TV: Babylon 5, S5 Disc 3

Episode 9: In the Kingdom of the Blind

Once again, raiders are attacking shipping lanes. Except these raids have no theft motive: they're just destroying transports with overwhelming force.   It's another test of the IA, and Sheridan tries to downplay them for as long as he can.  We quickly learn that Centauri warships are responsible...



On Centauri Prime, Londo and G'Kar have arrived to find the court in deep trouble: a Regent prone to bizarre, secretive behavior, classified movements of resources, irregularities in the military.  When told of a "darkness fallen over the palace," and then seeing the informant mysteriously commits suicide, Londo seeks answers.  He finds a clumsy attempt on his life by the drolly ambitious Lord Vole who is dispatched in mid-gloat by a telekinetic (!) alien.

Viewers who have seen War Without End know the Regent's eccentricities are because of a Keeper, and this being B5, all of his vague but dire warnings go unheeded.  Londo, squicked by the encounter, nonetheless decides to wait until morning to leave Centauri Prime as viewers everywhere groan.*

In the Byron world, things are happening as if the last episode were out of continuity.  Still smarting from "last night's" reveal of the Vorlons' child-abandonment, he goes before the IA council not to ask for a homeworld. which he could probably finagle, but to extort them for one against the outing of every ambassador's secrets.   And when those ambassadors' people find a lone teep out on a supply run, the situation deteriorates into melees.  And so,  barricaded in his Waco-sector compound, Byron can only wait for security to come for them while hoping that "cooler heads" prevail.    When he later insists that there will come a moment for Lyta to leave him, it's clear he's acknowledged this poor choice of tactic...

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* Due to the economy of the series, Londo has no remaining friends at court or any of his own power base he can trust with this; there's just him and G'Kar against the Centauri establishment and those pulling the strings.  Where's Vir?

Pros: G'Kar playing his role as house Narn to the hilt.
Cons: The Centauri-raiding thing could've been more effective if it had built for more than one episode.

Then: B-
Now: B-

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Episode 10: A Tragedy of Telepaths

June 16th, 2262.  Lochley narrates her Captain's log, getting everyone up to date on the season so far.  From the tone it seems that some time has passed since our last installment; Byron's people have been checking security at every possible breach point.   She summons Bester and his men, and then regretfully admits there's just nothing she can do to stop the bloodshed...

On the Raider front, the Drazi have found Brakiri debris at an attack site, and the Gaim have found Drazi pieces.  Everyone's mobilized their forces to attack the next ship out of hyperspace, but none of them have Michael Garibaldi, who alone has determined the pieces were cut off and then planted.  So, nobody has a forensics department (who in the 21st century could quickly determine from which ship the debris came) and the mysterious attacks haven't the sense to grab debris from attack A to plant during attack B.  Nor does it occur to anyone that this is the same tactic used by the Shadows...

On Centauri Prime, the good/bad cop duo of Londo and G'Kar have not left yet.  Since neither has been receiving the reports of Raiders from the IA, the mysterious increases in Centauri military spending remain unexplained.   G'Kar is jauntily unconcerned by the irregularities, or the obvious danger to their persons as he enjoys a bowl of fresh spoo.  Always ready with a tie for a loose end nobody asked for,  a dish of fresh spoo leads G'Kar to stumble upon evidence that a Narn prisoner is still being held in the palace, and, better, it's Na'Toth! Arranging her transportation off-world conveniently keeps them from further investigating the Centauri problems...

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Pros: Leigh McCloskey gets another tv SF bit role as militant Teep #1, no thanks I'm sure to his wife, who happens to be an AD on the series...
Cons: Dumbest alliance with worst investigative power ever.

Then: C+
Now: D

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Episode 11: Phoenix Rising

Bester's Black Omegas are on-station and receive a lengthy recap speech from Alfred.  He wants to save as many as he can to bring back into the Corps' fold, but the rogues aren't willing to play.  Further, Bester's arrival reveals that Byron was himself a Black Omega who once suffered an attack of conscience that led to his going rogue.  Sickened at the murders in his name, Byron resolves to sneak out of his hole and stop the killing: finding an unguarded air duct takes approximately 3 hours.

Also from the department of developments too long in arriving, Garibaldi finally has a one-on-one confrontation with Bester, but it too goes nowhere: during the conditioning, Bester placed Asimov robotics laws on Garibaldi for just such an occasion.  Despondent, Garibaldi goes to medlab for an opinion of pharmaceuticals overcoming telepathic blocks; alas, he's just in time for the rogues to take medlab hostage and set up the scene from Deconstruction of Falling Stars.  And check out that 23rd century CRT!  Enough to drive a man to drink, I tell you.

Byron defuses the hostage situation and moves to turn over the instigators to Earthgov.  Seeing his prize slipping away, Bester makes one last effort to bring Byron back to the Corps; rebuffed, he calls in the Psi Cops just as Byron is surrendering to to Lochley and Sheridan.  Twenty telepaths are unable to detect that Bester's arrival was a surprise, and, freaking out, they start a firefight in the docking bay.  During the fracas, a spigot of flammable liquid breaks, soaking the floor.  Having scooped up a fallen PPG, Byron gets one last hokey speech to push Lyta away, begins a second sing-along of "A better place," and chooses the proper exit of the cult leader.

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Pros: Yay!
Cons: Sets things in motion that are never resolved.

Then: B+
Now: B

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Episode 12: The Ragged Edge

A month has passed, and the IA has taken a stand: no more participation in the alliance until, ironically, the alliance solves their shipping-under-attack problem.   Luckily, the universe's worst investigative team has learned one escape pod from one ship has survived, and, logically, whoever was in that pod knows exactly what happened.   Because God knows the IA has no other way of figuring this out, Garibaldi's on the case! 

Unfortunately, Garibaldi's also been on the case of whiskey, but managing to cover for it so far.  Franklin's addict sense is tingling...

Once on the Drazi homeworld, Garibaldi meets an old friend from Europa.  They drink and enjoy the much-improved CG backgrounds of the city.  Then Michael passes out drunk, his friend leaves (and is promptly shot dead), and gets nearly thrown off his balcony with the terrific view.  Turning the tables, he rushes down to meet the poor survivor, one already worked over by three cloaked and hooded figures, who drop a Centauri Imperial Palace Guard button...

Which Londo blithely identifies as such (a pity there's no interstellar database capable of finding out such things in 2262).   The other major notables decide Londo can not be trusted with sensitive information, and if G'Kar weren't so busy mocking the situation on Centauri Prime, he may have chosen this moment to recall the misappropriations of resources and military spending; instead he reveals only that there are at least two factions among the Centauri, and for Londo's protection they should definitely keep him out of the loop.

And in our wacky C-plot, G'Kar has had his Book stolen and duped by Ta'Lon (five or six hundred thousand times; amazing 23rd century printing technology!) and upon return to B5, he finds he's become famous...


And as a closer, Franklin is leaving at year's end to replace (again) Dr. Kyle, who's retiring as head of Xenobiology back home.   Objects in motion.

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Pros:  Heavy handed but at least plausible reason for Garibaldi to fall off the wagon.
Cons: With Byron dead, Ta'Lon gets to pick up the slack on overlong entrance lines.

Then: B
Now: B

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