Babylon 5 5-04: A View from the Gallery

Episode:

92

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Janet Greek

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Air Date:

11-Feb-1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching Babylon 5 season 5 episode 4, A View from the Gallery.

It's another Janet Greek episode, who's directed half the episodes so far this season after skipping the last few years entirely. She's got her name on some of the series' best stories so that's a good sign... though I remember not liking this one for whatever reason. This is also the first episode since Knives back in season 2 to have someone else's name in the writing credits: legendary author Harlan Ellison.

Ellison had been a credited as a conceptual consultant for Babylon 5's whole run, plus he also played the roles of a Psi Cop (in Face of the Enemy) and Sparky the Computer (in Ceremonies of Light and Dark). This makes him one of Garibaldi's greatest enemies. He was known for being a bit antagonistic in general, famously getting into a feud with Gene Roddenberry over the script for The City on the Edge of Tomorrow and suing James Cameron for The Terminator. But this trivia is all pretty much irrelevant as he apparently only gave writer jms the basic concept for the episode and didn't really do anything else on it. Though one of the main characters may have a bit of a resemblance...

SPOILER WARNING: I'll be screencapping, recapping and reviewing all of A View from the Gallery, and the episode builds on events from earlier stories, so a mountain of spoilers awaits you here. I won't spoil anything that comes after it though.

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The episode begins in hyperspace, with a satellite getting swarmed by mysterious ships that open fire and blow it up. This is the clearest shot I could get of it, sorry!

Is this the first time we've ever seen an attack take place in hyperspace? I know a Starfury was destroyed in A Distant Star, but that doesn't really count as they just flew too close to a Shadow Vessel. Oh right, the White Star took on a Shadow convoy in Ship of Tears.

Then we get a change of scenery, leaving us looking at the darkest image of a beach ever seen on television. It's immediately revealed to be a picture on Captain Lochley's wall, and Lochley herself is asleep underneath it. She skipped the last two episodes entirely but she's finally back!

Her link goes off and wakes her up, which was always Ivanova's cue to make some quip about how much she hates waking up. There's no complaints from Lochley though, she's all business. She's not even wearing a sexy nightgown! It's like they're two completely different people. She can pull her hair back just as tight though.

Oh damn, we're back in C&C for the first time in forever. It was redressed to become the bridges of the Heracles, Vesta and Agamemnon in the civil war arc last season, but it seems like they've managed to return it to the way it used to look just fine.

Turns out the C&C crew already know about the mysterious ships, after a warning from the Gaim. They're an alien scout fleet, looking for vulnerable worlds to invade, and they're coming their way. So they have to either kill them all, or make it abundantly clear that B5 is far from vulnerable.

We've seen a few aliens doing things like this before, like the Streib abducting people to run tests in All Alone in the Night, and the berserker probe sent to destroy any race advanced enough to answer its questions in A Day in the Strife. All they have to do is prove they're not worth the trouble and they'll be left alone forever. Otherwise... they're going to have a bad time.

The crew are moving civilian traffic out of the way but they won't be evacuating the civilians. I guess making 10,000 shuttle trips feels like too much effort. The most they're doing is setting up a lifepod for Sheridan and Delenn in case things get bad, even though they're well away it's going to be a struggle to make them actually get in the thing.

Hey they rendered a new Starfury drop sequence! We're getting to see the Thunderbolts launch for the first time, along with the regular fighters.

It's really weird how this attack is being introduced like this right at the start of the episode, as there's been absolutely no set up for it in earlier stories. There wasn't a cliffhanger ending last episode with the scout ships on their way, it's all come completely out of nowhere.

It's also weird we're spending so much time with Lochley in C&C, because it's not her story! In fact it's about none of the people we've seen so far.

We're actually following these guy, who are currently working on stuff in a corridor and have no idea what's going on. It's the third red alert this month, that's all they know. Well, except for the fact that they're the ones who'll have to clean things up afterwards.

Surprise, it's Babylon 5: Lower Decks!

Would it have been better to start with these guys and stick with their perspective the whole way through instead of handing the episode off like this? I dunno. I definitely think that starting in Lochley's bedroom was a bit too much of a misdirect (plus it was cruel as we haven't actually had a Lochley episode yet!)

