b5_revisited | "And the Sky Full of Stars" discussion [spoilers]

While this is, of course, one of the big season one story arc episodes, it is also one of the first times that we see that the personnel of Babylon 5 aren't always squeaky clean. Benson is a %&$#-up, Sinclair knows it, Garibaldi knows it, the problems he has are not something that is unheard of in Earth Force.

From a science fiction perspective, it was very practical how Garibaldi sets up the search for Sinclair's body. While morbid, it makes perfect sense that this procedure might be used in this context in the same way that lakes were dredged.

While Knight Two is a bit of the standard mustache-twirling television heavy, it is nevertheless an interesting interrogation sequence. The irony of it all being that, if Sinclair could have been able to use the machine to uncover the events of those 24 hours without Knight Two's paranoia, he may have submitted to the procedure; it is an interesting moment when Sinclair himself gets caught up in the mystery of what has happened.

I love the idea that many on Earth who weren't on the Line really didn't understand just how incredibly hopeless mankind's last stand was. Indeed, it always seemed implied to me that the Minbari surrender was spun to make humans come out looking much better by the local government. I have to say that while effective, the special effects in this episode didn't necessarily have the scope necessary to convey the enormity of the battle, but knowing the whole story ahead of time allows one to take this sequence as being Sinclair's experience first and foremost.

This episode gets special mention from a musical perspective because in it Christopher Franke introduces his "Requiem for the Line" theme that will become a significant musical motif throughout the run of the series, and the third season main title. The cue where it is heard in full for the first time is part of the "Mind War" suite heard on Babylon 5 Volume 1 (http://www.sonicimages.com/action.lasso?-database=Products.fp5&-layout=CGI&-response=/2001/Sub/SIR/b5/index.html&-nothing) album (I excerpted this portion as "Sinclair Remembers" for my Babylon 5 (http://swashbuckler332.livejournal.com/667853.html) compilation). There is just something so helpless and desperate about that theme...

Edited 2009-03-15 18:56 (UTC)

Wow. This is definitely one of the big episodes, isn't it! And, interestingly, an episode with, essentially, no B-plot. Everything in the 42 minutes feeds into the attempt to break into Sinclair's memories.

Major air-time for the Requiem for the Line, still one of my very favourite B5 themes.

The biggest thing I noticed here was how well-adjusted Sinclair is! His speech about the line was so powerful, and I really believed that he wanted to kill the Minbari he saw afterwards - "I saw the death of the whole human race", indeed. But we know from the show that he actually has an excellent relationship with Delenn, that he's clearly able to deal with Minbari, despite his past. That takes some doing. And again - they try to guilt him with Mitchell, and though he clearly remembers and mourns that death, he isn't willing to take responsibility for things that aren't actually his fault. Mitchell died disobeying orders, not because of them, and Sinclair knows that, even under stress and drugs and torture.

Other minor Sinclair notes: he's a Marsie! I hadn't remembered that. Although we're also told that he was an Earthforce brat, which might translate to higher status. Also, he apparently sleeps wearing a belt, which I find a little disturbing!

Delenn is the other important character here... I love her little conversation with Franklin about the war; it's set up as her being all grateful for his ethical stance, etc etc, poor little alien protected by the brave human *g*, and then Franklin's question turns it around on her, pointing up the comparison with her own rather bloody history! Which I guess we-the-viewer don't know at this point, any more than Franklin does, but in retrospect it's quite a striking moment.

And at the end, watching her walking out like that when he's armed and crazy: that takes serious guts, and a real solid belief in the relationship that she has with Sinclair, that she'll be able to reach him when even Garibaldi can't. And she's right; Sinclair, even maddened and hallucinating and taken right back to his lowest, remembering the fear and the hatred of the Minbari that he had back on the line, remembering Delenn there as one of his torturers - he still doesn't shoot her. I'm not sure, on a plausibility level, that I find it that convincing, but it's a powerful enough moment that I don't care!

This was the episode when I thought there might be something to this JMS' fellows' claim that he wanted to do a "novel on television", with lengthy arcs. I had enjoyed and loved earlier episodes, but this one, which ironically enough I much admired but did not love, was the one that made me sit up and believe there was going a long term mystery, or several, and pay off for them.

In retrospect: it's interesting that each and everyone adresses Sinclair as "Commander" when he's in his own head, including Garibaldi, who rarely does so in real life. What I associate with this is Sheridan's early s2 statements that his wife and his career were the two things that meant the most to him and through which he defined himself, and of course, both in the course of the show are taken away, and he has to find another reply to the "Who are you?" question. Similarly with Sinclair. The constant uses of "commander" are probably a symptom of how much at this stage he still defines himself through his job, but that's already starting to change. Sinclair himself is in the process of change, and here it's highlighted how much when he admits he couldn't look at a Minbari without wanting to kill him/her for years, and this is juxtaposed with the friendship he's already struck up with Delenn.

