Man, I’d forgotten there was this big blob of ‘meh’ episodes immediately after “Signs and Portents”. I think I may have been too harsh on “TKO” after watching this…
The main problem I see here is the same as in “TKO” – the plot’s too focused on guest stars. Here, it’s actually worse – at least the Walker Smith plot has a decent sized part for Garibaldi, whereas most of this episode seems to be the Aldus and Jinxo Show. And Jinxo’s a terrible character with one of the worst actors the show’s ever had. I find myself feeling he wouldn’t actually be much worse off if the Na’ka’leen had wiped his brain…
And if we’re being asked to contrast and compare Sinclair and Aldus – well, maybe the two of them should have had a few scenes together? It feels like the entire episode seems unable to tie things into the regular cast, so we end up with a show where the series regulars are maybe the fifth or sixth most important characters, depending on whether you count the Na’ka’leen or not…
I am pleased that the episode doesn’t waste time trying to convince the audience that the Feeder really is Kosh. It’s pretty obvious from the start that that’s not him – it doesn’t sound like him, and the fake helmet doesn’t have the moving parts around the ‘mouth’ like the real one does. I do like the idea of Kosh and the Vorlons as mysterious boogiemen for the average guy on the street; I rather wish more of the episode had focused on that. Deuce doesn’t seem to have made any effort to spread the word about his new ‘ally’ – shouldn’t half the station know that he’s working with a ‘Vorlon’, not just idiot Jinxo?
That’s the other weakness – everyone seems a little too calm and nonchalant about what’s going on. I’m as bleeding heart as they come – but if crime bosses are silencing witnesses and smuggling brain eating monsters on board, it’s not the time to make speeches about how the poor lurkers have nowhere else to go – it’s time to crack down on Down Below and restore some semblance of the rule of law… For that matter, even before they work out what’s going on, aren’t unexplained brain wipes a pretty serious situation? The whole station should be under quarantine, just in case!
Then towards the end we get Aldus somehow talking the Feeder out into the open, and it looks like we’re going to get some sort of “Devil in the Dark” type resolution, with it turning out the Feeder was an innocent just trying to survive or something… only for that to go nowhere.
Minor comments:
- On the Lurker’s Guide page, JMS complains about ‘cycles’ being used here as the unit of time. I have to say, the main problem here is not the term, but that the units appear to be too short. If Deuce had given Jinxo, say, ‘five cycles’ to pay up, it might work – but ‘three hundred cycles’ doesn’t work if it’s meant to be a deadline of a few days at most.
- You know what needs to be made? A special edition remastered version of season one. No changes to special effects or anything; just one alteration: Remove that obnoxious ‘comedy’ music from this episode and “The War Prayer”.
- You know, for mid-nineties CGI, the Na’ka’leen holds up pretty well today.
- I’m not sure if it adds or distracts from my enjoyment of the episode that the judge here reminds me somehow of the old judge from Boston Legal. Adds, I think.
- As selenak said above, the Londo ‘comedy’ scenes just plain don’t work. They’re comedy at the expense of the characters, not because of them. Worst is the last scene, where Garibaldi for no apparent reason decides it’d be a good idea to terrify Londo some more. Oh, those wacky Centauri; terrified by something as harmless as an alien mind-eating predator!
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2009-05-04 03:14 pm (UTC)The main problem I see here is the same as in “TKO” – the plot’s too focused on guest stars. Here, it’s actually worse – at least the Walker Smith plot has a decent sized part for Garibaldi, whereas most of this episode seems to be the Aldus and Jinxo Show. And Jinxo’s a terrible character with one of the worst actors the show’s ever had. I find myself feeling he wouldn’t actually be much worse off if the Na’ka’leen had wiped his brain…
And if we’re being asked to contrast and compare Sinclair and Aldus – well, maybe the two of them should have had a few scenes together? It feels like the entire episode seems unable to tie things into the regular cast, so we end up with a show where the series regulars are maybe the fifth or sixth most important characters, depending on whether you count the Na’ka’leen or not…
I am pleased that the episode doesn’t waste time trying to convince the audience that the Feeder really is Kosh. It’s pretty obvious from the start that that’s not him – it doesn’t sound like him, and the fake helmet doesn’t have the moving parts around the ‘mouth’ like the real one does. I do like the idea of Kosh and the Vorlons as mysterious boogiemen for the average guy on the street; I rather wish more of the episode had focused on that. Deuce doesn’t seem to have made any effort to spread the word about his new ‘ally’ – shouldn’t half the station know that he’s working with a ‘Vorlon’, not just idiot Jinxo?
That’s the other weakness – everyone seems a little too calm and nonchalant about what’s going on. I’m as bleeding heart as they come – but if crime bosses are silencing witnesses and smuggling brain eating monsters on board, it’s not the time to make speeches about how the poor lurkers have nowhere else to go – it’s time to crack down on Down Below and restore some semblance of the rule of law… For that matter, even before they work out what’s going on, aren’t unexplained brain wipes a pretty serious situation? The whole station should be under quarantine, just in case!
Then towards the end we get Aldus somehow talking the Feeder out into the open, and it looks like we’re going to get some sort of “Devil in the Dark” type resolution, with it turning out the Feeder was an innocent just trying to survive or something… only for that to go nowhere.
Minor comments:
- On the Lurker’s Guide page, JMS complains about ‘cycles’ being used here as the unit of time. I have to say, the main problem here is not the term, but that the units appear to be too short. If Deuce had given Jinxo, say, ‘five cycles’ to pay up, it might work – but ‘three hundred cycles’ doesn’t work if it’s meant to be a deadline of a few days at most.
- You know what needs to be made? A special edition remastered version of season one. No changes to special effects or anything; just one alteration: Remove that obnoxious ‘comedy’ music from this episode and “The War Prayer”.
- You know, for mid-nineties CGI, the Na’ka’leen holds up pretty well today.
- I’m not sure if it adds or distracts from my enjoyment of the episode that the judge here reminds me somehow of the old judge from Boston Legal. Adds, I think.
- As selenak said above, the Londo ‘comedy’ scenes just plain don’t work. They’re comedy at the expense of the characters, not because of them. Worst is the last scene, where Garibaldi for no apparent reason decides it’d be a good idea to terrify Londo some more. Oh, those wacky Centauri; terrified by something as harmless as an alien mind-eating predator!