TV: Babylon 5, S3 Disc 2

Episode 5: Voices of Authority

We begin with a Garibaldi-Zack Sorkinesque walk-and-talk, reminiscent of Sinclair-Garibaldi banter in years past: Zack rants excitedly about something trivial (here, his uniform doesn't fit) and Garibaldi absorbs as much of this as he can take before cutting Zack off with an exasperated "Zaaaaaaack.."  It's the very essence of filler conversation with no purpose other than to be interrupted: by Ivanova summoning Garibaldi to a war council meeting under a bogus alert code. Which in turn occurs only so that Zack, our resident Night Watch dupe, can become suspicious of his boss...



It's clearly poor construction in that the reason for the gathering is nothing critical: Delenn has a strategy suggestion: find some other First Ones to help fight the Shadows.  Capital idea, Delenn! Could've brought it up at a regular meeting -- or this meeting could have been portrayed as the regular meeting -- but oh, how could Zack become suspicious in happenstance if it had?!

The meeting includes Draal, who remains "comically" pompous in endorsing the idea (even treating it as if it were Sheridan's plan).  He then oversells how dangerous the First Ones are to bother, uses human slang for the visible bemusement of our crew, and invites Sheridan down to Epsilon 3 to determine the most likely contacts.

Unfortunately, those plans are to be changed by the arrival of one Julie Musante, MiniPax Political Officer, and, well, whore for the ministry.  No, really, she's so interested in Sheridan's loyalty  to Earth she Shucks off her clothes in a naked attempt of seduction.  Which fails, since our man Sheridan is hot for Delenn. Or his dead wife. In some order.

Those Minbari, incapable of lying.

While not entirely a C-plot, but G'Kar has also begun to suspect there's a secret agenda between the humans and the Minbari, and Delenn's absolute stop-dead-in-her-tracks when G'Kar says "rangers" leads to one of her lamest denials in a history full of lame denials.  G'Kar tries Garibaldi next, and when that fails, G'Kar foists off his book of G'Quon -- that ancient text with Olde Tyme Shadow War information.   If only Garibaldi could read ancient Narn. Or cared...

With Sheridan indisposed, Ivanova makes the trip, gets plugged into the Great Machine, and promptly gives us another lesson in There Had to be a Better Way of Doing This.  After a continuity nod toward explaining Mind War's aliens at Sigma-957 (where she and Marcus run off to recruit, continuing their romantic tension and allowing some rare, funny B5 humor) the  machine's clairvoyance give us an opportunity for Another Damned Tolkien reference when she looks upon the face of the Shadows.  Susan explicitly states that Shadows know her, know her name -- which, if it mattered, would toss all this secret-army jazz right into the dumper.  But it's never mentioned again...

As GanDraalf pulls her away from the palantir, she just completely at random stumbles across the past conversation where then-Vice President Clark actually leads off with: "I've wanted Santiago dead for so long..." and an unseen Morden assuring him that Earthforce One will never return from Io.   Come. On.    When the message is released into the wild, the resulting furor gets Musante on the next ship home for damage control, since she is the most capable political officer in Earthgov. 

--

Pros: Sigma-957, some of Marcus' humor.
Cons: Contrivance so leaden, even the characters remark on how bad it is.


Then: B+
Now: C

--

Episode 6: Dust to Dust


This week does begin with a legitimate emergency war council.  Bester is returning to B5.  Since half of the VIPs on the station are involved in a covert military alliance, an enemy P12 poses a bit of a problem to their security.

Garibaldi, the sensible one, suggests they kill him.  Sheridan refuses to kill anyone, a charmingly idealistic attitude for a war leader.  He chooses the most troublesome option: borrowing a gang of Minbari telepaths to keep watch on Bester until our friend from the Corps agrees to take inhibitor drugs during his stay.* Good thing he's not here to deal with a problem that requires them (even though that is his main job).

No, Bester is here to find a manufacturer and dealer in Dust, a drug which temporarily empowers those not gifted with very powerful telepathy.  He and Garibaldi make a fitfully amusing good/bad cop duo, and the dealer is soon apprehended.  The episode then forgets about Bester, implying that the second half takes place prior to the inhibitor drugs wearing off.   As a bonus, Bester makes an exit infodump to the Psi Cop who came to get him (even though he flew his own ship to B5..)  about how Dust was a bad idea, we never should have bothered inventing it...   It's a leaden note unworthy to be tacked onto a very good half of an episode.

G'Kar, however, was an interested buyer, and tests the first dose on himself with  a novel motive: assaulting Londo in an attempt to get at the secrets of the Centauri war machine.

He delivers Londo a righteous beating, and uncovers all the pertinent flashbacks of Londo's dealings with Morden.  Attempting to learn more about these allies, G'Kar triggers a fast-moving montage of key Londo scenes, but is stopped short by a vision of his long-dead father, who delivers an inspirational speech to drive G'Kar from the path of vengeance to something greater and nobler: the willing sacrifice of the Narn race in the service of saving the whole of the galaxy's sentients.  It's one of B5's better speeches,  undercut only a little by the use of angelic Narn imagery -- revealing the true nature of the vision.**

G'Kar breaks down, and forever exchanges his beligerence for beatific serenity of purpose.  He gladly accepts confinement in the brig ("for no less than sixty days") where he will spent the next several episodes writing his manifesto.


