Babylon 5 #1 - Atop the Fourth Wall

Purchase the new DVD with a credit card here: kunaki.com/msales.asp?Publishe...
Purchase the new DVD with Paypal here: kunaki.com/MSales.asp?Publishe...
Welcome to Atop the Fourth Wall, where bad comics burn. In this episode, Linkara looks at a tie-in comic to the sci-fi series Babylon 5!
atopthefourthwall.com
Originally released June 5th, 2017.
ORIGINAL INFO: The Babylon project was a dream given form... but in this comic, we just fell asleep again.

[@smjaiteh]

I predicted the "Over There" joke as soon as I saw the Superman 701. I am the Third Revelation.

[@WilliamGarland]

"Tell me young man, what do you want out of life?" "I want peas." "Oh, we all want peace, but it's always just out of reach. So, what's the best way to get peace?" "With a knife!"

[@Tortoiseharecreation]

Just restarted the series with someone who hadn't yet seen it. So, so good. Fun fact: I once emailed JMS and asked him to settle a bet for me: whether it was meant to be an ensemble piece or was really the story of Londo & G'Kar, and everything else was contributory to their arc... He answered and said he had always considered B5 to be the story of L &G. Nice guy, and I won a dinner from a friend.

[@eugenideddis]

Indi Martin Do you know where I can watch it?

[@Tortoiseharecreation]

Amazon Prime has it, I believe, and it's on iTunes (if you don't have the DVD sets)

[@SMAXZO]

I hope your friend brought you to a nice place. Getting the series creator to settle a bet for you deserves at least a nice steak.

[@Takisan111]

Suddenly the entire series makes a lot more sense.

[@rmsgrey]

Also, Londo is the only person to be personal about opening narration - the very first line of the entire thing is the opening narration of the pilot episode: "I was there at the dawn of the third age of mankind..." Sinclair and Sheridan get "It was the dawn of the third age of mankind", Ivanova gets "The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace" and Season 4 gets a whole bunch of people's "It was the year of ___". Consider In The Beginning (the prologue TV movie) and events in one of the novels, and you realise that the entire show is Londo telling a story to some Centauri children. No wonder it's his story - and G'Kar's, as Londo's nemesis - he's the one telling it! On the other hand, while it's hard to argue that Londo and G'Kar get the richest arc, there are plenty of other people whose stories are told during the 5 year run of the show. There's a case to be made that the originally planned story was Sinclair's story - the pilot episode is about the events when he first boards the station, and the final episode would have been about his departure (with Delenn - Catherine Sakai would have filled Anna Sheridan's role) and even with Sheridan taking over a large chunk of Sinclair's planned storyline, there's still a case to be made that that story is the central one the show is built around - the story of an inspirational leader who united the (known) galaxy, and totally wasn't just a sci-fi version of Aragorn... Deconstruction is definitely all about Sheridan and Delenn. Those four are, arguably, the major characters, with the rest of the main cast supporting, but you can argue for either arc as the primary one. Certainly, Season 4 focused in on Sheridan and Delenn's stories at the expense of Londo, G'Kar and everyone else...

[@fudgegorilla]

Naming your ship Icarus is a good way to say "Fuck you fate!". You're taking the name of a myth about failing, about limitations, and you push infinitely past what he was able to accomplish! It's not about failure, it's the greatest victory of all! Spiteful victory!

[@Drake5607]

Yeah! It's about punching the sun!

[@fudgegorilla]

PUNCH THE SUN

[@Floweramon]

There's a webcomic that has a scientist character like that. She takes inspiration from mythological stories that were supposed to teach mankind about hubris, and as you said, says "Fuck that" and retools them to motivate herself and others to go past their limits to accomplish greatness.

[@Drake5607]

Yeah, I kind of steal it from there, strong female protagonist :) really neat webcomic :)

[@MrSafior]

What is the name of this comics ?