There's a bit of a sight gag here with the tall guy on the right climbing down off a step to reveal he's actually much shorter (he's the character that could be accused of being inspired by Harlan Ellison), and then credits come on.

ACT ONE

Act one starts with Lochley trying convince Sheridan and Delenn to leave the station, due to him being President of the Galaxy, but he's not going to do it. Everyone's got very slicked back hair in this episode so far for some reason.

Turns out all the White Stars are out right now so they've only got Starfuries to defend them. Which might be a bit of a problem, as the power difference between a few wings of human-built fighters and a fleet of warships built with Minbari and Vorlon technology is fairly considerable.

This isn't their own fault for sending them all out to defend the Enphili last episode, by the way. Lochley says they're out on missions, not a single mission.

Lochley and Sheridan continue their discussion in a transport tube, and the camera pans over to these two again, who were in the background the whole time. I'd joke that they're the station's Lister and Rimmer (from Red Dwarf), but they seem much more competent. They know how to fix things and understand the tech... well, except for that floor sweeping thing. Even they don't know what it does, which is kind of worrying, seeing as they're the experts. It doesn't seem to make the floor any cleaner, that's all they know.

Mack (on the left) mentions how he respects Sheridan because he's always down in the trenches with them. Bo talks about how he was working in Grey Sector back in Ceremonies of Light and Dark, and saw Sheridan personally chasing down the guy who stabbed Delenn, and that was impressive too; showed how much he loves her. He's a good man they reckon. Sure he died once, but no one's perfect.

I'm starting to see how this is going to be a hard episode to write about, because it's all these two chatting about things and I don't much want to just transcribe the entire script!

The two take a break from discussing B5 characters so they can discuss their lunch instead. Mack's trying spoo, a Centauri delicacy, and it tastes a bit... spooish. Bo's disappointed he didn't say it tastes like chicken, as that's how the gag's supposed to go. He's convinced to swap sandwiches to see how it tastes and soon discovers why the Centauri's hair stands straight up.

They can't hang around and finish their lunch though as there's a call over the PA for Maintenance to send someone to Medlab and C&C, and it seems like it's going to be them. They don't call in to say they're on their way, so I guess they must have some system worked out here that I'm not seeing or else every maintenance person on a lunch break is going to be turning up.

Bo arrives at Medlab and gets to overhear Franklin giving orders to his staff. Franklin mentions that their job is being made harder by the fact that they have no idea how to treat the aliens on those scout ships, and Bo wonders out loud why that's an issue.

Franklin's probably not used to a technician actually having lines and he seems a little confused by it. Bo asks him why they're bothering to save people who are trying to kill them, revealing that he'd personally just let them die.

You can imagine how any sci-fi doctor would react to that, especially Franklin, but he seems to have calmed down a lot since his walkabout and he doesn't immediately bite the Bo's head off. He says he understands where he's coming from, and explains his own point of view. Basically his dad was saved by an enemy doctor once, it's what inspired him to become a doctor himself. He plans to save as many of them as he can because it's what he'd want them to do for him... or for Bo.

Oh and the enemy doctor who saved his dad was shot and killed by his own men for being a traitor. So that kind of puts a downer on his tale.

Meanwhile Mack's made his way to C&C to help Corwin fix his secondary targeting console. Corwin just pushes the buttons, he doesn't know what goes on under the buttons!

But just then a wave of ships comes in through the jumpgate!

ACT TWO

The enemy ships close in on the station and the Starfuries start swooping around and occasionally spinning for no reason. There's no sense of tactics in the battle, it's all just CGI and explosions.

I mean all of it, even the cockpit shots.

The series must have been really short on cash at this point to resort to this. This is supposed to be a Starfury pilot sitting in their cockpit in case you're struggling to make it out.

Corwin reports that the aliens are scanning them, trying to access defence information and get their codes, so Lochley orders him to scramble the codes. Corwin points out that they need their codes to access their own system, but Lochley's not dissuaded.

The last enemy ship tries to make a break for it, and flies out of range of their primary weapon systems. Fortunately Mack fixes the secondary weapons console at the last moment, and the secondary weapons have a longer range for some reason! Maybe I just watch too much Star Trek, but it seems weird to me that they can't just reconfigure another console to fire the other weapons. Perhaps they tried it and the computer asked for a passcode first.

