TV: Babylon 5, S3 Disc 3

Episode 9: Point of No Return

The Martial Law declaration, arriving to close our last episode, continues to shake out here.   President Clark has dissolved the senate.  Some politicians have fled, others are trying to curry the favor of the military.   General Hague himself is on the run from Io with a few loyal capital ships, and throughout the episode, his armed insurgency gives our cast hope that Hague will put things aright.

By the end, most of his forces have been destroyed, and his capture is thought imminent.

The remaining military leadership on Earth is no help.  Sheridan is on his own until further orders come down.  Oh, and...

While the drama plays out "back home" on B5 we're forced to deal with the sinister machinations of... Security Guard #1.  That's the porcine-smiley guy from last week.  He's calling a "special meeting" for the Night Watchers, and urging them to bring extra ammunition.  Night Watch personnel exclusively are now in charge of station security.  Judging from the mostly-silent meeting population, that would mean sixteen: sixteen cops (by episode's end, up to maybe 40; Franklin comments that's "about half" of the security detail for the station) for a population equal to New Orleans (pre-Katrina 1700+ police), who usurp the position from their non-NW colleagues.  What could possibly go wrong?

None of this logic appeals to Garibaldi, who marches down to security's Free Black Armband day and makes a scene to derail the festivities.  One by one the Nightwatch security goons turn away from him, and Security Guard #1 relieves Garibaldi of command.

With their last legitimate authority over security gone, Sheridan creatively interprets the "chain of command" line given him by the Earthbound General Smits (note: Smits has a name!).  The Conspiracy crew presses Zack into service, luring all the Nightwatch to a docking bay where they are imprisoned in one swipe.    

On the B plot, Lady Morella, third wife (sequential or simultaneous, as with Londo, is unclear) of the late Emperor Turhan, arrives at Londo's invitation. As she is a noted prophetess, Londo wishes his future foretold: specifically, that his grand destiny will not come to pass.  She does, telling him he has three opportunities to avoid "the fire" that waits for him and that he's squandered two others already (cue a million speculative posts on discussion boards),  Extracting a measure of impious satisfaction, she notes that Vir, too, will be emperor.  But who succeeds whom?

G'Kar is released three weeks early, having completed his transformation from occasional antagonist to magical Narn.  He gains the first follower to his sacrifice-everyone philosophy,  Ta'Lon, and better, he has a notion, and buses in 200 Narn as auxilliary security goons until the present crisis ends.  At the end of next season.  His finder's fee is small: a seat on the war council.


Point of No Return does feature one of the better episode-closers of the series:

"They'll be coming for us next, you know."

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Pros: Dispenses with several plot points on its way to next episode's true barn-burner.
Cons: Security Guard #1? Really?

Then: A-
Now: A-

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Episode 10: Severed Dreams

After some light introduction comedy from Londo, we return to the escape of General Hague, already in progress.   Under fire, his Alexander overcomes its squeamishness about destroying opposing EA ships* and jumps away to a safe haven for repairs and supply.   It should not surprise you that its destination of choice is Babylon 5.

When the Alexander arrives, Sheridan issues a communication blackout, and offers the command deck crew a chance to leave before committing any treasons.  Perhaps they took a lesson of what befell the Night Watchers last episode, and nobody exits. Even Corwin, so recently passed over for promotion into important character, buys in.

Hague has been killed, and that's just the first piece of bad news brought by Major Ryan, now in command of the Alexander. The insurgency on Earth largely overmatched by Clark loyalists, and worse, the civilian population have gladly traded liberty for the temporary security of martial law.   Then, another Hague-faction destroyer arrives; the Churchill.   The news its captain brings is even worse: with Mars, Proxima, and Orion all openly defying Clark, there's a task force on its way to B5 to arrest Sheridan.

Pressed, finally, to make a choice, Sheridan secedes B5 from the Earth Alliance   The resulting battle, largest of the series to date, costs the Churchill and dozens of Narn extras.   But the good guys hold; barely.

And then the second wave arrives...

 In B, a badly wounded Minbari ranger arrives with bad tidings: the Shadows are moving amongst the League of non-aligned worlds, and pushing neighbors to war on one another.  Worse, the Grey Council has taken an isolationist approach (note: last we saw, they were making preparations for the war).  Aghast, Delenn goes to see the council, makes a righteously angry speech,  and sunders the council**, leading six of the nine out to war.

She returns to B5 in the White Star*** with three conventional Minbari cruisers just as the second EA attack force arrives.  Dropping on them a second, less passionate bit of rightous anger, forcing the earthers' retreat.

Immediate problems dispensed with, Major Ryan writes himself out of the series with a cockamamie exit line: "There are still even some ships out there on our side. We have to find them."   Good luck with your search, sir: we'll never hear about the Alexander again.

