Babylon 5: 3x11-3x13

After the big tumult of the previous three episodes, things settle back and JMS takes some time to explore the new status quo. While these episodes certainly lack the epic scope of the previous arc, the first two at least have a lot of interesting stuff going on and do a good job pushing the characters forward.

When I was watching Buffy, I'd frequently wish that they'd do episodes without any major conflicts and just let the characters hang out and interact with each other. Part of what I love so much about season six is the way there is no external antagonist, instead the issues come internally, from the characters' struggle to deal with their relationships and personal development. Babylon 5's characters aren't as strongly developed as the ones on Buffy, but I increasingly find myself wishing we could have less plot and more down time, so we can spend more time with these people outside of their jobs.

'Ceremonies of Light and Dark' has a decent main plot. It's logical that Nightwatch would stay around the station and try to take back control. Their plan to target Delenn is a logical reaction to the Minbari ships who just showed up the Earthforce fleet. But ultimately, I just wasn't that engaged in the hostage situation on a narrative level, it's much more interesting as a way to explore the developing relationship between Delenn and Sheridan.

This is something that's been in the works for a long time, at first I was wondering if I was reading into something that wasn't there, but by now it's clearly in play, and JMS enjoys taunting us with the possibility of the two of them finally making it physical. They've both already admitted how deeply they feel for each other, that's Sheridan's secret here at the end of the episode, and it's just a matter of them figuring out where those feelings will go.

The ceremony itself provided the wonderful opportunity for everyone to reveal a secret. Lennier's was interesting, it would certainly make sense that he loves Delenn, but knowing that he can never act on that love gives a different spin to the scenes with him and Delenn. He says she is destined for another, at this point, we've got to assume that's Sheridan. Does Lennier know who this person is, or does he just know it's not him?

We also get some more information on Marcus. As I mentioned before, it's great to finally see one of the human characters have some of the irreverence and inner conflict of the aliens. If I've got one issue with the show, it's that the main four humans still aren't that interesting to watch. Sheridan has some great moments, but the other three only occasionally get really good material to work with. They're all workaholics, totally committed to Babylon 5. Marcus' different attitude makes him a welcome addition to the crew.

The end of the show gives us access to a secret from the whole crew. I was really hoping we'd see this happen, though the execution was a bit odd. You'd think someone right outside the door could just have listened in to the secret. But, I guess they didn't want to go through a big production for all four characters. Sheridan's secret wasn't much of a secret, the others' are a bit more interesting. Garibaldi's fear makes sense, he likely uses humor to cover for the deep concern he has about keeping the station safe. Franklin's isn't a shocker either, but now we know that he know he has a problem. It's just a matter of admitting it to the others and seeking help. However, as 'Avalon' shows us, he's only concerned with being right and trying to fix people, unable to see another path. So, even though he knows he's got a problem, he very likely is unwilling to scale back on his hours and delegate his work.

Ivanova's is the most interesting, though another we already kind of knew. It was never revealed exactly how far her relationship with Talia went, the impression I got was that they slept together in 'Divided Loyalties,' and who knows where it could have gone from there. I'd imagine Ivanova must have had some deep pain after Talia's transformation, and I think it would have been smart to engage with her pain there. She could repress it on the outside, but I think it would have good to develop some internal trauma there, give her a more painful emotional arc. I suppose I'm so used to the Joss/Alan Ball model of extreme character pain, I want a loss like that to linger, rather than get compartmentalized into the background.

In the show, all the characters seem resolutely alone, totally committed to work and interested in nothing else. This season has seen the development of some flirtation, if not full relationships. Katherine Sakai and Sinclair were the only couple on the show, and she only appeared a few times. I like the developing relationships here in the third season, but I feel like JMS should get these things moving. It raises the emotional stakes to have the characters deeply connected, and particularly on a show like this, relationships can mess with character loyalties and force people to make incredibly difficult decisions. Plus, it'd give us a better insight into the characters outside of their jobs. I can certainly see why Ivanova would have trouble adjusting to life outside of Earthforce, as far as the show is concerned, her work dominates her life from wake to sleep.

So, the secret thing, while a bit gimmicky, was very interesting. Much like in the Buffy episode 'Fear Itself,' getting a glimpse into the characters' internal lives gives us a better idea of what's motivating their external actions. And the A plot, while not great, was a good, logical followup to the big events that preceded it.

