Jumpgate #67 - Z'ha'dum
Added 2023-06-28 18:56:42 +0000 UTCSorry this one is up a bit late; I've been moving this week to a new apartment/city and it's been hectic. My whole body is sore and I still have a ton of boxes to unpack! But regardless, it's time for the season 3 finale of Babylon 5 on the Jumpgate podcast as Sheridan meets his dead wife, and then heads to the planet of Eldritch horror demon monsters... as one does!
Comments
This episode's description on Spotify says "(...) Sinclair prepares to meet his fate (...)"
Markus
2023-07-19 10:41:20 +0000 UTC(Ah, the famous Little House On Zha Ha Dum. :) )
OliveD
2023-07-08 22:58:25 +0000 UTCYep! I love season 4--like Jessie it's my favorite season!--but boy howdy does it move fast & it definitely led to shortcuts.
Conrad
2023-07-01 00:58:55 +0000 UTCDredging my memory for fun facts about the state of Babylon-5 at the end of season 3. JMS and Netter thought the show was over. For several days, they sat in their offices, nobody else there, and thought "it's over" and "we're only getting 3 seasons." When they got the call they were getting a season 4, they were shocked, but it came with the caveat that there was absolutely no way there would be a season 5. JMS said on usenet that he had to figure out how to cram two seasons worth of show (4 & 5) into a single season 4. This is why season 4 flies like there's no tomorrow. It's why a lot of shortcuts were taken like the Vorlon heal-turn happening so fast.
Keith D. Jones
2023-06-29 04:46:37 +0000 UTCHuh, I had never thought of Justin's little speech about his "group" as being specifically fascist. I always thought "oh, he's super rich", which I guess now would be called "the 1%". He's with the crowd who are sooooo rich they control governments. They set country borders. They decide the workday and set hemlines, and I forget the other stuff blah blah blah. I suppose the super rich controllers of the means of production do tend to like the status quo and tend to find fascist/more top-down dictatorial forms of government to be useful. They also tend to like it when the working classes and other groups are too busy fighting amongst themselves to be an actual problem, so the Shadow's very stupid ideology would sound just great to them. Also people in a constant state of warfare and strife tend to buy a lot of expensive guns to kill people, medicine to heal the not dead yet, and then there's all that expensive pesky rebuilding. So sure sounds very win-win to Justin's captains-of-industry crowd.
Keith D. Jones
2023-06-29 04:39:52 +0000 UTCHaha well damn
Jessie Earl
2023-06-29 03:22:57 +0000 UTCSo your & Vera's discussion of the Vorlon's & Shadow's ideologies & the idea of forced dichotomy was nice & very much what I believe. That said, I think the show's thematic exploration isn't quite matched by the narrative conclusion in season 4. I'm not really convinced that the show demonstrated that the VORLONS were systematically oppressive & authoritarian enough to justify what the narrative does with them. Kosh did some shady things, but we don't have a huge amount of evidence about the Vorlons behaving the way the thematic point needs them to behave (other than the borderline jump the shark of having them destroy whole worlds in season 4). I actually liked the parallel of Vorlons/Democrats to Shadows/Republicans you made which is the most the narrative can allow in seasons 1-3. The Shadows are so unbelievably monstrous & the Vorlons (until season 4) really aren't. To reiterate, I love the thematic conclusion of the Shadow War in season 4. I just wish that the narrative was as strong as the themes (but my criticisms are doubtless due to the fact JMS didn't think he'd get a season 5 & so felt had to wrap everything up in season 4).
Conrad
2023-06-29 03:03:49 +0000 UTCSo, I just wanted to respond to your statements regarding Trans in the Spider-Man comics. In the Ultimate Universe, Jessica Drew is a clone of Peter Parker and in All-New Ultimates, they expressly states that despite having a female body, in their mind they are is a boy and is attracted girls (redheads especially) and their teammates all accept this pretty easily. Now, obviously no one in the real world feels like they’re in the wrong body because of cloning, but… that’s a little beyond metaphor haha
S G Matthews
2023-06-28 19:32:33 +0000 UTC
