| Episode: | 89 | | | Writer: | J. Michael Straczynski | | | Director: | Janet Greek | | | Air Date: | 21-Jan-1998 |
This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the first episode of Babylon 5's awkward final season: No Compromises.
I've mentioned already that the series lost its network and was rescued by TNT at the last minute, but things didn't entirely work out for the best. For one thing the budget stayed the same while the cast and crew got contractual raises, so were working with less money this season (and it was already a low budget series). They had to switch to six shooting days instead of seven to make up the difference. Plus they lost Claudia Christian and no one seems entirely sure who's to blame for that. She apparently wanted to come back, but she felt like they were rushing her into signing a contract that might prevent her from filming movies, and maybe didn't realise that production really was that pressed for time. All I know for certain is that this season will have far below the recommended amount of Ivanova.
This is the first episode of 1998, by the way, which wasn't a bad time for live-action sci-fi. Deep Space Nine was in its final years, Voyager was halfway through, and Stargate SG-1 was just getting started. It was a year of asteroid movies, with Armageddon and Deep Impact both hitting cinemas, and it was also a year of sci-fi TV shows getting movies. There was Lost in Space, Star Trek: Insurrection, The X-Files: Fight the Future... oh plus Babylon 5 got its own TV movie, In the Beginning, which aired a couple of weeks before this episode. I just wrote about that film actually, if you're trying to keep track of what order these reviews go in (and what stories I may end up spoiling).
Right, I'm going to get on with recapping, screencapping and sharing my thoughts on this episode, which means there'll be EXTREME SPOILERS for this and earlier episodes. Continue with caution.
Here's the creepy set of mid-morph characters joining us for year five:
Each morph is slightly more horrifying than the last on this disc, so I'm grateful they only did four characters this time.
Okay, I'm gonna press play.
Bit of a strange choice of name though. Sure it fits the Omega-class's theme of using names from Greek mythology (the Agamemnon for example), but Acheron is the river of woe that flows through Hades! Though it's also said to cleanse the sins of humans, so that's pretty cool. In fact that's what you want really, after a civil war.
I'm always surprised that there's breathable air in this section of the station, seeing as it's a gigantic open area just for spaceships with door leading out into a vacuum. I suppose it's easier let people just walk off their ships than have to mess around trying to get docking tunnels to connect properly on weird airlock shapes. The shuttle's door opens and Corwin's package turns out to be...
She's a bit confused about being met by Corwin on his own instead of the full command staff, and he has to explain they're all busy. Though weirdly he starts by mentioning Garibaldi, and then has to clarify that he's not on staff any more, he's just working with Zack to prepare for Sheridan's inauguration. Plus Franklin's busy with an emergency, and... that's as far as he gets.
So I suppose Corwin has taken Ivanova's job? Someone needs to get him a uniform upgrade if he's the second in command now. Either one of those Army of Light/Interstellar Alliance uniforms like Zack and Franklin, or an Earthforce outfit like Lochley.
This is a really impressive shot by the way, with the camera following the two of them from Lochley's shuttle, across the docking bay, through the Customs Area, and down the corridor in one take. It's even more impressive considering all the extras walking around. The series had a lower budget this season but they were determined not to show it (that's why the episode's called No Compromises).
The killer explains that he needs to send a message to Babylon 5 and that's what the Rangers are for... so he shoots the guy and puts a sign around his neck saying: "Special Delivery for Babylon 5". I think he forgot the stamp.
It's not the greatest teaser in B5 history really, and the worst part about this is that the killer takes the music box with him when he leaves, so it'll almost certainly be back to torment me later in the episode.
Season 5's opening theme is still plenty dramatic, but it's lost the darkness and become more hopeful and dignified. Babylon 5 is now the headquarters of a galactic alliance, and this almost sounds like it could be its anthem at times.
It's a good match for a season where the heroes have already won their wars and reached some kind of light at the end of the tunnel, but I'm torn on it to be honest. On the one hand it sounds a bit like it was swiped from some other, cheesier, TV series. On the other hand, it's so purely heroic that I can't help but like it.