--

* While the unlikely involvement of several high-power Minbari telepaths is a big stretch on top of Sheridan's reluctance to do the needful, the scene is memorable for Bester's Garibaldi-goading  "slip" about Talia Winters' "dissection."   What was the point of her double-agency again?  

** The speech is peppered with Koshisms, and when viewed from that POV it's one of the more impressively cold-blooded parts of the series.  Through sentimentality and religious furor, Kosh essentially dupes G'Kar into recruiting whatever diminished Narn populace as eager cannon fodder for the Shadow War.   And G'Kar never learns the truth.

For a series that's very much last-generation SF,  this scene told us the future.

--

Pros: The entire back half is solid stuff.
Cons: Who's this human guy with Londo? Should I follow up on that lead? No? Ok..

Then: B-
Now: B+

--

Episode 7: Exogenesis

Exogenesis is the first Marcus-centric episode, and its plot is secondary to our command staff gaining insight and respect for our new ranger.  It further develops Marcus as a love interest for Ivanova, and establishes his friendship with Dr. Franklin.

Symbiotic creatures, resembling either the mature Ceti eels from Star Trek II or the mother puppet from TNG's Conspiracy, are taking up residence in lurkers of downbelow.  Since Marcus interacts with B5's lowlifes, he notices changes, but Garibaldi ignores his concerns too much.  Franklin is more sympathetic, and together they unravel the mystery: the Vindrizi are Trill-like beneficial symbiotes which, like the technomages and the monks, are gathering knowledge to preserve it in an uncertain age.*

In the B plot,  Lt. JG Corwin receives a promotion and an interview with Ivanova to check his potential of joining the command staff's little EA conspiracy.  However, he's confused by Ivanova's motives (late meeting in her quarters and the absence of fraternization regulations in the EA) that he misinterprets her talk of "bending the rules" and "getting what you want."    And so he's ruled out for consideration.

It does lead to a nice closing gag involving Ivanova and the roses Corwin "found" outside her door.

--


* So there are now three groups with that purpose, each hard-selling the Shadow War as a potentially civilization-eradicating conflict.  That kind of scope never quite manages to track, and the Narn aside, none of the races we have an investment in are done damage they can't walk away from.   Which is a long way of saying: do all these guys feel a bit foolish in 2265?


Pros: first mention of the Centauri's bicardial anatomy; a plot point in the fourth season.

Cons: Another forgettable early-season story that's never referenced again.  Another homage to Blade Runner's "Tannhauser gate" monologue.

Then: B-
Now: B-

--


Episode 8: Messages From Earth

Entering the midpoint of season three, Messages From Earth begins a three-episode arc that forces the many secret choices made over the last year out into the open.

It begins with a woman.  Dr. Mary Kirkish, Interplanetary Expeditions xenoarcheologist, late of Mars.  Her colleagues are either missing or dead, and she's on the run from the EA. Seven years ago, Garibaldi and Sinclair had an adventure in the martian desert (chronicled in the ill-fated Babylon 5 DC comic); Kirkish provides the flipside of that story.    Under Syria Planum, IPX located and partially excavated a Shadow vessel.*  Earthgov ordered IPX away from the site with the job half-complete, and a week later a second, functional ship came and finished the job, activating the bured ship and leaving.

But the real reason she's here: A second SV has been found on Ganymede, and Kirkish is privy to the Clark regime's plans: it's going to be sent home for reverse-engineering.

The war council is shocked by the news. Garibaldi suspected, but all of them are rattled.  Sheridan decides to go all-in: taking the White Star to Ganymede and destroy the vessel before it's excavated.  It's a four-day round trip if all goes smoothly, and while Sheridan thinks of a story to cover his death, nobody thinks of a way to cover a four-day absence.

Arriving at Ganymede, the ship is being activated.  Delenn exposits that the Shadow Vessels use a sentient being as pilot/CPU, something that might've been helpful to know prior.  She also knows that the pilot can't possibly be prepared for the task, and when the ship awakes, it's berserk, trashing the Ganymede base before flying away.   Fortunately, this makes it possible for the White Star to fight it on near equal terms, though again Sheridan resorts to trickery to kill it -- as well as to escape the Agamemnon -- as he still won't fire on other humans, much less his old crew.

President Clark takes advantage of the debacle, and declares martial law.

The B plot concerns the war for the soul of Zack Allen. In lieu of a visiting Minipax stooge from Earth, there's an (unnamed, of course) NW stooge in the B5 security force.  Here, he's introduced to us as he browbeats Zack into attending the next NW meeting before noting that spying on the civilians via surveillance cameras "makes you feel a little like God," and smiling a porcine smile.

Once at the meeting, it's full-tilt fascism: betrayed at every level, there is a conspiracy afoot to weaken the EA as a prelude to invasion.  Arrests will happen soon, lists of names are being circulated.  As of now, any source of information will be credible!  Zack voices disbelief, but is interrupted by the more loyal.  Has anyone seen the Captain lately?

--

* strangely, there's no other name for them but Shadow Vessel, which still fails to roll off the tongue.


Pros: A reference to Dr. Jacobs' data!
Cons: Is fascism ever in the least subtle?

Then: A-
Now: B+

--