[@gregdeandrea1450]

Linkara on William Morgan Clark. "Kind of a Bastard," "Anything but sympathetic" Understatements of the First Age.

[@Barrobroadcastmaster]

"Unlike a lot of tie-in media, THEY'RE CANON." You know it's a big deal when Linkara pauses to give a fact half a second more emphasis.

[@roguishpaladin]

It becomes super-relevant due to what happened with B5. Michael O'Hare, the actor for Commander Sinclair, had a mental illness that got very bad as they filmed season 1. His cast members didn't know about his mental illness, so they didn't understand why O'Hare treated them poorly. JMS was willing to suspend the show for a few months in order for O'Hare to try to get things sorted out, but instead, out of concern for the jobs of the remaining cast and crew, O'Hare voluntarily left the show. This meant, however, that Sinclair would have to be written off of the show. While Sinclair would show up three more times in the show, there wasn't much chance to pay off a lot of the plot hooks set for him in season 1 - most notably his relationship with Catherine Sakai. The comics being canon allowed them to address Sinclair in more detail and resolve some of those dangling ends.

[@tscream80]

You gotta love the little grins Linkara does when he mentions certain spoilers about Clark. ;)

[@TheAwakeOrangutang]

Linkara: Can it wait for a minute, Pollo, I'm in the middle of some calibrations. Spiritually, he's probably a Turian.

[@kieranelliott5607]

Given the Minbari's reaction to a tragic mistake was to embark upon a campaign of genocide, I find it easy to believe they really did decide talking about things, in English, in front of Sinclair was a fine idea. Not great at reasoning.

[@dukespubber741]

Man, I'm so glad Linkara hired Game Show Reviewer to do the new backgrounds and space scenes for this show. The effects are worlds better than during the first few years after Linkara got Comicron One.

[@harmonicajay91]

"I needed this like I needed a bullet in my head." (smiles) I GET IT!

[@carlrood4457]

The thing about Byron and company is that they were originally planned as a fairly short arc and had to be expanded because of the compression of events to finish out the story in season 4. That, in a nutshell is season 5's main problem. What was more or less supposed to be epilogue in the final third of the season had to be stretched out. Add in that Claudia Christian's departure meant introducing a new station commander and shoehorning her into a main character's backstory and giving her a past issue that tied her to another main character, it just felt forced. Some of the more standalone episodes were quite good. SFDebris just did a review of one focusing on Bester. Also, the Londo/G'Kar stuff was as good as ever, probably because it was handled mostly as intended without much filler. Also, by this point Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas (RIP) had their chemistry down pat.

[@OnDavidsBrain]

7:02 "You deserve a prize for surviving the War Sinclair, here have a head that's always screaming!" 12:54 So you need a species to collect souls for your people eh? Well I know just the guys to outsource too, they're cute, fluffy and so, so efficient! ／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼ "You called?" Wow I referenced two eldritch monsters in one review, what have I been doing?

[@OnDavidsBrain]

It's like an endless game of Wack-a-mole with these things they just keep coming back!

[@HiopX]

what fun is there in making sense?

[@MitchellTF]

*Continuous reactive scream* kzbin.info/www/bejne/epi9mKKmfaZspZY

[@ilove2draw322]

IS THAT A MOTHERFUCKING MADOKA REFERENCE?!!?

[@OnDavidsBrain]

@@ilove2draw322 Yep yep!

[@cherry-cj9iq]

The sarcastic "this is DEFINITELY the case, do not worry :)" smile kills me every time. I have no knowledge on Babylon 5 outside of this video, so this was a very interesting ride despite my expectations, much like the Star Trek reviews (never consumed Star Trek media directly, only via these reviews). Linkara has a way to get even stuff I don't know about to be interesting, and boy oh boy this is another proof of that.

[@Sarioya]

To quote Ivanova, "I do not like Santiago. I've always thought that a leader should have a strong chin. He has no chin, and his vice president has several. This to me is not a good combination." Gotta say, Clark doesn't really look like has has more than one in this.

