Er, well, it seems I have got both ahead and behind everyone else! I got a bit hooked on the series and watched ahead, meaning to do the reviews last week, but had a fairly busy week IRL so didn’t! Here are my reviews for last week AND the week before! (Hope this post isn't too long!
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And The Sky, Full Of Stars
Well, this was exciting! The first episode to really deal properly with the “hole” in Sinclair’s mind (although to be fair, I haven’t seen
The Gathering). Along the course of the episode, we begin to really think about the question: “why did the Minbari surrender?” The Knight has visible Pro-Earth beliefs (though I did find the “real estate” comment funny, living near the largely British-populated Costa del Sol as I do!), and the way he sets about finding the “truth” is completely underhand and cruel. However, his suspicions are understandable in themselves: even Sinclair realises that there IS something there, something he can’t account for. I really like O’Hare’s performance in this episode, too, since he is both outraged at the Knight’s callous treatment of him and yet in the end, genuinely intrigued himself about what the answer is.
The flashback scenes are great, and the music was pretty good in them too, I thought. Sinclair’s desperation, his final kamikaze run at the Minbari ship, and indeed the very sight of the Minbari as aggressors (having known them this season as peaceful, solemn people) are all impressive. And, as others have noted, I was amused to see the question “What do you want?” being asked for the first time, during the Grey Council part of the flashbacks. Though – what is it with Minbari and triangles?? Heh.
Delenn is also interesting in this episode: till now, we have seen the Minbari as honourable, above all. This episode (and the next,
Deathwalker), will show that they too have their evasions, their double standards, their violence. I’m really looking forward to that aspect of the show: discovering the Minbari’s real complexities, which until now have been spoken of rather than demonstrated. Relevant to
Believers, the idea of the Doctor’s unshakeable belief in the Hippocratic Oath is reinforced: so far, it’s the strongest aspect of his character and one that ties in quite a bit to the series’ budding themes of belief and religion.
Deathwalker
Again, I liked this episode a lot. It’s the diplomacy aspect, I gotta say: so far I am LOVING the episodes that get all the ambassadors together. It really sets the scene in B5 and seems to expand the universe of the show. Little scenes, like the one in which G’Kar (sitting at the council) waves at someone off-screen – they just make it all that more fun and convincing. And Jha’Dur was a pretty cool character): there was something extremely menacing about the performance (not just the reputation). The actress’ statuesque build, her voice which was both sweet and harsh (and once again, evil = British! Lol), and the cat-eyes design, were all memorable. The only thing I found a bit unconvincing was that the Dil’Gar race could be entirely gone, considering the war was only thirty years ago.
Like I said, the reaction of the different races made this ep great. I loved the scenes with G’Kar and Na’Toth: they already really seem to have formed an understanding of each other. Their passionate, vengeful nature combines pretty interestingly with their sense of political expediency (in G’Kar’s case especially, of course!). But he won’t go against Na’Toth. Meanwhile, neither the Centauri nor the Narns want to get into the question of interstellar justice (rather than just personal revenge), and, surprisingly, neither do the Minbari. Lennier gets his first proper bit to do in this ep, and he looks genuinely remorseful for it. The Minbari are shown to have sheltered a vicious murderer (and a strong enemy of Earth). The worries of the non-allied worlds were put across well by their main speaker: once again, the nature of the station itself is called into question as a neutral meeting-place for things to be decided above and beyond mere global interests.
The subplot with Kosh was confusing, but what else can you expect?? As we hear, he is “leery” of telepaths, and is presumably going to use the info gathered against Talia in the future. It doesn’t seem to have much relevance, and of course it’s convenient that Talia only hears of the human VCRs once the deal is done. However, it adds a bit more depth to her character and to the nature of telepaths themselves: and keeps Kosh in the picture so that his sudden crossover into the A-plot at the episode’s end has even more oomph. “You are not ready for immortality”- a very fair point, though you’d have to ask if the Vorlons faced any consequences as a result of this unasked-for intervention!
Survivors
I’m not a huge fan of Garibaldi. This episode made him more interesting, but maybe I’m just not as convinced by Jerry Doyle’s acting in general as I am by the other actors’ (and being given dialogue like “she just died inside” doesn’t help). It’s not that he’s
bad (his reconciliation speech at the end was quite touching), but he’s just not that good either. This was a OK episode: it becomes more interesting when connected up with <span class="spoiler"><font class="small">Spoiler:</font><hr /><span>the successful assassination attempt in "Chrysalis", again abetted by a dodgy second-in-command!</span><hr /></span>. We see President Santiago’s tour kicking off – and it’s interesting to compare his depiction here with that in the pilot ep.
Midnight on the Firing Line mentioned him as being more isolationist than his opponent: yet in this episode, he’s under attack from even MORE isolationist factions with regards to his policies about aliens. The scenes of B5’s underworld were quite good. Not extremely imaginative, but then maybe that’s the point: it’s all drab down there. There’s also a nice little bit of exposition for
By Any Means Necessary, with the lack of proper supplies and so forth being discussed by Garibaldi and Ivanova at the start. (On a side note, I have to say: Ivanova’s “I’m Russian” comments were cute at first, but are now beginning to get a bit wearying and heavy-handed.)
The character of Liana Kemmer was good, though slightly cliché at first. (I didn’t like the whole symbolism with the hair being up or down: Ivanova seems to change her hairstyle just for the heck of it, not because it denotes a different character trait, and realistically enough. It’s just hair.) Again – she seems completely unreasonable at first, but then extrapolating into her point of view, there does seem to be convincing circumstantial evidence against Garibaldi (and a convincing case against him in the past, though that shouldn’t have influenced her). Again though, it’s worrying to see the second in command nearly get away with it: surely it shouldn’t be that easy!
