Babylon 5 - S1E09 - Deathwalker
Apr. 21st, 2025 11:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meteordustI've said before that some themes always feel timely and relevant. Well, some themes also feel timeless and relevant - like when a war criminal arrives on Babylon 5, and then politics happen.
* I guess I'm used to old school Season 1s, where a show is still finding its feet and you have a lot of episodic episodes. So I like that we're already getting so many meaty stories with moral issues and important stakes.
* When Sinclair offered the League a compromise - that Earth would send Jha'dur back for trial after she perfected the immortality drug - I felt that was kind of naive for him to promise and them to accept? Because why would she not bargain for immunity from prosecution? Even if Sinclair put his career on the line, I'm pretty sure Earth would steamroll right over him.
* And then Jha'dur reveals that the key ingredient in the immortality drug has to be taken from a living being. That it requires the death of another. And people will want it anyway. And she revels in the prospect of a world divided into those who are immortal and those who were killed for it.
* I was immensely satisfied by the ending, when everyone is standing there helplessly watching her ship depart and then a Vorlon ship suddenly jumps in and blows it up. And then Kosh just saying, "You are not ready for immortality." (I definitely felt vindicated - apart from the ecological catastrophe, there's a reason that in real life, it's always been emperors and billionaires going after it.)
* Favourite conversation of the episode:
I like you too, Sinclair! I like you a lot.
* I guess I'm used to old school Season 1s, where a show is still finding its feet and you have a lot of episodic episodes. So I like that we're already getting so many meaty stories with moral issues and important stakes.
* When Sinclair offered the League a compromise - that Earth would send Jha'dur back for trial after she perfected the immortality drug - I felt that was kind of naive for him to promise and them to accept? Because why would she not bargain for immunity from prosecution? Even if Sinclair put his career on the line, I'm pretty sure Earth would steamroll right over him.
* And then Jha'dur reveals that the key ingredient in the immortality drug has to be taken from a living being. That it requires the death of another. And people will want it anyway. And she revels in the prospect of a world divided into those who are immortal and those who were killed for it.
* I was immensely satisfied by the ending, when everyone is standing there helplessly watching her ship depart and then a Vorlon ship suddenly jumps in and blows it up. And then Kosh just saying, "You are not ready for immortality." (I definitely felt vindicated - apart from the ecological catastrophe, there's a reason that in real life, it's always been emperors and billionaires going after it.)
* Favourite conversation of the episode:
Sinclair: "You think it'll always be like this, Michael? Little powers at the mercy of bigger powers. Politics before morality. Expediency before justice."
Garibaldi: "Seems to work for everybody. Except you. Maybe that's why I like you."
I like you too, Sinclair! I like you a lot.
