| Episode: | 76 | | | Writer: | J. Michael Straczynski | | | Director: | Jesús Salvador Treviño | | | Air Date: | 21-Apr-1997 |
I'm pretty sure that's a spaceship in that screencap up there, but are those glowing panels supposed to be windows? Their polygon budget must have been really tight.
This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about another episode of Babylon 5! This episode's called Racing Mars, which is a play on the phrase 'racing cars'. Actually I don't know what it means, it's mysterious. Sounds good though.
It's the fourth of five episodes directed by Jesús Treviño, and he's been doing alright so far with episodes like Sic Transit Vir and Interludes and Examinations. He also directed the movie Thirdspace and came back after the series to direct an episode of the spin-off, Crusade.
I'm going to go beyond your recommended daily allowance of SPOILERS here, as I'll be spoiling this episode scene by scene, and any stories that lead up to it. But if this is your first time watching the series you don't have to worry about me ruining anything that happens afterwards. I won't even spoil Thirdspace, even though the events probably take place before this story.
But it's not long before Ivanova drops by and they begin discussing how they're going to keep the station running despite President Clark's embargo of traffic from Earth. The way things are they've got two to three months of reserves and then they're going to be in trouble. They can get all the replacement parts they need for their White Stars, but the station and their fighters rely on Earth Alliance components, which tend to come from Earth.
The way she sees it, the only break he's had in the last nine months was that time he died, and it would be nice if he was away from his office and had some plausible deniability when they start dealing with criminals. Really her argument is utterly unassailable. This season is called 'No Surrender, No Retreat', but Sheridan accepts that his only option here is surrender.
Wow, I only just noticed that there's a circular mark on the wall where the Earth Alliance seal used to be. It's been missing for a whole year now so how did I miss that?
In fact this is actually a pretty ambitious shot for the time.
Franklin had spied something outside beginning with 'S' and Marcus eventually guesses that it was 'stars'.
Marcus seems way too into this game of I Spy, making Franklin guess "Boxes", "More boxes" and "Even more boxes" and I can't tell whether it's because he's eccentric or whether he's just amused by how much it's annoying him. Franklin's back to joking about shooting him, like he did at the end of the last episode, but after two weeks trapped in the same room as the guy it's becoming less of a joke.
Wait, should he be able to hold him around the neck like that considering what we learn later?
ACT ONE
Marcus tries to get Jack to keep his distance by having him imagine a dragon on their side of the cargo hold waiting to eat him if he strays too close, but Franklin's tempted by that beef and potato insta-heat meal he's got. It even comes in a shiny package!
Sadly it's not allowed. No contact, that's the plan.
He can get ISN though, and they're showing a repeat of that special report on Babylon 5, so he decides to torment himself by watching the Garibaldi interview again. Which means we get a special cameo appearance by the back of Dan Randall's head (which he got a 'guest starring' credit for).
Sheridan gets to the part where Garibaldi accuses him of having a god complex and says he doesn't listen to people anymore, then he puts on an angry face and decides to go down and pay his former friend a visit.
And that's the point where Sheridan yells at him. And Garibaldi yells right back, about his cult of personality. I hate seeing these two argue, they're supposed to be space bros! Some mysterious people lurking in the background seem interested though...
"Lyta had a little Vorlon, her skin was pale as snow. And everywhere that Lyta went her Vorlon was sure to go."Okay, who the hell came up with that as the pass phrase? Seems a bit disrespectful to me, considering all the trauma Lyta suffered due to the Vorlons in her life.
Now they know he's their contact they can finally eat his insta-heats and collect their new Identicards. The Mars Resistance doesn't usually have people coming through in pairs though so they're going to have to pretend to be married.
Plus it's not a bad way to introduce the fact that gay marriage is legal and normal in the Babylon 5 universe.
Anyway, the ship arrives at its destination, meaning that Marcus and Franklin have both survived their two week trip to Mars! Now they've just got to make contact with the Resistance and they can begin their two week trip back to the station.
ACT TWO
Garibaldi's clearly not interested in whatever they're selling, so the guy in charge changes tack, talking about how Sheridan's lost his way and and needs someone to intervene. But Garibaldi's not swayed and makes it clear that he's not going to sell him out. I have to admit, I was genuinely surprised by this as I figured he was going to turn on him here.