In closing, B5 ships out the Clarkies they know about.  Which leaves all the ones they don't.  Repercussions?  Next week.

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* Following the dispatch of their pursuer, the Clarkstown (presumably not named for the EA despot), Major Ryan notes that General Hague had introduced him last year to"the captain of the Clarkstown" who had a wife, three small children, and an Abyssinian cat named Max.  His cat received a name, but not him.


** Symbolically breaking a staff, which is probably still another Tolkien nod.  Further, the entire council keeps silent throughout the scene, even the loquacious and preening Neroon. 

*** Which probably ruins any lingering mystery the EA might have had about the origins of the White Star...

Pros: Rich, chocolatey payoff. Oh so much.
Cons: Not many.

Then: A+
Now: A+


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Episode 11: Ceremonies of Light and Dark

A post-upheaval episode designed for establishing the new status quo.  And to deal with last week's line about possible sabotage.   Old Starkiller, reverting to his carefree, early-season-two demeanor, now thinks he's perfectly safe to wander around B5 without any guard.  Remember how he was the target of bombs before he seceded B5?  He doesn't.

There's a whole cell of (very) ugly, heretofore undetected Night Watch left on the station.  These guys have dropped any pretense of loyalty-to-Earth sentiment and are shifting toward open revolt.  Somehow, Clark has learned about the Minbari government's internal problems, and so they know that targeting Delenn will stop the Minbari protection of the station. 

While their leader is at least thuggish enough to have villain gravitas, his second (the only other one with a speaking role) tosses out a monologue about killing a Minbari during the war, in chilling-for-90s-tv detail (ala Marv in Sin City) capped with a truncated, a capella rendition of "Dry Bones," which hardly increases his menace quotient.*

Luckily for them Delenn has chosen to raise her profile by conducting another part of the rebirth ceremony seen in the first season.  She invites the entire cast, many of whom refuse.   Her abduction gives Marcus, her protector, further angst, but his outside-the-box underworld contacts eventually leads to her rescue.  In a highly illogical climax, a wounded Dry Bones pulls a knife and readies to throw it at Sheridan. Delenn screams a warning and then, rather than engage old Bones from maybe a yard away, she runs ten times further to throw herself in the blade's path.

Wounded, the salient portion of the rebirth ceremony is conducted from her hospital bed: a sacrifice of something dear and the confessions of untold secrets.  All the humans take the easy way out and sacrifice their EA uniforms.  Sheridan and Lennier both confess love for Delenn, Ivanova her love for Talia, Garibaldi his fear of losing control, Franklin his loss of control.

In return, Delenn makes a gift of Minbari-inspired new uniforms. How convenient!  The rest of the crew, stuck in their EA blues, are killingly jealous.

In our C, Londo has somehow connived Lord Refa to meet with him on the station.  A station no longer bound to a non-aggression pact with the Centauri.

It's further baffling that they conduct this meeting in public with witnesses, when a good deal of sensitive Centauri military information is aired. Londo is furious at Refa's idiotic strategy of waging war on twelve fronts, while encouraging foppish new emperor Cartagia to find a thirteenth.  Refa's blind, nay, stupid ambition helps the audience feel good when Londo demands a curtailing of Centauri aggression and, again, an end to dealings with Morden.  To secure Refa's better judgment,  Londo has poisoned Refa's drink.  William Forward, who plays Refa, sells the shocked, sad reaction to his poisoning terrifically; it's almost a shame that Refa has been a single, power-lusting dimension all this time.  

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* The only thing that approaches JMS' tone-deafness for humor is his inability to write a genuinely scary madman. Witness Ari Ben Zayn, Knight One, Sebastian, President Clark, and now Dry Bones. Well, at least half of them had names...


Pros: New status quo.
Cons: Other than the uniforms, what's the difference?



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Episode 12: Sic Transit Vir

A second light episode, centering on the love lives of our cast.   Starkiller asks Delenn out to dinner, but Vir has a marriage arranged!  She's highly bred, beautiful, charming... Unfortunately, her view of Narn is uncharitable, and she's even killed hundreds of them herself.

This is a problem for Vir, since his time on Minbar has awakened his conscience, and he has been hard at work shipping those sport-hunted Narns out of harm's way by forging authorization as the sham Centauri nobleman, Abrahamo Linconi (Oscario Shindleri was implausible, I guess).

When the story gets to Londo, he revokes Vir's diplomatic mission to Minbar to shorten his leash, which has the fortunate effect of canceling his marriage.

As centering an episode on Vir is about as interesting as one on Lennier (or Franklin!), we get softball plots for the bigger guns.  Ivanova's having bad dreams. Sheridan and Delenn have a second dinner date.   Major, game-changing stuff!

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Pros: Chilling psychoses from Vir's wife.
Cons: Yep, nothing in this episode means much.

Then: B-
Now: B-