'Sic Transit Vir' is another good marker of how far the show has come in terms of character and world development. The humor here isn't necessarily different from the stuff I criticized as too sitcomy back in the first season, but because we know the characters so well, it's much funnier. The scene with Londo and the bug has virtually no narrative point, but it's hilarious, his hair rising up behind the counter is the standout image, and the frantic swording of the bug is great too. We know the guy so well, it's fun to just watch him in his apartment, killing a bug. I was really happy when that bug infestation didn't somehow collide with the main narrative and become a crucial plot point in the end. It was just a funny thing on its own.

Vir has consistently been caught up in moral conundrums, torn between his moral sense of right and wrong and his obligation to Londo and the Centauri. He has been Londo's conscience, and his rebukes were a big part of what made Londo break off his arrangement with Morden. The reason he looks at the invasion of the Narn homeworld with such pain is because Vir gave him the idea that maybe it's wrong to just kill Narn. Sending Vir to Minbar was probably the worst thing Londo could have done, because it made him even more aware of different cultures, morality outside the Centauri.

One of the most effective things about this episode is the way it veers from goofy comedy to heavy drama at the end. When we first see Vir with Lyndisty, his fiancee, I was expecting the sort of goofy comedy that did ensue. Watching the scene in the garden, I realized that Stephen Furst is basically doing a Woody Allen impression when he plays Vir. I really didn't like his acting in the first couple of episodes, I've gotten used to it since, but he's still a bit mannered. I suppose that's who the character has become, but he occasionally overplays things. It probably doesn't help that he's working with Peter Jurasik, who also sometimes pushes the limits of overplaying, but is so consistently entertaining, you forgive him. Plus, Jurasik can do heavy darkness just as well as the goofy comedy, making it easier to accept the light moments. This episode features some of Furst's best work, but also spotlights the tics he uses constantly.

Moving forward, the scene with Vir and Ivanova is great, bringing out an almost Office level of awkward comedy. It's a bit odd that Vir would talk with Ivanova about this, apparently he's not too aware of the fact that humans don't have the six system. But, I guess he's looking for general information, and the scene was funny enough logic doesn't necessarily matter.

Over with Sheridan and Delenn, we get further progression of the relationship, starting with the sweet dinner scene. Sheridan is doing whatever he can to win her over, and it seems to be working, right until they're untimely interrupted by Ivanova. It's difficult to figure out their relationship trajectory because they both seem to have basically said they love each other, but they've never quite made it to a physical place. They also haven't addressed the issue of Delenn's Minbari physiology, which will presumably come up at some point. But, they're pretty much assured to be getting together at some point, it's just a matter of when and how.

So, the episode was going along in a generally comedy place, then in the back half it got much darker. The scene where Vir is accused of murder and Londo congratulates him was pretty heavy, but it's the final scene with Lyndisty that's the capper. The thing I love about this scene is the mix of her total sweetness and the utter hatefulness of what she's saying. The Narn have always been equated with historically oppressed people, victims of colonization and exploitation. However, on occasion, they're equated with African slaves in Ammerica, notably with the story of G'Kar's father. That connection is re-established when Vir calls himself Abrahamo Lincolni, and furthered in Lyndisty's speech.

That speech was really disturbing to me, it's rare you see that level of hate speech presented on TV without any clear indication that this is wrong. She is trying to convince Vir that she's right, and there's no malice at all behind what she's saying. She thinks Vir is the one who's deluded and in need of correction. The decision to not put any obvious menacing music, or have Vir outright say she's wrong was pretty bold. I think it makes what she's saying more jarring, because you're forced to draw the connections and recognize how wrong it is. The best villains are the ones who think they're doing the right thing, and that's what makes her so powerful here.

I loved the buildup there, and the scene ended on a great cliffhanger. But, things cut at the moment of greatest drama and we never get a real resolution to what Vir did there. Presumably he didn't kill the Narn, but I think it would have been more effective to see him assert his authority and tell her that he won't murder the Narn. Even if he didn't do that, I'm curious to see how he got himself out of the situation.

Then, to have him apparently still willing to go along with the marriage to Lyndisty is off. It doesn't fit with what he's done previously in the episode. Now, this might be an attempt to show that Vir is more conflicted than he appears, and still willing to go along with some of Centauri tradition. I suppose that's realistic, but I would have liked to see that actively explored rather than just implied. Perhaps it will come up in future episodes, but judging from the fate of Londo's wife, I wouldn't expect to see Lyndisty return.