[@AT4W]

Yeah, the art depicts him as much thinner and scrawnier than he was in the series proper.

[@d.wayneharbison8691]

Actually JMS' Superman got him a nice little royalty check from Warner Brothers when Man of Steel was released as that story was so close to his work that he should have been credited as the writer.

[@BesterP12]

B5: legend of the kinect rangers

[@seb24789]

Makes even the cast of G Gundam shake their heads.

[@jamcalx]

Sam Vimes IN ZERO GRAVITY!

[@Dynaman21]

BesterP12 Makes all the yelling at Crusade over being a Star Blazers knockoff seem like small potatoes.

[@BesterP12]

Dynaman21 crusade got screwed by episode order change and then edits to try to hide the order change.

[@KassFireborn]

In its defense, it predated the Kinect by years, and sounded like a cool as hell concept on paper. ...rather like the Kinect.

[@henrygvidonas9573]

"That which we are, we are - I yam what I yam and tha's all that I yam." It kinda works.

[@insertname5371]

Thank You for showing this show to more people it is a work of art. My fondest memories are me and my dad sitting down to watch this

[@kirabrylow4834]

Dear Linkara, I just want to say thank you. I have been watching Babylon 5 per your recommendation (also because I love Star Trek Deep Space Nine). Also thank you for all the awesome content. Good luck on everything.

[@JohnnyElRed]

Hey, at least Commander Sinclair had it easier than Commander Shepard in Mass Effect. At least his bosses apologized and wanted to compensate him after screwing him over. Not just limit to... you know. Keep screwing him over.

[@roguishpaladin]

18:59 kinda talks about that, actually. The representation of President Clark is WAY too charitable to him. Series Clark is a totalitarian bastard who resorts to bombing his own citizens and other human rights violations.

[@NickMichalak]

I've been a B5 fan since nearly the beginning, I own the complete series, the TV movie collection, but never knew there were comics produced for the show. And yes, it is one of the finest science fiction series ever. While it didn't have the general production values and cinematography quality of Star Trek TNG or DS9, the quality of writing and acting were right on point.

[@chrissonofpear3657]

This is a fairly significant arc, that also ties into the Dream in the City of Sorrows novel. There was also a comic arc about finding the remains of Babylon 4 again, post Valen's war.

[@davidspring4003]

"Babylon 5 was meant to have a 5-year story line and a definitive end" YEAH ABOUT THAT....

[@deborahingle2301]

Yay! A storyline bit at last!

[@epicgam2317]

finally! I thought it would never come!

[@RonaldPoe]

As much as I enjoy Linkara's comic reviews (his jokes too), I'm glad to see the storyline back (the 'Sleepwalker' arc has been taking a long time without a resolution). Who's the arc's title referring to anyway?

[@HyruleSwordsman94]

And less than 90 seconds to make an "over there" joke! I think that's a new record.

[@brains4845]

that "subtle" foreshadowing about the bullet in the head made me laugh more than it really should.

[@PhantomSkitty]

I recommended Babylon 5 to my boyfriend, who had never seen it before. He loved every bit of it and now we both geek out about it.

[@Tounushi]

on the security armor, I think the mesh is supposed to be quilted fabric. The flak vests in the first episode were made out of quilted pads.

[@kaicreech7336]

I had hoped that Linkara's new ship was going to be his house, but I guess that would have been pushing it a little to far.

[@UstraMage]

B5 was and is my favorite show of all time. Love it so much.

[@Toskin]

Babylon 5 review AND AT4W storyline? ... It's my birthday already?

[@348joey]

Just finished watching the second season, so I think I can finally go back and watch this episode. I know it's kinda silly for over a decade old show, but thanks for the spoiler warning before hand, and for getting me interested in the show just in the first four minutes.

[@starwarsnerd100]

I've seen bits and pieces of b5, this is reminding me that I should really get around to seeing the rest of it some time.

