. I don't like the AAA arc much, together with the rest of fandom, but to me it's worth it for this outstanding scene. Loved Jim Byrnes as Joe (the original Watcher, long before that Giles fellow showed up on tv) throughout the show, and loved that HL didn't make Joe "the handicapped character" or focused attention on the fact they cast an actor without his legs - Joe was Joe, a central character from season 2 onwards. However, in this scene, as the demon Ahriman temps Joe Dawson with the prospect of giving him his legs, Joe being handicapped is used, and the result is a stunning performance by Jim Byrnes. Joe ending up on the floor, crying, just tears my heart out each time.
5) Kenny Kisses Amanda. In a show that centers on Immortals, the subject of an Immortal in a child's body had to come up sooner or later, and thus, we got Kenny, who is featured in two episodes, The Lamb, and Reunion. Peter Pan he's not, and I'm grateful for it, because a child surviving throughout centuries would have to become a ruthless killer, using his appearance to deceive and take out the competition, and bitter and aggressive to boot. Reunion reveals that Amanda was the one who found him shortly after his first death, when he actually was a child, and was his first teacher. But eight hundred years later, Kenny is not a child anymore save in appearance, and in that particular scene, as they watch MacLeod take a quickening (which Kenny plans to use in order to kill Duncan afterwards while Duncan is still unable to react), the point gets made in a way that is chilling and sad at the same time, when Kenny handcuffs her so she can't stop him, looks directly at her, and then kisses her on the lips before leaving.
The next bunch (Top B5 episodes, Top 5 Quark Exploits Not Filmed, and Top 5 Performances In Orson Welles Films Not By OW (not that difficult, btw, since Orson isn't actually the best actor in his own films - usually he's good, not great - it's as an director he scores) will have to wait until tomorrow.
wychwood: Top Five Reasons Why Babylon 5 Rocks
1) Still holds the crown for five years of unbeaten multistoryline continuity. The arc show to end all arc shows.
2) Best fall and redemption arc for most tragic character on tv ever, who simultanously gets some of the funniest lines ( Londo Mollari)
3) Good guys like Vir, Garibaldi or Ivanova are as interesting (if not more) and get as much attention and fannish love as the villains
4) Bad guys don't team up by virtue of being bad (tm); they have their own agendas and convictions, which mains a villain like Bester does not side with the Shadows but has a temporary alliance with Our Heroes against them
5) Gorgeous soundtrack by Christoph Franke; the one for the very last episode Sleeping in Light still makes me cry, and I'm not prone to do that on tv.
For
yahtzee63: Top Five Best Days Jack Bristow and Arvin Sloane Spent Together
The Day Nothing Much Happened At All. This was about two months after they met, in 1970. They just got into a conversation which somehow didn't stop after "office hours" and ended up walking and talking till well in the night about everything from Nixon to current films (they both liked The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, totally missed THX 1138 and finally admitted to each other Rio Lobo was the film they liked best this year, despite denying they were fond of Westerns in general) to why Californian wines could compete with French ones.
The Day They Almost Got Killed In Berlin (1973). This was because their contact turned out to be a double. Which left them, after shooting the guy and his allies who were shooting at them, with a day and night to kill before they could leave the city. They ended up visiting the Egyptian Museum in Charlottenburg (where Jack took a fancy to the head of Nefertiti, though he would never have admitted that, except for telling Irina when he met her years later that there was a resemblance), and a revue featuring Marlene Dietrich in one of her last public appearances. Arvin insisted later she totally gave Jack the eye from the stage. Jack denies this.
The Day Sydney Was Born, in Vietnam, when they got drunk together for the occasion. Jack was deliriously happy anyway, and Arvin - this was pre-Jaquelyne - was able to shove his mixed feelings about "Laura" aside. There might have been a subconscious satisfaction lurking somewhere Jack was with him on that particular day, not with her, which made the new baby his as well, in a way.
The Last Day Before SD-6. In some ways. Just before Sloane decided to co-found the Alliance and thus before Jack got asked by him to join and by the CIA to spy. As it happened, this was one of the few days when Sloane didn't think of Jaquelyne or Rambaldi or his impending Evil Overlorddom (not that he'd have called it thusly) and Jack didn't think about Laura and being played, and had actually managed to attend one of Sydney's school concerts. Which put him in a good mood. They had lunch, Sloane suggested Jack should call in vacation time and make a trip to Europe with Sydney as a way of getting closer, and Jack made notes of destinations. Of course, then the Alliance happened and the trip did not.
The Day They Broke Sydney Out of Jail. Aka Breaking Point. Sure, Sloane got shot, but he and Jack worked together again, they managed to save Sydney, and Arvin got to tease Jack about Jack being too clever for his own good re: the reason why he saved him. Jack thought it was a great day himself, what with the saving Syd and her putting her head on his shoulder, but also because he actually enjoyed working with Arvin again, though he never would have admitted that.
