Join Laura and Xhafer, two internet strangers as they get to know each other while making jokes about one of their favorite TV shows from their childhood, Babylon 5.

Laura and Xhafer do a little fan-casting for the roles of Zack and Marcus. Meanwhile, the B5 crew reaches a crossroads in their struggles against the Shadows and President Clark's Earthgov as a Shadow ship is discovered on Ganymede. You know things are getting serious when Sheridan sheds his uniform in Babylon 5, Season 3 Episode 8: Messages from Earth.

Hello, and welcome to who are you?

A Babylon five watch cast hosted by two former strangers.

Now friends.

Who are continuing to get to know each other while we're watching

one of their favorite shows from their childhood Babylon five

And I'm Laura.

And we're going to do a little recasting today.

Yeah.

I paused, like we have a drop for recasting.

We don't have a drop for recasting to.

Well, it's it's.

Who are you casting for these roles?

Hoo.

Hoo hoo.

Yeah.

So there hasn't been a lot of reboot news.

There was the uh, the gathering of the league of non-aligned

podcasts, like two months ago.

When there was the big internet push.

JMS is tweeted like 1 cents then saying like, Hey.

This was noticed.

Thank you.

We out trended the queen.

The day of her funeral.

So I guess people care about Babylon five.

And Then nothing.

And it's just like, it's like, he treated, I want to say maybe.

Three weeks ago from recording.

So like a month ago, two months ago from listen.

That when there is news, he'll share it, but right now, nothing.

Which just means stop bugging me.

You guys.

Yeah.

I will say something when I know something, please stop asking.

We do have the announced Babylon five project that's coming out.

Sometime this year.

In

2023.

Was it puppets.

I'm still holding

out for puppets.

That had.

every surviving cast member was a part

of is what.

Is what he said.

We have no idea what it is.

But we're going to continue our recasting like we're going to get a reboot here.

In a year or two.

Yeah.

We're aspirational on this podcast.

Reach for the stars.

Optimistic.

So we got two rolls.

We're going to recast today.

And we're going to talk about recasting Marcus and Zack.

They're both kind of supporting characters.

The way the plot works and they're, they're very different people.

But it's very easy to see them fulfilling kind of similar roles with regards to

plot movement based off of what they do.

They're just coming at it from very different sides.

And it's not a ton of roles to get a lot of.

I haven't read much or heard much about people comparing these two

characters, which is surprising to me.

Given they're both effectively security officers for their respective

groups.

Yeah, just very different sides of the coin.

Yeah.

So I think it's fun to talk about them together because

I don't hear that very often.

And I like things that are novel.

I suppose, if there's like a billion D podcasts about this and my

obstinance of listening to Babylon five podcasts while we're recording

is shooting me in the foot here.

Feel free to tell me on our discord, which you can join by finding it on Facebook or

emailing us for the link at who are you.

five@gmail.com.

I will accept my criticism.

They're nowhere else.

But there are two very interesting characters that are two very

different sides of the same coin.

Yeah.

So I'm curious what you would want to see from your reboot and who you would want

to see cast in either of these roles.

Do you want to start.

Who, yeah.

Who do you want to do first?

Well, maybe let's do Marcus first because we've seen more of

him recently, and we're going to get some more of Zach in this episode.

So we'll do him second.

For Marcus, there's only one real person that came to mind.

Immediately.

And they're a little bit older than Marcus but I'm going to cast

my Zack a little bit younger.

So in the reboot, we might trade off.

Maybe some plots will move from one character to

another.

Based off of that.

I like the idea of Marcus instead of being kind of the impetuous young ranger go

getter, being a bit more of a like wise.

Kind of, I've been doing this for a while.

Maybe one of the first human Rangers.

To . Mix it up a little.

And when I think Marcus.

I think of the actor that I confused him with for

forever, who he is not played by.

Which is Henry Ian Cusick.

Okay.

I've got to Google this name because it is not.

Did you watch last?

I did not.

Which I

He's Duncan and

Okay.

But yeah, Google a

picture

of him and you'll go, Oh, yes.

I see it.

I understand now.

Yeah.

Yeah, he's they, they look a lot alike.

And Henry and Kusa can do.

A little bit of action.

He can do.

We've seen that from him in his roles.

And I think he could bring a kind of fresh take to the character

being the kind of like older wiser kind of like hardened ranger.

I'm still quoting a very literary.

Kind of a guy.

Because that feeling he can do the British accent really

Yeah, I was going to say, I see in, in the Wikipedia here that he's Peruvian

Scottish, so he's got to have a delightful accent, even though I haven't heard him.

Yeah.

So I think that could be a lot of fun and I don't really have anything

else to base that casting on.

Besides I think that the actor would do a good job.

And damn does he look like

Yeah, he sure does.

Jason Carter.

Thank you.

