S4E11 - Playing with His Denn'bok (Featuring Dominion Media TV) - podcast episode cover

S4E11 - Playing with His Denn'bok (Featuring Dominion Media TV)

Aug 02, 202353 minEp. 87
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Episode description

Join Laura and Xhafer, two internet strangers as they get to know each other while making jokes about one of their favorite TV shows from their childhood, Babylon 5.

Laura and Xhafer are joined by special guest Victor Endriago, founder of Dominion Media Television, to talk about his true sci-fi love, Babylon 5. Find more of his work at Facebook.com/DominionMediaTV.

Meanwhile, Franklin and Marcus continue their adventures with the Mars Resistance, Delenn gets mansplained, and Sheridan forces Ivanova to make TikTok videos to reach a new audience in Babylon 5 - Season 4 Episode 11: Lines of Communication

Transcript

Xhafer

Hello and welcome to Who Are You? This is a Babylon five watch cast hosted by two former strangers. Now, friends who have gotten to know each other while rewatching a favorite show from their childhood, Babylon. Five. I'm Jair.

Laura

And I'm Laura. This is Dominion Media Television.

Victor

Uh, Hi, I'm Victor, and yes, this is Dmt. My name Victor. Ceo, I guess the owner I run, I run Dominion Media Television. It's a comic parody, satire, page. Do a lot of comics. Uh, Mostly Star Trek related, but honestly, Babylon five is in my heart. It's my favorite sci-fi show ever. So uh, so just keep that between us, you know, don't tell anybody.

Laura

Us and all the listeners.

Victor

Yeah, exactly.

Laura

Don't worry. They're cool people. They're chill.

Xhafer

Yeah, we have anyone who is not. We have scared off.

Victor

Awesome. I've, I've actually got quite a few uh, Babylon, five fans on my uh, on my site. Speaking of which, yeah, yeah. I slip in some B five references here and there and some people pick up on 'em.

Xhafer

Yeah. I noticed the uh, the use of a Pak Mara on a teleprompter recently. Yeah. On the view screen.

Victor

a few people thought it was uh, thought it was an ood from Dr. Who, and it was like, no, you're nerd. It's a Raz.

Xhafer

All right, Victor. Well, it's your first time on the show, so I get to ask who are you

Victor

I'm Victor. My big thing these days is uh, running Dominion Media Television. Last week really proud to say we just hit 24,000 subscribers. That just is blow, blows my mind beyond any expectations I have when I first started doing this.

Xhafer

Congrats.

Victor

thank you. Thank you. We've got quite a few ongoing series that I write. The comic series uh, most popular one is probably Car Talk with Mar Talk. That's how, that's how Laura and I, I met, she recognized the logo I was wearing at.

Laura

your shirt.

Victor

Yeah, that was, that was quite an amazing experience being at Star Trek, Las Vegas last year. I ran into about, probably about between 10 and 12 people who, who recognized the, who recognized my comics. And for me that was just amazing.

Laura

I guarantee You there were more who just

Victor

yeah.

Laura

anything. Like they saw the shirt and they were like, oh yeah, that's Dominion Media Television. But they didn't realize it was like you, and so they just didn't say anything, you

Victor

that's, you know, I was, I was way more nervous meeting my fans and the subscribers than I, than I was talking to the actual, like Star Trek actors being there. You know, he would come up to me and be all just like, there was one guy I wanna give a shout out to you, Eddie. He saw me from across the hallway and he just pointed in the scream car talk with Marta come running up to me. it was pretty cool. I, I gave out a few uh, Everyone there humored me.

They, they let me give them an autograph print. It's uh, I think I gave gave you one too.

Laura

You did? Yes,

Victor

thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Aw, thank you. Yeah, it was the nicest humoring me. I'm figure most people are all just like, yeah, sure. Throw it away afterwards. You know? It was, it was, it was a great feeling being there. But yeah. I've also got quite a few other comic series going right now. I've got Bejo militia.

Laura

Mm-hmm.

Victor

Right now we're halfway, about halfway through a project I'm doing where I'm recreating the first Star Wars movie scene for scene, but with characters from Star Trek. Yeah, I call it Star Trek in U Hope. So we're about halfway through that. Also, captain Delilah is a really popular one. I, I do have a, a couple of Balon five comics. I haven't posted a new episode in a while, but there was one. That was pretty popular. I called it soul hunters.

The Interstellar Truth seekers, the acronym shits, and the uh, it's about the soul hunters. They go around through the multiverse capturing souls from various places. Like they they, they went and they got on the Death Star with. Luke and Vader and their saber fight, and the emperor's like, oh, hey soul hunters. Uh, which one are you here for? Luke Vader. And they're like, oh, well actually, so Sean Bean, the soul hunters love to follow Shawn Bean around everywhere. They, they,

Xhafer

Yeah.

Victor

they get so many of him. And, Let's see. I first got into Babylon five as a, that must have been, gosh, it must have been like nine or 10 years old when it, when it first came out. And I've, I've got this distinct memory of seeing a commercial for the new primetime lineup on the network. And it was, and it was a commercial for Babylon five Kung Flu.

The Legend Continues, and another show called Time Tracks, and it was like, that was the New York Times time, but me as a little kid, I thought they were all the same show. So I was like, holy crap, there's gonna be this move, this show about a, about a kung fu guy who travels time and like I figured Babylon five was like his so I was like super confused watching the premiere. I was like, okay, when's the kung fu guy gonna come out?

Laura

That's what this show needed. Reboot.

Xhafer

Ready.

Laura

kung fu guy.