"And so it begins. There is a hole in your what do you want no one here is exactly what he appears. Nothing's the same anymore. Commander Sinclair is being reassigned why don't you eliminate the entire Narn Homeworld I while see your a great hand reaching out of the stars who are you? President Clark has signed a degree today declaring martial these orders have forced us to declare independence weapon supplies less your people get off their encounter-suited butts and do something. You're the one who are if you go to Z'ha'dum you will die. Why are you here, do you have anything worth living for? I think of my beautiful city in flames like giants in the playground now get the hell out of our galaxy we are here to place President Clark under arrest."Also I miss the narration. Sinclair did the first one, Sheridan the second and Ivanova the third. It should've been Garibaldi's turn!
Anyway, B5 recently got a brand new 4:3 HD remaster and there's something about it that's been bothering me: the text used for the credits looks different to how it looks on the DVDs somehow. But which of them is more accurate to the original broadcast? I decided to get my VHS tapes out to finally solve this mystery:
Click the buttons to compare the broadcast version from a VHS tape, the Region 2 DVD version, and the HD remastered version.
I think the HD version actually comes really close to matching the original look of the text, but the DVDs come closer to getting the colour right. The HD text looks a little too bright and blue.
The cast has changed a little this season, as Jason Carter as Marcus Cole and Claudia Christian as Susan Ivanova have left the show, and Tracy Scoggins as Elizabeth Lochley has come aboard. Ivanova could've been the station commander this season if she'd stuck around!
Could've been worse I guess. Space 1999 and Battlestar Galactica basically included their own teaser trailer at the start of every episode.
There's also a firework display going on but it's really subtle so it took me forever to notice. Which is generally not what you want from fireworks.
ACT ONE
The season 4 finale Deconstruction of Falling Stars was filmed as part of season 5 so we've already had a sneak peak at Sheridan's new look, but it's still really weird seeing him with a goatee. It's weird seeing a president with a goatee too, though he hasn't been officially sworn in yet.
This scene reveals that the two of them are currently alternating between their quarters until they move to their permanent headquarters on Minbar. It also reveals that Delenn drinks blue milk and Sheridan washes his own socks because his sergeant told him that he never left the barracks without making sure there was a job waiting for him when he came back. You can't get killed on a mission if you've got something at home you still need to get done! Makes me wonder why he didn't tell Lorien that back in season 4 when he asked if he had anything worth living for.
Turns out that it's currently still an independent state and the Alliance may be buying it from Earth in the future. Sheridan chose to put an Earth Alliance captain in charge anyway to make the whole deal look better to the people back on Earth, seeing as they're currently recovering from a civil war. It's a bit like Commander Sisko running the Bajoran space station Deep Space Nine, except I don't think Lochley's brought any other Earthforce officers with her.
I was a little confused by this scene at first, because the view out of the window is different to what it's what it's been during the last three seasons. But then I realised that the whole room is different as well. This Sheridan's new office, because he can't really run the Interstellar Alliance out of the station commander's office. I mean, how would Lochley get anything done with him sitting there all the time?
Anyway Lochley wants the authority to run the station her way, and Sheridan's fine with that. He'll handle the political decisions, she'll handle the B5 problems. And he's not interested in hearing what side of the Earth Civil War she fought on.
This scene establishes two things: the money for background actors hasn't ran out yet, and there are still Narns working on B5's security force (there's one following Zack and Garibaldi around). I'm glad the production crew hadn't forgotten about that.
Corwin's actor must have been amazed at all these other sets he'd never visited before. He's been on the series since season one and before now I remember seeing him in the Zocalo, the hallway, Ivanova's quarters and C&C. And that's it.
It was the Ranger in the pod by the way, though we still don't know why he was in there or why he was shot. I mean sure it was to send a message, but the only message they've gotten from him so far is the "Special Delivery for Babylon 5" sign.