Well, I feel.

A little bit more justified in my also wanting to cast

somebody who is very like Marcus.

I know we've gone a little bit wild there with some of our casting

and, and um, you know, not been so.

Stuck to kind of who the person is that we know.

But I also had that I've really.

Wanted him to be British.

And so for mine, it again, he's a little bit older.

He's 51, but I selected David Tennant.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

I

So, if you, especially, if you Google David Tennant, when he had his

COVID hair it's a little bit longer.

It's not quite long enough.

Like, you know, if we want.

To go full Marcus.

It needs to be a little bit longer.

But he's also got the scruffy beard.

And, you know, it's really important to me that Marcus be a quippy kind of guy.

And.

Oh, and Dave attended is the

He's the quirkiest.

He can do it, but he's also done, you know, he's done the doctor,

so he's done that like wiser.

More experienced thing that, that vibe that you were going for.

So you can get.

The best of a lot of worlds there, I feel.

A little bad about not going.

A little crazier with my casting and getting a little more

diverse or out there with Marcus.

But.

I just.

We really think that David tenet has got the quips and that's what I want.

All right.

So no, I think that's excellent.

I think David Tennant would, could do a really fun

job with it.

I can see him doing the bit with the staff from last

Exactly.

Yeah.

Just spot on no changes required.

Just him having a blast doing that.

I'd watch

Got to work that one in, please guys.

All right.

So Zach Allen.

Now the last one, I went for something where the actor reminded

me a bit based off appearance.

For this one, I'm going to go for the actor.

Reminded me again.

But not appearance at

all.

I guess maybe kind of a little so.

When I think Zach Allen.

As a character.

We need someone.

Maybe with like who's played a police officer or

something that kind of regard.

Box checked.

We'll look at the actor, Jeff Conaway.

There's two things that pop up to mind.

One total fucking nerd fan boy.

Who got on the show because of being a fan.

. And two is a history with musicals.

That's true.

Yes.

So when casting Zach Allen, I'm going to look to Barry Allen.

The flashes grant Gustin.

Who is a total nerd, a total fan boy, and was on glee for like three seasons.

Okay, I'm Googling because again, you've thrown a name

at me that I don't quite know.

God, who is he?

Uncle Lee.

Uh, He was one of the new

Okay.

I only watched like, yeah, I only watched the first couple of seasons.

Uh, You did yourself a favor.

Yeah, but he looks like he could be ugly just looking at this headshot.

Yeah.

for

Yeah.

So he's played a cop.

Barry Allen is technically a police officer.

Oh, Okay.

Uh, the flash.

So going a bit younger with Zack.

So, like I said, like maybe we can flip a little bit of story if

we need to or at the very least some like character arc stuff.

I think having a younger, more impressionable.

Kind of young security officer kind of fits in better with the Nightwatch stuff.

At least it's a different take on it.

History has shown us that that is not the case when it comes

to accepting fascist propaganda.

But Hey.

You know, We can, we can pretend.

So yeah, I think grant Gusto could do an interesting take on that.

And I'd definitely watch it.

Yeah.

That's a good look.

I like it.

I decided to lean into my imagination a little more for my Zach Allen casting.

So.

You know, when we did Garibaldi.

I selected TIG Notaro, right?

Yeah.

So I leaned kind of into that vibe.

And I thought who gives me that kind of feeling.

Uh, Is a little more comedic that I could see in this sort of every man role.

Cause to me, that's what Zach is.

He's the every man, right?

He's the one who.

We would more likely be if we were in the Babylon five universe,

more of a, every person sort of.

Character.

And.

I thought about fortune Feemster.

I don't know this

So she's a standup comedian.

Has a Netflix special, I believe.

And I've seen.

The workaround on, on Facebook, lots of Facebook videos.

And then also.

She was in, is it cake?

On Netflix.

I have seen as at cake.

I was trying to figure out what I recognized her

Yeah.

If you look at this she's in that first episode, I believe of, is it cake?

But I feel like I could see her in a cop's uniform.

I can see her doing the jacket bit.

You know, about this jacket doesn't fit.

And, you know, doing kind of a, a plan dumb.

Going along with the flow of the universe around.

You know, long enough for us to get a good.

Nightwatch plot.

Out of, out of her and it really.

W she would also be great with TIG.

I think.

Yeah.

really really be a fun duo to be our space cops.

I think so.

I would, I would watch that for sure.

In fact, I don't, they don't need a Babylon five recast or

spinoff or remake or whatever.

Just have the two of them be space cops for me, just make it happen,

Let's just build a series.

He's around these two space cops.

Right, please.

I'm here for it.

That's.

That'll be fun.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, I think we've put together some bang up cast.

Just like we've got a bang up episode ahead of us.

Season three, episode eight messages from

earth.

So a couple of notes before we get started.

