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 are back and ready to take on Season 3! Is The White Star a great ship or the greatest ship? Find out in Babylon 5 Season 3 Episode 1, Matters of Honor.

Hello, and welcome to who are you?

A Babylon five watch cast hosted by two friends who have gotten to know

each other while rewatching a favorite show of the childhood Babylon five

And I'm Laura.

And normally I would ask you, who are you?

But it was just Halloween.

this will come out a couple of weeks after Halloween, but for us.

That was this last weekend slash tomorrow.

So I'm going to ask you instead.

Who were For Halloween.

Well, I don't know if I've mentioned this before.

Surely it came up last year a little bit, but I like to do stuff

the whole week before Halloween.

Right.

Last year, I got a little more creative and I had, you know, like a star Trek day.

And I had a pirate day and I had like a Harry Potter day with all previously

purchased Harry Potter items before J K Rowling went kind of weird on us.

But this year I was a little, just more like leaning into my Midwestern

newness and my mom newness.

You know, my, my rights as a Midwestern And I had like a skull

sweater that I wore one day.

And, you know, big, I had three or four sets of big ridiculous Halloween earrings.

For every one was one day with skulls.

One day was pumpkin's.

One day was black cats.

And of course, like my Fridays, always the spider day, I have ridiculously

large Blinky spider jewelry that I wear.

So that was my week before Halloween.

All

And then we're dressing up for Halloween tomorrow, even though

it's Monday, because as you know, a family was a small child, you

have to do trick or treat right.

And our trick or treat here is on Halloween.

I don't know if you guys.

Your neighborhood ever moves, trick or treat, but.

We definitely don't to tonight in my area, because it is devil's night.

Right.

I can talk about later, but.

Yeah, I've noticed that some places In this, in my particular state.

We'll move Halloween trick or treat if it is on Sunday.

They will move it to another

Yeah.

But.

We're doing trick or treat tomorrow.

And I'm just going to do basic witch thing this You know, just be very, very basic.

And I was putting more effort into like making sure our house was decorated.

And getting Halloween treats made for my child and we had a couple parties.

Starting two weeks ago that we were taking him to.

But we also have a friend that we've spent every Halloween with

for this last couple of years.

That their middle daughter.

Her birthday is Halloween.

So we always have her birthday party at our house.

And then our neighborhoods so big on trick or treat, we just hit the street right

after we're done celebrating her birthday.

So it's always a really good time.

But who were

you?

So I went to a Halloween party with my girlfriend yesterday.

And we wore our pike and una outfits from star Trek,

Oh, I've seen those.

Yes.

The weekend before.

We went to the theater.

Bizarre.

Which is a multilevel art installation thing.

That goes on every year in the city of Detroit.

Google it it's crazy fun.

It takes place at the Masonic temple on like eight different floors.

Wow.

The Masonic temple in Detroit is the largest Masonic temple.

I believe in the world.

If not the world, north America, for

Okay.

Wild.

It is a huge structure.

There's multiple theaters.

And stuff.

There's all kinds of stuff.

They w they were hosting a Judas priest concert at the

same Masonic temple the same

Wow.

I think it was Judas priests.

It might've been a band like that.

And I was like iron maiden or something.

Like there was a concert going on.

In The same building.

Yeah.

With several thousand people doing theater, bizarre in the same building

at the same time with no crossover.

That's how much space there is in this

place.

So I have a lot of friends who are performers.

My LARPing hobby.

There's a lot of overlap

Go

So like the guy who's like the devil at the gates, letting everyone in

and stuff is a buddy of mine, you know?

And.

Like we knew the conductor of the ghost train and all this stuff, and it was,

we had a grand old time uh, is good.

I ran into a bunch of friends.

There and we had, we hung out.

We did um, kind of like.

Jean punky for that.

The most people dress kind of like VOD villi for it.

Because it's got a very, like Dustbowl circus kind of vibe go into it.

If you've ever watched like carnival from HBO or

something that would be a thing that would get you in an appropriate mood.

Yeah.

So we, we did that for theater.

Bizarre.

We did.

Star Trek yesterday.

And then, I don't know tomorrow, if we just think we'll probably just wear.

Our lower decks uniforms or something.

Yeah.

So TBD on that.

I still got no idea what I.

My old neighborhood had a ton of trick or

Oh, and you don't know the new neighborhood that well yet?

Yeah.

I know that my house is very far apart and all the houses

on my street are very far apart.

With very long driveways.

And I got to imagine not a lot of people bother over here.

Yeah, that's possible.

But did you get candy just in case.