I get why a writer would want to add a bit of personality to their assassin, but this isn't really working for me. I'm not on board with his particular variety of quirkiness. Plus it doesn't make him seem very competent to be honest. Anyone who did their research would know that Sheridan hates hiding behind security and will stick his neck out at any opportunity.
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| 3-11 - Ceremonies of Light and Dark |
ACT TWO
Straight away he's staying things like "the geometries that circumscribe your waking life draw narrower until nothing fits inside them anymore" and I already don't like him. This is Byron, played by Robin Atkin Downes, who I just saw in In the Beginning. In fact it was his performance there that got him this job.
The guy's better known for his voice acting work (he's Rico Rodriguez in Just Cause, Travis Touchdown in No More Heroes, Kaz in Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain, and a million other characters), and I think people would generally say he's a decent actor. It's the writing that really makes Byron such an obnoxious character. He's got an attitude and a way with words that makes him very punchable. In fact the actor was far more likeable playing Morann in In the Beginning, and that guy was a genocidal maniac obsessed with the complete annihilation of humanity.
Anyway the ambient noise returns and it turns out that the conversation was actually a message broadcast into her mind. He just wanted her to meet him in Brown sector later because his people are coming. And she should come alone.
The reason Sheridan's here is because he needs someone to write the declaration of principles for the Interstellar Alliance and it apparently has to be someone from the main cast. He does justify choosing G'Kar though, saying that people seem very keen on that book he started writing in season 3, and that his speeches are always great. It's perhaps a little self-aggrandizing for a scriptwriter to have a character mention how awesome the speeches he wrote are, but he's not wrong.
Franklin's figured out what killed the Ranger in the pod: he got shot. He does have some new information for us though, revealing that the shot was precisely aimed for an instant kill, suggesting that they're dealing with someone who knows what they're doing. And what they're apparently trying to do is scare Sheridan.
Lochley doesn't want to jump to any conclusions though, and asks Franklin if he thinks this has anything to do with the inauguration. He completely blows his opportunity to reply "I'm a doctor, not a detective."
Byron explains that they're a group of pacifist technophobic rogue telepaths looking for a home, and they thought a high-tech space colony would be the ideal place. Then he starts introducing the people accompanying him, getting kind of weird and personal with the information he shares. There's Sarah, who is bright and beautiful, William, who is shy but interesting, Cynthia and Rosa, who are closer than sisters, and Special Simon. It's made even more uncomfortable by the way that none of his people are saying anything themselves. When you've got silent extras it's probably best not to draw attention to the fact that they're silent like this!
I'd give the scene a pass if we'd got cutaways of Lochley rolling her eyes and making 'wanker' hand gestures behind Byron's back, but she doesn't, so I won't. Anyway, Simon's special because he has a perfect memory and refuses to talk. But he says 'hello' to Lochley by broadcasting murky images of flowers right into her mind, accompanied by a cheesy ripple effect.
Man this scene is awkward. Everything Byron says makes him out to be a compassionate leader who wants the best for his people, but he is not charismatic.
Meanwhile Sheridan finally gets home and finds that death threat from 10 minutes ago. Then he gets a voice message from the assassin, saying that President Lincoln felt that he would die in office to pay the price for all the soldiers that died in his war. The assassin says he's here to make sure Sheridan pays the price for the deaths he caused.
Anyway the assassin comes in and guns them down, so they're dead now. Folks have been wanting to kill ambassadors since the beginning of the series and now someone's finally done it.
ACT THREE
Byron explains that Simon was a tunnel rat living in the ducts on Mars, like Newt in Aliens. They know he suffered some kind of trauma that's caused him to stop talking, even telepathically, but they've never pried into it.
Then Franklin looks away for a few seconds and when he turns back they've all disappeared! In fact Simon took it a step further and got up into the air ducts somehow. Five seconds is all it took for him to get off the bed and into the ceiling. Unless they played with Franklin's sense of time just to be unnecessarily creepy and screw with their greatest ally on the station.
