@avclub-e1d7db5192d711c8acecbd4bfa9a662a:disqus That's it exactly— Justin, I think, needed to be like Holland Manners on Angel.  But the flaw is mostly in the performance.  Justin needed to be utterly calm, nothing could phase him.  Instead he comes off as someone who is literally one tiny thing away from a complete…

@avclub-774c4a3e756c4d8f28b15a27ed4408c7:disqus In one of the Centauri books, Peter David has Londo spell out his prophecy.  And… it makes this one look subtle and nuanced in comparison.

Yeah, that's definitely the big problem with Justin: he serves no purpose that Morden couldn't have fulfilled.  And the actor was just horrible.  There could have been something interesting in the idea that Justin was the actual "middleman" between the Shadows and EarthGov, that he was the legacy of the Cigarette…

I have to admit, there's something to be said for Evil Melissa Gilbert. 

I definitely think he's more mellow.  I mean, he still would get worked up when trauma patients are coming in, but it's more, "All right, we've got work to do." and less, "MOVE ASIDE, FOOLS, THE LIFESAVER IS PERFORMING HIS MIRACLES!" 

The dream-interpretation stuff is just PAINFUL.  It's slightly tolerable only because it's not a dream, but literally a message from Kosh presented in cryptic fashion, but even still.

Like I said last week, I think this episode locks down the idea that what Stephen claimed the "Walkabout" was all about was mostly new-agey crap… running away from the problem instead of dealing with it.

There's also the season 4 episode where it's all the Ladies of Moya (at the time) having their own adventure (the men were all off at a man-spa in the previous episode).  I think the only male character of note in that episode is Braca.

I got you beat.

@avclub-fd172dda9796767557675385e915cab4:disqus Their point had validity, except A. they were yelling at people who didn't have a hand in creating them and B. they, personally, weren't the ones used.  Which is part of the point @avclub-04d524031f29c89d78cae864bd6f0de7:disqus makes.  If Lyta herself was more at the…

Off of that, this just occurred to me: Shows like BSG, Firefly and Farscape wore their "Not-Trek" on their sleeve pretty much from the get-go, but Babylon 5, even when being "Not-Trek", still set itself up with a lot of Trek conventions.  I wonder if this is in part to create that sense of stability so its all the…

Much of the Telepath Plot of Season 5 was problematic because the Telepaths are pretty much just freeloading jerks.  They have demands, but no real reason to expect their demands to be acceded to.  It's like Byron's whole character is, "How much of a jerk can I be?"

Actually, at the time, I would argue that TV (or, at least, TV Studio execs) wasn't ready for true serialization.  The underlying presumption was that every episode might be someone's first episode.  That when the show was getting second-run syndication, it might be shown in any random order that the station showing…

As far as Franklin's "Walkabout" is concerned, I always read it that it was a non-solution… it's a new-agey appropriation of the terms and physical action of Aboriginal culture that sounds spiritual on the surface, but doesn't actually solve anything.

As poor an episode as it is, I have to admit a certain degree of amusement that the Chekhov's Gun in the episode is an actual gun.  I mean, it's ludicrous, "I was just looking at my great-great-aunt's pistol from when she was a cop back in the day.  I'll just put it in my pocket now, and it probably won't be important…

You didn't miss much.

If memory serves, her church-given attorney said something along the lines of, "You killed someone in broad daylight, with witnesses.  You're going to do some jail time."

Yeah, I saw his attitude less as slut-shaming and more, "You decided to ruin some other guy's life to cover this up? The fuck is that all about?"

OK, in two comments you used the term "brightline", which I have to admit I've never seen used in this sort of context.  I'm gathering you mean it as "line between good and bad", but it's a new usage for me.

He's a self-loathing jerk with half a hand?  Surely there's a young lady with a Thomas Covenant fetish…