Here’s the link to the recording of tonight’s X Space….
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Here’s the link to the recording of tonight’s X Space….
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Thanks for running this. I enjoyed the conversation but was frustrated with the lack of text chat that I’ve become used to when watching livestreams on Twitch and YouTube or when I’m in work meetings on Zoom. I could have pressed the “Request To Talk” button but I wasn’t sure if you were accepting other talkers (and I’m shy and don’t really want to speak) and mostly I just wanted to agree with what you and Tom were saying and the flow would have been all messed up if you paused to let other people talk. Likewise I can’t imagine how crazy it would be if 60 people suddenly want to talk at once! 🙂
Tom really knows his stuff! I hadn’t heard of him before and when I looked him up I was confused why you’d invited a political and financial pundit to your sci-fi chat. But I get it now.
My thoughts on Andor. I started watching it when it first aired and didn’t really get into it. People raved about it as the best Star Wars TV but I didn’t see why from the first 4 or 5 episodes. I added it to the “I should get around to finishing this” list and promptly never did. So I was curious to see if watching this episode would change my mind.
I do love a good prison break and this one was fun. I agree with what Tom said, I really like the ’70s aesthetic in the sets and costume design. It makes it feel like classic Star Wars. The world is grimy and lived in. On the whole it was a good episode that was reasonably standalone. I don’t understand why Andy Serkis didn’t jump, though. It was either stay and face certain death, or jump and maybe you find you can dog paddle to the shore. Still, a blaster to the chest is probably a better way to go than drowning.
Andy Serkis is bloody amazing, though. I had the chance to see him once doing mocap for Gollum. A really nice guy who throws everything into his work.
Will I now watch all of Andor? Hmmmmm, maybe?
My thoughts on Babylon 5. Well, where do I start? I freaking love Babylon 5! It had a very rocky broadcast history in Australia. The network would put it on late at night, on random days, or they’d preempt it for something else on a whim. It was amazing I’d managed to see enough of it to end up liking it! At one point it had been off the air for a while and the sci-fi club at the local university started screening bootleg VHS tapes they were obtaining from the US (this is all before downloading video on the internet was viable, remember). I’d mostly forgotten about it and when I moved to New Zealand. One day I was walking down the street and I walked past an electronics store and what was showing on the TV in the window? Babylon 5. It turned out a network there was screening it regularly. I managed to watch the last couple of seasons there before buying the DVD box set and finally seeing every episode in the correct order.
Anyway, Severed Dreams is such a pivotal moment in the show. Pivotal . . . as in pivot. This is the point where the direction changes and everything falls apart before being rebuilt. The scene where Sheridan talks to his father kills me every time. And then Delenn’s speeches when she’s talking to the acolyte outside the Grey Council chamber, then to the Grey Council itself, and then finally when she appears at Babylon 5 with the Whitestar and she gives the Earth Alliance ships an ultimatum. It’s this episode that you learn you don’t F with Delenn.
Looking forward to future episodes. I’ll try to make the Tuesday and Thursday ones. Sadly that means I’ll miss the Doctor Who episode. But I’ll still post my thoughts here.
I decided that, for this month’s marathon, rather than industry insider’s, I wanted to feature genuine sci-fi fans from all walks of life as my co-hosts…and I have some great ones lined up.
Agree with you regarding both Andor and Babylon 5. I did enjoy Andor and am intrigued enough to check out the first few episodes, but B5 really resonated for me even though/inspite of the fact I’ve watched the first three seasons. I feel a rewatch is in order.
Season 4 is a must. The whole telepath plot is Season 5 is rough but I can appreciate how well JMS did to pull a plot out of thin air at the last minute.
Agree with Line Noise on the lack of text chat. Also, Twitter kept kicking me out, even logging me right out at one point so I kind of gave up about half way through.
Strongly recommend Andor. From a film making point of view it hits pretty much every mark. Probably best series of any kind I’ve watched in recent memory as far as quality. And it only improves with rewatching. I’m on my THIRD rewatching of S2 and I’m still catching subtleties that I’ve missed before. Also, I think it helps to watch Rogue One first, as it adds an even more bittersweet nuance to so much of what happens. And then rewatch Rogue One again after and see how much it changes with a new perspective. If your view of Star Wars is only Jedis, lightsabers, and ewoks it will probably disappoint. But if you appreciate a complex, nuanced story and characters along with immaculate production values, it’s well worth a watch.
Andor is as good Rogue One wich is the Star Wars film IMHO. Babylon 5 was a great deception for us. We discovered this serie last fall…