You can see how much things have changed for the characters over the years just by their clothes, as everyone's got their own outfit now. Franklin's the only one in an Alliance uniform and Lochley's the only one in an Earthforce uniform.
Anyway Sheridan once again refuses to hide away behind his security, and even has a bit of a speech about how we'd get better leadership if more of our so-called leaders walk the same streets as their people. Lochley actually backs him up, which pisses Garibaldi off so much that the dramatic music starts up.
As far as she's concerned his opinion was only worth something when he was still in Earthforce and I can kind of see her point, but only because we don't know what kind of official security clearance he has now. Plus she's kind of disregarding his years of experience as a security chief. He was the guy in charge of security for many events like this and knows the job better than anyone else here.
So that's convenient, both the episode's plots have converged, and all it took was Simon stumbling across a specific person by chance on a station with 250,000 people on it.
He finds the guy taking his gun apart and gets a sneak preview of Sheridan's assassination in his brain.
Simon smacks his head in shock, giving his presence in the duct away, and tries to crawl away.
But the weirdest part of all this is that we actually get to see the ceiling here! I don't think we've ever seen the ceiling of someone's quarters before and we likely never will again. Babylon 5 usually took the classic Star Trek approach of leaving the ceilings off so they could set up the lighting above the set.
ACT FOUR
They've re-rendered it at night! We've only ever seen it in the daytime before now.
Inside the Rotunda, G'Kar is showing Sheridan the oath of office that he wrote last night, and Sheridan's sure it'll be great. So the inauguration is today, G'Kar's only just finished writing, and no one's checked it over? This is a real professional operation they've got going on here.
He's been trying to find a match for the assassin's voice, under the assumption that he hasn't disguised it in any way. Then suddenly he has an idea, and starts playing through bits of the message he sent to Sheridan again, paying attention to the names of the presidents being mentioned. Turns out that Sheridan isn't the only one who's studied a bit of history, as Garibaldi knows that two of them (Lincoln and Kyoshi) were killed by soldiers who fought for the other side in a civil war. If he'd studied a little bit more he would've known that Lincoln's assassin wasn't a soldier, but he's on the right track.
Wait, they didn't suspect this to begin with? The guy's stated motive is getting revenge for the dead and they didn't think he might be a soldier? Anyway the new political situation on Earth means they have access to Earthforce records again, but it's going to take a while to download and run a voice match.
Turns out that the assassin's name is Major John Clemens, and he used to run a prison system under President Clark. He's a wanted man with nothing to lose and he blames Sheridan. Garibaldi hasn't actually gotten a photo of him yet though, so they're going to have to wait on that. They really need to upgrade their internet at some point.
Anyway, the kid went from the ducts above Clemens' quarters, all the way across the station, into this room with all the dignitaries in, all without dying of his PPG wound. Kind of makes a mockery of Garibaldi's epic struggle to make it as far as an elevator in Chrysalis, especially considering the kid's dehydrated and malnourished. Plus Garibaldi made it there too late and the President got assassinated at the end of that episode!
Clemens takes his helmet off while everyone's distracted, I guess because his gun's hidden in there, and Simon yells 'No!' He broadcasts an image to everyone of what he saw in the assassin's head, and soon security's jumping into action.
It looks like Zack's trying to hide behind Sheridan here, but he's actually shoving him out of the way so he can cover him. Security's doing pretty well actually, at least until Clemens takes a hostage.
Sheridan decides they're going to continue the ceremony anyway, seeing as Clemens isn't likely to come back with another disguise on. He came at the king and he missed, he blew it. They'd better hope he doesn't come back anyway, as they'll not be getting any more warnings from Simon. He's dead.
I was almost surprised by Simon's death, until I remembered that the episode was written by jms, who was killing off a cute kid every season for a while. The two cute kids in In the Beginning survived the whole movie, but now he's back on track.
Zeta Squadron pilot Dave Earick also ends up in a bad way after getting smacked across the head by a spanner, just as Garibaldi finally gets the rest of his download finished.