Mack holds up a gross bug he's pulled out of the console (which is still moving its legs), and explains they had a problem with them a while back. I thought they might be the infestation mentioned in The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari that led to Londo's Brivari being held in quarantine, but then Mack mentions they came in a year ago so I guess not.

Unfortunately it turns out that those ships they destroyed were only the scouts for the main fleet of scouts, so the real fighting hasn't happened yet.

I like it when they go beneath the deck in series like this. Somehow knowing that this isn't a concrete stage floor they're standing on makes the place feel more real.

Mack catches up to Bo in one of the curvy corridors and they discuss their new captain. The guy's impressed after witnessing her in action, saying that he's glad she's on their side, but Bo's not so sure she is. He's heard rumours that she fought for Clark's side during the war (I guess Garibaldi's been talking to people).

His friend tells him he shouldn't pay attention to the rumours around here and mentions a few of the reasons he's heard about why Ivanova left: she was heartbroken over Marcus, she wanted a promotion, she wasn't paid enough money. Apparently writer jms wasn't aiming at Claudia Christian with that line, more the people who like spreading rumours and stirring shit up. Maybe it would've been smarter to leave the real-life rumour off the list though.

Hang on, the two of them left without taking the railing away! They finished their work then just put the sci-fi manhole cover back on and walked off.

Then by pure chance Garibaldi and Lochley just happen to walk into the same transport tube as them, giving them front seats to their latest argument. She's annoyed he didn't get them covert intelligence telling them that the enemy could download their tactical system and feels that he didn't ask the Gaim enough questions.

Garibaldi's starting to think they're kind of doomed right about now. Meanwhile Mack and Bo are mostly thinking about pizza. They seem completely unfazed by the fleet on its way, I guess because they've lived through four seasons and a movie of this crap, and it's become very routine for them.

Though hang on, how many space battles has the station actually been involved in? One or two per season maybe? Doesn't seem enough to for them to be so jaded about it.

Hey it's been ages since we've seen the outside of a transport tube! I'm still not seeing anything tube-like about it to be honest.

Seem that you need a complicated arrangement of pipes and boxes on the bottom of an elevator to make it go up and down on a space station. It's a mystery what's keeping the thing on the wall though. It doesn't seem to be touching the ladders on either side

The two of them are down in Brown Sector now, fixing a water pipe. Turns out that lurkers have been tapping into the pipes and not sealing them up properly again. There's no mystery to why people might want water, but Mack's been wondering about the jumpgate outside and why they don't just shut it off when aliens arrive.

Bo explains that the gate takes days to switch on and shut down, and during that time they've got no escape route.

Speaking of the jump gate...

Okay that seems like a concern. It's weird how this might turn out to be the biggest attack the station has ever faced and it comes after all the wars. These are just some one-off aliens! I'm not even sure if they've gotten a name!

Actually what's weird is that no one's even discussed calling Draal and the Great Machine for help. Things are looking so bleak that Garibaldi's thinking they're screwed, and the idea of using the giant weapon built into the planet below doesn't seem to be an option they've considered. Hey, why isn't Mack asking Bo about that?

ACT THREE

Act three begins with the battle already raging outside, but Mack and Bo are just having a break, putting their feet up on Mack's step, and watching the action outside. The sanctuary might be the most vulnerable place on the station but it's also got the best view.

They talk about how they can tell if an explosion belongs to one of theirs or one of ours by its colour, as it depends on the atmosphere in the ship. These guys really do know a lot; ask them anything besides what that floor sweeper thing does and one of them will have an answer. Turns out that Bo learned it from one of the pilots.

Just then one of the White Star flies in and joins the battle! Bo thinks it looks beautiful, Mack shares jms's opinion that it looks like a plucked chicken. (Bo's clearly right this time).

Then they spot a breaching pod coming in and the voice on the PA tells everyone to get to the shelters. Damn, they left that a little late!

Then we get a second shot of a transport tube in the same episode! This has to be unprecedented. Though hang on, where's all the boxes and pipes on the bottom? Was this shot taken from a different season to the other one, from a point when the model was less elaborate? I'm sorry, I'm really letting everyone down here with my ignorance of transport tube lore.

Anyway the lift gets stuck between floors, which is exactly the kind of thing you'd expect to happen when a tube is missing its boxes and pipes, and Bo uses a handheld gadget to open the doors manually. This turns out to be a mistake, as a dead security officer falls inside, keeping the doors open and letting all the death rays get in.