JMS considers this the perfect episode of Babylon

Oh

this is the bar right here.

Like if you can do better than this episode.

You're fucking fantastic.

This is it.

This is, this is what we want to do every time.

This is the

That's interesting.

is the gold standard.

I definitely know that we have some episodes coming up that I feel.

That way about those episodes.

Yes.

Well, this is the first of a three parter.

Okay.

And it was considered as such by most people in the production.

It's not a straight to be continued, but this and the two episodes following.

R a one story arc.

That marks the midpoint of the story of Babylon five.

Yeah.

We're coming up at the halfway point of season three, it

was planned to be five seasons.

This would be it.

And it's treated as such.

And it's given the kind of breathing room.

And respect you would see entailed from knowing that this

is the middle point of the white

Yeah.

And I think we talked to off pod last week about it's a little sad

when you think about it, that here we are at the mid point of the story.

And yes, it gets five seasons, but they didn't know they

were getting five seasons.

So at.

At one point.

Parts of the story.

Feel a little bit rushed after here.

For sure.

Yeah.

So if you're unaware with center Season what the plan for seasons

four and five were, were combined into just season four, due to network

drama with P 10, no longer existing.

And the show effectively Feeling like it was not going to get a fifth season,

ended up getting a fifth season T and T rescued the show last a minute.

It was a whole thing.

They were all at a convention when they found out and they literally

rolled out contracts to actors drunk at 2:00 AM, which was super not cool.

And why we lost quality of Christiansen because she's all

like, I don't care what it is.

I'm not doing

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

I'm drunk.

Why you pulling your contract out at 2:00 AM?

This is fucking shady.

So more power to her.

We miss her.

In season five, but that's a topic for 50 episodes from

now.

So we've had.

About 60 episodes of TV.

This is the mid point.

He was expecting effectively another 60 episodes to wrap up the story.

He ended up with 30 and he didn't know he was going to be

there until 10 episodes from

Yeah.

So season four is crazy.

For a number of reasons, this being probably the biggest one.

Cause this was it.

This was the halfway point.

This was supposed to be the middle of the story.

And because of how it all turned out.

It just.

Accelerates at a different pace.

And we don't get to spend three episodes doing a single thing like this

does.

But these three episodes are fantastic.

We opened on the mess hall with Sheridan.

Ivanova clearly having a more military background compared to Garibaldi

is complaining about having to eat the same thing for breakfast

every day for the last three years.

And they show us some pictures of this, like blue

Yeah.

I take exception

to this.

Oh, it's blueberry yogurt.

But it's lovely.

It's . Blueberry yogurt.

It was just shot funny.

And.

I don't know if they colored it or something to make it look less

appetizing, but it's, it's just

Yeah, sure.

I take exception to this though, because I feel like we've had at

least a couple of episodes where we've seen them eating breakfast.

And it wasn't the same blue goop every time, you know, there's a breakfast there.

So.

Yeah.

All right.

Show.

I see you.

there's some dude Nightwatch propaganda up on the walls that

don't talk about by the way, in this

Oh, yeah.

Do tell.

Oh, that that's just, it's hard to read even in the remaster.

It's just like, if you see something, say something just

in the mess hall now, which is.

Of note given this episode and how it happens at the end of

Yeah, sure.

But while they're complaining about the Susan gets delivered.

A very fancy breakfast, courtesy of Marcus.

We see a nice little handwritten letter addressed to her and everything.

Well, she did give him roses.

She didn't give him roses.

And she got him an identity card so that he can like use the station facilities.

I don't know why I assumed this was like bathroom.

Privileges.

Or something weird, like maybe the gym or something like.

I assumed it was a fake ID.

She got him a fake ID.

Yeah, I mean, Which just, wow.

Okay.

Yeah, so he got her a fancy breakfast, bacon and eggs.

Oh, yeah.

Real eggs scare.

Baldies

Yeah.

And this is where we find out that Sheridan likes to watch.

Is it where we find out we've, we've talked, we've

theorized about uh, Sheridan's.

Bedroom life a couple of times

at

Well, let's just chalk that up in the column, you know?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Put a note for linear Hilton.

He'll want to know that.

she decides to reward him.

For this glorious breakfast.

With death.

Hmm.

After breakfast though, she's going to, she's going to eat her

breakfast and then she can find it.

She's going to

Classic.

I bought a gift.

Yes.

But we cut to two Marcus.

hard cut to

Marcus.

And he's in down below with a mysterious woman and they're

trying to flee from some people.

Bad people, I would assume.

we get

a fun fight scene

Yeah, we get some of those excellent Marcus martial arts.

he's using a staff to fight people with nunchucks.

Laura.

Have you ever, have you ever used a staff to try to fight

someone with nunchucks before?

know, I've never used a staff to fight anyone.