[@bepkororoti8019]

starwarsnerd100 if you do, make sure that the viewing order is chronological it's not like tns where you could basically jump in without problems. The 5 year arc is a really nice thing in the show

[@Marinealver]

It is like the Babylon 5 food chain. From the weakest to the strongest race. Narn < Earth Alliance < Centuri < Minbari < Vorlon < Shadow

[@lliaolsen728]

JMS wrote on of the best episode of "The Real Ghost Busters" , "The Thing in Mrs. Faversham's Attic" (1987)

[@Boomstick836]

Great review. The look you gave after 13:16 and 14:15? Priceless 😁👍🏻

[@mikecimerian6913]

What do Pak'ma'ra call body bags? Happy meals.

[@sami5614]

I just finished the last season of babylon 5 like half hour ago and then I see linkara doing a video about that show

[@knate44]

The only remaining question is whether or not Morton wanted to sell Encyclopedias.

[@BesterP12]

Met my partner and some great friends in AOL's B5 eclipse Cafe back in the day.

[@Penamesolen]

I like your "Over there" running jokes, but this episode's "over there" was the best one! XD

[@beholder9]

God how I miss this show.

[@Vohaul86]

Saturday night in Finland in the '90s: Babylon 5 followed by Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Good times.

[@zachcooper7225]

I love your reviews! Way to go Lewis!!!

[@xiaolindinomaster992]

AWSOME! We get to se the construction of Comicron 2, and it's looking good so far!

[@nvfury13]

Xiaolin Dino Master Is it just me, or does the new design scream "Airship!" to anyone else?

[@thornangel16]

Nice to see Comicron Two is coming along building-wise! I can't wait to see what sorts of cool stuff Linkara will have for her!

[@dennismason3740]

"...lemme tell ya 'bout Mar-velle..." - yup

[@CactusJackIV]

I have not seen, nor no anything about Babylon 5. But I love AT4W, and I really needed to smile. I am lucky there was a new video.

[@DarthCuddlefluff]

"Uhh, well that comic is OVER THERE." Pretty much the only thing you could have said there and it made me giggle.

[@1985Cyrus]

Death is a Rhombus, I had to pause the video until I could stop laughing.

[@Rocketboy1313]

I feel that JMS' Superman work is balanced out by his work on Thor His Thor stuff is so awesome.

[@BenjiDWJ]

Awesome video & review as ever Linkara :) keep up the good work!.

[@KassFireborn]

Hey, JMS has outright stated One More Day wasn't just not his choice, it wasn't his writing and if not for contractual issues wouldn't have even borne his name. That man has been fucked with so damn much by execs it's pretty much his super-power. A really, really terrible superpower.

[@theodoremastermind6898]

this is an awesome show!!!

[@krzysztofwujczak616]

Because you mentioned that b5 was awesome a while ago. I watched entire series and I agree, Thanks for telling me about it!

[@grayscribe2125]

"...the shadiest thing this government has done..." Thank you for the best joke I heard in a while.

[@MrBroken030]

i loved that series!

[@MiscellaneousSoup]

Yay, a nice video to watch after some library processing work.

[@DAsrada]

Maxwell Lord: Well excuse me, Linkara! They look exactly like my OMACs, who have never been anything but intimidating. (people murmuring about the initial mohawk look) Forget that EVER happened!

[@boopagm8275]

this is gonna be awesome

[@TheNN]

Points on you for not making any DS9 jokes, Linkara.

[@camerongrow6426]

I really need to watch Babylon 5.

[@westshiro]

it would have amused me greatly if spoiler warning came with a picture of spoiler

[@chocobros1]

westshiro sadly spoiler hasnt been introduced yet to the show so he would need to explain her first which would kill the joke

[@tanasaky]

DAAAMN, those are some good effects for the story bit. Whoever did them deserves a raise, Linkara. Or at least a pat on the back.

