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Sunday, September 01, 2013

The saving powers of Babylon 5

I've been kind of depressed lately, but today at the library I found some old episodes of Babylon 5 and it cheered me up :)

Babylon 5 is an American space opera television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski ..... Described as "one of the most complex programs on television," the various story arcs drew upon the prophesies, religious zealotry, racial tensions, social pressures, and political rivalries which existed within each of their cultures, to create a contextual framework for the motivations and consequences of the protagonists' actions .... it received multiple awards during its initial run, including two consecutive Hugo Awards for best dramatic presentation and continues to regularly feature prominently in various polls and listings highlighting top-rated science fiction series.

Thinking about my cat Grendel ...



... who died almost exactly eight years ago. Once she had a very bad herpes blister on her eye and needed to wear an elizabethan collar so that she wouldn't rub it. Every day she and I would sit on the floor in front of the tv and I'd take the collar off: I'd watch an episode of Babylon 5 with one eye and Grendel with the other while giving her a chance to groom herself - happy memory :)

My favorite character of the show is Marcus, the Ranger, a kind of sad person, actually: he had lost his whole family to the evil ones and ended up giving his life to save the person he unrequitedly loved ....



But I liked everyone else as well, including the captain ....



And the Minbari ....



Maybe I'll post more about the show as I watch the next few seasons' episodes. Meanwhile, here's a clip of Marcus fighting a much stronger opponent, a Mimbari, to protect a friend ...


6 Comments:

Blogger Susan said...

I'd never heard of Babylon 5. Looked it up on Netflix, but it's not available to stream. They offer Battlestar Galactica, though. Did you watch that one?

Omigosh, Crystal, Grendel is just gorgeous! What a beautiful cat. I had a similar experience with Rocky recently. He had surgery on his paw, and wore a collar for 3 weeks. The urge to groom was powerful! I did the same as you, taking the collar of and putting it back on when the grooming progressed to the injured paw.

4:20 AM  
Blogger crystal said...

Hi Susan,

I did see Battlestar Galactica and liked it pretty much. Babylon 5 was older and less cynical and mean-spirited (but perhaps also less realistic and less cool).

Grendel was the mama of the three other cats, including Kermit. She just showed up as a stray and had the babies in the garage :)

12:21 PM  
Anonymous Richard said...

Thanks Crystal, sounds like a perfectly addictive series. Maybe it will fill the empty hours til Game of Thrones starts up again:) By the way, how did you come up with "Grendel" for such a cute little kitty?

12:55 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

Hi Richard,

You may be a little disappointed in B5 - it's kind of old fashioned.

I was watching reruns of Thirtysomething and they had a dog named Grendel (after the Beowulf monster) who was fluffy and beige, like Grendel the cat :)

1:39 PM  
Anonymous Richard said...

Interesting that the first episode was about intervention into atrocities committed against civilians of a weaker planet. Full episodes seem to be available on thewb.com. Thanks Crystal!

7:51 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

Thanks for the link. Sometimes I watch tv episodes at Hulu or at the sites the networks run but I didn't know about thewb.com. I do miss tv - I spend more of my Netflix dollars on tv episodes than movies, it seems.

8:03 PM  

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