I've pretend fought with a piece of PVC pipe that was laying around

my house when I was a child.

Pretending to be Marcus actually.

I've done that too.

And I've actually done a bit of staff fighting over the years.

But never against anyone with nunchucks, it seems completely

It seems like it would be very hard.

Yes.

Or maybe harder for the person with the nunchucks really.

Hundred percent harder for the person with none.

Nunchucks are a notoriously difficult weapon to use there.

Of all the weapons.

Why would you ever pick nunchucks?

If you're offered a literally anything?

I would rather take two sticks, not attached on a

chain that I would nunchucks.

If you encounter the.

Street fighter with an uncheck.

So you know that they've been working at it right.

Yeah.

I mean, that's what Bruce Lee made it look so easy that everyone was all

like, oh, nunchucks are a great weapon.

And he's all like, no, Bruce Lee was just that fucking good

to make them look effective.

Yeah.

So maybe not those guys.

Anyways.

Marcus may or may not have failed in its objective to theme.

Yeah.

Is she breathing?

We don't know.

don't know.

But we come back to, not this, immediately, we come back to I s.

talking about sedition outside evils and how everyone's gotta

prepare for some extreme measures.

Yeah.

Oh, good.

Just what we wanted.

We cut over to MetaLab where we're the currently

unknown escapee is being treated.

It looks like she'll be okay.

While Dzhokhar gets a visit from Garibaldi.

good to see him.

He looks healthy.

He looks well.

does.

Yeah.

Other prisoners are petitioning

To stop.

the perceived torture of Dzhokhar.

He was singing.

And he isn't that bad.

We've heard him sing.

It's not

Yeah, he's quite delightful.

That's very rude.

Th this is

Hm.

Gary, baldies trying to read the book of Shaquan but he's having a

hard time because he doesn't read Nard.

I'm surprised that Garibaldi is even attempting to read Nard.

Pleasantly pleasantly surprised.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's, he's effectively learning to read Nard.

And by reading the book.

In Jakarta, it gets kind of like, you can't translate it.

That's it has to be read in the original.

It's just like, okay, well, Then you can't learn to read.

W NARKN with this because you literally would have to translate it

to learn how to read it in the first

place.

So, I guess maybe you like read a passage, read a line, translate the line, or

a couple of the words, figure it out.

Kind of like, I don't know, like how you do this without offending.

Checar effectively.

but considering Garibaldi is been the guy actively mispronouncing

ethnic names in the show.

It's very impressive that he's attempting.

To do this for his friend.

So.

Good.

Good.

Try.

Yep.

Before we leave Dzhokhar cell, he notes that he's begun writing his own book.

Yeah, the book of Jakarta.

The book of your cars, it will become to be known.

And uh, yeah, he hopes to have it done.

During the term of his pre imprisonment.

days.

That's not very long.

My dude.

I mean that's twice a NaNoWriMo, so.

That's true.

It's not like you got a whole lot else going on.

It's that?

And the prison

Yeah.

for

trocar.

And the singing.

But, oh, Hey, that package has arrived.

That was alluded to

Yeah, it's a person.

It's this person.

Yep.

It's Dr.

Mary Kertesz.

Garibaldi recounts a story from the Babylon five comics.

Okay.

That was where I was doing a little bit of research before this episode.

Because.

When this plot started rolling.

As my husband and I are watching.

I was like, has this been mentioned in the show yet?

No.

Okay.

I feel better now.

It hasn't no, this is all from.

I want to say issue eight of the Babylon five comics.

If I'm remembering what I read earlier today.

Properly.

Yeah, so this story was told by, from Garibaldi perspective there, where he sees

the shadow ship leave and finds the Sycor

emblem.

As we see in a little bit.

And apparently Sinclair was with him the whole time

for this little adventure.

He mentioned that.

Yup.

But we get Dr.

Curtis's side of things.

Dr.

Kertesz of course is uh, played

By Knoxville.

film festival award winner.

Nancy Stafford.

Everyone knew that right.

Sure.

Knoxville film festival

award.

Yeah, I follow the

Best best narrative feature damaged goods.

Yeah.

I thought everyone follows the next hill film festival.

I

Very closely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

After a year.

She's in like over half of Matlock St.

Elsewhere.

She was in, she, she did a stint in scandal recently.

So she's been in a ton of stuff.

If you recognize her from

Not.

her award-winning film.

Damaged goods from the next cell phone festival.

Well, she's still working, I guess, if she was on

scandal, that's pretty recent.

So.

Good job.

Good for her.

Yeah.

I mean, she won that award in 2018.

So.

Very nice.

Did I sell how ridiculous that was

You did, you did.

Okay, just checking.

So Mary side of things is that she was working for

interplanetary expeditions.

We're getting a, a drop from them again.

And they had found some sort of artifact on Mars.

And she was

helping.

for a thousand years.

years.