Victor

yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. Recently I've been re binging the entire series, getting myself hyped up for the uh, the Road Home movie coming out next month. Very excited about that. And yeah, I've been rewatching it on the Road View channel, and my God, I just, I just forgot just how good this show was. Way ahead of its time. Like, oh man. So,

Xhafer

so hard these days. I think it hits harder now than it did 10 years ago, let alone 20. Just the, so many of the themes of the rise of fascism and stuff and the things that we've dealt with, uh,

Victor

yeah.

Xhafer

in this country.

Victor

Oh God.

Xhafer

Like I said, we've scared everyone off. That was

Victor

Yeah.

Xhafer

a hater, so I'm not too worried about it.

Laura

okay.

Victor

Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. I'm actually kind of glad that they decided to go with the animated movie instead of the live action reboot. Just cause that's it's so sad that half the cast has, has literally died since then. So, I mean, literally half the

Laura

a lot.

Victor

so,

Xhafer

Yeah.

Victor

Was watching the scene with uh, Garibaldi and Jaar the other day where they get like reunited and I said, oh both, these guys are just such. Amazing iconic characters and both go on like, whoa, sorry. Sorry, I didn't mean to bring the, bring the show down

Xhafer

no, no, no.

Victor

with the sads. So

Xhafer

That scene, they would've been, I think roommates when they filmed that too. The actors lived together for a bit. Yeah.

Victor

Wow. Oh,

Xhafer

Yeah. Jerry Doyle and Andreas live together during production during some of the later seasons.

Victor

no joke.

Xhafer

Yeah, you can find interviews where they talk about it.

Laura

to be a fly on that wall.

Victor

Yeah.

Laura

Very nice. Well, it's really fitting that you're here today, Victor, because in this episode our good old Captain Sheridan is thinking about setting up his own network.

Xhafer

It's true. We've got season four, episode 11, lines of communication. We open on Sheridan watching some more of Fox. Sn who keeps feeding the big lie until they believe it. So Aaron, I know last episode I, I left kind of a, a sprawl here where I explain what I want you to do. I don't know if you did it or not, because. We're recording and that episode doesn't come out for another. Three or four weeks from when we're recording right now.

But what I'm thinking is kind of like last time, if you didn't ruin your algorithm already, what we could do is get some more voiceovers of people talking about the election being stolen. I'm thinking some one American News Network this time instead of Fox News maybe some Blaze Media. Just, you know, some random dates, you know, something from after the election until the completely arbitrary and irrelevant date of January 5th.

Again, let's say uh, you know, just quotes from that timeframe right here again, I think would be really funny. Thanks, Aaron.

Laura

Yeah, Ivana cannot understand. She is every millennial looking at their parents asking why? You're still watching cable news? Like,

Victor

It just makes you angry. Why are you still watching this?

Xhafer

Oh, Sheridan thinks they've got time before the attack comes, but they know it's coming. Franklin hollers from Mars letting them know that the board meeting is on.

Victor

Yeah, and the most inconspicuous message ever lost lamb, the big, bad wolf.

Laura

Yeah. And I'm puzzled by his explanation that you know, no one's gonna know who this message is for. And it's like,

Xhafer

You're, you're literally the son of one of earth force's, most famous generals.

Laura

Thank you. Does, you know, does Earth Force earth gov not have records of where you've been?

Xhafer

Let's see. Stationed on Babylon five for four years, and then we lost communica. Oh, wow. Huh. Crazy happenstance There. Wonder where this message is going.

Victor

I, I love how number one commented as like, well, that was nice and cryptic and like, wasn't the number one.

Laura

Is she being sarcastic? Maybe she's being sarcastic.

Xhafer

I hope so.

Victor

Yeah.

Laura

seems like a pretty sharp lady except for this obsession with Franklin, but we'll get there.

Xhafer

Yeah. There was a lot of use net notes about this where people were like, was that really inconspicuous? J m s.

Victor

All right.

Xhafer

And he was just like, it's a needle in a haystack. They, you know, they, it had to be Franklin so that they knew who it was cuz you can't fake video. Uh, If it had just been audio, they could have faked it. And I'm just like, oh, how poorly.

Victor

Yeah. No one knows who Marcus is. Yeah.

Laura

like Earth Go theoretically doesn't have tabs on Marcus. Like they might have tabs on Franklin.

Xhafer

exactly. That is such a good point, Laura.

Laura

And everyone in the command staff knows who Marcus is. Back at Babylon. Five, please. Yes,

Xhafer

I did have a good laugh though, because they kept calling it the board meeting and have I ever told you the college story I have of the boardroom?

Laura

I don't think so.

Xhafer

So in my college years I, I mentioned this before I larked and, uh, we had a lot of people in the LARP unit live in the same apartment complex. We were just hanging out constantly. Like it was literally like get drunk, walk 20 feet to your place, kind of stuff, you know, like magic. This summer in particular, there must have been 12, 15 people right in the same apartment complex.

And we were all hanging out a ton and someone at the beginning of the summer had thrown out a giant dining table and chair set, so we dumpster dove it and put it in front of our apartment. We called it the boardroom. so we would just like get drunk around this giant table all summer and we, we would have board meetings and stuff and it just, I don't know what it was about the language used in this, where it was like, the board meeting is on guys wink, wink.

That just made me like, oh, Is that where this came from? Like, did, did this, did I pull something from the ether in my college years from my childhood without even realizing it? Uh, Probably not. It's just, it was just very funny. Coincidence.

Laura

I just realized that, that the boardroom is a great name for a bar, so I'm gonna drop the business plan. I'll let you know how it goes.