They haven't given up yet though, and they make the argument that everything Garibaldi's been working for these last few years could fall apart because of one man, all because he didn't step in and do something about him. To my additional surprise, Garibaldi's still not interested and he walks away, leaving the pack of mysterious strangers to lurk menacingly in the otherwise empty corridor.
They're on Mars, living the Total Recall dream, which means that Franklin's finally made it down to a planet for the first time in the series! By my reckoning, that means every character in the opening titles has now made it off the station and onto a planet on screen at some point except for Lyta and Zack. They'd better hurry up as they've only got a season and a half left to manage it.
Captain Jack talks about the stories they've been hearing about Babylon 5, like the one that said they hung the Mars Resistance out to dry. Marcus points out that they've been busy due to the Shadow War, but Jack hasn't heard any reports about that. Well he did, but he assumed they were making stuff up. Seems that communication is a real issue for the rebels if even the biggest space battle in
He asks who won, and they assure him that it was them! Marcus is so annoyed that no one on Mars knows he's a hero that he decides to wind Franklin up about them being married some more.
The smugglers are less keen on smuggling these days due to Clark threatening to kill or imprison them for life, and Dust and guns aren't selling like they used to. But Ivanova makes them a deal they can't refuse! If they start smuggling in things that are actually useful to the station, she'll make sure their ships are protected, upgraded, and repaired in case of accidents. And if they don't agree to her deal they will have accidents.
Damn Ivanova!
They also drop a bit of backstory here to explain Garibaldi's hair loss, saying it was due to him opening a bottle they'd smuggled in. But he never lost his hair, he just clipped it short!
Anyway, one of them would like her to throw in a date with her into the bargain, but otherwise they seem receptive. Things are going about as well as you could hope for.
I just thought about something. Mars has just over a third of the gravity that Earth has, which means you'd only weigh a third of your normal weight, but it seems like they've adapted well as they're walking around perfectly normally. In fact you'd never know that they were considerably lighter here.
Don't worry, it's just a bit of drama to get viewers to stick around through the commercials to find out whether the heroes end up getting shot by the people they came here to meet.
ACT THREE
Turns out that the guy with the gravelly voice is Number Two and he has to determine if they're legit before he lets them see Number One. Trouble is that they didn't get a clear id on who was travelling here from B5 and they've heard that a hit squad is also coming over with the intention to assassinate their leader so they're trying to avoid that.
He's just going to check their real Identicards, which they apparently both brought with them even though they're undercover. Jack's really eager to get out and talk to Number One at this point, but Number Two wants him to stay here and calm his new friends down. For the next few hours.
Man, first we had the tension over whether Franklin would shoot Marcus during their game of I Spy, then we had to wait and see if Franklin got his beef and potato insta-heat, and now we've got to wait to find out if their passports check out. It's all edge-of-your-seat drama in the Franklin and Marcus plotline this episode.
Sheridan's annoyed with himself for getting angry at Garibaldi. The guy's like a stranger to him now and doesn't know how to get through to him.
Anyway the scene soon switches to one of those "When Minbari become close as we have become close..." conversations, which inevitably leads to another ritual for Sheridan to take part in (only 50 more left apparently). The last time she said it (back in Shadow Dancing), she gave him the idea they were going to sleep together, before clarifying that she just wanted to watch him while he slept for three nights. This time though they really are going to sleep together. Or 'explore their pleasure centres' at least.
Jack raises his volume and starts telling them about how he tried to pick up a gift for Number One on his last run but there's nothing on Deneb 4, when he's interrupted by a surprise arrival of Number Two. He wants their hands behind their heads and he doesn't seem happy. Turns out that neither the ID numbers or the DNA matched their Identicards, so right now he's thinking that they're the assassins they've been expecting.
Number One is played by Marjorie Monaghan, who had already played a Viking on Voyager, meaning she's part of the exclusive club of actors who've been on both Star Trek and Babylon 5. (Plus she's part of the even more exclusive club of actors who've also been on Space Rangers, along with Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and possibly other people!)