I need to go get some

Okay, but you will.

Um, I will, if I am planning on being home.

I might just assume that no, one's going to be around, turn off the

lights on the outside of the house.

And go to a friend's neighborhood.

And hang out with them while they hand out candy.

Yeah.

I am very big on the handing out candy.

I grew up in the country, down a dirt road.

That we were all.

Quite a good distance apart, you know, a few tenths of a mile apart the houses.

So nobody was walking.

Not even the kids who lived on the road.

Walked trick or treat there.

So since I moved to the city, And even.

When I was, had my first house in the city, it wasn't

a trick or treat neighborhood.

We moved to this neighborhood and it is a big deal over here.

So I buy.

Probably 10 bags of candy and I hand it all out because I'm just so into it.

Cause I never did it myself as a kid.

And I just want to.

I want other people have that.

So I'm excited about tomorrow.

Cool.

I am excited All right.

Well we have season three episode one.

Matters of honor.

We're ahead of us.

I have a thing I've been.

I've been low key hyping up this thing.

That I have a surprise for you at the start of season

three, when Marcus shows up.

Oh,

And now I can't

find it and I'm bummed out.

I, my old house was very close to Detroit metropolitan airport.

I think that's part of this.

Because there is a sub shop about a mile and a half it's Vinny's famous subs.

And they're like, they've got world headquarters.

Cause it's the one place.

Right.

Plastered all over the side of the building.

And inside of this place.

There were no less than five autographed, eight by tens.

Of the actor who plays Marcus and then a number of autographed

action figures as well.

Y.

It's his favorite sub shop apparently.

Ah, that's cute.

He, whenever he would come into Detroit for whatever he stops

in and leaves a new eight by 10.

There's a couple from like throughout his career and stuff.

And they're just all over the place at this restaurant.

And I just checked and I haven't.

It looks like the remodeled and they didn't put it back up.

No.

Um, But I've been saving that for like two years.

That, that, that is at this place.

I'm going to go there.

I'm just going to drive down there

soon

And

check it

it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If they still got them somewhere, then I'll come see it.

Right.

Yeah.

Well, that'd be the thing too.

Is if you ever came into town, it's like it's right next to the

airport.

It's just, it's literally just north of the airport listener.

So check out Vinny's the subject.

Good too.

Like, you know, I mean, it's.

It's a Jersey style sub in Detroit.

So know what you're getting.

But.

You know, It's a fun little stop listener.

The one regret I have about all that time.

I lived in new Orleans.

Apparently the actor, lived in new Orleans and how come I never

ran into him at whole foods.

Gosh, dang it.

I knew people who ran into Nicholas cage at whole foods.

I'd rather run into Jason Carter.

Well, we've got a season three.

It's a, oh shit.

It's Marcus.

Is my, my subtitle for the episode.

But we don't start with that.

We start with the station getting repaired from the season finale.

Yeah, this is where we're showing off that.

Hey, we got to upgrade the CGI again.

Because this looks better, it looks sharper.

I'm seeing some detail.

I like it.

And it reminds us what happened to Sheridan in the end of season

Yes.

Yeah, Sheridan.

Thanks Kosh for saving him.

He asked why he would throw away the secrecy and he gets kind of a

non-answer and then a non-answer follow-up and cautious as being

antagonistic at this point.

He's like these answers are confusing.

He's like

I mean, I guess I get it as a parent.

Sometimes you just feel that way.

He's essentially a humanities parent, right?

Yeah.

That meme that's making the circles right now is I never understood.

That scene where Luke SEO to so many questions, he just

dies until I was a parent.

Yup.

Uh, Huh.

After this, we cut to a space battle with a who

we will soon learn is Marcus.

I know, drowsy.

Yeah.

Escaping a Suntory occupied world.

Yeah, we were wondering at first what these little.

Did we couldn't tell what their ships were that they, they turns

out they're like Centauri, drones.

Yeah, they looked centaur.

Like I knew they were, centaury looking at them just because they've got that

same kind of like pinkish purple-ish with

Sure.

Sure.

And they're

definitely not shadow, like they're too mechanical to be shadow.

But yeah, they, they run this blockade basically.

And I, the drowsy is killed in the process, but Marcus makes it out

and sets his course to Babylon five.

And we get that bomb.

Season three, opening y'all.

I

need you I need you to do something for me.

I need you to pick your favorite.

Face shot out of here, because if you just stare at their faces,

That turn, they all make that.

They're all doing blue steel from Zoolander.

Yeah.

Yeah, I love it.