Key key words there.

And.

They were helping excavate this piece of technology on Mars.

Well, they get told by higher ups at some point that they are to evacuate the area.

Leave.

And they can just sit basically in their bunker and watch and see what's happening.

As they're watching and they're waiting.

They see a, another vessel, just like the one they've been digging up.

Show up.

In the sky.

And they think it's there to destroy.

The vessel that they are trying to get out of the ground, but she realizes

that it is actually digging it up.

With its weapons

It's ex excavating

Yeah, so it finishes the excavation.

And pulls this other ship away.

Should they hear a scream?

She mentioned that.

Well, the ship gets piloted.

I think.

Oh, does it.

Okay.

It's what's unsaid.

Yeah.

Because the ship seems to be flying of its own accord.

Away.

So I would assume that, and there's also some downtime.

There's like 30 minutes in between them.

The ship.

Landing.

And then both ships taking

Yeah.

So it reactivates itself, basically.

And they hear the scream in their mind and.

They both fly away.

So Garibaldi is point of view.

Yeah.

As a gear Baldy.

Uh, Was in a shuttle.

On Mars with Sinclair, when this all went down.

Saw the ships had no idea what was going on.

And then went to the site to see what was going on.

I mean, your security guards, probably going to check stuff out.

And all he found was a Sycor badge.

it was a little, little burned up psych or badge that he

still has on him in this episode.

Now I think it's implied.

Given what we learned later in this episode about shadow

ships, having a single pilot.

And us learning later in the show spoilers.

That those pilots are telepaths.

That the ship was piloted by someone from Cycore like the shit that was

reactivated, someone from Sycor took over.

And that's why the batch was left

Yeah.

And basically once they had gotten so far in there, Excavation

interplanetary expeditions had.

Some point, it came to Mr.

Morton's attention.

And they.

Called for another shadow ship to help get this thing out.

So.

Yep.

I do think it's interesting by the way.

To completely change the topic.

For a moment.

Hm.

That we know that the last shadow war was a thousand years ago.

Yeah,

that's been mentioned.

were.

On the vicinity of earth, if they were on Mars.

During that time.

You know, what else was happening?

A thousand years ago from them 800 years ago from us.

It D 1260s.

Mm.

It was the dark ages.

Yeah.

Just a ton of lost history.

I was sitting here going what's that about the time of the plague?

Uh,

When was the

plague?

I think it was a little bit later, but maybe not that much later.

Because that'd be

a fun virus

1346 to 1353 was when the plague was running around

Western Eurasia and north

Africa.

So.

Not quite, not quite.

And I think in our Sycor books, that's when we found out

that the Orlon ship had been.

Put . On, put around Venus to.

Something like that.

Uh, So yeah.

The black plague would have been about a hundred years after.

well, maybe they lift some weapons behind.

We know they're not above that.

Right.

I don't know.

For sure.

Yeah.

It'd be interesting.

Just like given how little is known about.

You know, there's like it's famously period of non hat, non history, right?

Like we don't know.

A ton about what was going on.

And we know that at the same time the shadows were on NARKN.

Yeah.

things up

Also fucking their

Um, and also taking To be used as foot soldiers.

So it's very possible.

They were doing the same with humans.

Yeah.

At this time.

Could be.

That could be why history is what it is.

Interesting overlap.

all of this to say that, you know, Mary Kirk is just story

and Garibaldi story are important.

Relevant, especially now.

Because.

One of these other ships has also been found on Ganymede.

Yeah, just recently big deal.

And so I believe interplanetary expeditions is also.

Digging this one out.

Dr.

Kirk ish is basically like, they're going to kill me now.

So it's been fun, but I had to sell it to . Them.

One.

And Dylan's all like got you, bro.

She's getting written off

to member.

Yep.

Britain off to minbar.

Very short lived.

Well, VR seems to like it there.

So it's going to be okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She got hanging out with veer and Sinclair on

Yeah.

Oh, it's like immediately two winners, all like we're leaving from Imbar

Yeah.

He's very gracious.

He helps her out of her chair and takes her off.

And that's it for her on this episode and the show.

And Sheridan is shook.

Because the implication here is that earth gov and Sycor are

both working with the shadows.

Yeah.

If that ship got called.

We know Mr.

Morton's voice was in the other video.

Like we we've got.

Some uh, pretty damning evidence at this point.

Yep.

Over at security, we see Zach informed of a Nightwatch meeting tomorrow.

A unnamed security dude, who I've been calling in my head, officer, Alex Jones.

Makes me yell a cab.

As we cut to Sheridan taking off his earth force badge all dramatically

while looking out into space.

He tells Dylan he's going to do the thing and he's got to tell the others.

Yeah.

He's going to put on the civilian clothes of.

Possible mutiny, I guess.

The civilian clothes of possible mutiny.