For
artaxastra: Top Five Star Trek Episodes And Why
In no particular order, because each is so good it might as well be the top
1) In the Pale Moonlight (DS9) - captures the essence of DS9 and why I consider it the best written of all the Trek shows, its moral ambiguity and tough choices, has the best use over of that traditional ST narrative tool, the Captain's log, and features two great performances by Avery Brooks as Sisko and Andy Robinson as Garak.
2) City at the Edge of Forever (TOS) - yeah, joining the club. Great for the Kirk and Spock friendship, for the best use of a Kirk love interest ever - and Edith Keeler is interesting in her own right, so much so I always wanted to read more about her - and a genuinenly tragic ending.
3) All Good Things... (TNG): Best Trek Finale ever. Captures all I love about ST: The Next Generation (among other things, the ensemble nature which was then a change compared to TOS, the Picard/Q relationship, Beverly - for the last time, sniff - as a strong woman, Data's growth (showcased by the three time periods structure), and the optimism of that show. The sky's the limit, indeed.
4) Trials and Tribble-ations (DS9): A comedy episode had to be there, because Trek can be pretty damm funny, and this one has the virtue of including the funniest TOS ep as well, thus allowing me to score for two shows. Anyway, the episode is both a great tribute to TOS, an exercise in nostalgia, and a terrific DS9 outing. And more quotable lines than you can count, from "he had the hands of a surgeon" (Dax casually dropping the fact she slept with MacCoy back in the day) to Bashir's entire "maybe I'm my own great grandfather" rant to Worf's non-explanation for the difference between TOS Klingons and later Trek Klingons ("we don't talk about it with outsiders"). A masterpiece.
5) Maybe I should include something from good old Voyager - which did have some good eps, too, contrary to reputation - or Enterprise here, but... Best of Both Worlds, Part I (TNG): aka The One Which Changed Trek. (Well, together with Part II and Family.) Picard gests assimilated by the Borg, resulting in the first and still most stunning Trek cliffhanger. This sort of thing never happened to Kirk and made TNG eminently more real for me, because it did happen to Picard, and he would never be able to forget what he did as Locutus of Borg. (Oh, and we'd get to revisit this from Sisko's pov in the DS9 pilot, too.) The Borg were at their scariest, and it was a good ensemble episode as well, with particular good roles for Riker and the guest star, Shelby.
For
honorh and hmpf: (Personal) Top Five Highlander Moments Not Involving Methos
1) Duncan and Amanda Dance On The Eiffel Tower. Sums up their relationship for me. Only Amanda could get Duncan to do something that crazy, and bear in mind the dancing, instead of jumping, was his idea. Love, love, love it. (And the Duncan/Amanda relationship in general, which wasn't your traditional tv romance - the show made it always very clear she wasn't his True Love (tm), which gave it a mixture of friendship, relaxed sexiness and emotional depth when you least expect it that I adored.)
2) Drunken Fitzcairn Apologizes To Duncan. For cheating on him at golf, on top of him, while Amanda watches, amused. The Stone of Scone is probably my favourite HL comedy episode. Fitz and Duncan together were a riot act anyway, and Roger Daltrey had great fun in that role.
3) Duncan And Ingrid Meet For The Last Time. In The Valkyrie. (Which is actually one of the Methos eps, but he's not in the scene, so I'm not cheating.) It was just so damm tragic, illustrating beautifully the best HL as a show could be, the shades of grey, and the lack of good way out. Ingrid was a very sympathetic guest star, and the consequence she drew from having failed to kill Hitler emotionally understandable. And so was Duncan deciding that he can't let her continue to kill. Great performance by guest star Musetta Vander and by Adrian Paul as Duncan cries while he takes her head. (Sidenote I: thank you, writers, for not making Ingrid and Duncan old lovers, because that really wasn't needed here. Sidenote II: it always annoys me when this episode is cited to illustrate MacLeod "seeing things in black and white" and Methos seeing them in shades of grey, because Methos actually is all about black and white - he tells Duncan he should just kill Ingrid from the get go, while Duncan tries basically everything to avoid this and find another way to make her stop throughout the episode.)
4) Temptation Of Joe Dawson. I don't like the AAA arc much, together with the rest of fandom, but to me it's worth it for this outstanding scene. Loved Jim Byrnes as Joe (the original Watcher, long before that Giles fellow showed up on tv) throughout the show, and loved that HL didn't make Joe "the handicapped character" or focused attention on the fact they cast an actor without his legs - Joe was Joe, a central character from season 2 onwards. However, in this scene, as the demon Ahriman temps Joe Dawson with the prospect of giving him his legs, Joe being handicapped is used, and the result is a stunning performance by Jim Byrnes. Joe ending up on the floor, crying, just tears my heart out each time.
