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Babylon 5 - 1x6 "Mind War" - Full watch-along (Patreon)

Published:
2026-05-26 18:00:04
Imported:
2026-10

Content

Follow along with me using your own copy of the episode!

Files

Babylon 5 - 1x6 "Mind War" - Full watch-along

Comments

Emma

I hope one of the guest stars wasn’t spoiled for you.

Trish

Bill mummyplays lenoir was on lost and space as a kid will Robertson

N7_DarkStar

Great episode. I love G'Kar's speech at the end there. The music in the background is wonderful during that scene.

N7_DarkStar

Oh and Alfred Bester. A great character. Brilliantly played. You just love to hate him.

Trish

Bunny only learned while the credis at start of show

Greg

Am I the 'one person' you wondered at the start was new to B5 with you, since I damned you for making me buy the DVD set? LOL

Emma

She initially said she was looking forward to a guest star, which made me wonder at first.

Emma

This is a personal song of Brave Buffalo, a Sioux medicine man, who received it in a dream. Because of this dream, he believed himself invulnerable and asked the people to shoot their arrows at him as a test. No words were sung, Brave Buffalo saying that "the words were in his heart." The poem embodies, to some extent, the story of the dream, as well as the medicine man's challenge. "You cannot harm me, You cannot harm One who has dreamed a dream like mine, One who has seen the buffalo in their mighty lodge..." Ironheart quotes it when threatened by Ms Kelsey.

Emma

Bester's hand gesture and "Be seeing you" is a nod to the show The Prisoner, a particular favourite of JMS.

Emma

It has only been 2 episodes since Infection, and readings are off the scale again. They really need to recalibrate their sensors.

Emma

"No one here is exactly who he appears." - wise words from G'Kar

fargoboyle .

Alfred Bester, a deliciously malevolent person

Emma

Alfred Bester wrote The Demolished Man in 1953. The Demolished Man is a science fiction police procedural set in a future where telepathy is common. However, much of its effectiveness stems from one individual having greater telepathic skill than another. In the 24th century, telepaths—called Espers or "peepers"—are integrated into all levels of society. They are classed according to their abilities: an Esper 3 can read the surface thoughts of a mind; an Esper 2 can also read from the subconscious mind; an Esper 1 can read from even the deepest levels of the mind, such as the id.

Paul Hess

And a particular favorite of mine too!!! 🤩 I agree with JMS that two The Prisoner episodes in particular are the among most amazing and insane and subversively epic episodes of television ever made, and both for different reasons! Bottom line, it ain't too bad. 😉

StuArtist Studio

Lennier (pronounced len-NEAR) was introduced in "The Parliament of Dreams", the last episode you watched. He is Delenn's new aide, whom she told to look up, and to not refer to her title of Setai. He's played by Bill Mumy ( pronounced MOO-mee) of "Lost in Space" fame, which is a fun and campy sci-fi show from the 1960s.

Paul Hess

Walter Koenig put in a great performance. It shows JMS’s depth of respect for the groundbreaking that Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek accomplished in the 1960s that he invited Walter and gave him an important meaty role. I grew up with Checkov in the1970’s on TV and in the 1980’s movies but despite all that I remember Walter more a Bester than Checkov. Except of course, “Nuclear Wessels!” “I’m conflicted” Welcome to Babylon 5, again! 😂 Character Growth - Welcome to Babylon 5, again! Nobody here is exactly what they appear. Nobody on Babylon 5 is one dimensional. Everyone is layered. Everyone has motivations and is a hero of their own story. Everyone is tortured by the ghosts and the dreams of their past. Music. 5 year arc. Each year’s music and opening is like a book cover of a 5 book epic, and reflects the stage of the story. You can imagine the first book might be story weaving and world building, so this year’s music reflects that type of tone. I understand your comparison with the awesome TNG intro score but B5 score should be taken in the context of its purpose. I need to stop pointing out how amazing the writing is, maybe soon. For me it’s like two shows. You could have all the amazing plot and action and drama with standard high quality television scriptwriting. But then because it’s JMS you layer in powerful speechwriting, important classic callbacks and references to the best of literature and science fiction, wisdom and analogies like the two ants, poetic dialog like “You can not harm one who has dreamed a dream like mine”. It’s so amazing that, like a Shakespeare play with dialog from the 1500’s, it’s well enough done you don’t realize how ridiculous it is for a character to say those words out loud in the heat of battle because the power of the words take you through hardly noticing it.