Mack and Bo have managed to put themselves right in the middle of the battle, with the alien boarding team taking on B5 security! Seems like a fair amount of the episode budget must have gone on giving these guys new uniforms and helmets (because it would've been cheaper than giving them a new makeup job).

Though hang on, Mack and Bo were in the sanctuary at the outside of the hull and they were travelling to the shelters which are presumably somewhere deep inside, so how did they run into a boarding party along the way? That's like running into a shark on the way home from the beach. Another question: how did the invaders get here before them?

I don't think I like this scene much. Having them hide a box as energy blasts fly in each direction comes off as very goofy. Though at least the episode hasn't gone full C-3PO and R2-D2 and had them walking right across the corridor through the gunfire hoping no one shoots them. Plus there's some proper hand to hand combat going on here, which definitely makes up for the lack of proper PPG blasts (it doesn't seem like they've put that heat haze distortion I hate on them).

Bo and Mack try to stay out of danger, but Bo ends up having to punch an alien in the helmet and Mack shoots another with a rifle. You might have thought that conversation with Franklin earlier would have them dragging the injured to safety, but nope, they're joining in with the violence.

Zack doesn't appreciate civilians putting themselves in danger and takes time out from kicking ass to yell at them to get out of here.

Kicking ass then resumes as Zack gives cover fire so the two of them can crawl across the corridor through the gunfire hoping no one shoots them. Seems sensible enough to me. In fact the episode's been pretty good so far in general. I'm not sure why I remembered disliking it.

Aww shit it's the telepaths.

Byron tells them it's safe here and suggests that the two of them stay with them until the fighting stops. It's so weird seeing Byron acting genuinely nice without his typical creepiness. Though I suppose he is stroking an alien's helmet while quoting Hamlet again. In fact he's quoting the lines Hamlet says while holding a skull (the bit that comes after "Alas, poor Yorick!")

Then he tells them that at the moment of death there's a passing of energy. We saw a guy's 'soul' walking into the light last episode, but he's describing an explosion that leaves everything nearby dripping with their consciousness, and he says telepaths can read it. Uh, that seems a bit too supernatural for Babylon 5. I mean I had a CD explode in a drive once, sending shards flying out everywhere, but my PC totally failed at reading the fragments because you can only read a disc when it's still a disc and I imagine the same is true for brains.

Suddenly an alien drops by, and each of the telepaths turns and stare into the camera one by one. I don't know the right way to film a scene where a group of telepaths drives an enemy away with their combined powers, but this way comes off a bit too goofy for me. Anyway he's gone now.

The telepaths are scaring the crap out of Bo and Mack at this point (that, plus the very real danger that these outer sections of hull are going to breach) so they decide to make a hasty exit and head for the shelters. Though Bo mentions that he wishes he was out there with the pilots defending the station which causes Byron to ask if it actually matters to him. He says it does and Byron decides to grant his wish.

Hey they put an actor in the cockpit this time!

This is maybe the creepiest thing Byron's done yet. It's not clear whether Bo's Quantum Leap'd over and is controlling the pilot or if he's just getting to see and feel what he's experiencing, but either way it's clearly a bit morally shady to do this without anyone's consent. Even when Byron's doing a nice thing for someone it's still terrible! It also shows that he is not an average level telepath. Byron must have an immensely high p rating to pull this off even without having a line of sight with the pilot

Bo seems to appreciate it though.

In fact he's kicking ass! Well whoever's flying the Starfury is anyway.

This entire scene with the telepaths was actually written and filmed later when the episode ran short (apparently because the actors playing Mack and Bo had their dialogue down so well they were getting through scenes too fast).

The funny thing is, the scene was meant to make the telepaths seem creepy, and it does, but it feels unintentional. Byron offers two strangers a safe place, protects them from an invader, and gives Bo a ride in a Starfury as a gift, so it comes across like every effort's being made to portray him and his telepaths as sympathetic misunderstood outcasts, and it's not quite working.

Hey we're actually getting to see the emergency shelter for the first time! It looks like the Zocalo set, except with more beds. Londo and G'Kar have finally made an appearance in the episode... but more importantly we get to see one of Brother Theo's monks! The monks have barely existed outside of two episodes but at least some of them are still here on the station, two years later.