This is actually the second time a Presidential assassin has made it into the Cobra Bays, as it happened back in Survivors as well. But that guy was working as the assistant to the President's chief of security, so he had a reason to have clearance at least.
Fortunately Clemens can't really assassinate the President from outside in a Starfury, as even though Babylon 5's a pressurised can floating in the vacuum of space, I doubt one fighter is going to pose much threat.
Hang on, this is that shot from the opening titles!
Anyway before the space fighter starts hovering outside the window (which is a difficult trick when the window's spinning, but well within a Starfury's capabilities), G'Kar tells the audience of ambassadors that the book he's holding contains the first page of every holy book of every race in the Alliance. So judging by Parliament of Dreams two thirds of it is from human books I suppose.
Clemens interrupts him though, telling his audience to get out or get shot. It's lucky the guy only wants Sheridan really, or this would've been game over for the Alliance really. He could've just blown up the President and all the ambassadors in a single shot. Delenn steps up to stand with her husband, but G'Kar leaves... then changes his mind on the way out and stays!
Garibaldi lost his own fighter when he was kidnapped by a Shadow ship in Z'ha'dum but I guess he must have had a spare. Either that or it belongs to some other Daffy Duck fan, and when he saw it he thought "I'm nicking that". Either way he's raced to the rescue without even putting a spacesuit on, because he's a true bro.
Here's another fact: firing at the Sanctuary at this range will probably kill Clemens as well, so Garibaldi can't just shoot him. But we saw way back in Soul Hunter that the things have a grappling claw...
Garibaldi grabs on and drags him away so that the station's defence grid can get a clear shot and blow his super expensive fighter to pieces. Oh well, I suppose losing a fighter doesn't really matter these days as they can just get a new one sent from Earth now. Or maybe they can't? I'm not really sure what the arrangement is at this point.
She also gets a huge grin on her face and it's great.
ACT FIVE
Franklin brings
The telepaths are going to have to live in the slums of Brown Sector though, which is as bad as it sounds (it houses the waste processing systems). Down Below is spread out across the outer levels of the station closest to the hull, but the worst part of it is in Brown Sector. Really there shouldn't be anyone living down there, so deliberately putting more people there seems a bit harsh.
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| 4-22 The Deconstruction of Falling Stars |
Franklin asks if he's sure he made the right decision, and Sheridan brings up the telepath war everyone knows is coming. It's in their interest to have a few telepaths on their side. Plus Simon saved his life and he owes them.
Garibaldi just dropped by to absent-mindedly play with her box of stuff while explaining that he can't really rejoin Earthforce because Lise is waiting for him back on Mars, but he can run the President's new Covert Intelligence division, and he will be seeing her in the next meeting. So there. Though hang on, I thought the Rangers was their Covert Intelligence division...
Oh also he's found out that she used to serve with Clemens in Earthforce, though he hasn't been able to dig up what side she was on during the civil war. You know, I'm getting the impression that Garibaldi doesn't like her much.
She tells him that she was on the side of Earth, same as everyone else. (I think I know what side she was on).
CONCLUSION
A lot of people would agree that Babylon 5's fifth season has problems, even creator jms. Various calamities conspired to give the season a much rockier start than it could've had, like Claudia Christian's departure, the late renewal, and his notes being thrown out by hotel housekeeping staff.
Babylon 5 started getting really good in season two and three when it got some momentum going and could take full advantage of its serialisation. Unfortunately the threat of cancellation meant season four ended with a triumphant conclusion, killing all that momentum dead. We're back to season one storytelling here, with the episode introducing characters and setting things off for a later payoff. Except this time around jms was in a real rush, with his plans in a bin somewhere in Blackpool, and the ideas he did have about Ivanova dealing with Byron and his telepaths were kind of spoiled when Ivanova had to be written out and replaced with someone brand new.