[@AlSidre]

honestly I can see why people thought DS9 was a rippoff but I like both. Both are 0great shows and I love the characters and the settings

[@linkeffect82]

I enjoy those both quite a lot. To me, DS9, while certainly thick enough with politics, leans more towards the drama and people, if only by a few hairs, but B5, while it has plenty of good drama and stories on people, overall leans just a little more towards the intrigue of the complexities of the politics of the worlds, and the conspiracies. The differences of the basic structures are not too huge in some ways, but there are still fundamentally different enough that both shows are unique, intergalactic plays of great stories and heartfelt notions,philosophies, action, and consequence, which I am happy to have part of humanity's many stories.

[@lorzon]

Love the knowing grin after all the (not)spoilers.

[@wuebboltc]

Babylon 5 is amazing.

[@MrBlaineFox]

ah Babylon 5, while id caught an episode here and there when I was younger, it wasnt until I was looking for something to mindwipe the conclusion of Mass effect 3 that led to a full watch of the series, might have to do it again since its been a few years.

[@ironwarmonger]

Best Lines: First you will know fear Then you will know pain Then you will die Have a nice flight.

[@OmiGundam777]

See, if you want to go for peaceful first contact, never, ever, ever, fire first.

[@MalitiaRita]

They misunderstood the customs of the Mimbari warrior caste. Apparently they think keeping your weapons activated (not aimed at anything just ready to fire a shoot)is a greeting... Earth forces thought they wanted to fire.

[@hitomisalazar4073]

I've been meaning to get more into Babylon 5. I lucked out finding a copy of Season 1 on DVD in a bargain bin at an outlet store a few years back. But oddly enough, the DVD set did not actually include the pilot. Though they reference it here and there I have little idea what happened other than somehow Kosh was injured. The medic was pulled to Earth after saving Kosh, being the only human to see what a Vorlon actually was. But they never actually mentioned that the President was assassinated, oddly enough. You'd think "Oh yeah, the president got slaughtered" would be an event that would get mentioned. Particularly during the season 1 Presidential Visit episode...

[@AT4W]

Happened at the end of season 1 - the finale.

[@CosmoShidan]

I blame season 5's droning and dragging on account that Straczsky had his copy of the season 5 manuscript stolen by a fan, and having to re-write it from scratch.

[@bepkororoti8019]

finally someone stating the obvious, what a ride of a show, I love it, rewatching right now 8-)

[@Volthoom]

Ahh, yes, Babylon 5. I first saw it as a kid, and to this day, not only does it hold up, i still haven't seen _anything_ that could top it as my personal favorite TV-show. Firefly could've done this, i think, bu-ut we all know what happened. Didn't read the comics, so this should be interesting :D And yeah, as Linkara said, if you haven't seen B5 - just...watch it. Seriously. You don't even have to like sci-fi that much to like it, i didn't. It's just a combination of incredibly good episode-writing, storyarc-writing, character writing and acting, etc.

[@cbhlde]

Years without a comment? That would only do over there! :p

[@bearinokc1047]

that bullet in the head joke almost made me choke on my toast good stuff😀

[@bwminich]

14:15: Hahahahahaha! :D Knowing what I do about Earthgov, that's just hilarious.

[@arellajardin2323]

I always wondered why Season 5 felt so tacked on. Captain Lochley was no replacement for Ivanova. The direction they took Lyta Alexander was unsatisfying, and really the whole thing with Byron and his cult sucked. And really, most of the plot felt like cleaning up after the party, in comparison to Season 4.

[@bepkororoti8019]

And we'll all come together in a better place... Byron worked for me, season 5 did feel tacked on and way cheaper than even season 1. Imagine the full 5 season arc without the rewrites and a bigger budget

[@cthulhupthagn5771]

Arella Jardin i hated the series finale. i felt it shit on the hard earned happy endings by saying it was all pointless because war starts again and everything is forgotten

[@AT4W]

I'd hardly say it was pointless. War is always going to start up again - it's the cycle of life. But there's always hope to make it better the next time around, and what they built DID still endure. After all, "Faith manages."

