| Written By: | J. Michael Straczynski | | | Directed By: | Jesús Treviño | | | Release Date: | 1998 |
This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the Babylon 5 TV movie Thirdspace. Not The Third Place, that's a PS3 advert directed by David Lynch where he plays a duck.
The series hit a bit of a snag during its fourth season as PTEN, the network airing B5 in the US, collapsed. Fortunately it found a new home with the TNT network for its final season and they even wanted them to produce some B5 movies! Thirdspace was the first of the these movies to be filmed, however it's technically the second film as it aired 7 months after In the Beginning (on July 19th 1998 if you're curious). That puts it three quarters of the way through season 5, which is why I'm writing about it after ep 5-17, Movements of Fire and Shadow, even though chronologically it fits somewhere in season 4. Ep 4-09, Atonement, seems the most suitable place for it to slot in, though it would have to take place between the first scene and the rest of the episode.
Like all the best movie DVDs, Thirdspace's disc comes with a commentary track and it's loaded with people. There's director Jesús Treviño, Bruce Boxleitner (Sheridan), Patricia Tallman (Lyta), Jeff Conaway (Zack), and Stephen Furst (Vir), and they're a good group of people to hang out with for 90 minutes. It also features SPOILER. Just one single spoiler, at least that's all I noticed
This recap/review, on the other hand, is going to be WALL TO WALL SPOILERS, for this movie and any relevant episodes leading up to it. But if you're watching through the series for the first time you'll be fine here, I'll not ruin anything that happens next.
Though I do appreciate how Thirdspace is on the third disc in the box set.
There's also a bit of opening narration by Sheridan, but that's not so bad. Even fans need to be told when the movie takes place, and I'd rather listen to Bruce Boxleitner set the scene than read scrolling text.
Sheridan reveals that they made contact with Thirdspace in the middle of season 4 and almost didn't survive it. But they did survive it, so it's fine. So the movie has now spoiled the middle of its story and the ending! Though I might as well continue watching to see what happens in the start.
This is a pretty decent looking space battle for Babylon 5, even if it is weirdly similar to the very first space battle, back in Midnight on the Firing Line. Though I bet if you compared the two fights you'd get a good demonstration of how far visual effects had come in four years, as the software improved, the artists became more experienced, and they moved from a few cheap Amigas to a powerful array of networked PCs
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| 1-01 - Midnight on the Firing Line |
The main difference I've noticed is that in the season one the Starfuries are behaving like space vehicles, flipping around and flying backwards, while in Thirdspace they're dogfighting more like X-Wings.
Anyway, Ivanova's piloting one of the Starfuries and she keeps telling the enemy leader to give up because they're evenly matched. She keeps emphasising how evenly matched they are as a reason for him to surrender or run away and it's weird.
The Raider pilot tells Ivanova that the cargo on the freighter is way too good for them to walk away and they're not going to be evenly matched for much longer. He then calls in the Raider mothership that had been hanging around in hyperspace as reinforcements!
So Ivanova calls in five White Stars! Wait, didn't they see each other in hyperspace if they were right next to each other? Actually I've got a better question: didn't I see this shot before in another episode?
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| 4-11 - Lines of Communication | Thirdspace |
The White Stars are the most advanced warships in known galaxy, made from Minbari and Vorlon technology. and they possess the firepower to punch through the hull of a Shadow vessel.
And that's why Ivanova kept talking about them being evenly matched! She was baiting them into bringing in their big guns, so they could catch them all and send them off to Drazi prison. (They can't send anyone to Earth prison anymore because they're not on speaking terms).
That sepia tinted preview at the beginning was terrible, but this scene isn't the worst way to start a movie I reckon. It introduces Ivanova, the Starfuries, the White Stars and Sheridan (he couldn't resist commanding a ship personally... though it's not his usual White Star, as this one has blue railing struts). Plus it also shows where the season 4 crew are at in power level compared to season 1 threats.
This next scene has the job of introducing the concept of a telepath, so we get to see Lyta at work, resolving a 20 year argument between two brothers. You know, I think this is the first time that Lyta's done any work as a commercial telepath since the pilot movie. She was working for the Vorlons for the last few seasons, until they all went evil and left the galaxy.