Londo's complaining and G'Kar's writing, so it's business as usual for them really. They discuss the absent White Stars, revealing that they actually are all out guarding the Enphili homeworld! Sheridan and Delenn were so keen on making a show of the Alliance's overwhelming strength that they didn't leave anyone home to protect Alliance HQ.

Then Londo goes on a bit of a rant about how he doesn't know why the universe hates him, as he never did anything to the universe. It's like he slept right through The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari! Okay he does concede that he may have done a few things, seeing as he is talking to the guy whose homeworld got bombed into rubble during the war he started, but he's getting a bit tired of his karma coming back at him like this. (Trust Londo not to notice the 250,000 other people in the same boat as him).

G'Kar's very calm during this attack, and it's explains it's because he grew up in shelters like this, while the Centauri bombed his cities outside. He's very calm about that too, without a whole lot of venom to his bite. They're talking like friends who are close enough to give each other shit.

You know what's missing in this scene though? Mack and Bo. They've completely vanished, I can't even see them in the background.

G'Kar asks what Londo did as a child, while he was getting bombed, and Londo replies that he skipped childhood and went straight into his responsibilities. He didn't grow up, he just grew old.

Then Mack and Bo finally appear at the end the scene to provide the punchline: "So, how long do you think they've been married."

Then the second wave of the second fleet of scouts starts pouring out of the jumpgate and we actually get a clear look at one of the ships for a moment... before it falls to pieces and slams into the hull.

You know, I don't think we've ever seen anything actually hit B5 like this before, except for that time incoming fire took off one of the prongs at the front. I mentioned back then that it was a good thing it didn't hit the rotating cylinder, as that's where they keep all the air and people. Well, this time they hit the cylinder.

ACT FOUR

Oh come on, there's no need to fly a White Star through the tiny gap between the hull and the radiators/solar panels! The slightest piloting error and that would've ploughed right into the hull, and we just saw what that does.

Hang on, I forgot to show you what that does:

This is the worst that B5 has ever been damaged, so I'm surprised they're not doing any drama about the station being knocked off axis like they did in The Gathering. We do at least get to see MaintBots and Work pods coming in to extinguish the fire, which is cool (it's just a shame it's not great looking fire).

Turns out that Mack and Bo survived the explosion! No word about the telepaths yet, but seeing as we saw them in a flash forward a few episodes back I think it's safe to say they're not currently floating lifeless in space.

Bo's trying to read a book, but he's interrupted when the two of them get a call to go help deal with the fire. In fact it's a bit weird now that I think about it that the maintenance crews would be in shelters when there's damage being done to their station.

That's a real book by the way. The actual Dining on Babylon 5 has a different cover, but it really exists for real and you can buy it and learn how to prepare your own spoo. I guess this copy must just be a later edition.

Whatever it is, it reveals that the Babylon 5 logo exists in-universe and now I want to go write an article about all the times this has happened in different series. There's this, Spaceballs, uh... I'm struggling to think of a third example. I guess I should scrap that idea.

Anyway Mack and Bo are on their way to the fire when they manage to run into the President again by pure chance!

This time Sheridan's the one fighting a losing battle to convince someone to get in the lifepod, and it's Delenn! But Sheridan's a genius tactician, so he delegates the task to Mack and Bo to allow him to run away and... not be in a lifepod himself. He never mentions having anything else he needs to do during the attack, and he's not been bothering Lochley while she's working, so I don't know why he can't be with his wife.

The three of them walk to the escape pod and along the way Delenn asks Mack his name, which surprises him. Folks at her level don't usually talk to people like them (worker caste).

Delenn's been thinking it though during their walk and she's come up with a cunning bit of jms dialogue to use on the two of them.

She asks what would happen if the pod were to be damaged from the inside. They tell her it'd crash into Epsilon III (the planet the station orbits with that Great Machine that's still being absolutely no use), or something equally catastrophic. Then she explains to them that if she were to watch everything she's loved and fought for explode, that pod would almost certainly suffer serious internal damage. Okay that's a pretty good argument... but this is a jms script so she keeps on talking.

Her argument is that if time is circular then the lifepod has already been destroyed and is therefore entirely unsafe for her to enter. The station isn't safe for her either, but it's home for her (for another 10-11 months or so until the move to Minbar) so she's staying. Man, it's really noble of her to give up her seat so that someone else can leave. Wait, is that even what's happening here? Does someone else get the seat if she refuses it? I guess we never learn one way or the other.

