Well, pretty much agreeing with everyone else; the motorbike subplot’s fun, the Ivanova scenes are very good… and the main plot is somewhat less good.
On the Lurker’s Guide, there’s some quotes from JMS where he’s annoyed with people comparing this episode to Star Trek TNG’s “The Drumhead”. And that’s fair enough, I don’t think this was an example of plagiarism – but the two episodes do have the same premise, and it is natural to compare how two shows in the same genre handled the same plot.
And, well, “The Drumhead” handles the story of a witch hunt against the command staff in a far more engrossing fashion compared to “Eyes”. For example, “The Drumhead” opens with an apparent sabotage attempt on the Enterprise, which makes an investigation, seem more justifiable than here, where we’re given no reason to ever believe Ben-Zayn has a legitimate cause for concern. In “The Drumhead”, Worf is an enthusiastic supporter of the investigation, whereas here, Garibaldi has to be drafted into participation. There is an actual criminal to be exposed in “The Drumhead” – a Klingon scientist is exposed by the investigation as a Romulan spy. It’s only after the show’s laid the groundwork that the prosecutor starts investigating Picard. “Eyes” just isn’t as interesting – growling guy with a big scar comes out of nowhere to make accusations of our heroes? And he turns out to be a bad guy? You don’t say.
There are a lot of references to past episodes here – I counted mentions of the events of eight different episodes, and this is only number sixteen. Still, a lot of them feel like references for the sake of references, not real efforts to show the consequences of past events – at times, it almost feels like a clip show without the clips. It would have been nice if there’d been more of an effort to initially present Ben-Zayn as having some legitimate concerns – Sinclair’s actions in “Midnight on the Firing Line”, for example, are pretty dodgy. Instead, he’s too much of a cardboard villain from the very beginning – he’d be pursuing Sinclair regardless of what the commander had been doing in the past.
I have to admit, this is one of my pet peeves; I’d really like to see a show one time where internal investigations are shown to be completely justified in their actions and fulfilling a vital role by watching the watchers… I have the same problem with a lot of cop shows.
Anyway, other comments:
- B5’s ideas of how long technology will remain in use are… interesting. In the B5 universe, production of gas-powered vehicles will apparently come to an end within twenty-five years, but ‘VCR’ will remain a term in common use for several centuries to come.
- Man, it’s weird seeing Weyoun as a good guy.
- One has to wonder what Ben-Zayn’s reaction would be if he found out that the station security chief had given an alien ambassador’s aide unsupervised access to his own quarters… would have been fun if he’d mentioned that during his final rantings.
- So, since when does Bester have good friends in EarthForce? I’m never sure with these early episodes if there’s intentional misdirection being laid about Psi Corps’ power and influence, or whether at this point the idea actually was that the Corps were the puppet masters of the Earth Alliance government. Later on, Bester clearly isn’t one of the movers and shakers of Clark’s order, and while the Psi Corps clearly have their own hidden power base and goals, they don’t seem to have much influence outside the telepath community.
- Of course, one can’t help but wonder if Bester had a score to settle with Ben-Zayn as well as Sinclair, and set the whole thing up so at least one of them would be eliminated. He had to know Ben-Zayn was unstable, and that going to Babylon 5 would only make him worse…
no subject
On the Lurker’s Guide, there’s some quotes from JMS where he’s annoyed with people comparing this episode to Star Trek TNG’s “The Drumhead”. And that’s fair enough, I don’t think this was an example of plagiarism – but the two episodes do have the same premise, and it is natural to compare how two shows in the same genre handled the same plot.
And, well, “The Drumhead” handles the story of a witch hunt against the command staff in a far more engrossing fashion compared to “Eyes”. For example, “The Drumhead” opens with an apparent sabotage attempt on the Enterprise, which makes an investigation, seem more justifiable than here, where we’re given no reason to ever believe Ben-Zayn has a legitimate cause for concern. In “The Drumhead”, Worf is an enthusiastic supporter of the investigation, whereas here, Garibaldi has to be drafted into participation. There is an actual criminal to be exposed in “The Drumhead” – a Klingon scientist is exposed by the investigation as a Romulan spy. It’s only after the show’s laid the groundwork that the prosecutor starts investigating Picard. “Eyes” just isn’t as interesting – growling guy with a big scar comes out of nowhere to make accusations of our heroes? And he turns out to be a bad guy? You don’t say.
There are a lot of references to past episodes here – I counted mentions of the events of eight different episodes, and this is only number sixteen. Still, a lot of them feel like references for the sake of references, not real efforts to show the consequences of past events – at times, it almost feels like a clip show without the clips. It would have been nice if there’d been more of an effort to initially present Ben-Zayn as having some legitimate concerns – Sinclair’s actions in “Midnight on the Firing Line”, for example, are pretty dodgy. Instead, he’s too much of a cardboard villain from the very beginning – he’d be pursuing Sinclair regardless of what the commander had been doing in the past.
I have to admit, this is one of my pet peeves; I’d really like to see a show one time where internal investigations are shown to be completely justified in their actions and fulfilling a vital role by watching the watchers… I have the same problem with a lot of cop shows.
Anyway, other comments:
- B5’s ideas of how long technology will remain in use are… interesting. In the B5 universe, production of gas-powered vehicles will apparently come to an end within twenty-five years, but ‘VCR’ will remain a term in common use for several centuries to come.
- Man, it’s weird seeing Weyoun as a good guy.
- One has to wonder what Ben-Zayn’s reaction would be if he found out that the station security chief had given an alien ambassador’s aide unsupervised access to his own quarters… would have been fun if he’d mentioned that during his final rantings.
- So, since when does Bester have good friends in EarthForce? I’m never sure with these early episodes if there’s intentional misdirection being laid about Psi Corps’ power and influence, or whether at this point the idea actually was that the Corps were the puppet masters of the Earth Alliance government. Later on, Bester clearly isn’t one of the movers and shakers of Clark’s order, and while the Psi Corps clearly have their own hidden power base and goals, they don’t seem to have much influence outside the telepath community.
- Of course, one can’t help but wonder if Bester had a score to settle with Ben-Zayn as well as Sinclair, and set the whole thing up so at least one of them would be eliminated. He had to know Ben-Zayn was unstable, and that going to Babylon 5 would only make him worse…