TV: Babylon 5, S4 Disc 6

Episode 21: Rising Star

Only one plot here: wrapping up loose threads from the Earth war, including some that seem unimportant.

From the moment of her introductory speech, new Earth Alliance President Luchenko's itching to get people into serious trouble; she's invoking Lincoln.  Already I miss Carolyn Seymour, present briefly last week as Senator Yale.  Luchenko now rules over a world bitterly divided, with a massive alien-dominant battle fleet in orbit, and must shortly decide what to do with the controversial John Sheridan.  It's when she's verbally sparring with John about this last point that I really miss Carolyn Seymour.  Luchenko choking out this dialogue* is painfully tone-deaf.  The beetch of eet eez...

Between talks with her to barter his future status as hero or condemned prisoner, Sheridan receives an equally painful and completely meaningless visit from Bester.  He's apparently stopped by to confirm that yes, he mind-controlled Garibaldi (forever burying that as a source of tension between the good guys),  killed Edgars, and stole the anti-telepath virus components.   In return for all of his helpful exposition, he just wants to know that his lover (why refer to one's lover by name, after all; though she does have one... As he drops context immediately thereafter, he could have just said her name!) was not one of the teeps Sheridan used to disable Clark's ships around Mars. 

Fair question, but ludicrously played: the two actually bandy words on the subject at length before  Sheridan finally admits that she was not used.  Did the P12 not immediately pick this up the moment the subject was broached?    In one of his first scenes in the series, Bester notes that telepathy saves considerable time.  If only!

On B5,  Delenn seizes the day and lines up a formal Interstellar Alliance between the former League worlds and the remaining major powers on the Advisory Council.

And on our last status update, Ivanova is stable.  But not emotionally.   Christian gets her teeth into the teary regret scene, ending with her best dour pronouncement since the days of her Russian solidarity: All love is unrequited.
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* Luchenko's back half is especially bad, in part because it's so unnecessary: a flurry excuses as to why Earth did not overthrow Clark before Sheridan moved.  It's better left to our imaginations and far less insulting -- as is it feels like someone defending their story ideas in workshop.

With the installation of the new Alliance and the show supposedly canceled, Delenn's episode-closing narration has an end-of-series tone and is laden with spoilers.  Somehow Ivanova's write-out was able to be shived into place on short notice; Delenn's exit speech should have been altered as well.

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Pros: Ivanova's words haunting poor Lennier, who knows too much of unrequited love.
Cons:More monologues than you can a stick at.  Gracelessly writes out Ivanova.  And as a closer, cashes in nearly all of G'Kar's slowly accumulated gravitas for a cheap -- albeit within continuity -- bedroom joke.

Then: B+
Now: C


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Episode 22: The Deconstruction of Falling Stars

Last week we wrapped up many of the series-to-date's hanging plot threads.  This week, it closes out dangling threads more interesting in an academic sense: the long-term fate of the new IA as well as the final evolution of mankind.

A framing sequence steers us through video records of milestones in the IA history.   The first is set directly after Rising Star, where a newlywed Sheridan and Delenn (the series often refers to them as "John Sheridan and Delenn" which makes her sound like a supermodel) return to B5 for their reception.   Ivanova's already gone, of course, but everyone else is here: Garibaldi, last seen bedding Lise prior to Edgars' body reaching room temperature, has returned from Mars ahead of them.  G'Kar and Londo plateau their rapid detente, having moved from bitter cold to comedy duo in seven episodes.

The story then shifts into its segmented form, first with an ISN panel discussion of the future prospects for the IA in a Clinton-era cable news style: three pundits talk over each other while being pro, anti, or centrist.

The next segment is a hundredth-anniversary IA panel discussion,  Both pundits are anti-alliance; the IA itself must be somewhat unpopular at this point if it can be trashed publicly on its centennial.  They spoil events of the fifth season and a few years beyond; further the pundits conveniently ignore what seems to be 95 years of uninterrupted peace and prosperity.   While the  fifth season teasing is interesting (Garibaldi's apparent mortal jeopardy in particular) the first time, on subsequent viewing you know it's much ado about little: the only major character killed violently on this show is the puppet.

So vehement are their rambling, sometimes nonsensical... criticisms seems too strong a word.. I'll say gripes, Delenn herself, 140 years old, hobbles onto the stage and upbraids them for their temerity.  This turns our pundit guest stars from bitchy to fawning and so the emperor has no clothes after all.*

400 years later, a more sophisticated production team creates holodeck versions of Sheridan and Delenn (as well as Franklin and Garibaldi) from ca. 2262 to justify their acts in an IA civil war.  The simulations are so perfect that once updated for future events, sim-Garibaldi goes Moriarty on their creator, ensuring the war is mutually destructive.

500 years after that, it's a return once more of the thrilling homages to A Canticle for Leibowitz, wherein a ranger pretending to be a monk hoards historical knowledge following the "Great Burn" of 500 years past.  The series' principals have been elevated to myth, illuminated by hand in great dusty tomes.

A million years later, humans have become Vorlon (or Ironheart)-esque energy creatures and the sun finally dies in a nova -- which (subtle!) segues back a post-coital Sheridan and Delenn.

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* This segment and the closing title card particularly are dog-whistle-pitched attacks on the various critics who roundly panned B5 on the strength of the The Gathering and dogged it throughout its five-year mission. Delenn at least has aged more gracefully than Admiral McCoy..


Pros: Interesting
Cons: Failure

Then: Never saw it "then."
Now: C-