Something that looks like from a Doylist pov it was mostly a way to heighten the "what are the Minbari up to with Sinclair now?" suspense is the "if he finds out, kill him" order to Delenn, as it doesn't exactly jive with what we later find out, that the triluminarium identified Sinclair as Valen and this - the realisation they had captured and tortured what they thought (not knowing Sinclair was actually Valen in the flesh, the first original version) was the rebirth of their Messiah - shocked them into ending the war at once, with a surrender. My Watsonian explanation is that they simply were afraid that if Sinclair found out he was Valen and turned out to still be an enemy of the Minbari, the damage he could do would be horrendous. Maybe Delenn's report about the War Prayer events heighten fears in this regard, too.

Also, this is one rare case where a medical emergency turned out to have positive effects, as Walter Koenig was originally scheduled to play Knight #2, and if he hadn't had his heart attack and had done so, Bester would never have existed.

Question: if Michael O'Hare had remained on the show, would we have returned to this particular conspiracy and Knight #2? I always suspected that this might have been the case; so instead of Lennier doing the exposition talk in 2.1. about what the Minbari found out, Sinclair finds out through the machine and/or the Knights.

My two cents...

- There's a definite feeling that the pace and intensity of the show has increased with this episode.

- When Sinclair wakes up in an apparently empty Babylon 5, you immediately suspect of course that K 1 & 2 have got him. But when you see the exterior shot of a lifeless looking station with no lights, it's easy to think for a moment, 'hey, what if something *else* is really going on'. Brr.

My favorite part of this episode is the development of Delenn's character. I don't enjoy the first part of the episode that much. I find the whole mind game business too disturbing but it definitely pans out at the end.

I did find it interesting that men were sent with a machine to find out what Sinclair knew. And exactly who did send them? Do we ever really know? Wouldn't Psi-Corps have been better? Would it have been against their rules? And I noticed on the comments at Lurker's guide that there is one disturbing question: Did Ivanova know about this? Hmmmm... what do you all think?

My only real comments about this episode was how beautiful Mira Furlan looked as Delenn, not to mention it was a huge, huge character developer for her. At this point, I've always felt that Sinclair and Delenn were not the almost-friends level, not particularly friends level. Not compared to the relationship that Sinclair has with Garibaldi or even Ivanova.

Sinclair was never my most favorite character in the world, and therefore this episode kind of dragged for me, but it was less so this time watching it because you're trying to piece everything together from what you know now and from what you know later on.

There was definitely a little hesitation with Delenn and the Minbari (who I assume is a fellow Grey Council member) in her quarters... which lets you know that Delenn does see Sinclair as a friend, and perhaps someone she pities and sympathizes with, and would go out of her way to make sure he really doesn't remember (but in the end, she goes to him to tell him everything... doesn't she?). So is this the start of her... disobeying the Council in that they are straying from the true purpose?

I remember not really liking this episode the first time through. Better now.

What struck me first was the two questions...Who are you? and What do you want?, that Sinclair asks Knight Two right off the bat.

The empty station was scarier this time (as imhilien said). But I think that I'm one of those people (like Sinclair apparently, and definitely like Sheridan) who get attached to places. It's a big part of who they are; it's Their Station, their baby, their commission, their responsibility. Since the first four, and especially B4, came to bad ends, I would be a trifle worried, waking up to silence and desertion. Good evocation of a nightmare.

I thought Delenn's smile at Franklin when he asked what she did during the war was a little creepy and off-putting, knowing what we know now. Not a sign of the guilt that she shows later. Her thank-you immediately before that is so sincere, too.
I remember thinking on first viewing that Delenn must be some sort of junior Satai, and not completely trusted. After Sinclair's speech about wanting to strangle every Minbari he sees, the assumption she makes that he will recognize her as his friend seemed foolish and naive, if terribly brave. The Minbari in her quarters I thought was checking up on her, making sure she was still aware of her mission, and committed to it. Maybe he was afraid she was 'going native', getting too sympathetic to the humans.
I don't think they knew more than that Sinclair had all or part of Valen's soul at this point. Not what it meant, and certainly not that he WAS Valen in a very real way. And if they did suspect it, there would be denial and disbelief.
They are being conservative and cautious and balancing shock and dislike at this point. I'm pretty sure that Delenn says they had only recently found the pictures she showed the others in WWE; but it may have been the pix of the White Star, not of the B4 station. I got the impression that study of that one thousand year ago period was a little eccentric, and most Minbari believed the Shadows were never coming back, hence their letting the Rangers lapse into a second rate, not well supported, relic of past times.