I think Jakarta is, might be my favorite.

No.

Veers is quite quite funny.

Veers is good.

Yeah,

it's funny.

I was reading my normal used net posts and stuff, and someone asked

JMS it's all like, is there any significance to everyone's heads

turning in the opening theme?

And he's all like, even I'm not that up to.

Good stuff.

This theme is a straight shot of nostalgia right into my veins.

We come back from theme.

To find a very, very sweaty Marcus who will arrive on

Babylon five and seven hours.

He turns off his life support to get a further boost to the

engines to make sure he makes it.

And then we go to space TSA where we get some Yvanova's trademark optimism.

Before we meet David and Dowie.

Who's played by Tucker Smallwood.

He's a real bad guy.

Oh, Izzy.

Do you tell.

He has.

Oh, like 150 credits on I MDB he's been in all kinds of stuff.

I personally know him recognized him from 1990 fives, other scifi show

that I loved space above and beyond.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

That ran for one season on Fox.

I think.

It had a lot more in common with Starship troopers, the book, not the movie.

Well, I guess both, but it's not satire.

Like the movie was the book was also not if you haven't read it

All right.

Well and Roe is from earth force intelligence.

He requests a private audience with the captain commander and dull Glen to

start.

an interesting choice, huh?

It is.

Yeah.

And it makes sense when we get

Yes, but when you're first hearing year,

Yeah.

And tell an intelligence briefing with the Len.

Right, right.

Uh, Marcus arrives on And we get the new MetaLab set.

Yeah, med lab one.

One of many new sets this season.

of many new sets.

I don't know that it impacted me very much more than the previous set, honestly.

I think a lot of the stuff we see in here is going

to matter in later episodes.

Okay.

I know that there's One of the new areas that they added is the like Morgue,

I guess there's like a cryo stasis.

Area that I think is used mostly as a morgue.

Initially at least that is a very important plot point.

Yeah.

The only thing I noticed about it was like, and I was like, oh,

it seems a little darker, but you know, We're still moving in.

Maybe that's just a.

Calibration thing.

up.

Yeah, they got to figure out how to light all this stuff and everything

that was actually in the a series guide.

They had some stuff with the director.

And that was mostly just the director complaining about getting

a ton of new sets for the first time and having to figure out

where you can actually put cameras

Yes.

Not this episode, but the next one, I noticed some weird camera But, you know,

Franklin, when, when they're bringing Or unconscious man, which we know is Marcus.

Franklin.

It looks at his clothes and he sees that ranger pen.

Do they know at this point that that's the ranger pin or are They just know

of the Rangers, but they don't know what they, their clothing looks like.

I can't remember.

I think just about everyone would know what the ranger pin is.

The only exception might be

Yeah, as he points out, he is sometimes the last to know stuff.

Yeah.

So if he didn't at this point, he does, by the end of

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anyways Marcus just gets up and vanishes.

Yeah.

Franklin turns his back for one second.

On an unconscious person.

And then we uh, cut over to Morton and Londo talking.

Yeah, it's breakup time.

It's breakup That's exactly what I wrote.

Here's how, you know, Morton is, there's something wrong with him.

There's a tray with candy corn out in front of them.

And Morton is eating it during their conversation.

So you are in the auntie candy corn camp.

I take

Oh, actually, I do a chunky candy corn.

just disgusting.

candy, corn and peanuts.

Have you ever done that?

No.

But my roommate has and made a whole big thing of it this year for

Halloween.

I.

Has to have a bowl of candy, corn and peanuts out in the house.

Otherwise it's not Halloween.

had never done that until a couple of years ago.

My coworkers, one of them had a big jar and I was like, you, I hate candy corn.

And she was like, no, try candy, corn and peanuts.

And I did.

And I was like, oh my God, this is good.

And now I get candy corn and peanuts.

Every Halloween.

It's that salty and sweet.

With a crunch.

Yep.

It's almost

like a

good thin crust pizza with pineapple on

Ah, so you're okay with pineapple on pizza.

Oh, oh, pineapple on pizza is one of the superior topping choices.

I am more than okay.

With pineapple on pizza.

Pineapple and jalapeno on pizza bomb.

Pineapple black olive balm, pineapple pepperoni, onion bomb.

All of

This is probably our most controversial take on

this podcast, but I also

I very much doubt that I've said some political things

that I'm sure if it said a lot of

I don't know, people feel really, really struggling about this pineapple

That's

fair.

And the people who disagree with me politically, probably aren't

listening to this podcast at

Right.

They've let it go.

