Signs and Portents, part 1

Okay, so as you know, I've started watching Babylon 5 finally.  And as you may know, that is an extraordinarily arc-driven show.  All of about five episodes into the show I found myself scoffing at the quality of the filler episodes realized that a standard episode review in the style of, say, my Doctor Who reviews would be completely lunatic.

So I've already done episode 1, "Midnight on the Firing Line" and episode 3, "Born to the Purple," and the only important thing you need to know about episode 2, "Soul Hunter" is that we find out that Delenn is... important, somehow.  So this blog post is going to cover the season from episode 4, "Infection," through episode 10, "Believers."

Okay, the other thing you need to know about "Soul Hunter" is that we introduced Dr. Franklin there. "Infection" is his first focus episode.  It's Star Trek on a space station. Sorry, but that's what it is. Franklin's less... annoying here (another reason I skipped the "Soul Hunter" review was because doing it would mean having to comment extensively on how awful my first impression of the character was), maybe because the actor found his footing, or maybe because the writers decided to give him a proper character for his episode. Not a lot actually happens, and the episode is largely skippable, although it does tell us that a) Sinclair seems to have a death wish, and b) there are pro-human hate groups popping up.

"Parliament of Dreams" introduces Catherine Sakai, Sinclair's... "old flame" is probably not accurate. "Periodic bedmate" understates the genuine feelings they have for each other. It's also got a bizarre revenge/assassination plot against G'Kar that's ultimately thwarted by his new assistant, and they get to lighten the mood considerably in their last scene with the assassin. Neither one of these could accurately be called the "A-plot" of the episode, given that this is the first time we see G'Kar in a sympathetic light, and the Sinclair/Sakai stuff is too brief. That said, neither of these is the "C-plot," which involves a religious celebration festival, to showcase the beliefs of each species. And once again, humans are the only ones with multiple different religious systems.

"Mind War" introduces mind-reading Nazi Pavel Chekov Bester and is a Talia Winters episode. The Psi Corps are, well, a more realistic, darker version of the Jedi. They have supernatural abilities, answer to pretty much no-one, and are immensely secretive. Talia gets a psychic boost at the end which has yet to pay off by the end of the season, and Sakai finds a) a monster alien ship, and b) that G'Kar is not entirely a selfish prick. This is also the episode where Garibaldi finally gets elbowed in the stomach because his brain can't stop hitting on Talia.

"The War Prayer" isn't focused on any one character specifically. While Ivanova probably has the most important role, Londo's side-plot contains the episode's best moments. Those pro-human hate groups I mentioned earlier are looking for a foothold on the station, using Ivanova's old flame as their spokesman. Meanwhile, Londo softens up and gets two of Vir's friends out of their arranged marriages to other people. Because he has forgotten how to dance. No, it's not a euphemism, Doctor Who fans. Just watch it yourself; it's the best standalone episode in the first half of the season.

In "And the Sky Full of Stars," Sinclair gets subject to a mind probe (I'll wait, Doctor Who fans) by a guy who was absent the day they taught subtlety in acting school. Which is a shame because this is a supremely important episode. The Earth-Mimbari war ended because Delenn found something out about Sinclair. This further confirms that Delenn is crazy important. Oh, and she's been ordered to kill Sinclair if he ever remembers... what he just remembered.

"Deathwalker" sees a pair of plot devices that have been done to death a gazillion times (although admittedly, most of the examples I can think of come from after this episode aired, so it might have been more original then): War criminal scientists, and medical vampirism.  A war criminal scientist has found the cure for immortality, but it involves draining the life force from other people. Any sort of moral debate is quashed by Kosh blowing her ship up, but evidently the idea of transferring life-force from one person to another stuck with the writers; see the end of this season. Oh, and Kosh scanned Talia's mind for some reason. Still waiting to see what comes of that.

"Believers" is a) a Franklin episode, and b) a "religion versus medicine" episode. The first part isn't as bad as I'd feared, since the actor and writers have the character down pat now, and he's allowed to show a wider range of emotion.  The second part is fairly grating. Offscreen, Ivanova pwns an entire squadron of raiders. I'd be lying if I said anything arc-centric happened in this episode.

I'm going to stop there because the next one is a rather complicated Garibaldi episode, and I've got a lot to say about the two after that. Until next time.