Xhafer

Yeah. That and the whisper gallery

Laura

Yeah. They need to be next to each other. We need to set up shop together.

Xhafer

Mm-hmm. Marcus runs in after all this to tell us of a bombing operation that is blaming the resistance for civilian deaths

Laura

Someone blew up their honeymoon suite back at Red Planet Hotel.

Victor

Red Planet Hotel. Yeah.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

on the station, Delen West Wings with Pharrell, who tells her of the attacks on the Mumbai protector at races.

Victor

You know, rewatching that scene that, that just kind of dropped you right in the middle of that conversation. Like I know and is a character that we'd never seen before, like rewatching it. I had to rewind it a couple times cause I, I was like, for a second I was like, did they recast Lanier? Who the hell is this guy? You know? So,

Laura

he has a very linear look. Yeah. Yeah.

Victor

Yeah,

Xhafer

And they don't say his name for 40 minutes.

Victor

yes. Thank you.

Laura

Yeah, cuz I watch what subtitles on because usually the baby's asleep. So I noticed that like, oh, finally we get his name and, and I'm just gonna call him Pharrell instead of ll But

Victor

I I thought it was like, is that how it said for Purell four L?

Laura

it was, it was spelled ll but I'm calling for him, Pharrell.

Victor

Pure. Okay. It was like Purell, like the hand sanitizer, but with an F. That's

Laura

Yes. Yes.

Xhafer

We come back from theme and Delen and John talk about the attacks. He notes that the Pak Morra have also been attacked. Dela tells him that she has an obligation to help since these uh, people that were attacked, regarded by the religious cast. And he's like, send Lanier. And she's just like, who? Who's Lanier?

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

Like she just completely forgets who he is for a moment until she's just like that guy. No, he's a bitch. I got this.

Laura

He is uh, really leaning into his patriarchy instincts there. All of a sudden he's forgotten that Delan is like, she's like a hundred years old or something. Right? Been around longer than he has and she used to be a member of the great council. Like, she can handle this, my

Xhafer

She was one of the leaders during the earth Mumbar war, like she has personally overseen the slaughter of countless thousands, if not millions.

Victor

Yeah.

Laura

Yeah, I think she can handle it, but all of a sudden she's his, his special boo.

Xhafer

Yeah. Over at Mars, number one, raises some hell to Felipe for conducting a bombing without her authorization. He makes it weird by bringing up their sexual past like it's a bargaining chip and she rightfully tells him to fuck off.

Laura

this was really weird.

Victor

That, that scene, I, God, dear, I I, I love the way, like she, you know, knocks his ass on the ground and, and he's just this guy, he, he just, he just bombed a hotel and he's like, what, what, what did, why you dick about it?

Xhafer

It's funny. I did have to check though because my girlfriend Beth, as she was walking by and watching the, watching the scene, she's just like, is that Pedro Pascal? And I'm all like, no, wait. And I checked and the answer is no. But had to check.

Laura

if only is what I'm saying.

Xhafer

Could you imagine?

Laura

It's like our Brian Cranston.

Xhafer

Mm-hmm.

Victor

I love that parting line that uh, she gave. It was like she said uh, she said, is this how you treat all your former lovers? Matter of fact, yes. God, that was just

Laura

I mean, isn't that while we do all of our former lovers, is this something new?

Xhafer

the most part Marcus makes a jet lag joke, like it hasn't been a three week flight and you've adjusted already.

Victor

oof that, that line gave me anxiety. Thinking about like, cuz I, I always, I get jet lagged bad everywhere I go and then I'm thinking, man, jet lag on Mars. That would suck.

Laura

I don't know that I could adapt. It's hard enough sometimes to figure out when to record with JA, and he's an hour away.

Victor

Yeah. I, mean, not only jacking a timezone, I, I was talking about new gravity, freaking air pressure. That's just I had to lie down for a second after that line.

Xhafer

I, it used to be a problem for me before I traveled so much for work. But I've spent so much time on planes now where I'm just unfazed.

Victor

Oof. You're a better man than I.

Xhafer

It took, it took the better part of a decade to get to that point, but I got there. Ann Coulter reminds Sheridan that they're just reporting the facts and uh, you get to decide the truth.

Victor

Yeah, I, I caught that Fox News tagline there.

Xhafer

yeah.

Victor

reporting the facts. Fair and

Xhafer

Is it actually a tagline cuz it feels like it's a tagline, but I really didn't want to Google it.

Victor

Uh,

Laura

it,

Victor

Probably, Yeah, I don't wanna pollute my browser history with that one. So.

Xhafer

yeah. Anyways, he gets an idea during the hour of the Wolf and Wakes. I vava up over it. Uh, she waits for the other shoe to drop and when it does, she is not pleased. He's like, just get on Zoom and broadcast the real news. Our news,

Victor

Mm-hmm.

Xhafer

She says she'd rather have a face that people fear than trust. After confirming that her favorite author is in fact Machiavelli Sheridan continues with the idea. Every bad boss ever has thought that they've had, Hey, we did this thing on a small scale. How hard can it be to do it on a big scale?

Laura

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Xhafer

Uh,

Laura

He's got big boss energy right now. He is

Xhafer

For sure

Victor

Mm. I, I wanted Ivan to just say this could have been an email, John.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

and not a meeting at 3:00 AM Oh.