Delenn goes off with a grin, giving Mack a chance to talk about how awesome another main character is. That's Sheridan, Lochley and Delenn so far. To be fair they're right, she does have a pretty good smile.

The station rumbles, so they push a box aside and there's a window there! A window in the wall instead of the floor. I wonder where this is on the station. Where are the escape pods located?

It cuts to an exterior shot that doesn't provide many clues, but it does show all the White Stars flying in to the rescue!

It's all mayhem and green explosions out there right now, with the ships and particle beams coming from all directions. Bo's got a great view as there's a lot packed into this static frame. Well, relatively static, as the window's rotating along with the station. It's still an implausible amount of carnage for one tiny slice of the sky.

Babylon 5 station is powerful enough to take on a warship and win, but so are each of these White Stars and I imagine pretty much all of them just turned up at once. That's it, the battle's over at this point. We won!

Mack's changed his opinion on the White Stars, thinking that they look like angels now. He asks Bo if he's ever wanted to be out there with them, and we get a replay of his telepathic Starfury vision. It's a really atypical editing choice for B5 and I don't like it. I know most viewers instinctively try to repress the scenes with Byron in them so I can see why jms felt we needed a reminder, but it's only been 10 minutes, my memory's not that bad.

Then Mack shares some wisdom from his mother, who told him that God never gives you anything too big for your shoulders to carry. Seems like it would be very easy to prove that wrong by just looking at all the people crushed by the things they've dealt with in their life. Bo replies that everyone on B5 must have grown bigger shoulders over the years. Hang on, weren't they supposed to help deal with a fire?

The two of them go wandering off, complaining about getting no recognition for all the work they'll have to do. Then they turn the corner to see this:

Turns out that the Customs Area doubles as temporary corpse storage.

I don't know what Franklin's doing at the moment. IDing the bodies maybe? He's putting his hands on each of their necks so maybe he's double checking to make sure they're dead. Not a bad precaution to take before you put someone in a coffin and fire them out into space.

Seeing this kind of ruins Mack and Bo's mood and the music's gotten sad too. There's still one act left though.

ACT FIVE

Whoa, what the hell happened to the ceiling in here? C&C's got a real 'captain recording their final video log before the station explodes' kind of vibe right now.

Corwin reports that they got every single enemy ship. There were no survivors and no witnesses, which means the enemy have no clue about their situation, weaknesses, or how they took out their entire scout fleet so effectively. The aliens are just going to have to get out their map of the galaxy, label this place as 'Nope!' and find someone else to bother. Hopefully someone who isn't part of the Interstellar Alliance or wishes to be in the near future.

It's a bit weird that after a whole Shadow War arc about Sheridan pulling the different races together to face a threat that was attacking all of them, Lochley's not all that bothered about what these hostile aliens do next. I guess it's because they're two completely different people.

Suddenly Mack yells out Lochley's name and the room goes silent. He just wanted to say on behalf of the audience that he knows she's new here and she's okay in his book. Lochley grins and thanks him!

Damn that's some serious damage, I wonder how many lurkers they lost with that hit. By my calculations that gash is something like 300 meters tall by 200 meters wide, so around the height of the Chrysler Building.

It's lucky they're not fighting Earth anymore as it's going to take a lot of money and parts to fix that. In fact they're lucky the cylinder can still turn without getting jammed on the brace along the top. They should've done that Star Trek: Discovery thing where the camera's fixed to the hull and we ride it around and under the gap. That way we could've gotten a good look at all the metal getting scratched and bent as it slams into the other bit of hull.

And the episode ends with Sheridan being a bit confused when Delenn knows the name of two anonymous maintenance men and addresses them by name as they walk by. Or maybe he's thinking "Wait, those are the two who totally failed to get my wife to safety earlier!"

Mack thinks he's in love and jokes that he's sure they could work something out with her husband. He's definitely got a healthier attitude about it than Lennier does.

The last line is Mack mentioning that the price of spoo is 15 credits an ounce. It's gone up 5 credits during the episode!


CONCLUSION

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A View from the Gallery is a pretty divisive episode. IMDb voters put it as kind of mid-tier, but a lot of the critics I've found despise it. For many people it's a definite contender for the worst episode of season 5.