But now we're going to alienated another I wonder how Morden feels about

pineapple on pizza, but we'll never know.

Because Londo is breaking it off at this point.

B R a K E breakup.

He more Alondo in his breakup attempt here does agree to one more conversation.

And I got to say, not ideal Londo.

You

do that.

Yeah.

never want to do that now.

It's so, so odd to we, we can tell as the audience, because we hear that.

Little interference kind of sound.

That the shadows have said something to Morton and that's why more than asks

for his You know, one more conversation.

Yeah,

but.

You should never agree to that laundry.

Nope.

It's always a bad idea.

At this point, it doesn't matter though.

Like Morton has got.

Too much.

Of an in anticipatory life.

As we're

going to find out.

Over in a private room, the intelligence briefing begins

and it's about the shadow ship.

Yeah, it's about that last video we got at the very end of the.

Season two I've worn kefir ship.

Watching the shadow ship before it gets destroyed.

There's a little slight grilling.

It's all like, Hey, did you authorize these missions?

Like he just sent this buoy out.

Like, are we mad at you?

Cause I feel like we're mad at you.

And Sharon is all like, no, we.

He, we, he, we told him to stop.

It cost You know, that's why you don't disobey

That's all true.

All very conveniently true.

Dylan and Sheraton deny any knowledge of knowing what the ship is.

Yeah.

Colin's denial is very carefully worded.

Did you catch

that?

is.

She's never seen one of these before.

She knows what it is.

But she's never

Yeah.

Never seen one before I didn't lie.

I'm Barry don't lie.

Except next episode.

Um, But uh, as soon as, until he leaves.

Uh, With They just confirm what we have an audience.

I have already known this is a shadow ship, their bad news.

This is bad news bears town.

If we're not happy.

Yeah.

After this linear finds DLN and brings her to Marcus.

Yes, Marcus is hanging out in.

The shady bar, perhaps the one that Garibaldi was drinking at sometime.

And.

Same set for sure.

Yeah.

And not the TKO bar, but a different one.

The, the one that he was about to relapse in, I think, or did.

relapse

he did.

Yeah.

Yeah.

As the episode with a D yeah.

His not daughter.

Yes.

Before all that though, and Dowie finds Londo.

And talks to him and Londo tells him about his vision from season two, with

all the shadow ships flying overhead.

Yeah, this must've been very confusing for endowing.

Do you think he knows that Centauri have prophetic dreams?

I feel like if you are a high ranking, Earth force intelligence

agent who is sent to Babylon five.

And you don't know something about the Centauri having prophetic dreams,

like you're, if you're you are being sent to interview ambassadors to

collect information about a indu.

Galaxy wide superpower and you don't know.

A little bit about everyone that you're going to be talking to.

You have failed.

Yeah.

So hopefully he does.

Yeah, but that still doesn't help him much that he tells him about the future.

It doesn't tell him about the present.

Yeah.

And even Linda is like, I don't know what they are.

Cause that's a plot point later.

Yeah.

He doesn't know what they are, but he's definitely seen this in a dream.

So anyways, down in that bar we meet the radiant ball of energy.

Known as Marcus.

Who's just hold dead heart and no miracles.

Bet.

It was really just drives home.

How sad he is, I guess.

Is that what they're going for?

The tragic backstory.

Moody.

Yeah.

I feel like we attempted that handsome young pilot

character last season, right?

With.

With kefir.

And we decided to, to trade up a little bit for the more

moody, handsome, long haired.

Gentlemen.

So when this episode was filmed, the decision hadn't been finalized.

That Marcus was going to be a series regular.

Now, obviously by the time they put the theme in, it had

been, but they don't usually do the theme until four or five episodes in.

That's why most of the clips usually come from.

That set of episodes.

And so there's actually a line at the end as well about whatever ranger is

on the station will be on the council.

So they might've not had long-term plans at this point.

They just kind of wanted to establish him as a ranger.

And then he hit it off so well with the cast and they came

up with good ideas for him.

So he just became the

Yeah.

But it's pretty clear that they didn't know what

they were doing with him quite

yet.

JMS was not a hundred percent sure what his role was going to be

when he wrote this stuff compared to even later in the episode.

Yeah.

When we get his actual tragic backstory.

So are they, they talk him for a minute in the bar.

And then they decide they need to go leave.

And so we get to establish also move.

He had some tragic backstory.

Now we're going to establish his fighting credentials.

Yes.

Which are quickly set, has he opens up a can of whoop

I mean, he could've just like linear handle it.

We've seen linear do his spin kicks.

Yeah, well, linear gets in there too.