Laura

And continuing our uh, through line of treating our female characters in weird ways. Pharrell decides to mansplain the gray council to the. Look, I know this is done for the viewer. Like we gotta remind the viewer of some things, right? But it's weird. It is weird that he tells her that the gray councils held us together. She knows that you dumb

Victor

mm-hmm. No, she was in the great council. Didn't she break it as well at this

Xhafer

yeah. And like most of the time, the who's on the Great Council is a secret. You know, like, like that's a thing that they have in the first season where it's like, oh, no one knows I'm on the Gray Council. You get to know Lanier your special. But he even says, you were on the Gray Council Delen. And it's just like, he clearly knows. She knows,

Laura

Yeah, it is very strange.

Xhafer

oh, I was so mad.

Victor

You know, there was another trope that I noticed in my, my rewatch of, of Babylon five that uh, this is a really common thing. They, they, they cut to the white star and they come up and, and he comes up to deland and says, you've been here a while. You should get some sleep that has been done so many times before. Like, what the hell is it about being in the chair on the white star? That makes you just want to. Just stay there for forever and, and stay, stay awake.

Xhafer

Have you seen their beds? It's got twice as

Victor

it's,

Xhafer

as one of their beds.

Victor

it's gotta be like that, that big screen 4K TV they have at the monitor or something like that. They're all just like, go to bed. Jesus.

Laura

No. I mean, maybe that's it because we've seen the TVs that they talk to each other on Plon five. They're

Victor

Yeah.

Laura

cathode raid tube TVs, right? I mean,

Xhafer

You're on some four 80 I shit. And then you go over to your uncle's house and he's got a projector downstairs and you're just like, I didn't know TV could look like this.

Victor

This their binging. Netflix and hyperspace.

Xhafer

Yeah. Also, fucking Pharrell quotes Ucat to Delen.

Victor

Oh

Xhafer

Can you imagine the audacity of this

Victor

I was there with du,

Laura

yeah.

Victor

literally held him while he died.

Laura

I remember when he said that I was there.

Xhafer

Yeah. There is another read on this instead of mansplaining that it is worth mentioning, I feel where he's actually just giving Dalen shade for being a completely unattentive leader of her people.

Laura

I guess she has mentioned like, oh, I've been away a while.

Xhafer

Uh, I definitely feel like it's not that but I could see this scene being a, Hey, Delen, you fucked up. Kind of like, let me explain. What you should have been doing.

Victor

was there any mention in the previous episodes leading up to this, the whole Mumbar civil war thing? Cause I feel like I, if I did, I must have missed that.

Laura

This is the

Xhafer

is the first mentions of any kind of internal. There have been a little bit about the Mumbai's caste system breaking down here and there. But this is the first like actual. Not conflict because there's no conflict, but banishing casts members out of cities and stuff. Over on Mars. Franklin speaks for Sheridan saying you can dislike the individual but respect the office. We know that's never been American history, been a hypocritical statement, so that was nice to hear.

Laura

Yeah. Yeah.

Xhafer

wants him to stop b bombing civilian targets, which I honestly gets more of a fight than I thought it would.

Laura

Yeah. We've, we've

Xhafer

they seem to be

Victor

They're like, what man? Come on.

Laura

serious.

Xhafer

Gotta make that statement by killing innocence.

Victor

Mm-hmm.

Xhafer

dude, like

Victor

They were surprisingly chill about it. And the guy like, what you on about this for? Put bomb in a hotel, Jesus.

Xhafer

mm-hmm. Franklin tells them that they want buy-in on running the entire resistance. That they're going to have to follow She Sheridan's orders. Without question, can you fucking imagine

Laura

Yeah,

Xhafer

you are in the ira, it's during the troubles and some dude from. Hawaii shows up and tells you that he's running the show now. Like you've never interacted with this person except one time when they fucked you.

Victor

Mm-hmm.

Xhafer

Because they talk about him putting down the Mars riots and it's just like, oh, why they buy in is completely beyond me. I, it does

Laura

he even says, you, you need to do what we ask, no matter how strange it is. I think he uses the word strange or weird or something, and I'm like,

Victor

Yeah.

Laura

I don't. I don't have that level of trust with you.

Xhafer

I don't have that tr level of trust with almost anyone, let alone a complete stranger. Oh,

Laura

yeah, yeah. He's definitely pushing some of that Sheridan Mythos here too, though, uh, the, the same one that Garibaldi was not super happy with in our previous episodes.

Xhafer

yeah. He does promise to free Mars though, which that's nice

Victor

I feel like you should have led with that.

Xhafer

for sure. It's like, do you want free Mars? Let's talk free Mars. And then you could get some people to buy in, not you're gonna do whatever we say. And also free Mars.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

the white stars. Make it to their destination and find a Pak Morra. And their attackers, which was the opening scene. This, I thought they were going to mumbar space and not the attack. John mentioned they were going to save the, oh, they had a different name. I don't even remember. That's how little

Victor

north side.

Xhafer

Yeah. North Eye

Victor

Yeah. Never seen them on screen. Never heard of 'em before.

Laura

Mm-hmm. But apparently they're important.

Xhafer

they're so important that we don't get to see them.

Victor

I think they said they were agricultural civilization. Like they, they have a farming planet.

Laura

Yeah. So maybe they don't even really like have ships. Maybe it's more like a ground assault or something. I don't know. But maybe they're close to the AK Mara. I wouldn't wanna be, but.

Xhafer

Mm-hmm. Yeah. They identify the uh, attackers. There's a little lip service paid to not repeating the mistakes of the earthman bari war. And the first uh, appreciate that.

