Disk three finds the show in a midseason slump. Two episodes are pure b-list SF magazine short stories, and a third is barely a story that required a B5 setting at all. While
Survivors serviced some long-term plots, its hoary assemblage of coincidence did the delivery no favors.
Episode 9: Deathwalker
What if Hitler turned up alive, well, and carrying a formula for immortality? In this case, she'd be recognized the moment she stepped off her transport and beaten within an inch of her life by an angry Narn attache, whose grandfather was killed by her thirty years prior. The various governments jockey to gain custody of Deathwalker or her work: a universal drug which confers immortality in a single dosage. The humans have yet another crisis of moral superiority, particularly when they learn Earthgov wants to send her back home to develop the treatment.
Deathwalker, played by Sarah Douglas (best known, probably, as Ursa from Superman II; a lot of famous-for-genre-work guest stars appear on B5) has two modes: preening and sneering. She oversells her God, I Love Being Evil early, and goes into a full froth when she drops a parting whammy on Sinclair: that the anti-agathic requires death of a sentient to create. Not like us? You will be. come. us!
Then a Vorlon ship pops in and destroys her transport. It's kind of a weak ending, both in removing any hard moral choices from everyone, and by the need to keep Deathwalker a straightforward villain. I can't help but think a more satisfying version would have a truly repentant Deathwalker attempt to give this gift (whether or not the 1-in 1-out rule applies) to the people her race attacked. Kosh's high-handed judgment would lend him some genuine menace rather than acting as a simple deus ex machina. I needn't mention that no reproaches are ever leveled against Kosh for taking this action..
Over in our B plot, Kosh hires Talia to observe a series of conversations (they can't be called negotiations, really) with a funny little man who prefers speaking in cryptic non-sequiturs. Perfect match, yes? Worse for our resident teep, she finds mindscanning Kosh's companion impossible. The negotiations are progressively more difficult for Talia, who finds her mind drawn into the mysterious stranger; at the last, just as she is completely terrified, Kosh ends the discussion and is presented with a data crystal from his friend; a recording of Talia's teep responses. "For the future."
Pros: Some moral darkness.
Cons: Cheap, reset-button press of an ending. Curiously, B5's hyperspace jump gate is repeatedly called "the vortex."
Then: B
Now: B-
--
Episode 10: Believers
The B plot returns the raider thread, with Ivanova finally receiving some flight time to escort a transport to the station. Her impetuousness costs her, and she's soon outnumbered by many more raiders than anyone thought.
Our A plot makes this a Dr. Franklin episode which centers on a critically sick alien boy and his parents' religious views forbidding the treatment that will save him. It's transparently an issue Ripped From Today's Headlines, and one that seems a little over-the-top when placed in an interstellar milieu: the aliens read "scrolls," denounce all surgery, media, and the beliefs of others. A clear case where the audience wonders how this species ever left their homeworld, if your commenter can take a little moral superiority of his own.
Improbably, the parents go to the major ambassadors for support. All of them brush them away according to their natures: Delenn is too respectful to intervene, G'Kar finds no advantage in helping them, Londo frets over the expense, and Kosh is, always, Kosh. When a faith-approved treatment fails he goes ahead and performs forbidden surgery, against the orders of everyone. Watching this now, you'd wonder why he didn't cover this option a little better, maybe in a way less offensive to the parents' beliefs. But story isn't about saving the boy, it's about vilifying religion.
So the boy quickly recovers. The parents return to collect him, explaining that they understand why the surgery was performed, and if their beliefs allowed it, they would forgive Franklin. This erases a stinging Sinclair rebuke, and cranks Franklin's smugness to eleven.
 |
| That sting you feel is pride. |
In a twist so shocking you see it coming a mile away, the parents, convinced their son has lost his soul, perform an honor killing. Thus does Franklin's moral superiority receive its overdue comeuppance, and the series does instant penance for breaking its "no kids" promise. It also provides yet another "character races frantically down a crowded corridor on foot" scene, which on a station five miles long becomes more and more and more silly every time -- the only internal conveyances on B5 are the elevators and the railcar along the central core. Of course he's just moments too late; maybe if he had a segway...
Franklin takes over as writer's mouthpiece in an epilogue scene: "Maybe we'd all be better off it there was no God!"
--
Pros: Good job with keeping the raider thread active, but..
Cons: Franklin is two for two in heavy-handed moral superiority plots.
Then: B
Now: B-
--
Episode 11: Survivors
The President is coming! He'll be giving a speech and presenting a new wing (Zeta) of fighters for the station. Big deal, right? It is when a frightening confluence of coincidence arrive before him: an explosion indicating sabotage, a presidential security lead who harbors a seventeen-year-old grudge against Garibaldi, and a long-ranging presidential assassination plot that's done its homework. "Uncle Mike" Garibaldi was an officer on Europa station when his friend, Frank Krimmer, was killed in retribution. In response, Uncle Mike became a drunk, and little Lianna Krimmer became head of Presidential Security.
In short order, Garibaldi's been relieved of duty and gone fugitive following an extensive frame that (weakly) implicates both Londo and G'Kar. Londo's sympathetic, offering some quick cash; G'Kar would be happier giving Garibaldi asylum in exchange for some Earth intelligence. Garibaldi naturally chooses the path of most resistance, struggling to clear his name. The plot ties back to Malcolm's pathetic earth-first group, who has the #2 (subtle) of Presidential Security in their pocket. Improbably, Garibaldi, in custody, is present when #2's treachery is revealed. More improbably, #2 lets his guard down just as his plot is about to succeed, enabling Garibaldi to exonerate himself.
"Seventeen years ago, we both died inside. But somehow, we survived." Two episodes in a row with an awfully summarized reconciliation. Notice how Lianna's hair is down? That's no costuming choice...
Pros: Increments along conspiracy threads, gives more character rehab to Londo and G'Kar.
Cons: Stinky reconciliation, amazing coincidences throughout to frame Garibaldi and then to let him off the hook.
Then: C+
Now: C
--
Episode 12: By Any Means Necessary
Strike! B5's longshoremen are mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore. Hefty traffic, low wages, no new workers, no upgrades. The tensions with management (Sinclair) escalate, but being the good guy, outmaneuvers the labor negotiator sent from Earth and gives in to the workers' demands.
No, really, that's all there is.
The strike has left poor G'Kar without a G'Quon Eth, a rare and highly sought-after plant needed for Narn holy days, which are nearly over. The only one on the station belongs to Londo, and he's withholding it as payback for Ragesh 3 -- look, long-term consequences! Sinclair outmaneuvers them as well, and all is right with the world.
Pros: Development for G'Kar and Londo, continuing their long first-season character rehab.
Cons: Such dialogue gems as: "Serious as a rip in a spacesuit." And Senator Hidoshi mispronouncing "Kobe."
Then: B-
Now: B-
No comments:
Post a Comment