Never trust a smiling Morden in an elevator.

Episode 14: “Signs and Portents”

J. Michael Stracynski once described certain B5 episodes as “WHAM” episodes, episodes that kicked the series arc forward or had otherwise momentous events. “And the Sky Full of Stars” was the first. This is a bigger one. Or so Chip repeatedly and excitedly enthuses. To paraphrase Mr. Morden, “So tell me what ya want, what ya really really want.”

7 thoughts on “Episode 14: “Signs and Portents””

  1. good to know. I’ve got some nits to pick with TKO, and didn’t want to miss my opportunity to gripe about them on the Internet… 🙂

  2. I watched the show as it aired, first go-around, and it tickled my brain in the best ways. I didn’t know what half of it meant but I already knew enough from JMS’ worldbuilding style thus far that this episode basically meant “just wait until this all pays off.”

  3. This is my first time watching this episode, and I liked it. Lots of mysterious things, but I liked how they set it up.
    “Hmmm. Interesting.” Flashing red light…what’s THAT? Yes Chip, I think that is how I would characterize Kosh’s encounter with the sinister “what do you want?” guy. Not that he SEEMS sinister except for the reactions of the other characters, which I really liked.
    And yeah, what could explain the raiders escaping so far away from jump gates? Well, right off the top of my head– a jumpgate generating ship? But I like your idea that no one in this story had ever seen one before. And yeah, bad guy acting wasn’t good.
    The prophecy was okay, but I didn’t really think that the “sharing the vision” was terribly helpful. Oh, the station is going to explode. But who is doing it? Why? How did they do it? Why are you showing me this??!!
    I thought Sinclair was pretty good in this episode.
    I’ll have to go back again and watch each ambassador’s answer to the question. I love the idea that their reaction gives us insight into their culture.
    And finally, my son asked what a portent was, so we looked it up. So he says, “This episode could have been called ‘Signs and Signs’.” Glad they went with this one. 🙂

Leave a Reply to Ari B. Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *