| Episode: | 45 | | | Writer: | J. Michael Straczynski | | | Air Date: | 6-Nov-1995 |
Sci-Fi Adventures is back and I've finally reached Babylon 5's third season! Hopefully it won't take me three years to get through like the last season did, even if I am going to be taking long breaks every two months this time for the sake of my sanity.
Though hang on, isn't Matters of Honor a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode? Oh, that was A Matter of Honor, singular. This story presumably features multiple matters.
Babylon 5 liked to bring director Janet Greek in to direct the big episodes, like season premieres and finales, but she skipped seasons 3 and 4 entirely, so Confessions and Lamentations director Kevin G. Cremin was at the helm for this one. That was a good episode I think, though he also directed the moderately mediocre Spider in the Web, so this could go either way.
Generic SPOILER warning: Don't read any further if you don't want spoilers for the whole episode and the two preceding seasons of B5. Also you probably shouldn't listen to the DVD commentaries either. Those folks will ruin all kinds of things for you from the whole 5 year run if you let them. Me on the other hand, I won't say a word about what's coming. If you're a new viewer you'll be safe here.
It's probably for the best that the character was put out of her misery before the end of season two, because Talia Kosh was just horrible.
It's nice that they're actually fixing the damage from a previous episode, as Deep Space Nine never did that. Though it's a bit of a shame that they're getting it fixed so fast, as losing a chunk of the station seemed like it could've caused them problems for a while. Turns out that it had no consequences at all really. In fact it's such a non-issue that no one even mentions that it happened or what this part of the station's for! (They secure ships offloading cargo into the zero-g bay in the middle.)
They're also repairing the core shuttle track that got blown up by a bomb, but my screencaps of that didn't come out so great. Which is a shame, because if you look carefully you can see the baseball field.
Sheridan actually came here looking for Kosh, which means that he must have tried pretty much everywhere else already as Kosh never comes to the zen garden. Well, except for the end of the last episode where he joined the other ambassadors to hear Sheridan's apology and ended up flying to save his life instead. Maybe he was like "Damn, this place is sweet, why have I never come here before?"
Their dialogue establishes that it's only been a week since The Fall of Night, which works pretty well seeing as there was only a week between the episodes during the first US airing. Us folks in the UK, on the other hand, had to wait 35 bloody weeks for season 3 to start (partly because we got the season 2 finale three months early).
Kosh hasn't been answering Sheridan's calls in the meantime because projecting his angel disguise to so many people was a strain and he needed a lie down afterwards. He took a big risk appearing outside his suit as someone might have seen him leave or figured out it was him, but there was no way he was going to let his dumb human friend die! I like the way the two of them are at the point now where they can joke around with each other, as much as a Vorlon can joke around, with Kosh trolling him with his crypticness and saying "Good" every time Sheridan complains about it.
Something else was bothering me about this shot and I couldn’t figure it out, until I realised that the glowing blue wall is far shorter here than it was in the previous angle. It's only six segments tall here and it was at least ten before. I can live with them redesigning sets between episodes, but changing them between shots is pushing it a bit.
Cut to space where the first Drazi in the series who isn't a dick is racing through a blockade of orbital weapon platforms. He's trying to to the other side so he can eject a very Flash Gordon-looking pod containing a mysterious British man without the lasers blowing him up.
I suppose these weapons must be surrounding the entire planet then, if ships can't just fly around them. The surface area of the Earth is 510 million km² and these things are quite a distance out and are pretty close together, so I'm going to estimate that there's around a trillion of them here. Which isn't actually that many if you compare it to the number of grains of sand on the average beach, though it is four times as much as the number of stars in the galaxy.
Anyway the mysterious pilot in the pod makes it to the jumpgate alive and sets a course... for Babylon 5.
OPENING CREDITS
It features music recycled from The Long, Twilight Struggle, from the scene where the Narn fleet was getting annihilated by the Shadows, and a narration by Ivanova which reuses lines from her miserable monologue at the end of The Fall of Night, so it's fair to say that it's a little less upbeat. Previous seasons had the narrator describing the station, this time all we get about it is:
"The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace. It failed."Cut to clips of spaceships blowing up and characters in all kinds of shock and misery while dramatic percussion plays. It kind of gives you the impression that things aren't going to go very well this season. It's not all downbeat though, as her next line gives a bit of a ray of hope:
"But in the year of the Shadow War, it became something greater... our last, best hope for victory."
Ivanova doesn't tell us that it's "the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind", and she doesn't say "The name of the place is Babylon 5" either. We don't even get the zoom in on her, Sheridan and Garibaldi standing in the C&C window anymore! This really is a new era for the series.
She does at least mention that it's 2260 though, which is the same year that the Kelvin Timeline USS Enterprise started its five year mission!
The opening titles ends with the camera flying into the docking bay, but ominously. And too fast.
Adam 'Mojo' Lebowitz, one of the original Foundation Imaging artists, crowdfunded a HD remake of the season 3 credit on Indiegogo recently and I was planning to link the video for you, but it's now months overdue and there's no sign it's getting finished any time soon. Makes me realise how much of a miracle it was that they got so much done for the series back in 1995.
ACT ONE
But after that it cuts to Babylon 5, and it turns out that this is another episode that starts with handshakes in the customs area and a VIP arriving from Earth with a mysterious agenda. Sheridan's actually getting a bit sick of it now actually, and Ivanova's attempts to get him back to his early season 2 cheerfulness up are unsuccessful.
This particular VIP doesn't seem so bad though. He's David Endawi, Earthforce Special Intelligence Division. For when regular intelligence just isn't up to the job. He's got something secret to say to them, for their ears only, though he wants Ambassador Delenn present as well.
Tucker Smallwood! That's the actor's name! Man, I'm surprised I was able to remember it without looking it up. I guess it's the kind of name that leaves an impression on you.
Franklin mentions that they just moved in this morning, though the only justification we get for why they have a new Medlab is that it's 'a definite improvement'. I suppose they couldn't say that the old Medlab was a pain to shoot in.
The scene doesn't go well for Franklin though as first he completely misses that his patient is a Ranger, due to not having any idea what a Ranger is or what their pins look like. Garibaldi would've recognised it, and he could've gotten the pilot to Sheridan and Delenn without further drama, but he was out of the room by the time Franklin noticed the guy was wearing it. Then Franklin calls another doctor to come in to look at the pilot, saying he won't be going anywhere any time soon, and when he turns around he's gone.
I remember the first time I watched the series I thought Londo's change of heart came out of the blue, but on this rewatch I've noticed that Londo knew that Morden's unidentified associates were bad news at least as far back as The Long, Twilight Struggle. That episode ended with him also realising that Lord Refa is going to keep coming up with reasons to call in Londo's shadowy allies as he declares war on almost everyone, so by cutting their ties now he's making sure that can't happen.
Londo mentions that the Centauri have a manifest destiny, just to make sure we understand that he hasn't suddenly become a great person, but he may have just made a correct choice for a change and he ends the scene grinning like he actually thinks this is going to end well.
Sheridan realises that it must be a Shadow ship, but he's saying nothing to Endawi. It would be a very bad idea for them to show their hand now and let the Shadows know that they're onto them. Plus Earthgov can't be trusted. Though they did pull the footage from ISN after it aired, which is a good sign. It means they're not choosing what gets to go on the news. Hopefully the Shadows weren't fooled when Earthgov told the public they knew what the ship is.
Minbari aren't allowed to lie, it's a matter of honour (not that the episode mentions that). Fortunately Delenn has never seen one of the ships before, so no lying is required. She just has to withhold a little truth and she's been showing off that talent since the pilot movie. Though it's unclear why the Minbari have no surviving footage of their ancient enemy, considering what a big deal they are. Maybe Valen prophesied that having pictures of Shadow vessels on Minbaripedia.com would lead to a bad future and had all the photos destroyed, I dunno.
Once they're alone, Delenn tells Sheridan how nasty these Shadow ships are, explaining that they never give up and they're nearly invincible. Sheridan doesn't believe that though, as everything has a weakness... it's like he completely missed the word 'nearly'. They must be beatable though, because the Minbari's side won the last Shadow war.
ACT TWO
Meanwhile Endawi is meeting with Londo to ask him if he's seen the spiky ship before. Londo offers him a drink, which he declines because he's on duty. That's never put Londo off, as the Centauri are so dedicated to duty that they've made having some joy in their lives into another duty, just as important as the others. Which kind of contradicts Londo's "my shoes are too tight and I have forgotten how to dance" line from... whatever episode that was. But that's okay, because I didn't like that episode.
Londo's in a good mood after getting rid of Morden and he's willing to be as helpful as he can be, but it's a good thing he's had that drink as when he sees the ship he recognises it immediately...
He's not sure, but he thinks he's on Centauri Prime, and he sees so many of the ships flying overhead that they blot out the sun. Thousands of them. A terrible sight.
It's not exactly the information that Endawi was after, but it's all Londo can tell him, and he's clearly a bit shaken after learning that his nightmare ships are real.
The mysterious British Ranger pilot shows up and gets them both a drink so they don't look suspicious (but none for himself). Lennier doesn't seem to know that he's the guy who gave him the badge and tests Delenn's drink for alcohol. We learned two seasons ago in The Quality of Mercy that alcohol can send Minbari into violent homicidal rages, but we're denied seeing Delenn go on a rampage here as the drink turns out to be quite safe. Man, Lennier used to be so naive and innocent that he accepted a drink from Londo and now he's this guy.
It turns out that the Ranger's called Marcus, and he figured that giving them an alcohol-free drink would show he knows more about Minbari than most, and would help prove his identity. I wonder if all the Rangers have to go through this when they contact their boss, or if Marcus is just an idiot. I'm leaning towards 'idiot', as he gets his Ranger badge back and then decides to explain how they're created... to the head of the Rangers in this area.
They're forged in white hot flame, then cooled in bowls of ancient holy water, Minbari blood, and human blood. And then hopefully they're washed afterwards, because ew. They say that when a Ranger dies the figures on either side shed three tears, one of water and two of blood... but who the hell's spreading that rumour if Minbari can't lie?
I also wonder what that guy in the background is daydreaming about, as he had absolutely zero reaction to a metal rod springing out of a guy's hand right in front of him. He has a bit of a reaction to being smacked in the gut with it though.
Regular Delenn takes over and uses the staff to save Lennier, and then Marcus, and Marcus finishes the job with a pipe he's borrowed from the lead thug. Turns out that Delenn is pretty good in a fight, as long as she's holding a stick. I'm not sure how that lines up with what we've seen before, but G'Kar got to fight in Acts of Sacrifice and Londo got to fight in Knives so it's only fair that she gets a turn (plus Kosh had a fight in Signs and Portents, but that was off screen).
This scene, on the other hand, is shot perfectly. When Delenn gives Marcus back his pole, the actor holds it below the frame to retract it, then clips the tiny version onto his belt all in one shot. The switch over is done so well that there's no hint of someone on the floor grabbing the pole and handing him the small prop even in widescreen.
It's an old Minbari fighting pike by the way, that was given to him by a friend.
The three of them didn't want to chat in Downbelow anyway, so they join the senior staff in their brand new meeting room set instead. Well, new configuration of walls anyway. Funny how Deep Space Nine got a meeting room set at the start of season 3 as well; there's another similarity for the list.
Now Sheridan has the difficult task of explaining to Ivanova who the Rangers are and why he's been keeping them a secret from her these last few weeks. Except he doesn't, because it turns out that she's Ivanova and already knows everything! She knows that the Rangers in this area are under the direct control of Sheridan and Delenn, she knows that Garibaldi is their liaison, and she even knows who the Shadows are! The scene's an ingenious way to get exposition across to bring new viewers up to speed and remind old viewers what's going on.
Anyway it's exactly halfway through the episode now, and Macrus is finally getting to explain what the explosions in the teaser were all about. The Rangers decided it would be wiser not to put all their training bases in one basket, so they put one on a Drazi colony called Zagros 7... with the permission of the Drazi government. No wonder Ivanova knows everything if they're telling other governments about the secret Shadow fighting army they're training!
The Centauri apparently know about them too somehow, as they've put blockade mines around the planet. Why they care about the Rangers is another mystery, but not one anyone here feels like discussing. The important thing is that there are mines there, and they need to punch a hole through them so that the Rangers on the planet can escape.
Also it turns out that the Rangers have a warship and everything they need to get the job done already, so Marcus's desperate mission to Babylon 5 was just to find someone to command it!
Though he only has command of the Rangers in Babylon 5's area, right? So these people aren't even his responsibility... or are they? This is all very confusing to me. At least the room isn't spinning right now; that's one camera move from Discovery I can live without. Well I mean it is, as the station rotates to create gravity, but you know what I mean.
The important thing is that there's bad things going on in space, and our crew finally have the means to go out and do something about it instead of just reading reports and feeling sad like they did all last season.
ACT THREE
I'm just happy that they're using a shuttle again, as they hardly ever get to take a car ride together.
I think this is the first real hint we've gotten of the scale that Babylon 5 works on, as it's presumably possible for the Centauri to conquer all of that blue space. In Star Trek it'd take a century just to fly from end to end.
Oh, plus there is one other world tthat Morden's associates have an interest in, and he's already taken the liberty of asking Refa to secure it for them.
It seems that it didn't even occur to him that Morden would sidestep him and go directly to Refa. He thought he was important! In fact the Centauri put the mines around Zagros 7 two weeks ago, as a favour to Morden's associates, so he's been working with Refa for a while now. The Centauri will continue to work with Morden to crush planet after planet and there's nothing that Londo can do about it.
In fact Morden won't even let him see what these ships that have been doing all this work for him look like, though he's clearly starting to get the feeling they'll be really familiar to him. He's finally coming to realise that he's been working with his worst nightmare this whole time.
Meanwhile the fearless forces of Light are currently going... somewhere. Marcus won't actually tell them what's waiting for them, because it's a surprise. So many secrets.
Personally I'm more on Sheridan's side as I think it looks great, though I like Deep Space Nine's third season prototype warship just a little more. It's funny just how similar the two ships are, as the USS Defiant was the first warship built by the peaceful Federation, while the White Star was built by the peaceful Minbari Religious Caste. They've both got a pair of rapid fire pulse weapons on either side, they're both overpowered for a ship their size, they both swoop around like an X-Wing despite being relatively huge, and the producers could never make up their minds about how huge either of them are.
It seems to be a thing in sci-fi series set in a stationary base that the heroes fly around in shuttles for the first few seasons, then get a prototype super-ship when that gets old. The Defiant, the Prometheus, the Daedalus, the Searcher, Zephyr One... probably others I haven't thought of. Shows already set on a spaceship have to make do with a souped-up super-shuttle, like Lo'La, the Delta Flyer and Starbug.
While I'm throwing out names, I'll mention that the White Star is an interesting thing to call a ship meant to be piloted by a human and Minbari crew, seeing as the destruction of the Black Star is the biggest sore spot the Minbari have about the war and Earth's biggest victory. (It's also the name of a completely different ship mentioned in TKO.)
Personally I probably wouldn't admit to deliberately overlooking things if I was the head of security, but Endawi sees the benefit when Garibaldi assures him that if he breaks the terms of their treaty with the Centauri and goes to speak with G'Kar, he won't tell himself about it.
The scene ends with Endawi saying "This is a very strange place you have here, Mr Garibaldi," which is a line I'm not keen on, because it comes of as him saying "Wow you just said something weird, this whole station is fun and kooky!" Sure he also sees an unusual alien walking by, and the rest of the senior staff have gone missing, but it's Garibaldi's strangeness he's responding to.
Delenn starts giving Sheridan some information about his new ship, which is good because it means that at least one of them knows something about her. She's smaller their other fleet ships, faster than anything else her size, she's made from both Minbari and Vorlon tech, and she can make her own jump points.
It's always nice to see a brand new set in this series, even if the layout is a bit crap right now, they've forgotten the captain's chair, and the handrails look like intestines. That's taking the organic technology idea a bit too far maybe (for this series anyway, it'd be exactly far enough for Lexx). At least the control panels look better the bits of acrylic glued to a board in Delenn's flyer back in Babylon Squared, though they are covered in crystals for some reason.
Delenn reveals that they've chosen a crew from the Religious Caste, with many of them being people who helped design the ship. Which is bad for two reasons: 1, they don't speak English, and 2, if they all get killed here it'll be harder to make a second ship. Fortunately Lennier is here to relay Sheridan's orders. So Sheridan orders them to take the ship to Zagros 7, and it flies off by making its own jump point, even though there's a jumpgate right behind it they could've used.
Back on the station, Endawi comes to see G'Kar so that the character can have a couple of minutes of screen time this episode. G'Kar somehow manages to sigh and say "Finally!" at the same time and gets his Book of G'Quan out.
G'Kar has been trying to warn people that their ancient enemy has returned since the beginning of season one, and he flicks right to the page with a Shadow vessel in it. He reveals that they set up a base on his world a thousand years ago, though they mostly left the Narns alone. G'Quan believed that they were fighting a war on a much larger scale than just their tiny planet. He also believed that they were their enemy apparently, though there's nothing in the scene that explains why.
Well nice work G'Kar, you finally got someone to listen to you. Now the Shadows will know we're on to them and are going to wipe us all out before we're ready.
Marcus tells Ivanova a bit of his backstory and it turns out to be very similar to hers. His brother was killed in a Shadow attack so he joined the Rangers to finish what he started. I'm a little confused about the timeline though, as the impression I get is that the Shadows didn't begin attacking until a year or so ago, but he's a fully trained Ranger who joined to replace his brother who was also a fully trained Ranger, so how long has this group been recruiting humans?
Also, I know I promised no spoilers for future episodes, but Marcus mentions here that he doesn't usually speak unless he has something to say, and that's... not going to last.
At one point Ivanova says "They're getting our range," like they're a slow moving battleship being targeted by artillery, but it seems to me that as long as they keep doing flybys like a jet fighter they've got nothing to worry about.
Sheridan asks Delenn what else this ship can do and she replies "All in good time". Because you don't want a captain to know too much about his own ship when he's taking it into battle. It's so annoyingly TV for them to keep secrets for the sake of drama, but it's also entirely in character for Delenn.
Thankfully none of them are Keffer, so we get shots of everyone looking suitably worried. Delenn's so concerned she even throws in a "In Valen's name".
I'm happy though. After two seasons watching Shadow vessels carving up the Raiders and the Narns while the protagonists were barely even aware of them, it's nice to see our heroes finally take on the main villains directly!
ACT FOUR
Plus it follows that up by immediately nailing three weapons platforms in quick succession as if to say "Oh, was this what you were trying to do? Were you trying to hit something?" This is Ivanova's first time using the weapons as well. She was only taught how to use them an hour or so ago and all the writing's probably in Minbari, so I'm impressed.
Sheridan thinks that the Shadows are pulling their punches, either because they want to cripple and board them, or so they can follow them home and learn who they are, but that suits him fine because it gives them room to manoeuvrer. Man it's a good thing they replaced ace fighter pilot Sinclair with starship commander Sheridan, because he is absolutely at home in the captain's chair. Now they just need to find one for him to sit in.
I think I blinked and missed half an hour of story here, as the Rangers have already taken off and are escaping through the gap the White Star as made, so all the crew have left to do now is destroy a Shadow vessel.
It's funny how the episode's showing off their amazing new prototype ship by demonstrating how utterly outclassed it is. Another similarity with Deep Space Nine.
Sheridan's got a plan though. He deliberately had them retreat through the jumpgate to hide the fact that they have jump engines, so that they could head to the Markab system and open a jump point inside their jumpgate. We saw in The Long, Twilight Struggle that destabilising a jump point will destroy a ship entering hyperspace, and ripping reality a new one is likely going to be a lot worse.
Though I'm not sure of the morality of deliberately blowing up the Markab gate in the process. Sure all the Markabs died of a plague in Confessions and Lamentations and he's not keen on grave robbers, but a: it's none of his business, b: those can't be the only people he just stranded on the planet right now, and c: it's a habitable planet! It would make a great colony for Narn refugees, Rangers who need training, or anyone else who needs a homeworld in the near future. Sure they'd have to give a few billion Markabs a proper burial (or whatever they were into), but I think they'd appreciate not having their bodies left rotting in the streets.
Anyway, the White Star eventually manages to get hit by the shockwave as well, despite the fact that it's one of those two dimensional ones that expands across a flat plane and they could've avoided it by going up.
Overall though this wasn't bad for their first attempt at a Star Trek starship action scene. I liked the explosions and the lasers, and the way that no one was shouting out attack patterns or shield percentages.
ACT FIVE
Actually Delenn just steps in and lies, saying that they were assisting her government by towing a Minbari shuttle to a jumpgate and they were keeping it confidential as a courtesy. Thankfully Endawi just accepts this and never questions why it needed to be the two most senior officers who towed the shuttle.
They don't explain why Delenn was able to lie, which I'm actually grateful for. I suppose writer jms made the assumption that anyone who remembered that Minbari don't typically lie will have also remembered that they can lie to help someone else save face.
So Endawi heads back home with his report...
It's also got a slot for spaceships to fly into, which is helpful because they do like having random spaceships fly by on these establishing shots.
Endawi's been such a likeable character all episode that I was dreading the twist at the end where he turned out to be working for Nightwatch or whatever. But nope, he had no secret agenda whatsoever, and he just hands his report to a senator then leaves. In fact she's a little annoyed with Mr Morden and the Psi Cop for nearly letting him see them because it'd give the game away.
Wait, what?
Morden's happy with the report as it shows that the only people who'd recognise a Shadow vessel are the Narns, and they've already been... neutralised. If the Shadows have been forgotten over the last thousand years then Keffer's footage is a non-issue, as all it reveals is a mysterious ship that likes to shoot idiots. No one's going to be forming a Army of Light to stop their sinister schemes, so they're free to take their time and do it properly. Sorry G'Kar.
Though the Psi Cop has an idea to use the threat of the mysterious ship to 'speed up the program back home', so Keffer's not entirely off the hook here. His obsessive need to find that ship against everyone's advice has still made things worse, just in a different way.
Sheridan's realised his people don't all have the full picture about what's going on, and a lack of information can get you killed, so he's creating a war council that'll meet up every fortnight and get everyone up to speed. Well, mostly just Franklin at the moment as he still hasn't got a clue what's going on.
So hopefully by next episode Franklin will know what a Ranger badge looks like, Sheridan will know what his ship can do, and Marcus will know that he can just come up and chat to Garibaldi next time like all the other Rangers do. There's no need for clandestine meetings in Downbelow bars!
CONCLUSION
Man I love it when a series changes its opening titles each season. Especially if the new title sequence is great. It also helps if the series actually has opening titles and not just a logo flashing up on screen for a moment.
I still don't get why the episode's called Matters of Honor though, as the only person dealing with issues of honour is Delenn, who keeps finding ways to lie to Endawi without dishonouring herself. Really it should've been called Matters of Information, or maybe something better, as it's all about controlling information and the consequences of not having all the facts.
Right at the start you've got Kosh keeping secrets from Sheridan and Delenn keeping secrets from Endawi. No one told Franklin about the Rangers so he doesn't recognise Marcus' pin. Londo had no idea that Morden's associates were working with Refa or that they had the ships from his dream. Delenn and Marcus are annoyingly secretive about the White Star and her capabilities. Sheridan's victory comes from knowing something about his ship that the Shadows don't, and ultimate disaster is averted when Morden's convinced that no one recognises their ships. Even that line of Lennier's I hate is all sharing important knowledge.
The episode's also about making sure we know who knows what, as it confirms that the Shadows don't know what Sheridan and Delenn are up to, but B5's senior staff all know about them. Plus Londo didn't know that he's been working with the aliens from his dream, but he's definitely starting to suspect. So that's all clear now. Though I don't get how the Shadows can know about the Ranger training base and identify it as a threat, but not know that the Rangers are working against them. I've seen this whole series and I still have no idea how that makes sense.
Anyway, there are basically four things going on in this story, all overlapping and intertwining:
There's Londo trying to make a correct choice for once, even before he realises that Morden's associates are literally the stuff of nightmares, and beginning to realise the horrifying extent of the mess he's in. He thought he could break off contact and be rid of them, but he's already opened the door and invited them home.
There's also Mr Endawi pulling a Signs and Portents by going around all the ambassadors and asking them a question. He's a lot more likeable than Mr Morden though. I've heard it mentioned that the actor's Nigerian accent isn't great, but I'd never be able to tell. Speaking of Morden, it sure is interesting how he promises this chunk of the galaxy to the Centauri, then turns out to also be working with the humans at the end.
While that was going on, newcomer Marcus also had his own plot, before it was hijacked by Sheridan and he had to go sit on his chair at the back instead. It was a bit of a strange introduction, seeing as none of the other Rangers have to go to so much trouble to chat to Delenn, but hey they had to show off how he operates somehow. Plus it shows he's got a cool stick and doesn't mind sharing it with friends. He's already a far better character than Keffer, with a far better introduction (it helps that we actually get to see him meet the other characters for the first time).
Finally there's an adventure on the White Star, the latest resource just handed to Sheridan out of nowhere with only the briefest description of what it can do. One of the perks of signing up to the Army of Light club is that they keep sending you things like a Great Machine, an army of Rangers and a prototype starship every few weeks, but they never include instructions. The White Star is great, because it goes 'PEW PEW PEW' and then there's explosions, but also because it finally allows the characters to go on the offensive and begin solving problems, instead of being helpless bystanders to all the galactic events going on lately. It increases our heroes' reach to match the scope of the story. It also lets Sheridan show off his skills as a captain, which ultimately justified why Marcus went to all that trouble just to get him when he could've just left life-support on and gone straight for the ship.
Though honestly, I thought the episode was merely pretty good, not great. It moves plots along and has some surprises, but it was their first try at Star Trek bridge action and it shows. It's better than the first episode of season one, less good than the start of season two, it's somewhere in the middle. But man it's nice to be in season three at last.
COMING SOON
Thanks for reading by the way! I'll repay you by reading all the comments you write below.
Susan Ivanomollari is terrifying.
ReplyDeleteI remember loving the introduction of the White Star. It's much better than the Defiant, on the outside anyway. The interior needs a lot of work.
I also remember being quite fond of Marcus, although looking back now twenty-odd years later, I can't think why.
Does life-support really take that much power relative to the engines?
ReplyDeleteThis is a standard sci-fi trope, and I've always wondered the same thing. If I'm flooring the gas petal in my car, I don't imagine I'll squeeze out another 5 miles per hour by turning off the air conditioner.
but not know that the Rangers are working against them.
ReplyDeleteAs I recall, the Rangers have been around for hundreds of years, waiting for "the darkness" to return. It's possible the Shadows just wanted to get rid of a training camp full of potential enemies under guise of a Centauri attack without being aware the Rangers know the darkness has already returned.
Okay that makes sense. I'm happier now!
DeleteI think this is the first time I can't remember anything about the next episode either by its name or by the "coming soon" photo.
ReplyDeleteMan, I love that shot where you can tell the hallway set dead-ends into unfinished plywood just beyond where the characters are standing, because they knew it would never show up on television. You can tell they really cut every corridor to save on costs here.
ReplyDeleteSad thing is that they would've gotten away with it on the widescreen version too if they'd just had the camera turned a few degrees to the left. Or if the widescreen version had been produced properly, as they could've just cropped it out!
DeleteThe White Star command deck took the rest of the season to evolve and get rid of those gross, rubbish looking intestinal handrails. Here, the set looks half-finished and its obvious the control panels have been placed at random. It starts to look better by the end of the third season, where they've finally built a Captain's Chair and replaced the digestive tract consoles with more conventional stainless steel railing.
ReplyDeleteYou also have to give massive props to the makeup team for this episode. They've finally found a makeup to help blend Delenn's bone crown seamlessly into her temples after it spent much of the second season just sat above her ears looking very much like a hairband. They've also gone to maximum effort to make Marcus look like he's got a bit of a beard. It's evolved into a bit of a seventies dad mustache by 'Voices of Authority' but has settled into his neatly trimmed warrior-poet look by 'Exogenesis'.
The glass table is a cool looking design for the nacent War Council, although about halfway through the season the Earth Alliance logo will be replaced with the new Babylon 5 Sword & Shield logo. So they've got room in the budget for new office equipment, but can't find some spare cash to help the dockworkers and transport pilots?
Yeah, the White Star bridge wasn't great to begin with, but they kept working on it over the season and I think they got there in the end. It eventually looks less unfinished and a lot less gross.
DeleteThey kind of gave themselves an impossible problem with Delenn's bone crown, as it looks strange if it doesn't blend in and it's just as strange if it does. But I do think it looks better this season. And Marcus definitely looks better later when they don't need to augment his beard.
Also I'm amazed that Babylon 5 the TV show had room in the budget for new office equipment, seeing as a director chose to give up his pay for an episode this season to make sure they had enough to pay everyone else.