TKO
Eh, my review for this one is going to be terribly short because I really didn’t like this episode much at all: it’s easily my least favourite of the season. At least
Infection was fun (crazed Nazi cyborgs, I tell you, they’re a riot!). But TKO was just very unnecessary, not carried off well at all, and a couple of the details in it really didn’t sit well with me at all.
I think the thing that bugged me the most was that there was all this to-do about how the Mutai was a really hardcore sport which nobody could survive, and it didn’t live up to the hype in any way. It just looked like kickboxing, for a start – and Walker Smith mastered it waaay too quickly for me to be able to suspend disbelief. It was just a bit of a lazy “underdog against adversity” story, where the adversity was conquered all too quickly (there was even a
Kill Bill type mentor with a long beard!) and humans were shown to be wonderful again with minimal effort.
The Ivanova plotline was considerably better: I think my only gripe was with the random Commie-bashing in the middle of it. It just seems unnecessary, really. Maybe I just feel that despite B5’s visibly multi-cultural nature, a great deal of the actual human cultural references actually mentioned feel like they’re straight out of modern-day USA. In the pilot ep, Sinclair cites Pearl Harbour and the “terrorist nuking of San Diego” – meanwhile Ivanova seems largely full of cynicism about her country’s past, in this episode actually directly related to the evils of Communism. It just feels slightly anachronistic: characters still carrying grudges about modern-day politics, considering that the different Earth countries really seem to have largely resolved their political differences in this version of the future (correct me if I’m wrong).
Other than that, like I said, the Ivanova subplot was decidedly better than the Mutai plot: it was refreshing to see a character like Ivanova’s actually relax with her emotions without becoming a totally different sort of character. She was still recognisably Ivanova, and this added another layer to her personality. I think this episode let me down, however, mostly because it all felt somewhat unnecessary. Both plotlines felt like they should be side-plots – nothing significant was really happening in the ep.
Grail
Not an amazing episode, but it has its charms, actually. The Grail stuff really put me off at the start – I think it’s the “sagelike” tone Gajic had that was irking me – but the more I think about it, the more it seems like a really cool idea. The Grail couldn’t be found on Earth, so they’re looking for it in space … it’s crazy, but original. And David Warner was good as Gajic, really – not a really original depiction of a holy man, but still, he carried off the “gentle and wise” thing pretty well. The look on his face at the very end, when he claims to see the Grail, was quite moving. The actor who played Jinxo was OK too, although his face confuses me (he always looks like he’s smiling even in scenes where he blatantly can’t be). He was quite sweet, and his description of the Babylon Curse made me feel for him.
Best scene in this entire episode, though, HAS to be the bit where the Ombuds is hearing from the American guy whose great-grandfather was abducted by aliens: “Frankly, your Honour, we want damages”.
Too funny! Again, the introduction of the Ombuds into it all was a nice touch, showing yet another side to the station’s workings. Although, Deuce’s kidnapping of the Ombuds made very little sense, to be honest. Surely that would only have got him MORE trouble? Incidentally, too, does anyone else think that Garibaldi was just a little hypocritical in wanting to clear out Down Below, considering he was hiding out there himself not that long ago?
Londo’s scenes in this ep were brilliant, as always. Peter Jurasik has this ability to take even the most routine of lines and make a little gem out of it: like when Gajic decides he’s not getting any help out of the Centauris and says he’ll leave, Londo’s “What a good idea! Let me show you to the door” was hilarious. The Nakaleen Feeder was certainly a horrifying idea. <span class="spoiler"><font class="small">Spoiler:</font><hr /><span>Though having watched ahead to the ep where Londo cheats at cards by using a certain part of his anatomy – well, I’m more weirded out by the physical similarities!</span><hr /></span> Finally, of course, as
Vash mentioned: the Minbari do have their unique way of looking at things! The fact that Sinclair is once again capable of seeing both sides of the issue says lots for him, too.
Eyes
OK – I have to echo
Blade Runner here and say that Lennier was the best thing in this episode. The subplot, where Lennier is helping Garibaldi build his motorbike, was hugely enjoyable. As seen in the very first episode where Garibaldi (again!) and Delenn are watching “Duck Dodgers”: a Minbari trying to get his or her head around the weirder bits of human culture is just so often amusing in a great “visual gag” kinda way. Lennier researching the bike, and not quite understanding why Garibaldi wanted to build it on his own: all very well played by Bill Mumy. The ending was classic, too! As a bad point … Garibaldi still grates on me somewhat. His sense of humour in particular, although the “If I kill him, it’ll start a war…” line was funny.
As for the rest … The growing conflict on the Mars colony is a really interesting theme: more material for the generally pessimistic mood on B5 with regards to the state of things outside. (And it all seems just too topical at the moment, really.) I really enjoy all the moments where Sinclair talks about the workings of the station: about the military supply contracts and the corporate lawsuits. Dunno why – it doesn’t really get followed up here, but it gives it all an air of authenticity. O’Hare in particular is really convincing in those scenes: Sinclair is a man who likes to be well-informed about the regulations, as this episode proves.
Right … as for the main plot, first things first: YAY Jeffrey Combs! It’s always a pleasure to watch him (though slightly unnerving to see him out of makeup, heh), and he brings some depth to his character. You cringe for him when he just blunders into near certain death when talking to Ivanova, but he’s heartfelt if naïve, and it becomes evident that he’s the one variable Ben Zayn hasn’t accounted for. As for Ari Ben Zayn (other than the fact I love the name), the actor was very charismatic, but they just really could have done with toning it down a little. The scar, the harsh hairdo, all of it, it just screamed “Bond villain” to me. Moreover, the episode doesn’t entirely differentiate between disliking Ben Zayn for being a lunatic with a grudge, and Internal Affairs itself. IA seems like a necessary thing to me, given of course that investigations are carried out objectively and professionally … then again, having Ben Zayn undermine all that is probably significant. Another sign of how bad things are, etc.
A couple more things of note: it’s great to see all the previous episodes get recapped here. We get the sense that there really are consequences to the actions taken in the past: even if Ben Zayn is defeated just a little too easily for my liking in this ep. It’s hugely enjoyable to watch and is the classic
A Few Good Men trick – annoy him so much that he loses his cool and shows how unbalanced he is – but nonetheless, at the end we’re assured this is not the last we’ll hear from Sinclair’s enemies in high places. As for Ivanova … well acted by Claudia Christian, as always, but I find it a little hard to swallow that she wouldn’t be reprimanded for trashing the casino. The dream sequence was actually quite good, I thought: the dry ice at the start was a bit naff, but it was still quite disturbing.
I just wanted to ask - when do we start the next three eps,
Vash?
) was slightly annoying though, the actor was just trying too hard in my opinion. Plus he seemed to sometimes be British and sometimes American. That's a common occurrence on B5 as I recall. 
)
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