Victor

I love yeah, I love that. Lanier does a little, you know, mansplaining about, you know, be careful. This is the first contact situation and Lane Quips back, you know, I, I was there at the first contact with the humans. She literally says, I do not make the same mistake twice. And then, you know, 15 minutes later, she does the exact same shit that she did with humans

Laura

I do feel like this is a little different in that we are first contacting and they are definitely attacking someone at this moment,

Victor

Yeah. yeah. It, it is. You know, I, I do appreciate that she made the right choice here because the Rock were very, obviously the bad guys, they telegraphed the shit outta that, you know? But uh, yeah, when it came down to, they were all just like, I think Lanier or someone even mentioned, you know, let's wait until we understand the reason for attacking the lens. All this, like, hell no. U-turn, we're gonna blow the shit out.

Laura

Yes.

Xhafer

Yeah, it's good. The DRock have a whole Q thing going on though, where all of their name is DRock and also they are the DRock.

Laura

I thought that was a, a nod to the uh, we are all Kosh.

Xhafer

mm

Victor

all.

Xhafer

mm All right. Lanier notes that they're speaking Mumbai but how is that possible? And then Pharrell pulls a pistol on Delen. She's like, Maari, don't kill Maari. He's like, I don't have to kill you to shoot you.

Laura

Yeah, it's true. I do love that in the background of this scene. Linear's ready to throw his hands again. I. And he's, he's brought hands to a gunfight again.

Victor

Yeah. I, I do wanna say something I absolutely loved about this, and just a little detail is, is that line where he said, like, there the transmission is coming through in, but they don't understand our language or whatever. But, you know, we, the audience are hearing it in English. I just, I love that little detail about like, that's like a big universe in universe, world building thing. For me, it's just little details that, that I love.

Like that's something they always gloss over in Star Trek, you know, universal translator or whatever. But, uh, But that right there, it's like, you know, we, the audience are hearing it in English, but you know, they're obviously, it's a shit full of Ari, so they'd obviously be speaking mumbar each other. So that's just, I really

Laura

humans on board right now, so we don't need to gloss over it. yeah, yeah.

Xhafer

yeah. It's English for our convenience as an audience, not because it's actually English.

Victor

another thing I love about, about Babylon vibe in general, since there's so many aliens and so many scenes, Which is aliens interacting with aliens. Like the way I see it, if you're gonna do, if you're gonna do a sci-fi story, crank the sci-fi up, man. I don't want to keep, see humans doing human shit, you know, gimme some aliens and cultures interacting and stuff. I just absolutely love that. So anyway, that's my little rant. So,

Xhafer

No, no, a hundred percent. That's one of the things that I actually really liked about Star Trek Discovery. We finally had an alien captain, like yeah. When Saru was captain for a season spoilers

Victor

Nah.

Laura

It's been a minute. I think it's

Xhafer

season, I think it was like a couple of seasons ago at this point. I think it was season three. Yeah. Cuz two was Pike. So, but it's just like, and seeing that and how he went about things differently and especially because Trek's whole thing is. Our differences in our unity makes us stronger. You know, like if, if you had to summarize Star Trek in a sentence, it'd probably be that sentence. And to in Babylon five, it's similar, but it's also we're in a much more fractured state constantly.

You know, there is no federation, there's none of that stuff, you know, so to see those types of interactions, a hundred percent agree. Victor, that's one of the reasons that Babylon five is such a great show. There's also a subtle implication in that sentence that is, we know that we hear English for the audience, not cause they're speaking it. We don't know that any of the humans are actually speaking English.

Victor

Ooh, that's a good point.

Xhafer

Um, We get some newspapers in English as well especially in the first season. But that could. Also be in another language and just in English for the sake of the audience again. So I don't even accept that. So listener, I want to hear your opinion on what the fuck language you think they're actually speaking on the station.

Victor

Mandarin.

Xhafer

Just

Victor

I, I, I, I do love how optimistic they were in the nineties that newspapers would survive

Laura

Huh.

Xhafer

So, Parented what could possibly happen.

Victor

how paper,

Laura

Good point.

Victor

I couldn't even get paper at my old office job here on Earth, like for.

Xhafer

But anyways Pharrell's like, look, we're gonna have a sleepover and talk about this hot GOs about five minutes that way. So they just drive off over on Mars. Number one calls Franklin's bluff on Sheridan's rule about civilian targets. He placed coy, but he was directly authorized by Sheridan to speak for Sheridan, knowing that they weren't gonna be able to talk about stuff, and he's a hundred percent right here, the captain wouldn't approve of it.

So instead of making this like a weird thing where you're inserting friendship tokens, hoping for sex, just say that, fuck.

Laura

Yeah. I, I love how Marcus is. Marcus is. no fool. He may be a virgin as was established earlier in one of these other episodes. Uh,

Victor

Marcus, the Virgin, and the.

Laura

yeah.

Xhafer

For sure.

Laura

he knows what this, what is up here and he knows what Franklin is at, even though Franklin won't even admit to himself what he's at. It's very funny.

Xhafer

Marcus is very game recognized game here, and then number one invites Franklin to dinner and Marcus to guard duty because someone on this fucking planet has to have some game.

Victor

You know, my head canon for that is in the previous episode Marcus Franklin and number one, all they, they mentioned that they were all gonna go have dinner together as well. So my head canon is in their previous interaction, Marcus was cock blocking number one the whole time. So number one is all this like, okay, you guard duty tonight. Number one's got needs.

Laura

I can, I can picture that perfectly. We, that's the scene we should have gotten.

Victor

Mm-hmm. I can just picture Marcus just going on and on, you know? And meanwhile, number one's kinda like.

Xhafer

Making jokes about their night in the honeymoon suite. Oh, that's about to happen and stuff for sure.

Laura

Yes. Mm-hmm.