I remembered it being so relentlessly cheesy that it took me out of the story and I couldn't take any of it seriously, so I wasn't exactly enthusiastic to give it a second watch. But I was also curious; is it really that bad?

One of the things that threw me off about the episode right from the start is that it's about the biggest space battle to involve the station itself so far... and it's in an off format lower decks story. There's a real mismatch between the scope of the threat and the episode's throw-away stand-alone nature. We get no set up for these aliens, I'm not even sure we ever got a name, but they could destroy everything! It'd be unusual enough for Star Trek: The Next Generation to feature a conflict of this scale without a few episodes to establish the threat, never mind Babylon 5! It made me think back to And Now for a Word, season 2's off-format episode, which also had ships blowing up outside, but the scale of those events matched the nature of the story. This is And Now For a Word x 100! In fact it's Signs and Portents multiplied by Severed Dreams! It's kind of ridiculous, especially as it's supposed to be a 'day in the life' kind of story. We're not watching two characters facing their impending deaths, they're just going about their day like normal, as if space battles are a fairly normal thing for B5 residents instead of something that happens maybe once a year.

Something else that threw me off about the start is that it begins with Lochley waking up and heading to C&C. It's a teaser for a Lochley episode, our first one, and it's all firmly locked to her perspective... until it's handed off to Mack and Bo in a twist. That's fine, except that we get all the information about what's going on in a scene that the two lead characters aren't present for. We could've been watching Mack and Bo piece events together from the bits and pieces they've overheard in Medlab, C&C and the transport tube etc., but instead we know everything right away and there's no mystery.

Also even though this is supposed to be Mack and Bo's story, it's always hijacked by the main characters whenever they're nearby. Whenever we meet one of the regulars the scene goes one of two ways: either Mack and Bo get a monologue from them, or they just lurk in the room somewhere while an episode of B5 happens. It makes the story feel weirdly conventional and not to its benefit. You'd think putting these new characters into scenes would lead to them discussing their own take on what's happening and the decisions being made, but instead we learn that they respect Sheridan for being in the trenches with them, Lochley's alright by them, and they love Delenn. No real criticism, nothing substantial, we're just learning that people on B5 like the heroes. It's like the opposite of Deconstruction of Falling Stars, with guest stars talking about how great the characters are instead of tearing them down. I thought it kind of worked in Lochley's case however, if just for her reaction when someone finally says something nice about her. She's so all-business that it was great to get a glimpse of an emotion besides anger. It's really weird though that we're four episodes in and Mack and Bo are actually better established characters than the captain is!

I've noticed that it's not generally a good sign when an episode to starts to focus on the guest stars instead of the main cast. Before you know it you're watching another Grail or TKO. But I was able to respect Mack and Bo, they were alright by me, and I loved the dumb conversations they had about spoo and the machine that may or may not clear the floor. I thought the episode was at its best when it was just them hanging out and talking about living in the Babylon 5 universe, because the actors really made them seem like old friends who could joke around about anything. Plus it was like a dramatic adaptation of those Usenet chats where fans would ask jms about things like why the jumpgate can't be shut down and why the explosions are different colours.

One thing I appreciated is how Mack and Bo weren't treated like they were any lesser than the big damn heroes running the show, even though some of those big damn heroes ignored them on occasion. They were just going around doing their jobs, tightening pipes and cleaning bugs out of computers, but they were shown to be important jobs and they're smart and educated enough to fix a space station, so I didn't feel like the episode was looking down on them. The regular characters have climbed the ranks and gained power throughout the series and we're currently following the adventures of the actual President of the Galaxy, so it was nice to get back down to earth for a bit. Even if those two worker caste nobodies somehow coincidentally managed to meet every celebrity on the station in one day (twice in some cases).

To be honest, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the episode in the end. I think it had the potential to be a lot better, it was written in a single day and it shows, but it might actually be my favourite episode of the season so far. Actually no, The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari was entirely Byron-free so I liked that one a little more, but this was still pretty likeable.

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NEXT EPISODE

Babylon 5 will return in a few months with Learning Curve. But next on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm jumping over to the Star Trek universe for a whole month of first episodes, kicking off with Star Trek: The Original Series and The Man Trap!

Thanks for reading, even more thanks if you decide to leave a comment.