She came here because she wanted to see their two visitors for herself, which worked out well for them as it's bought them both another couple of minutes.
Anyway Franklin and Marcus surprise their guards with punches, then Marcus shoots at Jack while Franklin dives at Number One and shoves her through the boxes. Okay, first, if they were assassins then Number One would've really been screwed here. Second, this is exactly the kind of thing that assassins would do.
Fortunately Jack gives himself away by taking a shot at some Resistance guards.
Seems like the Shadow War has had consequences out here after all and Jack wasn't entirely unaware of them.
The thing slithers off behind even more boxes like a face hugger and Jack slithers off in the other direction. Man, it seems like every time Marcus and Franklin team up they end up having to deal with mind-control parasites.
ACT FOUR
Franklin's figured out that the Keeper can take control of a victim and override their neural pathways, though when he tries to explain it he gets the "tell us in English" cliché and has to switch to less advanced technobabble.
He's also determined that it wouldn't let Jack warn them, but it didn't notice all the things Jack was doing to make them suspicious of him. Wearing a coat in the heat, eating on a diet, handing over a photo of his daughter so they'd be able to contact her. Though they're even more suspicious about what he's up to when they discover he swiped a thermal grenade on the way out.
Captain Jack's currently riding an empty train through one of the tunnels between the domes and he doesn't have any interest in coming back. He tells Number One that they came for him deliberately, in the middle of the night, and now it's too late. She tells him that the Keeper's dead now, but he reveals that they only killed the part that was outside of him and he knows from experience it'll just grow right back. In fact a tentacle's crawling over his shoulder right now! Not really good news for Regent Virini. I suppose that's why Future Londo asked G'Kar to strangle him to death in the end.
Jack's decided to pick a flashier way to go out and he detonates the grenade in the middle of one of the tunnels!
It's not going to be doing the Mars Resistance's reputation much good either I expect. But the Keeper is almost certainly dead now and no buildings got blown up the process, so it's possibly the best outcome they could've hoped for. Poor Jack though.
It's definitely bad luck for the woman as Garibaldi grabs her and starts yelling that Sheridan's not the pope (she doesn't look anything like her!) He's pissed off with her because he thinks Sheridan's encouraging this and he's bought into his own hype. You can almost see Garibaldi's line of thinking here, almost, but the jigsaw puzzle he's putting together in his mind from all these pieces does not match the picture on the box.
By the way, the mention of a female pope here got way more complaints than the implication earlier that gay marriage was now legal and normal.
Sheridan tries to talk him into letting her go, but Garibaldi's pissed off now, and when he tries to push him off her he gets immediately punched in the face.
Sheridan tells him he can have that one for free, because of everything they've been through, but that's his limit. So that apology didn't quite work out the way he had planned. Garibaldi seems pissed off about how it went down as well though, interestingly.
Incidentally the woman who was worshipping Sheridan was played by Carrie Dobro, who went on to play a lead character in the spin-off series Crusade. Not the same character though.
They're going to prey and meditate outside the bedroom while Sheridan and Delenn carry out their ritual, apparently. Even Lennier. To make sure things don't go too far. Sheridan says a whole lot of 'no' but he eventually just has to surrender yet again and go along with it because... well, it's their tradition! She's wearing his engagement ring because of his tradition, it's only fair.
It's funny how we've gone from the Minbari on board no longer respecting Delenn, to the Minbari on board having to sit silently and listen to her sleeping with a human.
And that's the end of act four. It's a bit weird that they're not ending it on some kind of hook and even weirder that they seem to have wrapped up all the plots already. Oh I suppose Garibaldi's friends are still lurking in hallways waiting for him to come around.
ACT FIVE
This time Lennier does the talking and all he says is "Woo-hoo?"
There's something hanging on the top right corner of the frame by the way and it's thankfully distracting me from how horrifically embarrassing this is. Slightly.
Plus she lets them know that she's going out to dinner if anyone wants to join her. Good guy Marcus decides to do the noble thing and let Franklin and Number One dine alone. Then he discovers that he and Franklin will be sharing the honeymoon suite later! They leave him standing there on his own, making quips about who's going to get custody of their children to an empty room.