Thomas Schorsch

When you consider what Kosh is, remember The Gathering.

Texas Anla'Shok

JMS is fond of giving speeches to G'Kar and Andreas has the perfect voice for them.

Texas Anla'Shok

So, we've seen several versions of G'Kar by this point, G'Kar the hardliner, G'Kar the diplomat, G'Kar the schemer, G'Kar the survivor, this is the first time we've seen G'Kar the philosopher.

Thomas Schorsch

Koenig is good in Star Trek, but his acting here seems to be on another level entirely. I was kind of stunned when I first saw this episode. I'm kind of surprised that, after this, he didn't get a lot more acting roles. Bester is a superb character, but I rather be friends with Chekov.

Glenn Dudley

Thoroughly enjoyed your reaction to this episode and greatly impressed by your ability to quote from Star Trek and your knowledge of sci-fi generally. Babylon 5 is an excellent show blessed by high quality dialogue, a cohesive and well integrated storyline and fascinating characters portrayed by phenomenally good actors. Can't wait to experience it all again through your eyes!

Philip

I think it's now safe to say this since you've now seen the episode. I predict your reaction is that you will have really enjoyed this episode. But I totally understand why you don't want us to hype or downplay anything in advance. Heck, I would turn off the sound and close my eyes just to not see the previews of future episodes of my favorite shows. : )

Philip

Just finished watching your reaction, Bunny. Oh so much to say and so much NOT to say. lol! Loved Sinclair punching out Bester. And you've already touched on Ivanova's disdain for the Psi Corps. And, yes, not every character was in this episode. But I think you will find that allows a cast member to really shine, in this case, Andrea Thompson as Talia Winters. And the B story with Catherine and G'Kar could have been a pretty nice episode all by itself! OK, now as to the Psi Corps. This isn't a spoiler since it deals with OUR timeline outside of Babylon 5. About a year after 9-11, NASA was allegedly planning a program to scan the brainwaves of passengers to see if the agency could detect terrorist-tendencies among the passengers. The Washington Times reported: "Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have told Northwest Airlines security specialists that the agency is developing brain-monitoring devices in cooperation with a commercial firm, which it did not identify. Space technology would be adapted to receive and analyze brain-wave and heartbeat patterns, then feed that data into computerized programs “to detect passengers who potentially might pose a threat,” according to briefing documents.... " Frank J. Murray, NASA Plans to Read Terrorist's Minds at Airports, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, Aug. 17, 2002. Sure, it was the Washington TIMES, but there was a lot of data mining that was going on after 9-11, too. So it seems plausible that such a program might have at least been discussed.

Texas Anla'Shok

Walter Koenig was one of the early advocates for B5. He's kind of the Steven Spielberg to JMS' George Lucas, the one who knew about it before hand and knew it would be successful and kept trying to make it happen.

Matthew Graves (Graviton)

Another very good episode. This is one I have a pretty good memory of, for the obvious reason. Alot of important revelations in this one, but perhaps the one that struck me the most at the time was: Holy cow, Koenig is a REALLY good actor. He kinda stepped away from acting for a while, focusing on writing (he wrote for one of my favorite shows as a young kid, the childrens sci-fi dinosaur adventure show Land of the Lost). However, he's definitely got the chops to go beyond the Checkov comedic type of role. But yeah, Bester is a great character (and I got a kick out of the reference to the Golden Age sci-fi writer, very appropriate). The story itself is well done. A bit derivative, perhaps. Bunny, I too definitely was reminded of Gary Mitchell, as well as stuff like Captain Atom/Dr. Manhattan, Akira, etc. It's a common theme in sci-fi, but execution is what counts and this was done well. The B-plot was less engaging but had a really good scene with G'kar and Sakai. Overall, quite enjoyable.

Paul Hess

The delicious part is that he's not a one dimensional villain. You can tell from his dialog and acting that he believes in his cause and is a hero in his own story. But his story is different that our main cast stories, so their motivations and moralities clash which creates great drama.