The episode gives us the series' third captain: Earthforce officer Elizabeth Lochley. It's maybe not ideal to spend time developing a new character in your show's final year, but introducing her here did help make this a better jumping on point for all the new viewers checking the series out on TNT. She's very different to Ivanova, as she's a lot more by the book and a lot less quirky, intimidating and pessimistic. Don't get me wrong, Tracy Scoggins is immediately convincing as a veteran commanding officer, and I am glad that jms didn't just give us an Ivanova clone (in the same way Sheridan wasn't a Sinclair clone), but without Ivanova and Marcus around we've got a real shortage of decent quips.
Lochley's also been given a very different introduction to Sinclair and Sheridan here. For one thing she's not the series lead, so she doesn't get to drive the episode or resolve the crisis. In fact she gets to make two decisions in the whole story and one of them is overruled by Sheridan (her other decision was to side with Sheridan). Another thing that sets her apart is that she's not immediately established to be a tactical genius and a shining paragon of righteousness. Sure Sheridan says a lot of nice things about her ability to solve problems without resorting to violence, but her first scene makes her look arrogant, she has the refugees searched for weapons, she tells them they can't stay, and she puts the President in an assassin's sights by encouraging the inauguration to go ahead. Oh plus she once served with the assassin, considering him to be "a good soldier, a fine officer", and it's heavily implied she fought for President Clark in the civil war! She couldn't have done anything that bad though, as everyone who did was brought to a war crimes tribunal. In fact that's why the assassin was on the run.
There are two stories going on here: Sheridan's inauguration and Byron's telepaths, and neither of them are the series at its best. The Sheridan plot features a story about his damp socks, an assassin with a music box who likes to send goofy text messages, and an ending where he just happens to go to the one part of the station where a Starfury can target him. Meanwhile the Byron story features a kid who stumbles across the assassin by pure chance. Well okay to be fair he was drawn in by the music. I figured that the music box was there to be something Clemens could focus on to block telepaths, but that turned out to be false. The opposite was true in fact, it lures them in like a moth to a flame. So the kid gets shot and then staggers across half the station, through all their security and right into the inauguration ceremony! It kind of made it hard for me to take any of it seriously to be honest.
But the worst part about the Byron story is that it features Byron, who sets off all the red flags with how he casually plays with people's minds and introduces his adult followers like they're shy 8 year olds. His dialogue seems to be carefully crafted to make him immensely punchable, but there's a mismatch between how viewers react to him and how the other characters react to him that makes him feel like he's written or portrayed wrong. If Franklin had said something like "I've worked with a lot of rogue telepaths, and 9 times out of 10 they've been good people just trying to escape a bad system. But that guy makes me nervous," I would've been happier.
Anyway, this was probably my least favourite of all the season openers, as even Midnight on the Firing Line at least had an interesting plot to offset its mediocre direction. Some of the magic's gone, along with the momentum. We're back to dealing with disgruntled folks lashing out in the aftermath of a war, except the scale of everything seems extra small and extra cheap now that Sheridan's a galactic leader. Plus Londo and G'Kar hanging out with Sheridan and Delenn as friends contributes to the weird tone, especially as Londo barely says anything in his scenes. But the story's not all that bad. It made time for some nice character moments, I liked Garibaldi's Starfury rescue... space stations are pretty cool. I'm looking forward to the next episode!
NEXT EPISODE
If you want to leave a comment and share your own thoughts about No Compromises, that's awesome! I want you to leave a comment about it too, so this really works out for both of us.
And what they're apparently trying to do is scare Sheridan.
ReplyDeleteI realize the assassin probably doesn't know (or believe) what Sheridan's gone through, but that's still hilarious.
Yeah, the last time Sheridan learned that there were people outside ready to kill him, his first instinct was to go stand next to the window.
DeleteBut the one thing he will never admit to Delenn is that he's secretly terrified of corned beef sandwiches now.
That "And so it begins..." paragraph looks like one of those spam emails you get that's all about vampires and property values. Perhaps those emails are in fact messages sent back by telepaths in 2262.
ReplyDeleteThat explains why it bothers me so much! It's like a spambot comment in my opening titles that I can't mark as spam and delete.
Delete