Uh, Garibaldi are you even going to ask who these people work for? Is he just assuming they're a pro-Babylon 5 anti-Sheridan group that also seems to care a lot about what's good for business and for President Clark?
CONCLUSION
I still have no idea why this episode's called Racing Mars. I mean I get the 'Mars' part, but there's nothing moving at any kind of velocity in the Franklin and Marcus plot this episode. The events on the station aren't all that high-octane either really, seeing as it's all about Sheridan's day off and one of the big crises he has to deal with is there being nothing on television. I'm a little surprised they haven't done anything about that actually, seeing as they're a rogue state with full control over what does and doesn't get shown on their TVs. They're getting black market supplies and forging an alliance with terrorists, is it a step too far to put some pirated films on to help keep morale up? It's a shame Sheridan's not on speaking terms with Garibaldi anymore as he could've borrowed his collection of Looney Tunes cartoons.
There's pretty much four things going on in this story: Sheridan's day off, Ivanova's day in charge, Franklin and Marcus's Mars adventure, and Garibaldi's fall to the dark side, though they cross over with each other a bit along the way.
Franklin and Marcus's story seems to be the A plot, judging by the title, and how much you enjoy it probably depends on what you think about poor Captain Jack (and his actor (and his accent)). Personally I thought the character was fine and I liked how the guy was never quite how he seemed, all the way to the end, and the big reveal about him puts all of his previous actions in a new light. Was he being needlessly awkward on the ship or was he trying to avoid contacting them? Was he getting lost in the tunnels or trying to go the wrong way? It's outright spelled out that some of his weird behaviour was basically his way of sending a warning sign, but the characters didn't pick up on it. I have to be honest, I didn't pick up on much either even though I knew what was up and I was looking out for clues this time. And by the end he was a tragic hero, blowing himself up so that he couldn't put anyone else at risk.
Speaking of weird behaviour being a warning sign, Garibaldi's finally found someone else who can see that Sheridan's god complex is going to drag everything down, and all Sheridan's attempts to mend their friendship only go to prove his worst fears. He's got to take action, do the right thing, because he's the reluctant hero of this story. The thing is, he's entirely obviously wrong. I remembered Sheridan being a little more at fault in this episode, I thought we'd get to see how his behaviour could seem off from Garibaldi's perspective, but no he totally isn't. He acted very mature and made two legitimate attempts to make peace and understand where his friend is coming from, but Garibaldi's clearly interpreting everything wonky right now and drawing the worst conclusions from the best actions. The sad thing is, the other characters are as clueless about Garibaldi's mind control as the Resistance was about Captain Jack's, and if they were as concerned about Garibaldi's mental state as Garibaldi is about Sheridan's then maybe they could get him the help he needs.
The other half of Sheridan's day off is about another ritual with Delenn and it's the most embarrassing yet! Poor Sheridan. Poor Lennier as well. It made Delenn happy though and that made me happy.
And then there's Ivanova's
Overall Racing Mars continues season 4's unbroken streak of being pretty decent. It's not much of a story in its own right, but it has its moments and pushes plotlines forwards, and it's cool that we're spending more time off station. Plus it even gives Franklin something to do! I think his Mars Resistance plot this season is turning out much better than his 'yelling at everyone/going off on his own' story last year. In fact Garibaldi's 'yelling at everyone/going off on his own' plot is much better than it too, so the season's doing well.
COMING SOON
Anyway that's what I thought about Racing Mars. But what did you think, huh? You should share your thoughts in the comments below.
explain Garibaldi's hair loss, saying it was due to him opening a bottle they'd smuggled in.
ReplyDeleteOh, so that's why he's turned evil. Lex Luthor syndrome.
But he never lost his hair, he just clipped it short!
And that's why his evil only manifests as being extra cranky.
Plus it's not a bad way to introduce the fact that gay marriage is legal and normal in the Babylon 5 universe.
ReplyDeleteSo normal that it's a good way to avoid being noticed by authoritarian thugs. I liked that when this came out.
you'd never know that they were considerably lighter here.
ReplyDeleteThe "gravity" inside B5 would vary every time you took a lift more than a few levels, so you could argue they're used to it. They have to wander through zero-g just to take the train.