Episode 2.4: A Distant Star

Remember how Episode 2.2 ended with the shocking reveal that Delenn could now use portions of her own skull as a headband? And remember how in Episode 2.3 nobody cared about or mentioned this in any way? Well, people are finally paying attention, and Delenn CANNOT UNDERSTAND why everyone thinks it’s such a big deal. Sure, she went through a cocoon and changed what appears to be her entire genetic sequence, but when the Minbari come to her asking if she’s still a Minbari she has no patience for their foolishness. And when Dr. Franklin tells her that maybe changing species in a previously unknown manner is the kind of thing that warrants a few medical tests, she has even less patience for that. You would be forgiven for assuming that she brushes off these trivial concerns because she has bigger irons in bigger fires, but no: she really doesn’t have anything to do at all. “Stop pestering me about my health and loyalty and ask me about the stuff that really matters!” is a sentence she does not say, because all she really wants is to be left alone with her omens. “This was a huge and momentous change but please let’s all pretend like it never happened. Remember in the last episode when nobody cared? Go back to that again.”

(I should point out that the best part of this entire plotline is when visiting captain Jack Maynard tries to articulate what’s different about her, and can’t quite put his finger on it. “She looks a little Minbari, but she also looks...different somehow.” He struggles with this for a while, and I assume “she has hair” is right on the tip of his tongue, but he just can’t find the words. Don't worry, buddy. It happens to the best of us.)

So the Doctor is concerned about Delenn’s do-it-yourself DNA replacement, but only superficially; we never see him trying to solve the incredible medical mystery that just dropped into his lap, we only see him paternally concerned with her general health. And who can blame him, because who has time to worry about sudden species shifts when you have so many officers on board with terrible eating habits? Apparently Franklin just got back from a nutrition conference, because all of a sudden he has very strict diets for Garibaldi, Sheridan, and Ivanova, and it’s kind of pointless but at least it’s also kind of sexist, so that’s something. Garibaldi and Sheridan object to their diets because they are MEN, and NOBODY TELLS THEM WHAT TO EAT, but Ivanova objects to her new diet because it will make her gain weight. Ha ha, women and body image, am I right? This is redeemed, at least in part, by a rapid-fire pair of jokes that are still kind of sexist but, I admit, made me laugh out loud:

Ivanova: “Figures. All my life I’ve fought against imperialism; now suddenly, I am the expanding Russian frontier.”
Dr. Franklin: “But with very nice borders.”

Ivanova’s line is already hilarious, but that Franklin line killed me.

As comic subplots go, though, the food thing is probably the best B5 has ever given us, so I’ll stop complaining and move on to the main plot: Captain Jack Maynard is one of Sheridan’s old commanders, and he’s stopping at the station to resupply before heading off into the big black. This prompts Sheridan to feel like he’s wasting his time and his skills on this station when he should be out there exploring the universe. We watch him snap at people, and grow increasingly agitated and disinterested at the same time, until finally Ivanova calls him on it and he goes off on a powerful rant. This is all great stuff, and it’s leading toward a very obvious crisis—something that Sheridan can solve and feel useful in his role as station commander—and we do indeed get that crisis, but then the show forgets to close the loop. We follow Sheridan’s character arc right up to the point where he’s supposed to realize that being on this station is still good and he can still do awesome, important things, and...then it ends. No resolution for you! And maybe they did that on purpose, because he’s still not sure he’s happy here? Or maybe the scene at the end where he’s doing paperwork is supposed to represent him accepting his role as station commander? Neither really works, because part of the crisis results in the loss of a fighter pilot, and this (understandably) hurts Sheridan a lot, and he never quite recovers far enough to remember that other character arc thing he was supposed to be dealing with.

The actual crisis is, in all fairness, awesome, and it involves all kinds of mytharc hints and cool science fiction and heroic self-sacrifice and a very clever plan from Sheridan. Maynard's ship, the Cortez, heads back out into space through the jump gate, only to blow some kind of fuse while still in hyperspace and thus lose its link to the next jumpgate, meaning that the ship is lost in hyperspace and won't be able to find it's way out again. Ivanova helpfully reminds us that no ship ever lost in hyperspace has ever been found again, which only makes me wonder even more what hyperspace actually is. They kind of present it as another dimension, in which you can fly around and then come back out somewhere very far away in a relatively short time. This reminds me most closely of The Warp in Warhammer 40k, in which people can travel through the universe by taking light-year-saving detours through what is essentially hell. And given that B5's hyperspace includes multiple appearances by the Shadows, that comparison might not be too far off. Do we get to learn more about what hyperspace is and how it works in future episodes? I hope so, because there's a lot of potential here.

Sheridan comes up with a clever plan: they'll open a gate to hyperspace, send a fighter through as far as it can go without losing the station's signal, and then send another one through as far as it can go without losing the first one's signal, and then another one, and so on and so on until the last ship in the chain manages to find the Cortez and lead them home. The penultimate ship in the line is--drum roll--that one pilot guy! Remember him? Keffler or Kessler or something. Keffer, according to wikipedia. The show has remembered that they hired a guy to be their ace pilot, and now they have a story that needs an ace pilot, and there he is out on the edge of hyperspace--well, I mean, not ALL THE WAY on the edge of the hyperspace. That honor goes to another dude who a) is Keffer's commander, b) isn't in the opening credits, and c) is black, all of which combine to foreshadow that he is definitely going to die first. Sure enough, he manages to contact the Cortez but is immediately sideswiped by a Shadow ship and knocked to pieces. Keffer is also damaged, but manages to send a signal to the Cortez enabling them to get home, but not him. I didn't understand the mechanics of this--I thought he couldn't get home because he couldn't navigate, but later when everyone thinks he's dead he sees a Shadow ship, calculates their course, and follows them out...right back to the B5 jump gate. Except the Shadows didn't come out that gate, so..how was he following them? And if he could fly his ship, why didn't he just follow the same signal out that the Cortez did? Plus we know he knew the way out because he was shooting the right direction in order to show the Cortez the way in the first place. I don't know. I mean, I knew we wouldn't lose Keffer literally the first time they had something cool for him to do, but I was kind of hoping he'd follow the Shadows and either come out on the other side of the galaxy, or get picked up by them, or see them doing something cool, or something, but nope. He's back on the station and fit as a fiddle, with no lasting repercussions beyond "Hey there's something creepy in hyperspace."

To be fair, though, "Hey there's something creepy in hyperspace" is pretty awesome all by itself, so I for one am content with that for now. This was a good episode with a solid set-piece at its core, and 95% of a cool character arc for Sheridan, and the series' best two jokes thus far. Not bad at all. Maybe the next episode we'll finally start to learn why Delenn's transformation is such a big deal? Or at least what it means?

Side note: I miss Michael O'Hare's reading of the opening credit monologue. His drop in pitch when he said "...and wanderers" was practically the tonal thesis statement for the show. I've been a Boxleitner fan since TRON and "The Scarecrow and Mrs. King," but his credits monologue just doesn't have the gravitas that O'Hare's did. At least we know that a war is coming. I'm excited to see it.