[@psycher7]

And what is loved endures.

[@evelynraymond]

It felt like that because of JMS was unsure about whether there would be a season five and so sped up the action in season four to tie up at least the major storylines.

[@SomeGeekTalking]

Your trollface is amazing in this episode.

[@Scorpioenigma4]

Babylon 5 is sooo good!

[@Muck006]

Honestly the "soul logic" has a flaw: If humans have those souls killing the humans would free them again for more Minbari to be born again ... after all they ARE "eternal" ...

[@yuzzem64]

I hope in the future linkara checks out the first issues of comics based on Stargate and X-Files so he can give his thoughts on those series and their history in comic form

[@beta269]

22:16 - And don't forget about all the stuff that won't be installed until Tuesday. A backup plan, huh. Well I just have one question for you then... *"What do you want?"*

[@fatalrob0t]

"At least you know that is the shadiest thing this government has ever done......... : D" You're killing me, Linkara!

[@Roserae16]

When you get to the end of the credit crawl and there's still 3min left on the time bar... me: HELL YES!

[@MountC]

Yay! The Thunderdome jokes back!

[@New3DSLuigi364]

WOW!!!!!!! I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE LINKARA'S Backup Plan to Comicron-2!! ALTHOUGH I Still wonder WHY Comicron-1 Crashed!!

[@charlezard5579]

New3DSLUIGI364 back up plan is he better get to work on comicron 3 and outfit his house with guns

[@nvfury13]

New3DSLUIGI364 Because the returned Lord Vice trashed it's systems.

[@ShadowWingTronix]

I first learned about the book at issue #5 so I haven't read any of this story arc except for the time I read issue #1 at the barber shop. I picked up the rest of the series and the "In Valen's Name" miniseries, and I do recommend it for fans of the show. I do agree that non-fans might get lost occasionally, especially the last issue, which was a PSA for Psi-Corp.

[@fatalrob0t]

"I mean, I need that as much as I need a bullet to the skull....... : D" I cracked up really loudly at that.

[@cameronpearce5943]

I mean, they called their multi-cultural station the babylon. You know, the place with the tower that caused all language to break because God got jelly.

[@rocklobsterjwt]

Babylon 5 is currently streaming on Go90.

[@SMAXZO]

You want to know who designed the Presidential Guards armor? None other than THRUST BARCODE AND HIS LEGION OF G-MEN!

[@BesterP12]

Also i knew the secret when I started watching the show. It was on an odd channel. And I saw no ads until the start of season two.

[@KamenRachel]

*Crosses fingers* Please tell me the backup plan is a megazord, please tell me the backup plan is a megazord, please tell me the backup plan is a megazord...

[@rafibausk7071]

yay back to the story.

[@SpectreblueLeftTesticle]

had no idea you liked b5 too was a baby when it aired watched it recently and loved it

[@johnoneil9188]

The finishing of the ship may be months off still but I can already feel a Star Trek the Movie style drawn out sweep of the space ship coming with Linkara as Kirk and Poyo as Mr. Scott

[@thedarkercarter]

Oh man I didn't realize there was a comic!

[@GendoRokabundi]

Drax approves of that weapons system.

[@Volvagia1927]

"Just to remind you, someone approved this." I'll take, EVERYTHING related to Barbara Kean on Gotham, Alex. (Seriously, someone actually approved "the, at the very least, inspiration for the most well known Batgirl's real name is a psycho mob boss" as an ongoing plot thread in a Batman prequel. And instead of acknowledging "oh, crap, Jim Gordon is supposed to be able to name his daughter Barbara" (again, this is broadest strokes stuff that they're messing up on), they just kill her off fighting another criminal for ignoble reasons. Gotham, ladies and gentlemen: Even as the goofy thing it decided it wanted to be after five episodes? It's still a colossal failure.)