This is the first of what I like to call the "crack dream" episodes, though technically speaking I supose it's not really a dream. I really love the way these sorts of scenes are handled throughout the show, always a little bit strange, with the dark stages and the spotlights and people appearing and disappearing all over the place. The darkness and the empty Zocalo always get to me, because it's just so wrong for there to be no people around.

Sigh! The more I re-watch of season 1, the more I get upset at the thought of Sinclair being replaced by Sheridan. I know I'm probably alone in this, judging by other people's comments, but there it is.

I loved everything about this episode, and unlike David McCallum, Christopher Neame doesn't disappoint as a guest star. Yes, his mannerisms are very much those of a stage actor, but at least he has some real menace.

Edited 2009-03-16 21:59 (UTC)

I find there’s actually less to say about arc episodes like this than the more stand alone filler; most of the questions raised here were resolved by the end of the series, and there’s fewer anomalies and oddities to point out.

- The Knights seem pretty prepared and organised; one wonders who was behind them – and how many other Line veterans they’d previously targeted in this way.

- Special effects look a lot cleaner and more detailed than before – not just the Battle of the Line, but the exterior station shots as well. Don’t know if it’s just my DVD or what…

- I love the way the Battle of the Line is depicted; you only see the bits Sinclair personally saw, and you never get much of a coherent sense of the battle as a whole. It really feels like bits of dreams and half-recovered memories, not just a regular flashback.

- It always kinds of bugs me that we get shots of the exterior of the elevator and of a darkened Babylon 5. This is all in Sinclair’s mind – from whose point of view are those shots?! Yeah, it’s a pet peeve of mine when flashbacks or hallucinations show things the protagonist isn’t aware of…

- The Psi-Corps endorsed Vice-President Clark, according to the newspaper Garibaldi’s reading. Not that trivial details like that will ever prove relevant or anything… *grin*

- We get a fair bit of character information on Sinclair. He identifies himself very strongly with his job and his role as commander of Babylon 5 – that’s useful, as it provides an excuse for all the scenes in his mind to take place in the existing sets…

- Seriously, though, I like that the episode addresses things like that, and it is in line with his established characterisation. And it’s not like this is a clip show; the episode revolves around what Sinclair was doing before the series started.

- Is Garibaldi’s second in command’s complete incompetence in checking Benson’s credit account meant to be a plot point? That he’s intentionally sabotaging the search for Sinclair? He is part of Clark’s conspiracy, and the Knights have to have some sort of support from high up.

- I think it’s fun that the two times we see Sinclair facing the Grey Council have a lot of differences – the first time, they’re all already around him and the lights come on one by one, and he doesn’t see Delenn’s face. Second time, he’s remembering more and presumably his recollection is more accurate; now the Council all move into the lights simultaneously. This is an experience that’s been deliberately suppressed – it makes sense that he only remembers the broad strokes, and isn’t too sure about the details.

- One has to wonder why the second Knight thinks he needs to follow Sinclair into a crowded area to kill him, rather than just packing up his stuff and trying to sneak off the station. I can’t help but feel he’s at least partially motivated by the desire to avenge his partner…

- I am very glad that the sparkly tin-foil triangles fell out of fashion among the Minbari Grey Council. Is the other Council member meant to be another Religious Caste Satai, or is he Warrior Caste?

- I’ve said before, I really like the storyline of Sinclair slowly putting the pieces together. I really think it’s a shame Sinclair didn’t stick around long enough to see him finally uncover the whole truth. I’m also curious as to how Sinclair and Delenn’s relationship would have worked out once he found out just how much she’d been concealing from him.

One of the things I like about this episode is how it introduces some of the random cyberpunk elements that seem to crop up around the edges of the B5 universe but never get full play. Between the machine here, the stuff used on Abel Horn in Season 2, the VCR in Deathwalker, and Lyta's headgear/the Shadow stuff in Season 4, there seems to be a lot more mind-and-computer mixing than one would expect from straight space opera, which is what the rest of the show basically resides in.

Some of the special effects and line readings in the dream sequence always throw me--the "electrocution" of Sinclair in the spotlight, and Knight 2's "Look! See!" at the end, mostly. It's funny, after rewatching Season 1 a bunch I've come to like most of the "annoying guest stars", but I can never quite warm up to Knight 2 or to the telepath girl in Legacies. Odd preferences.

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