Like everyone else has said, I found the most interesting part of this episode to be Londo. The rest all feels a bit too much like pieces being moved into position – important, certainly, but not actually that entertaining to watch. I’m also wondering if JMS was having a little trouble adjusting to writing a two-parter – part one is incredibly slow paced, and the episode seems to end just as the plot actually gets moving. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but there’s a few things introduced in part two that really could have done with some fleshing out – the captain of the Hyperion could have done with a bit more depth than just ‘arrogant aggressive dick’ – and it seems to me there’s an interesting story to be told about the renegade aliens. I think it’d be a stronger episode if both had been introduced a little earlier, probably at the expense of some of the scenes dealing with the science team’s surveys of the planet.
The Londo scenes, meanwhile, are great. Not going to repeat what selenak said, but I agree, it’s a wonderful bit of less than obvious foreshadowing about Londo’s character for him to be one of the three individuals Varn contacted.
And the Mars riots – well, again we’re reminded that the Earth Alliance is not a shiny happy Federation. It’d be interesting to know just how big the Free Mars movement was a this stage – enough to cause serious problems, certainly, but how many Martians were demanding full independence before Clark forced the issue?
Other notes:
- The ISN report mentions in passing “increasing questions being raised about the cost of maintaining a presence in space.”, which was also brought up at the end of “Infection”. It’s interesting that Earth – apparently one of the larger powers, with at least one sizable extra-solar colony on Proxima 3, and a history of involvement in alien conflicts, is still somewhat sceptical about whether space travel is actually worth it. From an economic point of view, this is actually somewhat understandable – what does Mars, for example, produce that justifies the cost of colonisation? Not something that normally comes up, even as a background detail, in science fiction, which tend to assume that colonising space is automatically a worthwhile endeavour.
- Alright, I realise the Minbari are, for all intents and purposes, Tolkien’s elves in space. That’s fine, that’s a common enough archetype in science fiction. But you’re meant to be a bit more subtle than having members of that species discussing how they have been called to the sea…
- I think this is one of the few episodes where Delenn and Londo get any significant time together. Man, it’s weird watching B5 ambassadors being… diplomatic to each other!
- Not directly referenced here, but it’s always vaguely amused me how B5 handles first contact situations. It’s rather cleverly set up to have it that regulations require a command-level officer, and to have it be a response to the disastrous first contact with the Minbari, so that the old trope of the captain leading the away team personally is completely justified within the setting. Of course, that’s a Star Trek trope, not one that comes up particularly often in B5, so after setting up the justification so well, the show ends up only having a couple of first contact situations occur…
- Man, the Hyperion is an ugly ship – even by the low standards of the Earth Alliance.
- I like the attention to detail that Londo’s shuttle, though clearly the same basic design as the other shuttles seen, has a far more ornate interior, as benefits his rank.
- Lise Hampton (-Edgars-Garibaldi-Nahasapeemapetilon) is, I will admit, not one of my favourite characters. I don’t dislike her – that’s rather the problem… she’s never interesting enough to devote any attention to either way. I do like that she’s set up here and in “Babylon Squared”, so she’s an established character when Garibaldi runs into her again – what, two and a half years from now? I do wonder why it was decided to have her divorce and then get married again in the intervening time...
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The Londo scenes, meanwhile, are great. Not going to repeat what
And the Mars riots – well, again we’re reminded that the Earth Alliance is not a shiny happy Federation. It’d be interesting to know just how big the Free Mars movement was a this stage – enough to cause serious problems, certainly, but how many Martians were demanding full independence before Clark forced the issue?
Other notes:
- The ISN report mentions in passing “increasing questions being raised about the cost of maintaining a presence in space.”, which was also brought up at the end of “Infection”. It’s interesting that Earth – apparently one of the larger powers, with at least one sizable extra-solar colony on Proxima 3, and a history of involvement in alien conflicts, is still somewhat sceptical about whether space travel is actually worth it. From an economic point of view, this is actually somewhat understandable – what does Mars, for example, produce that justifies the cost of colonisation? Not something that normally comes up, even as a background detail, in science fiction, which tend to assume that colonising space is automatically a worthwhile endeavour.
- Alright, I realise the Minbari are, for all intents and purposes, Tolkien’s elves in space. That’s fine, that’s a common enough archetype in science fiction. But you’re meant to be a bit more subtle than having members of that species discussing how they have been called to the sea…
- I think this is one of the few episodes where Delenn and Londo get any significant time together. Man, it’s weird watching B5 ambassadors being… diplomatic to each other!
- Not directly referenced here, but it’s always vaguely amused me how B5 handles first contact situations. It’s rather cleverly set up to have it that regulations require a command-level officer, and to have it be a response to the disastrous first contact with the Minbari, so that the old trope of the captain leading the away team personally is completely justified within the setting. Of course, that’s a Star Trek trope, not one that comes up particularly often in B5, so after setting up the justification so well, the show ends up only having a couple of first contact situations occur…
- Man, the Hyperion is an ugly ship – even by the low standards of the Earth Alliance.
- I like the attention to detail that Londo’s shuttle, though clearly the same basic design as the other shuttles seen, has a far more ornate interior, as benefits his rank.
- Lise Hampton (-Edgars-Garibaldi-Nahasapeemapetilon) is, I will admit, not one of my favourite characters. I don’t dislike her – that’s rather the problem… she’s never interesting enough to devote any attention to either way. I do like that she’s set up here and in “Babylon Squared”, so she’s an established character when Garibaldi runs into her again – what, two and a half years from now? I do wonder why it was decided to have her divorce and then get married again in the intervening time...