Lastly, just cos I gotta mention him: couple of classic moments from G’Kar in this episode. The comic scene where he insists that a seating arrangement is “a slap in the face to the entire Narn Regime”, and the much more serious scene where he tries to get Garibaldi on his side. Also interesting to see how Londo – despite his genuine friendship for Garibaldi – STILL tries to use him against G’Kar.
By Any Means Necessary
OK, let me start off by saying I LOVED this episode. It’s one of the most entertaining ones I’ve seen so far. Again, I absolutely adore the fact that we get to see the dock workers, the people who essentially run the commercial side of the station – and practical/political concerns like the budget and the increased military spending. Moreover, I really liked the performance by Katy Boyer as Neeoma Connolly – she was completely convincing, and her character was both principled and reasonable. Del Vientos was also pretty good. I’m afraid that the John Snyder performance as Zento seemed to go off the rails a bit – I watched this ep with a friend and she agreed, he’s doing fine till that transmission to Sinclair in the middle of the night, and then he starts overacting like crazy.
The whole episode just feels so wide somehow: touching on many aspects of the B5 ‘verse. We see G’Kar praying, for the first time – expanding on that subtlety and respect we first see in his little monologue to Catherine Sakai about Sigma 957. We then see him as one of many influences on the increasingly embattled Sinclair, when dealing with the incident: Connolly and Senator Hidoshi are others. There are some great little touches: Hidoshi’s passing-the-buck line “you will make it work”, and the inbetween scenes where Ivanova’s voice is heard making excuses to the waiting transports. Connolly’s various consultations with Sinclair and with her people are convincing (as is the background she gives on similar conflicts elsewhere) – and there is a real suspense for the final showdown, even if it is bloodless. This episode raised my respect for Sinclair even further, to the point where I really, really like him now: he stays objective and reasonable, and heartfelt at the same time. His solution is clever, though Hidoshi’s words at the end (on future retribution from Zento’s friends) are ominous.
The G’Kar subplot was all kinds of wonderful, of course. It’s great to see Ragesh 3 come back into the plotline: and it’s unnerving to see Londo being so amiable even as he disrespects G’Kar’s religion right to his face. <span class="spoiler"><font class="small">Spoiler:</font><hr /><span>Having seen “Chrysalis” and heard too many rumours for my own good, am inclined to believe this is a sign of things to come for Londo.</span><hr /></span> On a side note … there doesn’t actually seem anything silly to me about worshipping the Sun. It makes a great deal of sense, objectively. The scene in C&C, where the ISN reporter follows Sinclair and then G’Kar & Londo storm in, was priceless. I do believe G’Kar says “Your petty little gods can kiss my codpiece!”
Signs and Portents
Well, heck. Lol. This was great, and it’s not for nothing that it carries the season’s umbrella name for a title. Where to begin …?
The Raiders haven’t been the most fascinating aspect of this show, really. We don’t know their allegiances or motives, and they’ve been largely faceless. The main Raider actor doesn’t do anything to remedy the situation: he’s really a bit dire. But they become useful for the purposes of the plot, so that’s great. I do think Sinclair coulda been slightly quicker on the uptake when it came to the Raiders’ decoy: but overall, the depiction is quite convincing. The note about spaceships big enough to create their own jump-points was interesting..
The next plot point to be brought in is the Eye: the ultimate symbol of imperial power for the Centauri. Londo has a genuine kind of reverence for it: it symbolises all that his people used to be (although, erm, the actual prop doesn’t look all that impressive, heh). Those who sold it to him were pretty dodgy themselves – I wondered at first if they had anything to do with Morden too …? Lord Kiro and Lady Ladira are both pretty fine performances: in particular, I really liked the scene where she’s lying on her bed, in the midst of opulence, and yet can only hear echoes of destruction. Seemingly, Psi abilities are going to play a big part in this series, and so this was another insight into their world. The vision she allows Sinclair to see, of B5’s destruction, was pretty impressive too: the music was well used, and the thousands of little explosions before the big blast was an unexpected and evocative touch.
Again, any ep where the ambassadors all get their say is good by me: and they certainly do get their say here. Morden is intriguing from the start: he looks like he should be in New Kids on the Block, or at least, be a smooth James Spader type baddie in a John Hughes film. Yet – that is not what he is. The first sight of the spidery <span class="spoiler"><font class="small">Spoiler:</font><hr /><span>Shadow</span><hr /></span> spaceship at the end of this episode is more than scary, and backs him up entirely. It is interesting to see that he even approaches Delenn (I would have thought the Minbari would be aware of them, and indeed she proves to be) – though he avoids Kosh. (Great little detail at the end regarding Kosh’s encounter suit!) As for G’Kar and Londo … once again the parallels are striking. They both want power for their people: they are both angry at their own helplessness. <span class="spoiler"><font class="small">Spoiler:</font><hr /><span>I’m intrigued as to why Morden chooses Londo and not G’Kar. Is it the fact that in this ep at least, G’Kar expresses a desire only for specific revenge on the Centauri, whereas Londo wants a more general sort of power for his people?</span><hr /></span> I really gotta question Londo’s logic here though – do they not have mafias on his homeworld??
And one final thing. The scene where Londo and G’Kar wait for the elevator.
Too good! Once again, Londo’s seeming amiability is used to give an extremely callous message. And again, G’Kar’s temper gets the better of him: while at the same time, his expressions suggest that he too realises the Narn Regime’s current policies aren’t the best they could be.
~~~ Well, that’s it for me! I will get up to date on this week’s episodes!