And even Dylan, like he pulls out his staff beats the crap out of someone

with it and then tosses it to Dylan.

Yeah.

Because he doesn't need

She's going to defend herself with this awkward weapon

that is not sized for her.

That.

We don't know if she's ever used before, but sure.

So yeah, they mopped the floor with everybody.

That's trying to Rob

Yeah.

It is an embarrassment for these thugs.

Indeed indeed.

There were lots of really bad guy haircuts in that bar.

And then in this fight scene.

Like the nineties had a way.

Of signaling who's the bad guy.

And it's with hair.

Are they kind of Is there a ponytail?

What about a mullet?

How.

Oh, mullets for

How greasy is

Oh, the greasiest,

like, remember Marcus earlier in the episode, Greece here.

We get a bit.

Uh, Where Sheridan goes to bring Ivanova up to speed on stuff.

And she just recounts everything to him that he was about to tell So good.

It's like when something happens on this station and I don't know

about That's when you worry.

It serves two functions and then it makes Ivanova.

reminds us of what a badass she is, and also reminds us

about what happened in season

Yeah, she's not here for Sheridan's captain splaining.

So we get all of them, we have delin linear Marcus, Garibaldi,

Sheridan, and Ivanova in this room.

And Marcus explains what the whole deal is.

Where he was coming from.

Yep.

It's a drowsy world that the centaury recently took and aren't letting

the Rangers off of its blockaded.

Right.

And they want to get all the Rangers.

Off this fucking planet before bad news comes for them.

Yeah, This entire, you're not letting anyone out.

I think it's really interesting.

Y.

As we see later in Morden's request.

This, this may, this planet may have been targeted.

In the first place.

Exactly.

But uh, Sheridan's not going to have any of that.

He looks to Deland and crew and says, we're going to be chipping Dale.

I was wondering where you were going in the first half.

And then I was totally there.

It's

sold in the second.

Yeah.

Rescue those Rangers.

Very

good.

Morden meets up with Londo to continue their breakup conversation.

He shows Londo a map of the city and he's like, look, you can door dash

from over here, but I don't want to see you at any of these restaurants.

It's the terms of our breakup.

This stuff is mine.

You can hang out over here in this quarter of the city and be okay if you stay there.

Sure.

Sure.

All of the standard breakup stuff.

Yeah.

And.

Morton kind of makes it clear that.

By the way.

I am still talking to your friends.

Yeah.

He's like.

Oh, there's this planet over here by the way that is in your area,

but I'm also taking it because they've got the best Thai food.

So you just have to deal with that, but you don't have to

worry about giving it to me.

I already had a REFA take it.

And Lambdas, like REFA what madness is this?

We always get there.

Yep.

Uh, Yeah, Morton's been.

Colin Mondo's buddies behind his back.

Well, I mean, him and Alondo were done.

So, know,

I mean.

Player's gonna play, I guess I really can't sell that with conviction.

You tried.

know,

Yeah.

Wando also, you know, he he's a little, you know, you can

tell he's horrified that.

Morden has made this contact with reefa.

And that this won't be the end of it.

He was hoping that by cutting off Mr.

Morton.

He was going to save the Centauri people from being further involved with these

shadows that he knows very little about.

But.

That ship's seems to have sailed.

And he asks if he can see one of their ships.

I'm just like, dude, I'm just curious, like, Like

there's nothing going on, right?

Like your ships are normal I think if they weren't normal shuts, you Yeah, I think

you tell me, you're telling me that now.

I just want to see, which is just the skin.

This is the thing, you know,

Hm.

Hm.

need to drink water after I do

Go for it.

And of course, Morden, it's not going to just let him do this Or,

you know, let him see these ships.

He's he deflects and Says, you know, stay away from Segra seven and a.

I'll be seeing ya.

Oh, yeah.

And don't, don't go there because we're going to totally

just wreck that fucking planet.

Like.

You are not going to want to see it when we're and then we cut to some

sweeping shots of spaceship porn.

Yay.

The white star.

It's so pretty.

And it is pretty,

it's very, you know, it it's sort of men Bari, but not really because we've

seen them in Bari, like big warships and they they're very angel fish.

Right.

They look like big space angel fish.

Um,

jellyfish.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then the white star.

If I had to.

Put a fish on it, which you can't really, it's more like a rubber chicken almost.

If you think about it.

It would be like a beta fish with its fins.

Not all the way puffed out, you know, he's got his fins back.

Yeah, it's kind of like a bird almost.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Honestly, like if you were to paint it green, it looked like

a Romulan ship from star Trek.