Next up is the weakest of this run, 'A Late Delivery from Avalon.' Bringing back themes from the first season's 'Grail' probably wasn't a good idea, though this one is certainly better than that episode. The teaser has a very early X-Files feel, I like the look of the black and white footage, even though this sort of ambiguous stuff with random person lost its appeal as a tease a while ago. In a TV show, you're there to see the ongoing stories and series characters, for a random person teaser to work, it's got to be a pretty extraordinary event, and most of the ones on here aren't quite there. But, I'm obviously going to watch the whole episode, so it doesn't matter too much. I suppose JMS is always thinking of new viewers and trying to give something that would intrigue them. I pretty much only watch shows from the beginning all the way through, so it's difficult for me to say what sort of teaser would attract new viewers to an existing series.

The main plot here is a bit goofy. Marucs already provides a Camelot feel, but at least fits into the series' universe. Having 'Arthur' wear chainmail and classic apparel makes it feel hokey. I'd rather have seen some kind of future reinvention of the classic look. Though, I suppose the fact that he thinks he's transported from the past to the future means he wouldn't update the clothes, he'd stick with the classic. That said, I did thoroughly enjoy the scenes with G'Kar and Arthur. G'Kar has grown into a warrior king, guiding his people well, so it's logical to equate him with the Round Table.

Confronting David with his real past connects the episode to the series' history, and provides a nice, sad denouement to the Arthur story. When he was lying in the coma, I felt like the episode provided a really interesting moral conundrum for Franklin. Franklin always advocates trying to find a cure, trying to save people, but he doesn't realize that not everyone wants to be cured. In this case, the cure went up making David catatonic, losing the unique drive he had before. Ending with that would have forced Franklin to really think about what he'd done.

But, having David rehabilitate himself and continue the fight absolves Franklin of any guilt and gives everyone the best outcome possible. The sequence where he's resurrected is striking, though I'm a bit mad they passed up an opportunity to have Mira Furlan play the Lady in Lake, without her Delenn makeup. It would have been cool to see her like that, though I suppose it wouldn't have made much sense in the storyverse. But, I feel like the more powerful ending would have been to either have him return to his psychosis and continue to believe he's Arthur, or just have him go catatonic and insane.

This episode brings us another old British actor. Michael York was great in Cabaret, and it was good to see him here, but it got me thinking about how much older this cast is than most shows. The guest stars are almost always above middle age, likely the result of JMS flipping through his movie collection and picking out actors he wants to work with. But, in a TV culture that values youth and attractiveness above everything else, it's odd to see a show that never seems to have anyone below thirty appear.

In general, the cast of the show is much more ordinary looking than your average series. Looking at Buffy, it's saying something when Sarah Michelle Gellar is the least attractive female in the cast. Most shows have great looking, young people on them, not so much here. It's not that they're ugly, they're just regular, some of them are attractive, some not, but nobody's a knockout, and that's rare in TV. Compare this group to Battlestar Galactica's crew, major difference in the level of sex appeal, and also in the focus on characters as objects of desire. There, the alien others are basically a crew of models, here they're made up to look truly other.

I think part of this comes from the wardrobe and makeup style. Everyone's always wearing military uniforms, which aren't very flattering. And, particularly in the early seasons, everyone's got that sort of early 90s look about them, a kind of makeup and cinematography style that isn't used so much today. I suppose this is a reflection of JMS's personal vision, he cast who he wanted for their acting talent, not for their looks, and that's a very admirable position. I'd be curious to see how fandoms for the show took to the characters, because so much of the Buffy fandom, particularly with a lot of women, is about attraction to the characters and shipping, etc. I'm sure there was shipping with B5, but I don't think anyone in the cast is going to create the same desire as a Scully or Spike.

Well, that was a bit of a digression, but it's something to consider. I will say that styles of attractiveness change every once in a while, and the 80/early 90s look has not held up nearly as well as the 60s or 70s style. So, the actors have that working against them to begin with.

I have now passed the halfway point in the series. I'm still at the point where there's a vast array of uncharted story territory to explore, but I'd imagine about a season from now, the end will start to loom closer and closer, the gaps will fill in and by the end of season five, I'll be wishing it was a longer plan. But, between the TV movies, Crusade and the new DVD movie, there should still be plenty of B5 material to occupy me going forward.