Xhafer

Franklin is apprehensive until Marcus pushes the issue, the drop send over a shuttle to the white star and we get. What I can only describe as an albino predator who just learned how to use the motion blur in Photoshop on board.

Laura

Mm, I thought this guy was still buffering. He's just buffering the whole time.

Victor

I love that they just that, that he's just wandering around the ship, just unescorted that they just let him dock and he's wandering around looking like a freaking Power Ranger's villain and like just blurring in. At one point, he even touches some buttons on the console, like, oh, what does this do? It's like, what? Somebody get this guy under control, man, what the hell?

Laura

Stay away from the crystals.

Victor

Mm-hmm.

Xhafer

I did read a little bit about this. They apparently, they used a really shimmery fabric to try and do this effect without any special effects to kind of make him hard to see, and it just did not tr translate at all when they actually filmed it. So they went and post and did this I do think it's a really cool effect and I know that this is something that if it's in the reboot is gonna be hella fucking creepy.

Laura

Yeah. We can do this way better now.

Xhafer

Yeah. So ride for that. The, this, so this Emissary is really chill at first as Rell tells Dalen what's going on back home and the religious cast needs Thera as allies. Lanier and Delen start to put together some pieces, though as this conversation is happening.

Victor

They, Sherlock Holmes, the hell out of the, the plot just right there. Cause like at this point they had never seen the drop before. Never heard of their species, but just, you know, they, they had their, their epiphany plot powers came in and were like, aha, you're from,

Xhafer

Mm-hmm. Yeah. What was your planet's name, just outta curiosity? I. Home. That would've been an excellent opportunity to say Drake again, by the way.

Laura

Oh yeah. Does this canonically mean that Zaha Doom means home?

Xhafer

Yeah,

Victor

yeah.

Laura

I hope that's what it stands for. I like that we find out that Mumbai don't kill Mumbar except by Trail of tears. Apparently, uh, we are just gonna death march him.

Victor

I wrote that one down here in my notes that, yeah, Pharrell actually said yeah, Mumbar did not kill Mumbar, but he tells the story about how the warrior cast came in set their homes on fire and blew up their car and, and left them out in the frozen waste. And he's like, But Mumbar do not kill Mumbai. But when it's the cold and, and the, the nature is it, is it truly murder? And I'm like, yes, bro, that's, that counts as murder.

Laura

Yeah,

Xhafer

this is more mumbar. Don't lie. Bullshit too. It's a

Victor

mm-hmm.

Xhafer

omission. It's a murder of omission, like it's just fucking cultural hoops, or just the mental gymnastics. Here are enough to

Victor

if I push you,

Laura

correct? Yes.

Victor

if I, if I push you in a tank of sharks, The Sharks eat you. They're like, no, officer, I didn't kill him. The sharks killed him. Arrest the sharks.

Laura

Yeah. The member have some mental gymnastics powers that are impressive.

Xhafer

for sure. Pharrell says len's name right as the emissary piece is out, and then Delen tells far Pharrell what's about to happen. And she's right the Drake attack. Most of the white stars escape, but not without damage and len's all like, fuck it, U-turn, we're going back and they attack.

Victor

Love that.

Xhafer

It's a really fun scene here. The attack on the DRock mothership linear rolls the hard six and blows up the DRock carrier. It is, it is good. Scene and then they head back to Babylon five.

Victor

On, on the, so something I that I, I wrote down here about the scene when they were first trying to escape the track that they used a um, they asked Delan ask Lanier if he can do a maneuver from the Warrior cast called skin dancing. Let's just take a moment for that one there

Laura

I think

Victor

says, no, but it. And let me just say, I am glad the mbar have better AI than humans do. Cause I would not wanna do anything uh, with ai, tell it to do skin dancing. No man that's gonna gimme nightmares from whatever the hell.

Laura

you're just gonna get some shitty art outta that one.

Victor

So somebody braver than me out there with mid journey access, plugin, skin dancing as a prompt to mid journey. And then, yeah, post what pops up if you're brave enough.

Xhafer

Don't send it to me, but describe it. I'm curious, but not that curious.

Laura

Yeah, I'm glad they've got a better handle on their ai, but it is like part Von technology. Right. So you would think that that might put the rock off a little bit when the part Von Fleet shows up?

Xhafer

Yeah. You'd think they would know. Yeah.

Victor

Mm-hmm. Cause didn't uh, yeah. When John's wife came back from the dead and she, she could tell that the ship, she felt it, that it was part Bolon and that freaked her out. Yeah.

Laura

it upset her. It was not

Victor

be able to

Laura

maybe that's why he is touching all the buttons.

Xhafer

Yeah. Which one of these is self-destruct motherfuckers?

Victor

Yeah.

Xhafer

Delen gives shit to Sheridan back on the station for redecorating when she was only gone for three days.

Victor

Yeah, she says they redecorated, but it looks exactly the same except for there's a ladder in the background.

Xhafer

They painted a giant Babylon five over the painted star map.

Laura

Yeah,

Victor

didn't notice that. Okay.

Laura

That's

Xhafer

And then there's a giant wooden Babylon five shield. Back there too, which is actually something that was found recently that giant Babylon five shield, made outta wood, was found Someone on Twitter posted about it maybe six, eight months ago. And I've actually got it saved in my woodworking file because I'm eventually going to make me one of them.

Victor

Oh dope. make three.

Laura

just sitting in a warehouse on the WB

Xhafer

yeah, yeah. They just found it somewhere. Yep. I want a giant one that I can like put up in my home theater. Right. I want it like an 8, 6, 7 foot tall one, but I also want one, I can get people to autograph. So I don't know which of these is going to win but we'll figure it out.