Oh by the way, I spotted one of Brother Theo's monks in background of this scene. Then I spotted him again. And again. I think he must be patrolling the Zocalo, or Lyta's table at least.
I thought for sure that she was going to run off or pass out or something before giving the brothers an answer, but no she actually is able to read him! And it turns out that... he didn't cheat on his wife, and this 20 year rift between them was over nothing. Anyway I'm glad the worked that out and she didn't freak out. Happy ending.
I also assumed that Lyta's visions of the Thirdspace relic would be the reason the crew were able to track it down in hyperspace, but I was way off about that as well. Instead it's Ivanova who stumbles across it on the way back home by pure chance, even though she's only got primitive Starfury sensors and we saw five minutes ago that you can't even see things that are right next to you in that red maelstrom.
There's some nice continuity here as Ivanova's wing uses the same technique from A Distant Star to search for the object, leaving behind a Starfury at regular intervals as they stray deeper into hyperspace to form a chain that will lead them back to the beacon.
They eventually find the artefact, but I'll spare you from another screencap because I've shown it twice already. Ivanova's cautious around it, telling the others that it could be dangerous... but she's still calling in more ships to drag it back to the station!
ACT TWO
He's just here to tell Sheridan that they need to move the jumpgate struts further apart to fit the Thirdspace artefact through, because it is really huge. Sheridan is shocked and asks "It's that big?", to which Corwin replies "Bigger." Well that's not good! That means it's going to scrape the sides of the vortex as it's coming through!
I was wondering for a while why they had ships hanging off the back of it on cables, but then I remembered that they're in space, and the thing ain't going to stop by itself. It's going to take just as much force to get it to stop as it did to get it moving. Well, assuming that hyperspace is as frictionless as regular space.
It seems like Lyta's developed a bit of precognition, which is handy sometimes for averting dark futures, and this does look like a pretty dark future. It also looks more cinematic than the average B5 story. Though c'mon, we've already had the preview of things to come! We saw that the artefact was bad news even before the title came up.
Vir's just letting Sheridan and Delenn know that there's a lot of alien ambassadors here and they'd all like to examine that ancient artefact out there. They assure Vir that whatever they find will be shared with everyone, so now he has to go assure everyone else.
This reminds me of the time they found the Great Machine under Epsilon 3, though their research there was cut short when the owner made it clear that they weren't getting their hands on any of it. Epsilon 3 isn't mentioned here though, as that would just complicate things for new viewers.
He does like solving mysteries, she's got him there. And once she's out the room he says "Besides, it is mine."
He's spotted signs of weapons fire and the maintbot's found signs of glowing symbols. Unfortunately it doesn't get a chance to examine them as the device quickly drains it of all power. It killed their maintbot!
The crew meet an actress called Valerie Red-Horse who's apparently playing herself (her uniform says "Red-Horse" on it). I guess they figured her real name was better than anything they could come up with. A similar thing happened in earlier episodes with Centauri Emperor Turhan (played by Turhan Bey) and Prime Minister Malachi (played by Malachi Throne).
Anyway, Red-Horse explains that their maintbot's not just drained, it really is dead. It won't take a charge anymore. Seems like a really good sign that they should get the artefact the hell away from the station before it does the same to their hardware.
Speaking of nightmare scenarios, an IPX ship just arrived!
If you're wondering why she's writing on the walls, that's because she's already used up all the paper. If you're wondering why she's writing on the walls instead of talking to anyone, all I can guess is there's a part of her subconscious that's so desperate to send a message that it's overriding the conscious part of her brain that can actually deliver it to someone.
We can only hope that Zack drops by to offer her pizza again.
They have a chat about President Clark's embargo and she explains that her corporation isn't that tied to Earth. They've got agreements with other races and are able to come and go as they want.
She wants IPX to have access to the artefact, which seems insane right now considering that every time they've shown up they've been up to something shady, but she argues that Babylon 5 just doesn't have the resources to investigate a find like this themselves. They don't have the people or equipment.
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| 1-18 - A Voice in the Wilderness, Part I |
She warns Sheridan that if they keep stumbling around like they've been doing they might push the wrong button and blow themselves up. But Sheridan knows a little bit about blowing things up so he tells her he finds that risk exciting.
Reminder: Sheridan is responsible for 250,000 people's lives here.
