The episode ends with Sinclair introducing all the various faiths of Earth, a scene made laughable by the stereotyping done by the costuming department.
You thought that scene was laughable?
Wowzas.
It just looked a bit too much like a Village People audition queue.
I admired the fact that it was supposed to be a celebration of diversity, I'm pro-multiculturalism (except for the English), but having a line-up of all the various human religious/cultural groups wasn't a celebration, it was just a list of new words for the various alien races. What did Delenn learn about Catholics beyond their name? What did Londo learn about Muslims beyond the fact that he once met one that wore a turban? Maybe there was a party afterwards where the various human representatives explained their beliefs and traditions, but I didn't get to see it, and given the number of people in that queue I doubt that the aliens had enough time to learn about them all.
So it was a nice idea, but the execution left me wanting.
The problem is less the characters and more JMS's sense of humour. He is not good at telling jokes and any one of his characters can sacrifice whatever respect I had for them trying to set up a punchline.
Oh, that's a pity, I was promised this show was going to be very funny.
Maybe the humour will grow on me?
This thread scares me. Five episodes in and we're on page 8?
My count reads page 21.
It's page 13 on mine.
I'm on page 17. (EDIT: Since I started writing this post it has now moved on to page 18.) No matter what number you see, it's still astonishing considering the fact that I've only watched 7 episodes so far.
Mind War (***½)
At last, a solidly good outing and one which clearly seems to be setting the stage for the later seasons. What's more, this episode has a guest appearance by an actor I know from a popular science fiction series of my youth. That's right, Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap fame shows up as Bester the PsiCop, and he lets us know that he can be much more than a likeable everyman who secretly enjoys it when he gets to wear women's underwear, he can also be a shadowy figure with a slightly malevolent twist.
Disregarding a somewhat hammy performance by the actor playing Ironheart, I enjoyed this plot. At the beginning I feared he was going to be a hammy villain that brought danger and destruction to the station (
Infection lowered my expectations) so I was pleased to see the episode go the other route and have him be the the good guy trying to escape an oppressive regime. When he explains the situation to Talia and Sinclair I was pleasantly impressed, creating a person with telekinetic abilities so that he can perform assassinations is very devious, and I am very interested in learning more about the PsiCore. (By the way, in the episode my sister showed me all those years back I remember that there were "subliminal" messages telling people to love the PsiCore, so I am aware that they will be up to more shady dealings in the future.)
The story's biggest weakness is in how it ends; Ironheart becomes some flashing lights, which is the traditional science fiction way of showing that somebody has moved onto a higher plane of existence. As George Harrison might say, "It's been done", but it had never been done in such a cheesy way, laughable early CG included. The ending is also a bit too clean as Bester agrees to bend the record of what happened so that there wont be any consequences.
By the way, Voyager totally ripped this episode off in
The Gift. I can't believe the the writers of a Star Trek series would stoop so low!
As for the b-plot, I'm not sure what to make of it. I much prefer G'Kar in this episode than in the last few, he could almost be mistaken for a realistic interpretation of a person. As for the giant spaceship Catherine saw, I'm stuck between thinking it could have relevance further down the line and thinking that it was a McGuffin. When I first saw it I thought it might be an early hint of the existence of the Shadows that I keep hearing about, and G'Kar's speech at the end doesn't rule that out, but it could just be me over-analysing something of no great significance. I guess I'll find out eventually.
I *thought* he must be joking until the comment about women's clothes. Then I began to doubt.
I sorta thought so but when in doubt, I'd rather treat it seriously and get laughed at than laugh and upset somebody.