Laura

gonna have to do the one that people can autograph soon because

Xhafer

Yeah. Honestly, like no one stv STL vs. Come around around the corner and uh, Walter Koenig's gonna be there. I was looking at getting a ster action figure and then taking it to him to autograph. And I priced all of that out and it was almost $200 between the autograph and the figure. And I'm just all like, I can't do that right now.

Victor

Yeah.

Xhafer

Oh, but wouldn't that be so nice to have for forever?

Laura

Uhhuh. He's so great. He was so sweet when I'd watched him last year, watched him talk.

Xhafer

Yeah, he had his uh, his hour on stage was one of the best for sure.

Laura

Mm-hmm.

Xhafer

Anyways uh, John calls the drop a wild card and hey, drop backwards is card. Uh, They talk about how they both have their own upcoming civil conflicts to deal with, so they're gonna transition to a long distance relationship for a bit.

Victor

Which Delen? If I was John, I'd be like, Glen, you know? Okay. Countdown. I've, I don't have a lot of time left here. Hell, you know, is he's, he's literally told him he's, yeah, he's got 20 years left. That's, I gotta say, if I was in that situation and, and what is his name? The first one? What am I spacing on this, Lori? Yeah. Lori tells me I, I have 20 years period.

Optimistically if I don't get hit by a bus or whatever, At that point, I would've been like, Hey guys, good luck with the shadow war thing. I'm gonna go find a freaking planet with a beach somewhere. I'm gonna do shit that I want to do. You guys figure this out?

Laura

Yeah, I'll be on Beach Planet with my margaritas and my hot wife.

Xhafer

Yeah.

Victor

Like, I'm done. Yeah.

Xhafer

Yeah. But they, they have the hard work ahead now to rebuild, destroying, and war are easy in comparison. Uh, But she doesn't have to leave until the morning Winky face emoji. And then Marcus on guard duty over here is Steven in number one doing it to credits. Winky face emoji.

Victor

he, he's playing with his

Xhafer

Yeah,

Victor

shaking it.

Xhafer

these are real. Now, by the way, if you were unaware, you can buy these on Amazon. Collapsible stabs.

Victor

Like actual den or, or like, I've seen the little things that just

Xhafer

yeah, yeah. yeah. They're like collapsible, like six foot stabs or something. Yeah.

Victor

Yes.

Xhafer

Ugh.

Laura

The videos look cool. I questioned the actual execution. Is Marcus sitting here like diddling with his staff while they're obviously having sex? that's intentional, right?

Victor

There's

Xhafer

I, your

Victor

no way that's not, yeah. Especially that they explained previously how the, how the staff works. You have to shake it firmly twice.

Laura

Uh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right on. I love it. I love the innuendo.

Xhafer

but do you love this episode? Because it's the, that's the end of it right there. We, we, we've hit credit, so it's time. On a scale of Babylons one to five to rate this episode, Victor, as the guest, you get to go

Victor

Uh, I'm gonna give this one, three and a half Babylons cause it was uh, only because it, it, I remember seeing this episode for the first time as a kid when it first aired and getting really excited. For the, the DRock storyline that was coming up that never happened. Like this is like, pretty much, this is the last we ever see of the DRock ships, I think until like the, the one of the movies. But the DRock are just kind of in the background the entire time. Like I was really disappointed.

I kept waiting for the big DRock fleet battle. That was gonna happen that never did. So uh, that, but but standalone as an episode, it was really good, especially because there was Noo, no Jaar, no Garibaldi, no Zach, they're all absent for this episode.

Xhafer

Yeah.

Laura

yeah.

Victor

That was really interesting.

Laura

They were all absent and it was still, you know, we still had some wit and humor. I think for me, this is a three babylons because it is a nice, good average episode for me. I honestly didn't remember the stuff where we went to see the rock like from, from my childhood watch. They just sort of did not make an impression on my little childhood brain.

Xhafer

I am not sure if I'm remembering this properly because I haven't watched Crusade since it originally aired.

Laura

Mm-hmm.

Xhafer

But I do believe the jock are present in Crusade.

Victor

Hmm.

Laura

Okay.

Xhafer

I think they come back around, or maybe it's in Legend of the Rangers or something, one of the movies, maybe it's called arms. It's something they, they are in something else.

Laura

Yeah.

Victor

Yeah.

Laura

We're gonna find out eventually, but honestly, that whole thing, even the stuff with being on the white star and Pharrell pulling a gun, didn't remember any of it.

Xhafer

yeah,

Laura

What about you, Jafer? You didn't give us your number.

Xhafer

I'm right there. I put down three and a half. It is a decent episode. It has a couple of fun moments. It has some very frustrating moments. But it is not. It is as, as I've stated in a handful of these episodes recently, where the big war is over and we're building to the next big thing. These are never episodes that I would revisit outside of a full series rewatch,

Laura

yeah.

Xhafer

and that's just a limiter right off the bat for me when it comes to these ratings.

Laura

I do love being on Mars and I love what we're setting up with Mars, but we're not like it yet.

Xhafer

Mm-hmm.

Victor

I, I've got this episode up on the TV right now on mute, and that's right now the scene where Pharrell die. And that was, it was funny. He just gets a light little bonk on the head from like a set piece on the white star, and that's what kills him. It's like, damn, he dies from, But, but they have a whole bone right there to

Laura

Oh, that's true. They have the big

Xhafer

It domes him though, like gets him on the crown up front though.

Victor

They got a built in helmet

Xhafer

We. If that's just exposed skull though, wouldn't that make them more apt to head injury?

Laura

I don't know.