Ding.

Um, plan is to take the white star to Ganymede and just fucking destroy

that shadow shit before it has a chance to fall into president Clark's

Yeah, no one knows what the white star is still.

Like, we, we haven't shown it to earth yet.

They don't know that it's a pseudo earth.

Minbar you ship?

They'll just think that we're some unknown.

And as long as we don't get caught.

We can take this thing out.

So it's not a bad plan.

Yeah.

There are some concerns.

Uh, He is asked if he's willing to fire on earth ships.

He asked what will happen if he is captured?

And he doesn't answer one.

He doesn't answer where he feel fire on earth ship.

Because he doesn't know.

But he's like, well, they're not taking me alive.

So.

I'm not worried about that

Sure.

If I got to blow this thing up, they're not getting me

Right.

Yeah.

we will destroy this ship before we let that happen in a linear

it's just to looking on like okay.

All these due to Phil minbar.

You're just going to sign up to get Guild by an.

Arthur.

Okay.

Yep.

Okay.

Cool.

Cool.

Cool.

Ah, yeah, he puts on.

He puts on his civilian clothes of possible mutiny.

And it's so good.

And arrangers of the coverup.

His star fury will autopilot and self-destruct.

. And Franklin will be responsible for the bio mass.

which is the other dead body folks.

Yep.

It Franklin you'll put a dead body in there and make sure it's believable.

he's going to go find some lurkers or something.

I don't know.

Oh, so dark, so dark.

can just ask Garibaldi.

I'm sure he knows of

Yeah.

He'll find you something.

No big deal.

Uh, We see See Sheridan contemplate up on the bridge.

Well, we go to Nightwatch who confirms.

We know for a fact now everyone who laugh, reacted, president

Clark's Kofi tweet is in fact.

A trader.

Yeah, the joke's gonna stay for awhile.

Yeah.

It's good.

It's good.

I've been saying, been sitting on that one for awhile.

Yeah, so we get.

You know, we're told there's all kinds of people.

Senators high ranking military officers, the fake news media.

Even members of the joint chiefs of staff.

You know, officer Alex Jones tells us how it is, the lists

are being drawn up already.

Now we just need the evidence before we go for the arrests.

We start the March tomorrow on January 6th.

Yeah.

So also while they're going over this, somebody notes

that the captain is missing.

He's just been gone.

Anyone know where he's at?

That's weird.

I'm wondering how, how they have such close tabs on the

captain when it's a station of half a million humans and aliens, but.

He can't just take a couple of days off you guys.

It's not okay.

Right.

Maybe he's on vacation.

You don't write his PTO schedule.

You're not his supervisor.

Yeah.

Linear tells Sheridan to go the fuck to sleep.

He sees them in Bari beds and he keeps sliding down.

Yeah.

that's

that's

And I know the scene is like super heartfelt and cute

and adorable and heartwarming and talking about his dad and everything.

I'm just laughing because he just keeps sliding.

Yeah.

he's just got no

Well, you got to have a little physical comedy in the show.

Sometimes.

Dylan tells us the embargo.

You consider sleeping horizontal to be inviting death.

Yeah.

I mean, if you're someone who has sleep apnea and snores a lot, I

think that that might be true.

You think that's just a problem for all men Bari.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Maybe.

about the bone

Exactly.

all have sleep apnea.

It's either this or a species of.

Attached to C-PAP machines.

So we all just sit up a little bit.

That's fine.

Yeah.

I mean, culturally, that makes

It's nice to see that Dylan also has a subscription to the calm app.

And she can just put on the thunderstorm, whatever she wants.

That's how I've been sleeping

lately.

Yeah, it's just like, Hey Alexa, play rain sounds.

Yeah, I give myself a good two, two hours of rain.

Get you right to sleep.

I definitely am a big fan of white noise from my smart speaker.

That that is an every night thing.

I stayed with someone who had a railway in running through their backyard.

And it was going all the time.

And I started using white noise then, and I have never stopped since.

But okay.

Yeah.

So he finally gets some rest is the point.

Meanwhile, Marcus provokes Ivanova and do actually responding.

And as she does uh, she does just about everything.

. She's mad at absolutely everything right now, every single circumstance

in her life, it seems to be just outside of her control.

And it is very frustrating for her.

Once the pressure valve opens it, doesn't shut off until it's empty.

Yeah.

just kind of goes for a minute.

You know, at least she knows.

What's bugging her and she can admit it.

That's the first step.

That's the first step to dealing with it.

For sure.

You know, she's, she's confused about Marcus.

She's confused about probably how she feels about Marcus to be perfectly

honest for things that aren't said.

But confused about his place, you know?

She's a very rigid military minded person.

And Marcus exists outside of that structure.

And that's something that bothers

Yeah, he's a little bit rogue.

Roguish if you will.