I could, yeah.

I mean, it is kind of, it's got some green undertones

to it, but it's mostly

Yeah, it's mostly blue and purple.

The show loves blue and purple, which is fine.

It's a very Spacey palette, so they've, they've flown off to

rendezvous with this mystery ship.

That Intentionally.

Designed not to look like any one races sort of ship.

Right.

Yes.

Yes, that's an important plot point for later.

They give us some lip service on it that the ship is technologically distinct.

Even like, if you were to like, look at the engines and stuff, like it.

The way the entire ship operates is different.

Than any other species active military vessels.

It is supposed to be very hard to identify by just watching its operation.

the area around it, et

We're trying to confuse the shadows.

If the shadows were to take the ship, we don't want them

to know who it belonged to.

And when they see the ship, we don't want them to know who belong

to, and we call it the white star.

Man.

Well, I love the ship, right?

That's not what this is about.

This regret that I have in my voice This is where Breton my

voice is because Elon Musk.

And not because of Twitter.

I was

Um, which

to regret with Elon Musk.

Why don't you elaborate?

When he.

So Tesla motors existed before Elon Musk

Sure.

And their original models of cars were all color star.

Before he took it and made it the model S or whatever, all that stuff.

Right.

So originally there was going to be a $30,000 model called the white

And I absolutely would've bought it.

I had, I was pre-ordered like I had gotten on a wait list,

like in my twenties for this car.

Um, Before they were taking money in doing, they completely changed the system.

They scrapped everything like.

It was just like, I was ignored completely, but I was very

excited for the white star.

I totally wanted one of those cars.

Just for the name also like they were doing cool electric car stuff.

Before anyone.

So I'm all like, Aw, this is sweet.

But.

I'm so disappointed.

I never got my white star.

Let's hope that, you know, somebody somewhere at Tesla someday

decides to bring these back.

It's like the retro I think that'd

Well, this is a going on Garibaldi sets and Dowie up with Chacar.

For a unofficial talk about the

ship.

unofficial.

Yeah.

And Dzhokhar shows in diary passages of the book of Shaquan that deal

with the shadow ships and notes that this is, you know, their history.

This is from a thousand years ago when they arrived on the non non home

world and set up shop on the set.

One of the Southern continents.

Yeah, so.

This was interesting for me considering the context of the

book we just read for book club.

You know, When we talked about That.

The reveal that Ones are the ones who came to earth and set

the telepathic gene and motion.

If the shadows were on the NARKN home world were loans

were going there to set up.

Telepaths.

the shadows are already there.

And so we've, we've already had that lore.

Way back in, you know, the first episode.

That Narins don't have telepaths they want telepaths but they don't have telepaths

and it's like, oh, it's because of this right here in the book of Jiuquan.

But they don't even know

Yeah.

They have no idea.

That because the shadows were here, the war lawns didn't come and set that.

Evolution in

motion.

shop.

you know, he shows these things too and dally, and we can

tell obviously from the picture.

That this is a shadow ship.

Oh, it's very clearly.

Yeah.

And always skeptical because he says, well, why would they

just go away for a thousand years?

But Jakarta is very, you know, To everything there is a season.

And

Turn turn, turn.

Thank you.

I'm glad you get it.

And, you know, maybe, maybe this is their season.

Maybe this is their time now, which is, Not a great answer.

And of course in Dow, he is looking for hard facts.

He's not looking for people's dreams and people's old books.

But he should be.

We cut over to the white star ship and we get some stuff about Marcus.

Joining the Rangers because of his brother who is also a ranger and his dad.

this whole

backstory is.

story

stuff.

of feeble for me.

There's not a lot.

It's like, oh, well, my brother was a ranger.

He was a ranger for six months, completed a straining, came toward me of attack

and then died in aforementioned attack.

When I ignored him about the attack.

I'm just like.

So why didn't you die in the, like, there's so many things wrong with this?

Like the timing.

He was a ranger for six months and that made him privy to.

Like he's still in training.

They trained for forever.

That's one of the reasons why they need.

You know, all these training camps spread throughout the galaxy and.

And we even see ranger training later, and it is longer than six months.

And we've been specifically told that like the shadows are

laying low and they're just.

There just happened to be an

attack.

colony.

Yeah.

just, I wouldn't feel on it.

It wasn't working for me.

It does not vibe.

But the white star arrives and makes quick work of the Centauri blockade, drones.

They take out a handful of them real quick.

Uh, When we see a shadow ship.

And then uh, Yeah.

