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altarielAfter 'Redemption', it's like watching a completely different show. Everyone is sparking off everyone else, saying witty lines wittily. Even Gan and Jenna are good and quite good respectively. 'Deathwatch' is the best episode for the ensemble, but 'Shadow' does particularly well because, with Gan still around, the cast is slightly larger... although I suppose 'Deathwatch' includes Servalan as well. 'Shadow' has particularly fine villains, IMHO. When I become a mobster secretly in the pay of the President, I'll be wearing a crushed velvet suit with a ruffled shirt, see if I don't [1].
I hadn't noticed before that it's really a two-parter stuck together: Adventure on Space City linked in passing to the half of the episode covering the events leading up to the Great Moondisk Massacre. (And we get the two Callys: slightly alarming perpetrator of acts of violence and convenient conduit for alien takeover.)
Two charms, one general to B7 and the other specific to watching on DVD: Firstly, one reason why I love studio-bound drama is that it makes everything feel like it's taking place on a wet Wednesday afternoon in a tiny room somewhere in west London [2], and I love the idea that Being In Space would be just as crap as ordinary life. Secondly, watching a crisp, clean print on an overlarge television lets you see just how much make-up everyone is wearing. Largo and the dreamheads in particular have trowelled on the foundation. Obviously this is because I'm watching it on a telly of far better quality than was ever intended, but I quite like the idea that in The Totalitarian Federation Future, everyone wears lots of slap to cover over their pallid space-faring or dome-bound complexions.
Tenuous-influence-on-other-shows-because-B7-is-source-for-all-other-television-SF: Er, struggling slightly... um, mention of the Syndicate is a bit like the Orion Syndicate in DS9. Yeah.
I watched 'Weapon' too, but I don't have anything to say other than it's brilliant.
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hafren's comment about the good minor characters reminds me that in 'Shadow' we see the difference between the 'minion' and the 'lackey', and the relationship between both. The Enforcer starts out as a 'lackey' and ends up as a 'minion'. Largo starts out as a 'minion' and ends up dead.
[2] The set for Vilaworld in 'City at the Edge of the World' is my favourite example of this. It strikes me as a place where it always feels like the post-lunchtime-news-episode of Columbo or Bergerac has just finished on BBC1, and that you're staring into the blank abyss of the afternoon before Countdown.
I hadn't noticed before that it's really a two-parter stuck together: Adventure on Space City linked in passing to the half of the episode covering the events leading up to the Great Moondisk Massacre. (And we get the two Callys: slightly alarming perpetrator of acts of violence and convenient conduit for alien takeover.)
Two charms, one general to B7 and the other specific to watching on DVD: Firstly, one reason why I love studio-bound drama is that it makes everything feel like it's taking place on a wet Wednesday afternoon in a tiny room somewhere in west London [2], and I love the idea that Being In Space would be just as crap as ordinary life. Secondly, watching a crisp, clean print on an overlarge television lets you see just how much make-up everyone is wearing. Largo and the dreamheads in particular have trowelled on the foundation. Obviously this is because I'm watching it on a telly of far better quality than was ever intended, but I quite like the idea that in The Totalitarian Federation Future, everyone wears lots of slap to cover over their pallid space-faring or dome-bound complexions.
Tenuous-influence-on-other-shows-because-B7-is-source-for-all-other-television-SF: Er, struggling slightly... um, mention of the Syndicate is a bit like the Orion Syndicate in DS9. Yeah.
I watched 'Weapon' too, but I don't have anything to say other than it's brilliant.
***
[1]
hafren's comment about the good minor characters reminds me that in 'Shadow' we see the difference between the 'minion' and the 'lackey', and the relationship between both. The Enforcer starts out as a 'lackey' and ends up as a 'minion'. Largo starts out as a 'minion' and ends up dead. [2] The set for Vilaworld in 'City at the Edge of the World' is my favourite example of this. It strikes me as a place where it always feels like the post-lunchtime-news-episode of Columbo or Bergerac has just finished on BBC1, and that you're staring into the blank abyss of the afternoon before Countdown.
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-16 04:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-16 04:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-16 05:29 am (UTC)That was Cally throughout the show really! I love Cally but the writing for her was anything but consistent. Shadow is a wonderful episode, very well-paced and with lots going on. One of the best I'd say (and Avon wears a pretty costume and also looks great in the white gear *g*).
I watched 'Weapon' too, but I don't have anything to say other than it's brilliant.
I know it is, but the red suit...
no subject
Date: 2005-01-16 09:33 am (UTC)Jan Chappell really does well with the part, all things considered. I like that by the third season we see a slightly older, less impetuous Cally (although one still quite ready to tell Avon when he's being a blithering idiot).
Avon wears a pretty costume and also looks great in the white gear *g*
This made me think of the jumpsuit thing he wears in 'Warlord'. He and Soolin look very pretty together.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-16 09:06 am (UTC)This whole paragraph made my day. Thank you!
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Date: 2005-01-16 09:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-17 01:13 pm (UTC)Firstly, one reason why I love studio-bound drama is that it makes everything feel like it's taking place on a wet Wednesday afternoon in a tiny room somewhere in west London [2], and I love the idea that Being In Space would be just as crap as ordinary life.
It makes me want to beg you never to stop doing it.
Space: It's a bit pants really.
Trowelled on makeup? Ooh, I must have a close look at that.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-18 05:57 am (UTC)It would be like that though, wouldn't it? "Space: It's Rubbish."
Trowelled on makeup? Ooh, I must have a close look at that.
Largo in particular must spend a fortune at Boots.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-18 12:01 am (UTC)- they all look so gorgeous, even Cally scrubs up quite well (Auronar fashion and hairstules tend to be... yes, well). I love the silver top and black belt on Avon, and the three of 'em - Blake, Avon and Jenna - in white is just... yum. Most of all, that opening shot of them all on the Liberator deck... I want that on DVD.
Also yum for Blake being a right bastard, it's one of his best 'looks':)
The script is both intelligent and witty, has politics and dowright fascinating character interaction... everyone gets to shine, even Cally and Gan get some good stuff, we get hints of shady backhistory for Jenna and Vila gets to have fun (even if he has to pay for it).
And as BBC aliens go, the moondisks are a treat.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-18 05:55 am (UTC)Welcome to LJ, btw :-)
Oh, and...
Date: 2005-01-18 12:05 am (UTC)Re: Oh, and...
Date: 2005-01-18 05:56 am (UTC)