Xhafer

Because there's like nothing

Victor

there, when you, I, I know we've got some, some nurses and doctors out there. You, you weigh in on this. Would having an extra bone help or hinder. No.

Xhafer

All right. Well, that's our episode. Next up for Babylon five is season four, episode 12. Conflicts of Interests but we actually have our movie break next week. And we haven't talked about it at all. We haven't said anything yet because there's been some scheduling conflicts and a couple of things, and it's still not a hundred percent, but it's looking very likely, like we're going to have a guest with us for our movie episode.

I don't even wanna say who to get anyone's hopes up in case it doesn't happen. But we're working really hard with them on this uh, They are someone who is on a very short list of people indirectly responsible for this podcast existing. I think it'd be fair to say they'd be one of our greatest guests. So we'll see if that happens. What if, if it does, if it doesn't, we're still gonna be here next week watching The Fugitive, which is fun cuz both Lauren and I have never seen it.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

And then we will also be uh, That episode airs right after Star Trek Las Vegas. But obviously that trip is a month away right now. But I'll be there at the very least. I've already got my flight booked and everything. So if you end up going to Star Trek, Las Vegas I'll see me around. Holler and we'll talk Babylon five.

Laura

Yeah, I, I will be bowing out this year with my little one still being too small for me to feel like I can leave her for that long. So I hope that you have a wonderful time, Jafer, and I hope that you get to go as well, Victor.

Victor

Yeah. I hope so too.

Xhafer

We'll grab a drink if you go

Laura

yeah, meet up, get a drink

Xhafer

sure.

Victor

For sure.

Laura

and toast for me. I'd appreciate it.

Xhafer

All right, Victor. Tell everyone where they can find Dominion Media Television.

Victor

Facebook.com/dominion Media tv. We've got lots of, tons of ongoing shows right now. Right now we're also in the middle of the Strange New World's Fantasy Away Team League. If any of you have ever familiar with fantasy football uh, what we do is we. You, you draft a team of Star Trek characters from Strange New Worlds, and every episode you watch and they get total points. It's, it's it's like fantasy football, but way cooler. So,

Xhafer

How much work is that for you?

Victor

for me it's all the work, but for the players, if you're you just draft your team and you just enjoy the ride. But yeah uh, everything they do, if they fire a phaser that's worth like 10 points. Uh, if they have a. A funny line or they say a catchphrase that's worth points. So it's uh, it adds, it, it's, it makes it even more exciting to watch the new episodes. It's been a lot of fun.

I started it off with the first season, the Strange New Worlds, and we had about like, I wanna say between 30 or 40 people playing. Then we did the new season Star Trek card and had even more people. Now it's almost 200 players that we have for the season of Strange New World. So it's really exciting. So, yeah, check it out. Facebook.com/dominion Media tv. And next caller,

Xhafer

Well, with all that said, thank you, Victor, for joining us.

Victor

thank you for having me. I've been looking forward to this. This was a lot of fun. It was lovely to see you again, Laura. It's great to meet you face to face, sort of

Xhafer

Yeah. And, uh, so we'll be back next week, but until then, we'd like to thank Jeremy Siegel for our absolutely lovely theme music. As of recording, Jeremy's June album is out. You can go listen to it. Uh, Juniper. It's good. I dug it. You did good on it. Jeremy. I know you, I saw some posts because we're Facebook friends now. For everyone who followed that saga in the thank yous um, where you were uh, self-conscious about it, how it was gonna turn out, it turned out great. I really dug it.

You did a good job. So keep that up. You can find Jeremy's work at jeremy Siegel two.bandcamp.com and as nuclear jaguar on your favorite streaming services.

Laura

And thank you to Angry Duck Time machine on Instagram for our podcast artwork.

Xhafer

Thank you, Erin, for editing our podcast and making sure that it's listenable instead of mediocre dribbling trash. Uh, We really appreciate you uh, and all the work you do there. And thank you listener for choosing to spend your time with Laura and Victor and I today. We really appreciate that. We love our community so much. Thanks for joining on that. You can get on our discord and interact with people there. There's usually a conversation going, it's a lot of fun.

And then you also have our email. Who are you? B five gmail.com. That I do check occasionally. And we're still on fucking Twitter, even though that's just about dead at this point. But that's where the League of Not Aligned Podcasts lives. So until the league and j m s move, were stuck. But eventually, maybe even by the time this airs, everyone will have moved to thread. Fingers crossed

Laura

I saw threads came up and I was like, God, not another one. I'm so, I'm so bad. I'm so overloaded.

Victor

even learned TikTok yet. I dunno how that thing works. So,

Laura

You got your hands full over on Facebook though. Everybody should follow Dominion Media Television cuz it is a goddamn delight in the middle of my day. If I'm just scrolling through my feed and there's a new D M T, I'm so happy.

Victor

Thank you so

Xhafer

And it,

Victor

that's why I do it. It's the only reason I use Facebook anymore too. So.

Laura

Mm-hmm. Well, it's a great use of your

Xhafer

I've been following

Victor

Thanks.

Xhafer

for years at this point.

Victor

Oh, really? Oh yeah. I had no idea. Oh, thank

Xhafer

so, Occasional co-host and co-host of my other podcast. Last time on Ben introduced you. And d m t to me. Uh, Probab be before the pandemic. Were you doing them that far back?

Victor

Yeah, it started in late 2018. I wanna say

Xhafer

Yeah. I, I wanna say probably 20 18, 20 19 sometime. So yeah, I, it's super cool to interact. Super cool. Have you on. Thanks so much for joining us and we'll see all next week. Internet.

Laura

Bye.

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