They've kind of fight the shadow ship a little, they outmaneuver it.

They realize that the shadow ship is trying to disable them and

not kill them to identify it.

which Hmm.

Good call on the weird ship guys.

Yeah.

And they take off into hyperspace to try it out, run

Yup.

figure out a plan because they know they won't outrun it ultimately.

Yeah.

And they can't outfight it.

There's only one thing I don't like about the white star.

Jeff

here.

And it is that the consoles.

All look like they're wrapped in intestine.

On the top, like it's a weird choice.

It looked like chunks of leftover for Lennon counter suits.

To

Oh, yeah, maybe that's it.

Aaron was like, well, maybe it's going for like a Mim Bari head bone kind of thing.

And I'm just like, nah, man, it just looks

like intestines, like a long intestine.

Yeah.

Or the, what is it?

The large intestine.

That's it?

Sorry.

Yeah, they look weird.

Not a big fan,

And I don't know that it, that sticks around either.

I don't remember

those.

So I don't know if it's something that they changed real quick or

Stay tuned for white star.

Watch.

watch.

Yeah.

So they're trying to outrun this in hyperspace.

They've gotten the other ships away.

The colonies ships.

And.

people are bemoaning that this is impossible to destroy a shadow ship.

And of course, Sheridan reminds us to never tell him that it's impossible.

Yeah, I never tell Sheridan the odds.

Yeah.

And he's like, what if we opened the jump gate inside of just like

we inside of a hyperspace jump gate.

They specifically didn't use their ability.

To open a jump gate as a small ship, because they didn't want the shadows

to know they use the regular jump Now what if we use this special

technology to open a gym gate?

Inside a regular jump gate.

Yeah, this made a lot of people angry and was

widely regarded as a bad move.

No.

They talk about how they tried to doing this as a tactic during

the uh, like they tested it as a tactic during the earth MBARI war.

And it was so destructive to everything in the area that they called it.

The bonehead maneuver.

Because you'd have to not have a brain to try it.

avant have a realizes what she said and immediately apologizes

for her blatant racism.

It's not usually a lot of it.

The footballs, these it's usually a Garibaldi thing.

For sure.

I guess

I mean, it it is something that is like a cultural word for us.

Independent of encounter.

I mean, I'm sure the military took it and made it a slur as

we've seen happen with countless other normal words in our lexicon.

When we're in a war with someone.

But it does exist independent of that.

And I don't think that was the goal.

But you know, gives an apology to linear in layers.

I'll like linear.

It's just like, well, of course I wouldn't take offense to this.

I have no cultural background understanding, you know, why that would be

Well, if anybody has done that Wiki search, it's probably linear.

He's read all of the Wiki.

But.

They decide, they're going to go ahead and give this a shot and they go

Yep.

to sector 45, shout out to the dead bar cabs.

Yep.

Sheridan notes that this will stop all of the people who are grave

robbing the Marc Hab home world

as it is now deserted.

While saving everybody's the life.

He's also feeling righteous about something.

So.

Yeah.

The shadow ship they, they pull out this maneuver.

They leave the jump gate.

The shadow ship follows right behind.

They open a jump gate inside the jump gate.

Yeah.

And the shadow ship gets kind of pulled And then we get to star Trek

classics as the white star escapes.

Uh, Huh.

We get everyone throwing themselves around the bridge

while the camera shakes.

And we get random CGI slash drawn on blue lightning on the consoles.

God, this was, this was not the most flattering moment of this episode

for, you know, the technical team.

They were lucky.

It was

only a few seconds.

I loved it.

Oh classic, like callback to everything.

Right.

Yeah.

I could see Wharf getting electrocuted as it all went down.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They get back to and endow.

He is waiting for them like so what the fuck were you guys up

Yeah.

He noticed that he was being escorted around by only Garibaldi.

And Garibaldi gave him some run around on it.

But, and dally tries to call them out.

They cover with, they were helping them in Bari with a very sensitive.

Embarrassing sort of mission.

Yeah, we just wanted to save our friends from embarrassment.

And he's just like, Hmm.

Okay.

It's not noticing to land and linear, literally walking in right behind them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

After this, we cut to earth tome.

Yeah.

And a centers talking to in Dowie about his report.

And then went into how he leaves Morton and a psych cop walk

And they're just fucking scheming.

Ah, this is so sinister, you know, and

dally tells her.

And Dowie tells her that You know, he heard rumors.

But no one has seen this thing.

No one knows exactly what it is.

And of course.

Morden.

When he is revealed is, is pleased with that.

