"Deathwalker" discussion [spoilers]

[ruuger]

This is the discussion post for the episode 1X09, "Deathwalker". Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.

Extra reading:

The article for "Deathwalker" at Lurker's Guide.

Comments

[wychwood]

An interesting episode! I like the diplomatic side of things, mostly; Ivanova's canny handling of the angry League ships, Sinclair's negotiations to find a way between the factions (though I felt he was being overly naive with his assumption that the Minbari would vote his way when he knew Deathwalker said she'd been with the Wind Swords), Lennier's reluctance to follow his own instructions.

I was a little annoyed with Ambassador Kalika; she gets all up in Sinclair's face about how terrible the debate was, when in actual fact what happened was: there was a vote, and it didn't go her way. If they're going to start threatening to blow up the station every time someone loses an argument, B5 is in even more trouble than we already thought...

I'd forgotten how important Kosh is in this episode (despite a relatively low level of screentime). We get much more of a sense of him and of the Vorlons here - the ruthlessness he uses against Talia, the (politically helpful but rather sketchy - talk about your Deus Ex Machina, too!) Vorlon ship that blows up Deathwalker's vessel, the hilarious and/or gnomic Vorlon sayings ("at the hour of scampering" is still my favourite).

I liked Sinclair and Garibaldi and their relationship here. I have such a strong sense of their friendship, Garibaldi apologising for getting angry with Sinclair and the two of them in the bar at the end, working together throughout the episode... G'Kar and Na'Toth are also good together; we get more of their characters, and of Narn society - I liked the conversation about the blood oath, and G'Kar saying "You would not be Narn if you did", and the respect they clearly have for each other. Plus: Na'Toth flipping out is *scary*, man! Don't want to be on the wrong side of her.

Minor nitpick: they kept calling the jumpgate "the vortex". I don't remember that ever happening anywhere else - someone didn't have the series bible? :)

This is a decent episode; not great, but solid, and it's pretty good as a "Not Your Father's Star Trek" thing; it's more shades-of-grey than Trek usually goes for (though there are exceptions!). Good stuff.

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

To be fair to the Ambassador, it wasn't so much 'losing the argument' as 'the entire League being rendered irrelevant in an issue of great concern to them'. Presumably even if the Minbari had abstained, the vote still would have failed 2-2, failing to get a majority in favor. Easy to feel your people aren't really being represented when the only way your vote is relevant is if half the great powers already support something...

[wychwood]

it wasn't so much 'losing the argument' as 'the entire League being rendered irrelevant in an issue of great concern to them'.

Yeah... I can see why she'd be upset, definitely. And the Centauri and the Narn were clearly operating in bad faith. But at the same time, the Council did actually work as designed; the powers voted, including the League, and that's the answer they got. The way it's set up, with one vote for each of the major races and one for the League means that it's *always* true that they have to have half the major races on their side to get anywhere.

[widsidh.livejournal.com]

the (politically helpful but rather sketchy - talk about your Deus Ex Machina, too!) Vorlon ship that blows up Deathwalker's vessel

I wouldn't call it Deus ex Machina - it is consistent with Kosh's absences from the council, which are commented upon in the course of the episode.

it's more shades-of-grey than Trek usually goes for

The nature of the scenario reminded me of Star Trek, too.
The whole thing feels a bit like a Trek dilemma done differently.

[wychwood]

I wouldn't call it Deus ex Machina - it is consistent with Kosh's absences from the council, which are commented upon in the course of the episode.

I was thinking more of the way that they're stuck with an apparently unsolvable dilemma, and then bam, the Vorlons jump in and fix it. It amused me to think of it that way :)

The whole thing feels a bit like a Trek dilemma done differently.

Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking; there's more pragmatism and politics than, say, Picard would have had to deal with, I think. I like Star Trek, but it's a much simpler world, generally.