I would, I would say so.

Yeah.

Meanwhile, the white star gates in at Jupiter.

Oh, we get the casual drop that shadow ships merge with their single pilot.

Which is going to be very important plot point.

Later in the series.

Yeah.

Huh.

And very important for this episode as well.

Yes.

Yep.

The shadow ship activates destroys its enclosure flies off the moon

and just starts blowing shit up.

And Dylan's all like, oh, the ship didn't merge, right?

It's confused.

And on a murderous rampage now,

because shadow ships are known for their restraint.

Something is very wrong with this one.

As far as we can tell.

So white star engages the shadow ship.

They managed to damage it and blow off one of those tendrils.

And then they fly into Jupiter's atmosphere and attempt to get it

caught in the planet's gravity.

Well, Trying to outsmart them since they can't outgun

Yeah.

They mentioned that, you know, even though we blew a tendril off, like

this thing is still very high power and we can not defeat it on our own.

So we wind up flying into the planet and the atmosphere.

Sheridan's asking about the specs on the car again.

During the test drive.

Remind me to never let share it and drive my lease.

Oh, for sure.

I can only imagine working at a dealership and this guy comes in.

So is this car rated to stop it from 75 to zero in 45 feet?

What I, no one would even.

I'm the highway.

Like.

Yup.

That's essentially what he's doing here, because we're, we're getting really close

to the gravity well, and pulling back out.

When the shadow ship cannot and the shadow ship basically falls

in and crumples into nothing.

Yup.

He's got a good strategy for testing the ship.

He did it last time too.

It's wait for the moment.

Linear stops freaking out because he's given up and accepted death.

That's when you that's, when you flip the switch.

This is the second time he's done it.

It's the second time he's defeated a shadow ship with it.

So

pretty clear indicator of what's line.

Yeah, this is Sheridan signature style here.

So as they're attempting to leave Jupiter and get out of that

atmosphere an old friend shows up in the form of the EA S ag.

Agamemnon.

NA Sheraton's old

Yeah.

So not only does he have to decide whether or not he's going to

fire on an earth Alliance ship.

It's his ship.

It's his baby.

on that

Yeah.

Every inch of that ship.

So Sheridan finds out that he can't do it.

He's not going to fire on the Agamemnon.

And the Len and him hatchet, crit, and other crazy plan to

this time, open a jump point.

And the atmosphere, which the Agamemnon would not be able to follow them through.

Because it's not going to be stable.

Yep.

Th they managed to make it happen and they escape thus doing more junk.

Bing antics with the white star.

Well, you, you put all that technology in there.

You gotta use it, man.

Yup.

Back on the station.

We get an ISN report of offense twisted for Clark with earth victorious.

But more security being needed for some reason.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There was this alien threat and we absolutely crushed it.

We're so good humans also, though.

We're really scared about this alien threat Sweden, a ton more security

to take care of it just don't

Yeah.

Yeah, this is really bad.

You guys, but we're great.

We're

great.

Your great.

You say.

Let's say here, right?

Yeah.

So at the same time, Zack is getting someone back to Mr.

Alex Jones.

Nightwatch.

Representative.

And I guess they've decided that Sheridan disappearing for a little bit.

It is a thing and they want Zach to help investigate.

Yeah, specifically, Garibaldi has to be complicit.

So you're going to investigate Garibaldi

Yeah.

the captain.

That's a big leap, but okay.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't think it's, he's always in those meetings and

that's true.

Code seminar.

So, yeah, we kind of have a reason, I guess, to, to think that.

Yeah.

And Zack's even like you would have brought me in on it months ago.

If I wasn't part of Nightwatch he's like, ah, so there is something going on.

It's like, yes, he's openly committing mutiny and.

He's the one who gave the Clark, the president Clark tapes.

Like if you were to whisked off everything that we're actually

going on, he's preparing for an international war with other alien

races against this superior alien races.

If I had to come out of hibernation.

Like, if you were just listed, all right, then he doesn't know any of it, but he

was just like, we'll blast it all out.

I feel like there's no way you could take him seriously.

Egos Zach, Allen's a nut.

That's the strategy you should take, right.

Just to start spewing everything and it looks insane.

And then they're like, oh, well, We'll leave this guy alone for awhile.

We'll get someone else to investigate Garibaldi.

Yeah.

Damn.

If only he knew war.

Yeah.

So Marcus shows up at Yvanova's quarters.

He did a school fair project.

he's got his little science fair poster.

It's very cute.

Trying to, trying to make an org chart.

Yep.

five.

heart of the station?

And here's me and here, my parents.

And here's where I put the the vinegar in the volcano.

And here's my hypothesis about B-plus you.

It equals us.

Yeah.

And so he's just trying to make her laugh.

Yeah.

And he succeeds.

Ms.

