TV: Babylon 5, S1 Disc 4.

Our fourth disc of season one is superficially like disc three; three episodes that continue the mid-season slump, and one that advances the arc of the series.   The difference is that Signs and Portents is arguably the single best episode of Season 1, and that makes its companions on this disc feel even slighter than they are.  TKO and Grail are both spec scripts, and as such have very little connecting their "A" plots to the B5 setting.




Episode 13: Signs and Portents

The season-long "raiders" plot thread reaches its end, but that end dovetails into launching one of the central plots of the series.  Still, it begins in a stock B5 way: Mr. Morden arrives on B5 on a return from exploring the galactic rim for a few years.  Did he find anything interesting?  Yes.

He visits with the alien ambassadors in turn, asking each the open-ended question: What do you want?  G'Kar summarily dismisses him, but in one of B5's emerging structural crutches, stops him before an exit by getting to the point: a typically aggravating encounter with Londo has G'Kar craving blood.  He wants the Centauri to receive karmic payback for what they did to his world: their enslavement and ruin.  And then?  Tellingly, G'Kar doesn't know, illustrating the futility of vengeance.   Morden leaves him, disappointed.

Delenn is less rude than standoffish, and when her Gray Council forehead triangle activates (last seen on the mystery Minbari from And the Sky Full of Stars.)  Uneasy, she turns to see Mr. Morden as if in darkness; a shadow falling across him.  Fearful, she orders him to leave her quarters, and he does.*

Morden makes a point of avoiding Kosh, but late in the episode,  Kosh finds him and issues a warning: "Leave this place. They are not for you. Go. Leave.  Now."  Perhaps the longest, most straightforward string of Kosh dialogue in the series.  His encounter suit is damaged, but we don't see how.

"C" involves Londo, who has recovered a long-lost Centauri treasure, the Eye.  With it, Centauri  Lord Kiro plots to succeed the emperor, who is both infirm and bereft of direct heirs. He brings with him his "seer," who provides a hokey act-out by hysterically crying that B5 will be attacked: fire, death, pain! fire, death!   More interesting in hindsight was her prophecy at Kiro's birth, that he would one day be killed by "shadows."
 
It is here where Morden approaches Londo, and,  his own interactions with the Eye and Kiro fresh in his mind, answers the most favorably: He wants the Centauri Republic to restore its former glory, to be what it was in his stories.

Unbeknownst to anyone, the raiders have a man on board B5, and so Kiro and the Eye are stolen.  The Raiders' fighters are pretty much wiped out in a diversionary attack on the station (which includes some of the best CGI of the series to date), but their mothership, large enough for its own jump engines, escapes.   Just as they are safely away with their prize and after indulging in some severe exposition (Kiro had been supplying cargo and route intel to the Raiders for some time, possibly two years), a large black ship, with a vaguely organic look ala Vorlon craft, materializes nearby and easily destroys the Raiders' ship.

Less a "D" plot and more two short scenes providing long-term plot service, Sinclair enlists Garibaldi for help on his memory problem.  By episode's end, Garibaldi has returned with the report that a lowly Commander is running B5 because the Minbari government contributed to its construction and vetoed every choice until Sinclair.

As an epilogue promising a lot of future stories, Mr. Morden has braved the wrath of Kosh and returned the Eye -- in a charred but intact box -- to a deliriously grateful Londo.

* Adjusting for late-series spoilers, what must Delenn have thought upon recognizing Morden's nature? All of her prophecies are tied to the humans, and here's a human playing Shadow lapdog...

--

Pros: High level CGI, and fine casting, writing for Morden, making him nice but unsettling.

Cons:  A stretch, but boy, is the Eye a cheesy looking prop or what?


Then: A
Now: A

--


Episode 14: TKO


Since Garibaldi had yet to have a friend arrive on the station, one does now.  Walker Smith is a would-be Ultimate Fighter, come to join an aliens-only bloodsport in order to get back on top.  He makes the usual stops on the fighting-movie trail: quick beating from the gruff master, aged trainer, and finally cocky challenge followed by a long ass-kicking that garners Walker, and all humans, a measure of respect.

On the same liner (the White Star, a name that we'll see later) is Rabbi Koslov, come to pester Ivanova into sitting shiva for her father. Susan is pleased to see him, and then aghast when he goes to Sinclair to secure her leave.  Eventually, he pesters enough to have her actually sit shiva, lapsing into English so her "good friend the audience Jeffrey Sinclair" can understand her prayers; the literal translation seems more than a bit awkward.

--

Pros: First Shiva in space!

Cons: The A plot is totally unnecessary and never referenced again by anyone.


Then: C
Now: C-


Episode 15: Grail

Today's arrival is a nutjob, Aldous (reliably game David Warner) seeking the Holy Grail.  The Minbari revere "true seekers," and Delenn is touchy that Sinclair takes the man lightly.   Aldous' wallet is lifted by "Jinxo," an unemployed construction worker who's in debt to a bigger lowlife, one with a predatory creature from Centuari space, a creature that devours the brain of its prey -- a trait that comes in handy when keeping witnesses from testifying.   Further, the creature is housed in a faux encounter suit and named "Abassador Kosh."

Aldous takes a liking to Jinxo, and they meet with the alien ambassadors regarding his search.   At Delenn's, Lennier throws out a major continuity mistake, stating that there are only two Minbari castes: warrior and religious.  The worker caste, which plays a major role in the Minbari civil war of season 4, are conspicuously absent. 

All this leads to a predictably TV resolution: Aldous dies in a noble (and typical "let me shove you aside and then stand here in the path of that PPG") heroic sacrifice fashion, Jinxo is named his heir, and the phony Vorlon (good CG for the day) is killed.



Pros: Nice CGI on the Nakaleen feeder, even if the prop for its corpse didn't remotely match the color...

Cons: Another thin episode.  Also, nobody on B5 can pronounce "von Braun."

Then: B-
Now: C

--


Episode 16: Eyes

Our "B" plot pairs up two characters who haven't had much time together:  Garibaldi and Lennier.   The former enlists the latter's help with assembling a "vintage 1992 Kawasaki Ninja," one of the series' few overt Product Placements.  Lennier reveals a fondness for history, and dives into the project when he learns that motorcycles are symbol of rebellion and sexual prowess (Bill Mumy sells the latter).

But the "A" story involves Earthforce Internal Investigators, thus the episode title.  Colonel Ari Ben Zayn and his pet teep, Harriman Gray arrive to vett the command staff after Sinclair's string of questionable decisions in the series so far.  Zayn is an expected mad dog, sent in part by Bester and determined to find treason.  Given our last encounter with the Psi Corps in Mind War,   Ivanova becomes continually agitated with the idea of Gray scanning her, which, if telepathy is consistent in B5, should make it even easier for an inadvertent scan.   Gray, played by past Reanimator and future Star Trek regular Jeffrey Combs, refuses to play the villain role for her, foiling her hostility.

After receiving a lengthy grilling by Zayn, Sinclair has had enough.   He's so fed up that O'Hare's voice actually changes volume and pitch!  It's a standout performance that's kicked in the teeth when Zayn pulls rank to relieve Sinclair of command, but Jeff turns the tables by baiting Zayn into the villain's oh-how-I-hate-you rant, awful on the face of it, but doubly bad when there's a sympathetic teep in the room who can now more easily read him.

 --

Pros: Good development for Lennier, Garibaldi, and Ivanova.
Cons: Strictly by-the-number Loyalty Test episode.

Then: B-
Now: C