Rising Star | For the Second Time

[0:49] For the second time. Welcome to Babylon 5 for the second time. My name is Brent Allen. And my name is Jeff Akin. Brent and I used to be Star Trek podcasters, and then we watched Babylon 5 for the first time, and everything changed. So now, we're watching this incredible series for the second time, because Babylon 5 is a show that you get to watch for the first time, twice. That's right, but you know what we're doing for the first time again? What's that? Looking for messages that are contained within it because that's what we do here at The Bad Nerds. We're looking for things that hold up a mirror to society, things that give us hope that things will be better in the future, or things that just show us how to be better human beings to one another. Those are fantastic messages, by the way. I think they are, right? If you're going to pull those out. And those are the things that we really need to focus on. Now, that being said, Jeff and I have seen this show for the first time for ourselves all the way through. We have an entire podcast where we went through it completely unspoiled. If this is your first time through the series yourself Jeff and I would have a favor to ask of you stop listening to this episode right now go back to those ones I was just talking about the unspoiled ones because because of this being our second time this one is now going to be filled with spoilers where we are at liberty to talk about anything from any point in the timeline anywhere whether it's canon not canon head canon.

[2:11] In-universe, out-of-universe, anything from conventions, behind-the-scenes, all of that is fair game for Jeff and I to talk about. So, again, if you have not been through this series, we beg you, it is much better to do it on the unspoiled route. And then once you've gotten through it, catch back up with us here, because as Jeff said, this is the one show you can watch for the first time twice. So, if you're still here and you're listening, pass the spoiler warning. Bye. Why are you still here?

[2:41] Brad, this week we're watching Rising Star. When we watched this for the first time, we played a game where we would predict what each episode was going to be about based on the title alone. I predicted that Sheridan was going to use the Board of Inquiry as a platform to unite all of the worlds under one singular banner. I've been talking about this idea. You were so close on that. I know, right? You were so close. It happened. It just wasn't Sheridan that did it. It wasn't Sheridan. And it wasn't. I thought they were going to really double down on the show's title. And I've been talking about this way back at the time of the Babylon Treaty and everything. It was just going to be called Babylon. Yeah. And still, we got AISA. But yeah, that's what I predicted it was going to be about. What did you predict it was going to be about? Well, I said this was going to be the aftermath of the war. They told us that it's going to be the Board of Inquiry and all that sort of stuff. But I kind of got a little specific. I said Sheridan would basically be offered a role on Earth, perhaps president. That's going to be a new role that's open. And he would have to decide between returning to Babylon five or staying on earth. And ultimately he would return to Babylon five because we have, you know, we saw him on the DVD cover for the season five. So, yeah, he'd have to go back. Right.

[3:54] Also, we'd have to clean up the whole Marcus of Anima stuff. There is that there is that. Well, what do you say, Brent? We go back and actually see what we talked about the first time. You know, this is one of my favorite parts of our show that we do. I can't wait for this and I dread it at the same time let's watch it.

[4:13] Previously on Babylon 5 for the first time. Rising Star. It was great. This was such a good episode. Delenn, her delivery, like when she was talking, she's at that podium and talking. She had an air of superiority. When those white stars flew over Earthdome, you know what that looked like to me? Remember the shot of Londo looking up at the shadow ships flying over the world? That whole scene, I think a lot of it was the music on it, too. It was ominous. It wasn't victorious or anything, and it just really pulled me out. Sheridan played Mr. Long Con on the president, on his Earth Force people. I did not see Sheridan being hit on this. I'm a huge fan of this president. The way she was portrayed and acted was, yeah, total boss. You did the right thing the wrong way. And then she's like, actually, no, he just did it the inconvenient way. But she also acknowledged to him that they wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. So thank you. Also, you got to go. We can't govern with your ghost being here. So Bester comes in. Does this conclusion leave you in a satisfying spot? No, not at all. The last thing they left on was Sheridan being like.

[5:32] Garibaldi's going to kick your butt. Really? that's what you have in this moment in this scene am i okay with where they left bester no that whole scene just left me with a no bester could be this show's gold dukat.

[5:46] Can we talk about avonava for a minute i don't want to but yeah okay uh her crying scene i think might have been claudia's best acting moment of the whole series it was amazing they killed avonava.

[6:01] Then they sent Marcus to take her place and brought Ivanova back to send her off again. What the hell is going on, Jeff? I know, it's terrible. I said earlier this episode made me mad, it made me laugh, and it made me cry. This was a big deal to me. The moment Sheridan was reunited with his dad, it was such a touching moment. He was such a great...

[6:38] Propedient, non-questioning acceptance of the lead. Hey. Right. Heard you're joining the family. Welcome. And then Jakar, I'm still going to be so mad if we don't get them using that eyeball for something. He left his eyeball on the table.

[6:59] Yeah, he did. I'm pretty sure Dylan makes those shows. He does such a great job with it. Right. I'm pretty sure when I said that in the previous episode that I said something to the effect of he's going to leave his eyeball there on like their wedding night or something like that. I think I said that. I think, yeah, you've been kind of building to that one for a while. It brings up a question for me. I'll bring it up during the episode itself. But it makes me wonder what the original plan was for that. Because it couldn't have been voyeurism. That's me putting it nicely. What do you say, Brent? We dive into this one for the second time. Let's do it. What's about to happen is we're going to bring the episode up and we're going to watch it right here, right now with you. We're going to talk about the things that we see, react to it, pull out the messages, dive into them a little bit as well. And you'll be a part of all those conversations. If you're watching this on YouTube, you're going to see an edited version of this, kind of the reaction style video.

[7:57] If you want to see the full and unedited version of it, that's available on our Patreon page at patreon.com slash bad nerds. And if you're listening to this on the audio podcasting app, you're going to hear that audio of the YouTube video. And then after that, you'll get all the stuff that we talk about. Jeff, let's watch an episode. Let's do it. Accessing file. We can confirm now that President Clark took his own life at 2.53 a.m. EST. The body has been left in place for examination and documentation by the we talked about this the first time around but it has to be called out again shot himself with a ppg.

[8:32] Where's the blood coming from because it would have cauterized the wound, and we've established that on multiple episodes prior to this pretty much and like it's like gunshot blood coming out there on the sheet like they found him quite a while after he did the deed maybe maybe it is president clark after all, his PPG like was underpowered or something and it didn't cauterize like it did damage but it didn't wind up cauterizing the yeah like half a cap it was like yeah it was like it was like a faulty PPG or something or he died and then that senator lady last week came in and she's like, she's like oh no look what he did to himself, I actually like I was just thinking like he had a pin on his desk and so after he shot himself he fell forward and just yeah.

[9:19] That many of you want revenge against those who cause such great pain and suffering. We ask that you listen to the better angels of your nature. So her line right there where she talks about the better angels of our nature. That is actually a line from the last line of Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address. Okay. In which he urged the United States not to lapse into civil war. Um and so this would have been uh pre-civil war so it was brewing he was he was, uh trying to do that so she's basically saying the same thing we're not we're not going to latch back into civil war here like that's that's not how we're going to do i love that he referenced that you know because we call this the earth civil war but 100, coming out of this it's not like oh clark's.

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