Chicago's as soon as she's laughing, he's all like, oh, well I don't

need this fucking site anymore.

Bye I'm out of the episode.

And then ISN broadcasts.

Earth is now under martial law per Clark.

And he's totally going to explain it in a closed session of the Senate tomorrow.

Mm.

. Not ominous at all.

Nope.

And seen.

Credits.

That's the episode.

All right, Laura.

how'd you feel about this one?

A scale of Babylon, one to five.

I mean, this is a fantastic episode.

Do not get me wrong.

I do feel like it is weakened a tad by the.

Garibaldi plot not being mentioned in the show anywhere before this.

You know, not plot, but Garibaldi history.

And the fact that Garibaldi also saw this thing on Syria plenum.

Yeah.

He saw maybe a shadow

Yeah.

. And he was with Sinclair and we had a whole season of him in Sinclair together.

Where that's never mentioned at all.

Yeah.

I mean, that's what happens when you write comics in between seasons two and

three, you don't have time to reference them until you're making season three

Right, right.

And it, for me, it was a little bit.

Uh, Weaker.

Cause I'm sitting there with my husband who has never watched the show before.

And he's going, what.

And then this happened.

Where does this cause, you know, he's not engaging in the.

Supplementary media, like, you know, we've read the book, he didn't read the book

and we don't have these comics either.

So.

Um,

Mean.

Y, I just read about it online

Right, Right, Right,

Um,

I should see, see if I can find him.

I probably can.

Anyways.

That's fair.

I had originally wrote this down.

Oh, you didn't put a number

Yeah.

I don't think I can give it a five because of that.

And also, I, you know, I kind of know what's coming and I know that

there's some really good stuff, then I'm looking forward to.

So I would give this a four.

I think this is.

Not the strongest it's going to be.

Even in this three episode arc.

But it is very good.

I agree.

I gave it a four and a half out of five.

And my reasoning is the half point off isn't even really anything to

do, particularly with this episode.

It's for me having to stop watching and not being able to watch the next two

so that we could record this episode.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like you want to go.

I want to watch the next two real bad.

So,

yeah, no.

I love this episode.

Yeah, no, I liked this episode too.

It just coming at it with a brand new person.

From.

You know, We've been watching this pretty steadily together.

Throughout the last year and whatever.

And there's this whole big thing that Garibaldi dumps on us that.

Really could have been mentioned earlier.

That's fair.

Yeah.

That was, that was a little jarring that took me out of it for

that first part of the episode.

But all the other stuff, you know, share it ans dilemmas.

Zach, Alan's set up.

Very good.

And it's, it's a very good place setter and I'm looking forward to the next two.

Same.

Which is season three, episode nine point of no return.

Sheridan clashes with Nightwatch when martial law is in.

imposed on Babylon five.

A profit reveals.

Alondo surprising future.

Hey, you know who that profit

is?

Oh, wait.

Listener, if you were unaware, the guest star of next

episode is one major Barrett.

Saifai royalty.

If you will.

Very excited for that.

I think, I remember really liking her portrayal and her character in the show.

Yes.

Uh, much more so than most of the star Trek characters

that were written for her.

That I have.

Some kind of umbrage with, for one reason or another.

Huh.

Most of them, most of those complaints being under

development to be absolutely clear.

Um, not, not any fault of the actress.

I think, I think she's, this is a one-off right.

We don't really see her again.

I think so.

I think it's a one off.

On TV.

But I think she's in.

Either mentioned her or she's in supplementary material.

She shows.

I think she shows up again, maybe in the comics.

And I got to imagine, I haven't read it, but probably the

centaury trilogy of books as

Yeah, when we get there, I think for if, if it's the one-off I remember.

It's a pretty rich character for one you see in one episode.

So.

Yeah.

Very excited.

I'm very excited too.

And I'm also very excited to say thank you to Jeremy Siegel for our

lovely theme music, you can find more Jeremy's work at Jeremy Siegel.

40 two.bandcamp.com.

And I'm excited to say thank you to angry duck time machine on

Instagram for our lovely podcast artwork.

And we'll go ahead and thank all of our listeners.

Thank you so much for tuning in.

We appreciate you all.

Go ahead and shoot us an email.

Who are you?

At gmail.com.

We'll read it in our next mailbag segment.

Also hop on our discord and you can just hang out with us there.

We're talking.

We've got a couple of the other league of not alive podcasts in there talking

sometimes it's a little bit, a lot of fun.

And I really enjoy the environment that the fan base has and I don't

participate a ton in it, but I read everything and I really

Same.

Yeah.

And an extra, thank you to every one of you who has left us a review somewhere.

We had some really nice reviews on iTunes that we looked at the other day.

And they made me cry a little.

Yeah, they're very nice.

Appreciate

we really appreciate you.

So thanks.

Well, we'll see you next week.

Internet

take care