It's really sinister to see more than, than the psych cops talking, because we

know from reading this book, In book club.

That.

Ah, the telepaths we're supposed to be at weapon against the shadows.

If.

Mr.

Morton is parlaying with what was supposed to be a great weapon.

That seems bad.

It does.

And honestly, it makes me wonder, like what gets passed on to Bester in book two.

Does . Bester know that.

Does he get told that story from, from grand Pappy?

I mean, I can't wait to find out.

I need to know.

Because then that's gonna make us wonder about some of

Besters motivations throughout.

The series.

But yeah, the.

the.

psych ops want to use this image of this set shadow ship.

To kind of foment some of that.

Anti alien sentiment back home

Yeah.

Ooh, there's something out there.

It's gonna come for us.

Join.

Nightwatch.

Yeah.

Basically.

And.

Mr.

Morton is not.

Uh, The post.

He just wants to know what the ideas are.

And of course we cut away before we find out, but um, Back on Babylon five.

We get the creation of the war council.

Yup.

We get some notes at senior staff arranger DLN and hopefully some other soon.

And they lay everything out.

Like everyone gets on the same page.

Finally.

Yeah, poor Franklin.

And uh, We cut away is Dylan is.

Telling the great story.

Yup.

And that is the episode.

What'd you think of this one?

On a scale of Babylon, one to five.

I guess for me, this one is a three.

I feel weird about saying that for a season opener, but it's,

for me, it's very average.

We get.

Great stuff like the white star.

Love it.

Love the white star.

Gunna use it a lot.

The stuff at the very end in earth, dome, very intriguing.

I want to know more about all of the back room things that are happening and.

You know, after reading dark Genesis.

We saw a lot of dark dealings among senators in there, or, you know, very

backroom dealings, very not above board.

Things.

And I want some more of that from the show.

That would be it's just hard to do that when our main

characters are all on Babylon.

Five right.

Yeah.

But, you know, then there's is the stuff for me that was like,

Marcus, his backstory was near.

Yeah.

It just for me was kind of an average opener, you know,

maybe it's coming down off the big season, inter I don't know.

But for me, it wasn't.

Fantastic.

I really liked this episode.

Yeah.

If anything, I think this episode provides.

The kind of thesis statement on how.

The galaxy has hope.

Um, because we see One technology Bari skill.

And human tactics in engine unity.

Come together to solve an impossible problem.

Yeah.

Okay.

And that is the only chance they have.

Then they know this, they know that they are completely outmatched in every regard.

Yeah, for sure.

That they are.

Doomed to fail in the coming conflict.

Like, eh, it is terrible.

And if they do win, it is going to cost more than they can imagine.

Yeah.

And that's

the Genesis of the Rangers too.

Isn't

So it's showing that these cultures that are so different.

When these differences are set aside, And working cooperatively.

Can do amazing things.

They can do the impossible.

And it gives everyone hope for the future.

Yeah.

So that's why I'm giving it a babble on four out of

Okay.

All right.

Well, what do we have coming up for next time?

We have season three, episode two convictions.

The series of bombings on Babylon five triggers and extensive investigation

involving some new residents.

Interesting.

Yeah.

I don't remember some of that in the episode.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's sometimes it's weird to see once, you know, we read these.

Descriptions to our listeners.

And then we go watch the the things that were chosen to

highlight in the discretion.

Maybe not necessarily the most important parts, but.

Oh, well,

Yeah.

I mean, there is an extensive investigation.

And it does involve some new residents.

But the implication there is that the new residents are being investigated.

When the reality is, is they are doing the investigating.

So it's kind of a weird wording choice, but it's a good episode, nevertheless.

I'm looking forward

it's, it's heavy.

Well, I think that we're to the point in the show where a majority of

our episodes are going to be heavy.

Yeah.

We're going to get some light things.

I think because the show always has light moments at least, but there's

a lot of heavy content coming up.

Season three, very, very heavy.

All right.

Well, I'm looking forward to it and.

Me too.

I really appreciate all of our listeners being here today.

You're all fantastic.

We love talking to you and hearing from you in the community.

Um,

For joining us after our little break.

Yeah, thanks for coming It's good to have you.

Uh, I'd like to thank Jeremy Siegel for our lovely theme music.

You can find more of his work at Jeremy Siegel.

40 two.band camp.com.

And thank you very much to angry duck time machine

on Instagram for our podcast

And go ahead and hit us up on social media.

Has of today, we still have a Twitter, but I don't know that

Twitter's going to exist in 48 hours.

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So shoot us an email.

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There.

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Have a great one internet.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.