This is an episode which illustrates, imo, why JMS ultimately made the right decision when mounting the Sisyphus task of writing all the episodes himself. It's not that The War Prayer is bad, as such, and D.C. Fontana was a well-respected scriptwriter of the genre - unless I remember wrong, she wrote Journey to Babel, the Star Trek episode which introduces Spock's parents, Sarek and Amanda, and remains a favourite for many ST fans to this day - but it's all a bit pat and simplified compared with other episodes, and it could have been far more complex.

I'm mostly thinking of the Centauri subplot; if this had been a season or two later, or even at the end of this season, I think JMS would have found a way to a) tie Londo's original refusal to help the youngsters to either his recent experience with Adira (I strongly suspect that D.C. Fontana wrote this episode either without having been told about "Born to the Purple" or indeed before "Born to the Purple" was written), or his very first marriage (the one to the dancer, which led to an ultimatum by his family which led to annulment), or his ambitions (maybe one or both set of parents hold the key to getting more noticed by the Emperor?) or both. Which would make both the refusal and the change of mind be more tied to the overall arc. I mean, you can still fanwank it without much effort, but the episode itself could have made some connections.

This being said: the Centauri scenes gave me some things I liked very much indeed, to wit, progress in the Londo-and-Vir interaction. This episode marks the first time we see Vir stand up to Londo on a matter of principle, which of course a season later will happen in a far more serious context; we see Vir's self-confidence has grown enough for this. At the same time, he and Londo have grown quite familiar; see Vir helping Londo dress, which I don't think we see with any of the other attachés and their respective ambassadors, which tells us something not just about the individuals in question but their cultures. The outstanding scene in this episode, the conversation between Londo and Vir in the garden, ending with Londo's "nor should you" is an early preparation for one of the most heartrendering scenes of the show in s4, Vir's drunken breakdown after he killed Cartagia and Londo's "when you first came to the station, you were so innocent" reply ending with "...you still have your heart, and your heart is a good one; you would not be in such pain otherwise. And for that, I still envy you" reply. It doesn't surprise me that this particular scene was an insert by JMS, because it really goes deeper than the rest of the scenes. The whole "my shoes are too tight and I have forgotten how to dance" is a great illustration of one of Londo's basic problems and traits, that he has internalized the taboos, ambitions and rules of his world, even while recognizing some of them as wrong, too much to cast them off even if he were given the freedom to do so. It's what leads Londo to believe he has no freedom of choice now, despite of the fact he actually does. (As he recognizes five years later.)

Trivia: as with the Beth Toussaint/Melissa Gilbert swap for Anna Sheridan later, the actresses used for the photos of Londo's wives aren't the ones from Soul Mates. The Centauriphile in me wishes they had reshot that scene for the dvd...*g*