B5 Watchthrough: The Parliament of Dreams

[ariela]

I almost included The Parliament of Dreams as a must-watch episode. There's a lot of character development here for a lot of characters, and even some major arc elements like the presence at Sigma-957. Ultimately I decided on just doing excerpts, because I was trying to keep the must-watches to as few as possible.

But if you're inclined, you might want to watch the whole thing.

The premise of the main plot is that G'Kar gets word that an old enemy, on his deathbed, paid to have G'Kar assassinated. G'Kar doesn't know who the assassin is or when they will hit, but his new attache has just arrived on the station and seems highly suspicious. (Na'Toth, the new aide, is a recurring character who gets written out mid-S1, which is unfortunate, since the actress is quite good.)

The backdrop to this is a festival in which all of the alien cultures represented on B5 will show off traditions from their dominant religion. Sinclair, in addition to dealing with all the visitors attending the festival, has to figure out how to represent Earth's "dominant religion."

We get a glimpse in Centauri culture, which hints at what B5's humor looks like when it gets its feet under it, and which actually seems pretty fun, but the main work of this episode is nuancing G'Kar as more than a villain.

The conclusion, and Sinclair's solution to the problem of representing Earth's dominant religion, is a good example of how deeply intertwined B5 was with what I consider some of the best of 1990s liberalism, back when we all still had optimism and hope and faith in humanity. It's easier for me to watch than the West Wing, with which it shares an ethos, since B5 is far less smug and admits it's fantasy.

I also appreciate, given how bad SF/F usually is at religion, that the portrayal of Earth religion is actually *real.*

Deep dive:

• Rowan Kaiser's analysis and review at the AV Club.
• The Lurker's Guide episode page.

Main takeaways:

• Delenn gets a new attache.
• G'Kar gets a new attache. He likes to sing while he cooks. 
• Londo's an affectionate drunk.
• Sinclair has an on-again-off-again relationship with a woman named Catherine Sakai. It's been tumultuous.
• The Minbari religious ceremony seemed weirdly focused on Sinclair.