5) Kenny Kisses Amanda. In a show that centers on Immortals, the subject of an Immortal in a child's body had to come up sooner or later, and thus, we got Kenny, who is featured in two episodes, The Lamb, and Reunion. Peter Pan he's not, and I'm grateful for it, because a child surviving throughout centuries would have to become a ruthless killer, using his appearance to deceive and take out the competition, and bitter and aggressive to boot. Reunion reveals that Amanda was the one who found him shortly after his first death, when he actually was a child, and was his first teacher. But eight hundred years later, Kenny is not a child anymore save in appearance, and in that particular scene, as they watch MacLeod take a quickening (which Kenny plans to use in order to kill Duncan afterwards while Duncan is still unable to react), the point gets made in a way that is chilling and sad at the same time, when Kenny handcuffs her so she can't stop him, looks directly at her, and then kisses her on the lips before leaving.
The next bunch (Top B5 episodes, Top 5 Quark Exploits Not Filmed, and Top 5 Performances In Orson Welles Films Not By OW (not that difficult, btw, since Orson isn't actually the best actor in his own films - usually he's good, not great - it's as an director he scores) will have to wait until tomorrow.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-13 09:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-13 09:09 pm (UTC)Someone To Watch Over Me (love Seven, love the Doc, this one has both in prominent position and is well written, plus Tom and Be'Lanna have nice supporting roles) and the Year of Hell two-parter-
no subject
Date: 2006-01-13 09:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-13 09:18 pm (UTC)And the soundtrack, yes. Much love for Herr Franke. He wrote some awesome music.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-13 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-13 09:28 pm (UTC)Oh darn. I left no room for Enterprise. Honorable mention then to Shadows of P'Jem, for some good stuff with T'Pol and the whole Vulcan plotline. (I'm on about the Vulcans, clearly.)
no subject
Date: 2006-01-14 06:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-13 09:45 pm (UTC)There are times I almost forget how much I enjoy TNG and DS9 (I regret not being able to watch them more often anymore) - pity it'd cost me more limbs than Anakin to own them on DVD. Though even just for the episodes you mention, there are times I think it'd almost be worth it.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-13 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-14 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-14 03:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-14 06:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-13 09:53 pm (UTC)My personal favorite Trek episode is "The Visitor," I think, though I like all the ones you mentioned.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-14 06:23 am (UTC)The Visitor is stunning, and one of my favourites, too, but alas, the number of episodes was limited...
no subject
Date: 2006-01-14 09:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-13 09:55 pm (UTC)Years later, I still remember and adore the conversation that goes, essentially, "Yes, of course I love you, just not like that. Which is just as well, because otherwise we'd kill other."
no subject
Date: 2006-01-14 06:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-13 10:05 pm (UTC)I really loved the first season of that show - watched it many years ago after reading some of the fanfic. He's playing a watcher-like role in that, only he's not using the prosthetic legs and just scoots around his office in a wheelchair. Again, they have the sense not to make an issue of him being disabled - he's just the backup guy in the office.
He ended up being my favourite character in Highlander, even over Methos.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-14 06:27 am (UTC)*uses default icon for another handicapped character whose handicap is not being made an issue of*
Those HL moments...
Date: 2006-01-13 10:27 pm (UTC)Those were great moments, you're right. (Those that I've seen, anyway - haven't seen every single ep.) And I wish HL had been like that more often. I wish I could love the show more. As it is, I *love* the universe as it is portrayed in fanfiction, but not so much as I see it on the screen. Which is a shame, really.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-14 01:36 am (UTC)Courage. When Duncan whacks Cullen in the most violent duel ever, and then he sits on the ground and cries.
Brothers in Arms. When Duncan tells Charlie DeSalvo that he's immortal.
Counterfeit flashback. Same thing with Tessa.
Under Color of Authority. Duncan tells Richie to leave.
End of Innocence. Duncan walking to meet Haresh Clay. [fans self]
no subject
Date: 2006-01-14 06:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-14 10:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-14 11:07 am (UTC)Speaking of DS9, I recently brought up your arguments re: Chimera (http://www.livejournal.com/users/iamsab/262164.html).
no subject
Date: 2006-01-14 08:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-15 05:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-15 07:12 pm (UTC)This all ties in with "Valkyrie" when Methos says Ingrid judged a man and she killed him, Duncan judged Ingrid and he killed her and then Duncan asked who would judge him. I personally think that the point Methos was trying to make with Duncan throughout Valkyrie when he kept saying that Ingrid is a killer is that so is Duncan no matter what his reasons.
One other moment I loved from that episode was Amanda's talk with Keane; it gave us a view of Duncan through her eyes and pointed out that she had been in game centuries before Duncan was.