YGCTO Episode 1 - Infection

You Gotta Check This Out Beginnings

And so the podcast begins. The feed is up on all major podcast platforms as “You Gotta Check This Out!”. Right now, only the promo clip episode 0 is available, but we’ll be releasing a new episode every other Sunday starting July 27th. I’ll also be releasing an article here on mikeslater.com to go along with the podcast. We’ve banked five episodes and have planned out the season. Even through moves and scheduling disasters, we feel secure in getting an episode out every other week for our foreseeable futures.

It’s amazing to experience the old “you never see all the effort that goes into these things” firsthand. Dre and I have been working on this since around March, while we were getting ready to record the NERD! episode on Youngblood.

I’d been in conversation with Dre for a couple years. I produced my Wife Carin’s podcast “Geek Out! With Megan & Carin” in 2023 and was writing show themes. As a brainstorming exercise, I wrote a theme song for Jeff May’s “I Must Break You!” show and send it to them on a whim. They ended up using it for their YouTube show and an ongoing relationship began.

Here’s the email I got from Dre that really kicked this thing off:

Subject: Nerd Season 10!

Andres Alvarez
Tue, Feb 18, 10:32 AM
to me

Alright,

So Impulse in the book, my idea for this season was
"Comic Origins" and to have someone related to Nerd!
on to talk intro into comics and ideally a character
and/or arc that got them into comics. I think I have
another guest lined up and would love you to complete
the trilogy if you'd be down!

-Dre

The Youngblood episode was a blast. More importantly, it established that Dre and I enjoyed producing a show together.

I had been meaning to re-watch Babylon 5 for years, but never pulled the trigger. After hearing Dre mention his love of B5 several times in passing, it seemed like too good a show idea to pass on. I knew that I didn’t want to get stuck in a Babylon 5 show for years going through each episode, but a show where we could stay on a topic for a while and then move on was very appealing to me.

I proposed the show to Dre… and here we are. The podcast feed is up everywhere and the first episode has been released. Dre and I have established a bi-weekly record / book / research / edit / release pattern. Enough that I can confidently say we will be getting through all of Babylon 5 and beyond on the show.

Plan is to release a new episode every other Sunday starting on July 27th, 2025. We have four episodes and the promo completely edited, with another one in the can. Very exciting to see all this effort result in something I can get into peoples’ ears.

This Week’s Guest

Just me & Dre for our first couple go-rouds.

Babylon 5 Season 1 Episode 4: Infection

For the episode itself, Infection is often cited by series creator JMS as his worst writing. For me, this is a clear Monster of the Week case. In the episode, we establish the trope of Franklin having encounters with fallen former professors. In this case, Dr. Vance Hendricks - who wants to profit off smuggled alien artifacts. This must be a recycled idea from the space smugglers JMS was working on that got folded into B5. So many Season 1 smuggler subplots!

Nelson the assistant is the lunkhead here that gets turned into our monster of the week. Sinclair gets a chance to attempt suicide via monster fight - his favorite hobby. I appreciated the Dr. Who low-fi aesthetic around the Infection monster.

JMS got to set up the ongoing plot where Earthforce is taking control of artifacts like these. Franklin, Garibaldi and Sinclair got some solid character growth. Despite being a mostly standalone episode, I thought it was an engaging watch. I liked how JMS got themes of colonization and scavengers of other cultures in. The message of racial purity being the Ikari’s weakness was done well enough. JMS is much more heavy-handed here than he will be later on in seasons 2-4.

I would recommend this episode as a quick intro to the season as a whole. It’s not representative of the tone B5 settles into, but is good as a character intro for Franklin, Sinclair and Garibaldi.

Mike’s Image Picks

Dre and I got a lot of juice out of this ISN reporter who is clearly styled after Miss Piggy and somehow makes it onto the bridge later in the episode.

S1 Garibaldi will take a shot at anything

The Cabbagehead alien that sells Garibaldi and aphrodisiac will later be known as a Drazi.

Wonder if he's gonna be purple or green in the upcoming war?

Nelson the Professor’s assistant gets on board and immediately becomes violent.

See my previous article on Ducka Punchin' across B5

Nelson and his giant forehead couldn’t look more shady.

That certain butthead quality he has

Nelson gets into hijinx after some greenish lightning hits him from the artifacts.

Not the eyes!

I thought that was Ben Schwartz on the command deck for a second.

Looks just as funny

Nelson turns into a monster. Sinclair has to be the lone hero and chases him down.

Not so butthead-looking now

It is a nearly suicidal action on Sinclair’s part.

He's so much stronger than he looks. And he looks like a Warhammer 40K monstrosity.

What Did We Learn?

Racial purity tests can lead to living artifact monsters. But as long as we have a Sinclair to get their ass handed to them by a monster of the week, things will turn out just fine.

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