Greg

Agree with what everyone said. Really strong episode and I liked what was going on here. Walter Koenig was great here. My only small complaint is that the sub plot with the female prospector (Catherine I think is her name) really wasn't needed.

George N

"No one here is entirely what they appear" Remember that line Bunny BTW in honor of Koenig, this might be the time to watch the Star Trek New Voyages episode called "To Serve All My Days" Oh and there is definitely one person who joined Patreon for B5 ;) For the record, Star Trek got me to watch your channel, Highlander got me to member up on YT and B5 got me all the way in :) STOP looking at the actors... B5 is cursed with good people IRL, dying young :(

Paul Hess

I second "To Serve All My Days"!

Baulderstone

I have to agree that it was a questionable decision by Sinclair to protect Ironheart. Sure, in retrospect it turned out to be the right thing to do, but there was still the risk of him destroying the station with a mindquake or becoming a Gary Mitchell. It was a very tough call though. I suspect his sense of loyalty to Talia and his clear dislike of Psi Cops probably tipped him over into helping Ironheart. The story with Sakai and G'kar was thematically on point for me. I've been working my way through you back catalog of reactions this week and watched your 2001 and 2010 videos, so the theme for this week has been "Bunny Reacts to the Cosmically Inexplicable." I'm always happy to see someone appreciate 2010, which I think is a great science-fiction movie that gets lost in 2001's shadow. I think you will really enjoy the books. There is also a short story by Clarke called "The Sentinel", about the discovery of an artifact on the moon that was an early form of 2001. "Rendezvous with Rama" and "The City and the Stars" are two other great books from Clarke, while I am throwing out recommendations.

MertzRocks

This episode features what I call the *first* of G'kar's epic speeches. I'll say no more except that Andreas (R.I.P.) is hands down my favorite actor on the show, followed extremely closely by Mira (R.I.P.) and Peter. There are FAR too many (R.I.P.)s associated with this show 😢🙏

MertzRocks

Bill Mumy; Lennier; Will Robinson. 🤖Danger!

MertzRocks

Yes it was, imo. Stretching the Ironheart story to 42 minutes would not have been wise. Perhaps another B-story would have worked, but the interaction between Catherine and G'kar made the whole B-story that they aired WORTH IT! imho

MertzRocks

On 2010, I also like this fun fact: The woman that comes to Dr. Floyd/Roy Scheider during the maneuver around Jupiter was irl later a keyboardist for Queens of the Stone Age (one of my favorite bands), and also had her own band called Eleven - Natasha Schneider (R.I.P.).

MertzRocks

But not the last time - for several of these aspects

MertzRocks

Some of his scenes with Jonathan Harris (Dr. Smith) and the robot are legendary... "You bubbleheaded boobie! You tin-plated tyrant!" (Smith to the robot lol)

Baulderstone

That's a very cool piece of trivia there. I'm going to be reviewing it on a podcast in a couple of weeks, so I can drop that fact to look smart. Thanks!

Baulderstone

I'm guessing the reason that Koenig didn't get more of a boost from this episode is that it flew under most radar at the time. In my area, it aired on Sunday at midnight.

Stainless Steel Cat

"...botched the acetylcholine test!" Bunny, your memory for Star Trek references is phenomenal!

timothy w moyer

I had no idea either of Walter showing up here. Copy surprise on my part, NOT as much as Bunny, tho. 😁. Anybody besides me see the "Be Seeing You" By Bester as he was leaving? Perhaps nothing. Good episode. I liked G'Kars speech at end. I agree with it.

bunnytails

I don't remember what guest star I meant when I said that, but I definitely was not spoiled about Mr Koenig

Emma

It absolutely was something. It was a deliberate reference.

bunnytails

Agreed, he did an amazing job here!

bunnytails

I really enjoyed the sub-plot here!

bunnytails

I will try to watch it this week! Thanks for the recommendation!

bunnytails

Thanks very much for the recommendations!

bunnytails

That was one of my (many) favorite moments in TOS

bakamitai

As others may have said, it's best not to look at IMDB or Wikipedia due to the likelihood of spoilers. Also, because it's quite sad to see cast members who have passed on. Moving on, I really loved your reaction to seeing Walter's name in the opening credits. I saw this show air during its original run while I was attending college, and our group all had a nerdgasm when we saw this episode.