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2020 Binging A Way To Visit Other

2nd,

September Worlds and Save A Mind In

| Lockdown
EXAMINER Story by Brad Balfour the pandemic. When my which permanently changed learn of the complex millen- sitting down and viewing the

nia-long dynamics between
next episode.
friend lent me two sets of
Yes I did
the series' universe.
IRISH when the pandemic shut series that would provide me tered around a core of about the Ancients, the Asgard and all this is not so much the par-
I let a lot of things go
What’s more important to
With most storylines cen-
with the perfect escape.
the Goa’uld, and how they all
down took place. My hair First I jumped into a dozen species, Babylon 5's fit into the evolution of ticular sci-fi series and expan-
grew out, I stopped emailing “Babylon 5” — with its five- embroilment in a millennia- humanity. Against this back- sion of ideas that both
and texting with a lot of good season arc based on a floating long cyclical conflict between drop, the four main charac- encompassed and paralleled
and great people; I was able city in space. Some said it was ancient, powerful races, and ters of the first team in SG-1, the current political dynam-
to get free food from a city like Star Trek’s Deep Space their aftermaths, offered fab- explore the universe through ics, but the notion that such
program so I took advantage Nine maybe better, maybe ulous escapism. Episodes the vast Stargate network binging can save minds and
of it even though I ate pretty worse. focused on the effect of wider and evolve into more fully allow for repair. Being pulled
much the same thing every- Unusual for the era, events on various characters, realized characters along the out of the present-day trau-
day. Some days I even forget Babylon 5 was like "novel for addressing themes of person- way. mas and toil offers a salve for
to brush my teeth. television” with a defined al change, loss, subjugation, The characters were pandemic PTSD. To be
I was used to going out to beginning, middle, and end; corruption, defiance, and fleshed out and developed in immersed into the problems
different restaurants every- in essence, each episode was redemption. many complicated and com- of Babylon 5 or the trial and
day — some great or not so like a "chapter.” Unfolding And then there was plex ways that were unex- tribulation of the SG 1 team,
or I’d be at receptions after over its five 22-episode sea- “Stargate SG-1.” pected as they battled various gave me a breather.
special screening and Q&As sons, the human military staff In this decade-long series, planetary threats. The series While I’ve been through
with various actors and direc- and alien diplomats stationed Dr. Jackson, Major Carter, lasted 10 years and through a TV marathons such as a
tors. Suddenly all that was on the Babylon 5 space sta- Colonel O’Neill, Teal’C and few TV movies; it engen- weekend-long engagement
gone. I often would swing tion — built in the aftermath General Hammond defeat dered spin offs and built up with “Twin Peaks: The
into a hotel lobby for the wifi of inter-species wars as a neu- the mythological Goa’uld quite a viable universe with a Return,” this kind of viewing
and a chance to relax and tral focal point for galactic and save Earth a thousand few references and nods to offers a whole new way to
write or meet with various diplomacy and trade — were times over by traveling to Star Trek, Farscape and other experience media. And as a
people. caught up in all kinds of polit- countless worlds through a sci-fi series. It became quite a result, transforms the piece-
So what a Spring and ical machinations, shifting series of wormholes generat- touchstone throughout the meal experience of episodic
Summer, it’s been. Without alliances and layers of betray- ed by the Stargates. As it days in which I’ve been TV into a feeling of taking a
films and music, I needed dis- al — not unlike today’s polit- evolved from the discovery sucked into the series. I trip through the wormhole
traction. Binging was one ical intrigue. Each season and implementation of would get and do what I had into a mind altering respite
way that helped me survive contained plot elements Earth’s Stargates, audiences to do with the anticipation of from pandemic panic. C