Oh I haven’t even looked into coordinating schedules and all, it was literally just a thought off the top of my head. But I’m quite serious about doing all I can do host the files if there’s enough interest by others to watch it at some point in the future, and if/when it can fit into/around the other series schedules on the channel.

I think I’m going to upload the series to the seedbox I use and keep it seeded permanently for anyone here. My home connection is pretty slow though. My copies are DVD rips, no remastering.

I’m wondering if it would be a good watch for the hextube, if there could be a way to stream straight from the seedbox. The service I use offers all sorts of options for ftp, http, etc.

There’s a certain character who undergoes a pretty major appearance change (same actor, and the change is for extremely valid plot reasons). The “who” and “how” is known by the end of season 1 so that part can’t be spoiled at least.

The funny thing about introducing B5 to people who have seen The Expanse is that they’ll find themselves saying things like “wait a minute, that sounds familiar…” often. For example, Mars is a major human colony with a population in the millions, and a source of various raw materials for Earth industry, which gaves rise to political tensions between independence-minded “Marsies” and the Earth government. At times those tensions have turned to open violence. In addition to the anti-fascism storyline, there’s also these anti-colonialist stories. And heartwarmingly, pro-union storylines! Space station dockworkers are basically Belters in all but name and patois. The CGI graphics haven’t aged too well, but the politics have aged like a fine wine as they say.

B5 is an interesting mix of soft and hard sci-fi. I’d say it skews closer to The Expanse. Maybe call it “Expanse with Star Trek characteristics”. JMS (the showrunner, and the man who personally wrote like 95% of the episodes) never wanted technical nitty-gritty to get in the way of a good story. He’s famous among fans for joking that hyperspace starships move “at the speed of plot”. So some alien races don’t play by the laws of physics as we know them. But it’s more of an Arthur C. Clarke “sufficiently advanced technology” thing, not a “lazy writing because I needed a deus ex machine” thing. And even then, the really advanced alien races’ technology is written consistently. That’s easier for a showrunner to do when your writing staff is yourself.

But JMS also wanted spacecraft to move according to real laws of physics if at all possible, for example if the species involved hasn’t advanced much compared to their interstellar neighbours. A good example is the Earth military spacefighter called a Starfury. Human ships run on Expanse rules where mass and momentum matter, and you only get gravity in space by linear acceleration or centrifuges. Starfuries have to maneuver with massive engine pods on the end of four big boom-like wings. The center section is a big reactor with a cockpit at the front (the pilot stands vertically, and it doubles as an escape pod) and guns around it. If a human pilot wants to fire at something chasing them, they won’t do a dramatic aircraft-like bank to try to get behind the opponent. They just fire their thrusters to flip 180°, let their momentum keep them moving “forward”, and open fire on the target that they’re now facing. But Starfury pilots have to be careful not to pull too many G’s lest they pass out, so they’re at a tactical disadvantage compared to more advanced alien species that have figured out artificial gravity.

Human starships and space stations have to have rotating sections for gravity. It’s Expanse rules here too. The most advanced human warship (a toy by their neighbors’ standards) has to have a big rotating center section, the rest of the ship is 0 G. This is even acknowledged in-universe as screwing with maneuverability due to the gyroscopic effect, which again puts them at a disadvantage compared to more advanced species.

Glad to help! I also forgot to mention to avoid watching the opening credits for season 2 until about, oh, episode 4 or so. There’s a major spoiler in the opening credits that I really wish they hadn’t put in, but oh well.

The G in “gif” is pronounced the same as the “G” in “gorgeous”.

It’s got a slow burn for the first season (skip “TKO”) but from then on it moves real fast, in good ways. Google nothing about it, just go in blind. It’s an amazing ride. The series finale is powerful and bittersweet but so earned. And there’s also a power couple romance for the ages. One of those rare kinds that feels both well earned and completely convincing due to amazing chemisty between the actors involved.

One thing to note about the show is frequent cast changes. The man who created it and wrote like 90% of the episodes never wrote a character into the overarching story without also having a plan to write them out if casting schedules became a problem. But in my mind these frequent changes keep conversations and interactions between characters fresh. This even extends to the main cast. Just thought I’d give you a heads-up.

Another thing I love about the show is that the creator/writer also has a guiding principle towards anything and anyone even slightly fascist: destroy it and shoot them, respectively. He’s a student of history. And he’s not talking about literal nazi outfits, but also quite specific early warning signs like appeals to tradition, nationalism, militarism, hero worship, and the like. I’d almost accuse him of copying from Umberto Eco’s 14-points essay, but he was working on the development of the show well before Eco published his work!