Okay that actually does seem like enough of a trade to make IPX's involvement here make any kind of sense. Especially as they're giving B5 access to everything they find. And if they find anything that can be used by Earth to harm them or the other races, like weapons, that information doesn't leave the station.
Aww, but weapons are the most profitable find!
I also like the sneaky transition here, as someone walks by with a bag that fills the screen and there's an invisible cut to a closeup of Franklin before he's walked away.
But these aren't the only two characters standing side by side and having a conversation facing the camera...
The scene is kind of like the opposite of the scene in Exogenesis in season 3 where Ivanova gave her unwanted roses to Marcus, falsely assuming that he was the one who sent them. The rose scene caused Marcus to feel he was in with a chance, while the lift scene makes Zack give up his hopes of a relationship. It's as tragic as the earlier scene was funny, and it's basically the only thing from this movie that I remembered before this rewatch.
Funny thing is, it wasn't meant to be in the film at all. They were getting up to the last day of filming and most of the actors had been released already, when they suddenly realised the movie was running short. They had Jeff Conaway, Patricia Tallman, a transport tube set and a few extras, so writer jms came up with a new scene in 20 minutes for Jeff to memorise overnight and he nailed it on the first take, with Patricia somehow managing not to react at all the whole time.
Man, the station's already running low on supplies and now they're going to have to get hold of 33 new maintbots as well. 34 sorry, I forgot the other one they lost earlier.
ACT THREE
She's taken to Medlab to be examined, but she doesn't remember anything she did or why she was doing it. It seems that she doesn't remember the writing all over her quarters either, even though it specifically told her to remember!
Meanwhile Trent's with the senior staff in Sheridan's office watching Lyta on the monitor. Trent notices that she's aware of the camera, so they switch to a different camera...
She can tell where the hidden cameras and she can tell which one they're looking at her from. That's a bit more than what you'd expect from a P5 telepath. Man, didn't I just see this in an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series? I'm getting some real déjà vu here.
This observation gives the characters an excuse to chat about Lyta's backstory and talk about how she was obsessed with going to the Vorlon Homeworld.
Lyta found a ship willing to take her to the border of Vorlon space then ejected herself in an escape pod in the hopes that they would come and get her before her air ran out.
I suppose it makes sense that the details aren't quite right as this time the story's being told by Dr Trent, who seems to know a lot about Lyta for someone who came here to investigate an artefact. She believes that the Vorlons altered her to increase her ability... which is something else we already know. This is all handy info for new viewers though, as it's the best explanation we're getting in this movie for who the Vorlons even are.
We're about 40 minutes into the story here, so if they'd listened to Lyta and destroyed the artefact they could've rolled credits right afterwards and had perfectly normal length episode.
If this is a redress of the C&C set it's a pretty good one, as aside from the window and those consoles they're sitting at back there, this all looks brand new. There's another major difference: there's a green screen behind the window instead of a star field backdrop, so they can see the artefact outside the window (it's a T for Thirdspace). Plus space never stops spinning!
Right now IPX is working on stage one: build scaffolding around the thing and set up some spotlights so they can actually see the thing.
It cuts to the Zocalo where someone was having a bit of a nap. But their mind is invaded by the artefact and they're given a horrifying nightmare about being trapped in a graphics card benchmark demo.
The guy who dozed off in the Zocalo wakes up yelling and doesn't stop, which attracts people's attention like you'd expect... except not in the way you'd expect. People are walking into the marketplace like zombies.
Then the scene fades to black, which is great because it gives me an excuse to take a break from typing. But the horror will continue tomorrow as I write about the next chapter of Thirdspace. Unless you're reading this in the future, in which case you can jump to the next page right now.
TO BE CONTINUED IN PART TWO
NEXT TIME
That scene with Zack and Lyta is always uncomfortable to watch. It's embarrassing watching Zack fumble around, so tied up in trying to express his feelings that he's not paying attention to Lyta. It's sad because who knows what this could have led to? Lyta didn't feel appreciated. Maybe she'd have been happier if she knew, and if she and Zack had struck up a relationship. I know I would have been, since there'd be less reason for Byron to be onscreen.
ReplyDeleteIt really is. Though it's probably the part of the movie that works best for me, as it gives new insight into Zack's character and why their relationship stalled, without feeling like a giant retcon. It's the only part of the whole film that feels important in any way to the overall story.
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