Episode 3.3: A Day in the Strife
I have virtually nothing to say about this episode. Stuff happened, and a lot of it was important stuff, but...I don’t know? It wasn’t boring, but it wasn’t interesting, either. It was a bunch of stuff that happened.
Franklin has been using stims for a while, and when it became obvious in this episode Garibaldi immediately jumped on it. Go him. Londo does not seem at all changed from his encounter with Lennier last week, so that’s disappointing, though he is trying to get Vir out of the way because he can tell he’s too nice to survive in the thick of things. I thought, for a moment, that Londo’s questioning of the Narn dude was a intended to prompt him to rebellion, which would have been a cool way for Londo to fight against his own people’s darkness (which both previous episodes have implied that he might want to do), but no, he’s all in on the darkness, and the warbles we’ve seen from him were apparently just temporary.
And then there’s the probe subplot? It has zero impact on the story at large, and barely any impact on this episode, so I’m going to call it the C-plot (after the Narn thing and the Franklin thing). It’s 100% the kind of B5 plot that I categorize as a Star Trek story: a first-contact probe shows up asking questions and promising cool stuff, and it turns into a logic puzzle for the crew to solve. It’s very old-school Trek, and very not B5, and all it really accomplishes is to give Ivanova and Sheridan and some babyfaced nobody something to do while the real story (such as it is) happens elsewhere. Which makes this the second episode in a row where the real story is with the ambassadors, and the command crew is just doing busywork because the actors are on contract and so we may as well give them something to do.
The Narn plot is pretty pat: some Centauri collaborator shows up, demanding that G’Kar stop leading the resistance he’s apparently leading even though we never see it, and he says no, and the collaborator threatens him with reprisal against everybody’s family, and we’re not really sure if the reprisal is sparked by him himself or by the Centauri government and he’s just the messenger, and either way it doesn’t matter because the whole thing gets wrapped up by the end of the hour. The only tension in the story is the idea that G’Kar will lose whatever modicum of power he has left, and that the status quo of the show will shift when this collaborator dude takes over as B5 liaison, but all of that tension disappears when it turns out that G’Kar is being asked to return to Narn to be executed. This has zero impact because we know G’Kar is a main character and therefore not going to die, so obviously he’s going to be fine; even when he volunteers to go back and be executed willingly we don’t care, because we know it’s not going to happen. And, sure enough, the collaborator is so taken by this act of self-sacrifice that he does a complete 180 and joins those who demand that G'Kar stay and continue to lead the alleged resistance. So that happens. There's even a reveal of a Narn weapon that looks exactly like a katana and has the same "once its drawn it has to draw blood before you can put it away again" legend that some katanas kind of have, but it's not a katana it's totally a Narn thing, and it has an alien name that I don't know because it's not in this episode's wikipedia article. And G'Kar yells at the guy for daring to draw it on him, which I don't get, and then the guy gives a VERY trite speech and waits for everyone to leave and then cuts his own hand, which I suppose is supposed to mean something but I DO NOT CARE. This whole plotline is full of noise and looks like drama, but doesn't actually have any substance under the surface.
The one and only cool thing that happened in this episode was that one Narn dude from last season showing up again. Remember in ALL ALONE IN THE NIGHT when Sheridan was captured by some funky alien baddies who wanted him to be gladiator or something, and he buddied up with a nameless Narn dude and escaped? And remember how I said that the Narn dude, despite limited screen time and even more limited dialogue, was super compelling and formed a believable friendship with Sheridan, and I wanted to see him become a series regular? Well, he's back! And he has a name: Ta'Lon. And he's played by the same great character actor who played him before, Marshall Teague. I don't know if he's a regular now, but he gets one scene with Sheridan and it is, as before, super cool. Those guys have real chemistry. And he also gives what is the coolest line of dialogue all season so far: Sheridan says "What will Earth Force say if they find out I have Narn bodyguard?" and Ta'Lon says "They will say: there's a man who will live to be a hundred." That's some A-plus writing and characterization right there. Too bad it's the only good part of the entire episode.