That Delenn mentioned above is something special. Someone who can treat her very junior new aide with true respect and a joke of “I cannot have an aide who will not look up. You will be forever walking into things.” Someone who can philosophize with “We are all slaves to our histories. If there is to be a bright future, we must learn to break those chains.” Someone who can rage at the universe with “This is my cause! Life! One life or a billion, it’s all the same!” And it’s even more astonishing that they found an actress who can pull it all off perfectly. (And yes, I am somewhat in love with Delenn, but it’s impossible to watch her and not fall in love with her in some fashion.)

The spoiler-free explanation is that in the fictional universe of Babylon 5, there’s a highly advanced species of humanoids called Minbari. They’re… really complicated. As are their relations with Earth and humans. But for the purposes of this explanation let’s just keep it short with saying that during the events of the series and afterwards, they’re genuinely friendly to humans and looking to stay friendly.

One time a race called the Streib waltzed in to Minbari space, looking to pick a fight. The Streib were feeling pretty confident in themselves at that point. They thought that the genuinely-non-expansionist Minbari wouldn’t make a big fuss over a little border dispute. The Minbari immediately launched an all-out assault with superior technology, numbers, tactics, and strategy on the Streib civilization. In the words of one of the main characters, a Minbari spiritual and political leader named Delenn, the purpose was to send a message so that the Streib would “understand the depth of their mistake”, and so that other civilizations in the galaxy would remember to stay on good behaviour with regards to the Minbari.

Rule #1 in the B5 universe is do not fuck with the Minbari. If you come to them peacefully for honest diplomatic and trade relations, they’ll reciprocate. They don’t start fights. But they sure as hell are good at ending them.

So after getting No Man’s Sky last week for Switch, I’ve put in a frankly ridiculous amount of time into it. A few thoughts from a casual who hasn’t played a PC game except for occasional Minecraft and KSP in 10+ years.

The whole philosophy of the game seems to be “think before acting”. I really like this. I feel less like an angry shooty soldier boy, and more like a calm and collected professional Starfleet officer.

I am going into this absolutely blind, using strictly the in-game help. I am not googling for anything. I am not watching any youtube videos. I’m okay with making mistakes because the universe is so vast I know I’ll find a new opportunity down the road where I can learn from those prior mistakes.

It scratches so many gaming-style itches so well. I can go from Minecraft style base building, to STALKER style venturing into dark places on foot weapon-ready, to Privateer-style space combat seamlessly. It all feels like it flows from one situation to the next naturally. I’ve heard the original release was a broken buggy disaster, but this particular release feels so polished. There’s some annoying loading times during various warps and teleports, but I’m okay with that, because otherwise it runs smooth and fast.

The graphics are noticably simpler than I’ve seen in screenshots for other versions, but at no point did I feel they’re too simple. The devs did the best they could with the Switch hardware and it shows. It’s akin to the magic that the devs of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom devs pulled off. It should not be possible to do what they did on this aging hardware, but they made it work. The moderately simpler graphics come across as more “stylized” than “low-res” which is a vibe I dig.

Fantastic motion controls on the Switch, among the best I’ve ever tried. I normally loathe both FPS and third-person games on thumbstick gamepads, but the devs did a great job here.

The “nanites have the blueprints, just provide the materials” tech/inventory mechanic took me awhile to figure out instead of just buying parts like in so many prior Privateer-alikes, but once I did, I adored the elegance of it. And it makes total sense in a nanotech-everywhere world.

I think a lot of historical monarchy problems would be solved with having access to a time machine and a Barret M82.

I once had fun with a door-to-door political canvasser working for a provincial-level Progressive Conservative (yes, that’s the official name, crazy as it sounds). I lied to him the party would have my vote if he answered accurately my question of “What am I?” He kept trying all sorts of formal and slang economic terms like taxpayer, earner, breadwinner, etc. When I told him “I was looking for ‘citizen’.” he just said that never crossed his mind, then realized what he’d said and walked away.

I do need to set up a fleet eventually and dust the fucking Xenon in the sector where they killed my first scout. That was uncalled for.

Ah, the Minbari approach. Excellent.

He used Apple Maps.

Gay bathhouses. If you’re curious about meth.

Have you ever seen the X-Files episode “Arcadia”? It’s not precisely that, but pretty close and very funny.

Expensive gentrified juice.

Always bully nazis. Take pride in it.

There’s no “home” if it’s long distance.

It’s not slur-ey enough.

I’ve been thinking about trying tofu for awhile. This post reminded me to get off my butt and do it, thank you! I picked up a stainless steel press yesterday. I just tried a simple air fryer recipe with cornstarch, avocado oil, and sriracha. It was pretty good for a first experiment. Could have been better but I chalk that up to my own inexperience. I am definitely going to keep practising with it.

Update, I have now become obsessed with marinades.

I am convinced that DS9 was only as good as it was because the really toxic decisionmakers were focused on Voyager.