Hobsonphile

You know, I don't think I've ever seen my father outright excited about anything before today. I've started reading A Canticle for Leibowitz, something I've been meaning to do for awhile now, and I think if it were possible for him to stand over my shoulder until I finish it, he would do so. Dad's an old, old school science fiction/fantasy fan and was a Catholic pre-Vatican II. He doesn't practice now, so it took me by surprise when he admitted that he liked Canticle so much because it brought back good memories. I tried to get him to talk further about the issue (being an intellectually curious post-Vatican II Catholic), but he remained frustratingly vague about his feelings. I think I'm going to have to keep working on him.

But anyway...

"The Day of the Dead"

Grade: B+



Watching these episodes again, I'm starting to like Lochley more than I did the first time around. As a character, she still doesn't approach the greats, but I think the writers did a respectable job making her a character in her own right rather than a simple replacement for Ivanova. Her by-the-book approach is a good counter-point to Sheridan (as I noted several episodes ago), she generates conflict with Garibaldi, and in DotD, she is given a unique backstory. Her visitation worked very well.

Of course, the darkest and best visitation was Lennier's, a visitation I saw in a brand new light this morning thanks to the work of deborah_judge, who explains the depth of Lennier's desire much better than I.

Londo's encounter was too brief, but it managed to get under my skin anyway. Peter Jurasik played Londo's almost tearful reaction to seeing Adira again flawlessly, as usual. And I loved Londo tipping back the brivari and chatting with an old portrait sitting on his sofa. He was so very matter-of-fact about that.

Garibaldi and Dodger didn't really do much for me.

The weakest scenes of the episode were the scenes outside of the four visitations. I must admit, my opinion of "Rebo and Zooty" is more like Lochley's- I just don't think they're very funny.

I do remain mystified by G'Kar's reaction. After everything's he's been through (Or maybe because of everything he's been through?), why would he be afraid of a Brakiri religious festival? Perhaps one of you out there has some insights. It would also be interesting to speculate on who would've visited G'Kar had he remained in his quarters. Since the visitations all seemed to give the visited something they required, who would've fulfilled that purpose for G'Kar? Perhaps G'Quan would've returned and given G'Kar some advice on how to deal with his followers. ;)