That's all you get this week: four paragraphs, plus an intro and this conclusion. Blah. Let's hope next week is better.
Franklin has been using stims for a while, and when it became obvious in this episode Garibaldi immediately jumped on it. Go him. Londo does not seem at all changed from his encounter with Lennier last week, so that’s disappointing, though he is trying to get Vir out of the way because he can tell he’s too nice to survive in the thick of things. I thought, for a moment, that Londo’s questioning of the Narn dude was a intended to prompt him to rebellion, which would have been a cool way for Londo to fight against his own people’s darkness (which both previous episodes have implied that he might want to do), but no, he’s all in on the darkness, and the warbles we’ve seen from him were apparently just temporary.
And then there’s the probe subplot? It has zero impact on the story at large, and barely any impact on this episode, so I’m going to call it the C-plot (after the Narn thing and the Franklin thing). It’s 100% the kind of B5 plot that I categorize as a Star Trek story: a first-contact probe shows up asking questions and promising cool stuff, and it turns into a logic puzzle for the crew to solve. It’s very old-school Trek, and very not B5, and all it really accomplishes is to give Ivanova and Sheridan and some babyfaced nobody something to do while the real story (such as it is) happens elsewhere. Which makes this the second episode in a row where the real story is with the ambassadors, and the command crew is just doing busywork because the actors are on contract and so we may as well give them something to do.
The Narn plot is pretty pat: some Centauri collaborator shows up, demanding that G’Kar stop leading the resistance he’s apparently leading even though we never see it, and he says no, and the collaborator threatens him with reprisal against everybody’s family, and we’re not really sure if the reprisal is sparked by him himself or by the Centauri government and he’s just the messenger, and either way it doesn’t matter because the whole thing gets wrapped up by the end of the hour. The only tension in the story is the idea that G’Kar will lose whatever modicum of power he has left, and that the status quo of the show will shift when this collaborator dude takes over as B5 liaison, but all of that tension disappears when it turns out that G’Kar is being asked to return to Narn to be executed. This has zero impact because we know G’Kar is a main character and therefore not going to die, so obviously he’s going to be fine; even when he volunteers to go back and be executed willingly we don’t care, because we know it’s not going to happen. And, sure enough, the collaborator is so taken by this act of self-sacrifice that he does a complete 180 and joins those who demand that G'Kar stay and continue to lead the alleged resistance. So that happens. There's even a reveal of a Narn weapon that looks exactly like a katana and has the same "once its drawn it has to draw blood before you can put it away again" legend that some katanas kind of have, but it's not a katana it's totally a Narn thing, and it has an alien name that I don't know because it's not in this episode's wikipedia article. And G'Kar yells at the guy for daring to draw it on him, which I don't get, and then the guy gives a VERY trite speech and waits for everyone to leave and then cuts his own hand, which I suppose is supposed to mean something but I DO NOT CARE. This whole plotline is full of noise and looks like drama, but doesn't actually have any substance under the surface.
The one and only cool thing that happened in this episode was that one Narn dude from last season showing up again. Remember in ALL ALONE IN THE NIGHT when Sheridan was captured by some funky alien baddies who wanted him to be gladiator or something, and he buddied up with a nameless Narn dude and escaped? And remember how I said that the Narn dude, despite limited screen time and even more limited dialogue, was super compelling and formed a believable friendship with Sheridan, and I wanted to see him become a series regular? Well, he's back! And he has a name: Ta'Lon. And he's played by the same great character actor who played him before, Marshall Teague. I don't know if he's a regular now, but he gets one scene with Sheridan and it is, as before, super cool. Those guys have real chemistry. And he also gives what is the coolest line of dialogue all season so far: Sheridan says "What will Earth Force say if they find out I have Narn bodyguard?" and Ta'Lon says "They will say: there's a man who will live to be a hundred." That's some A-plus writing and characterization right there. Too bad it's the only good part of the entire episode.
That's all you get this week: four paragraphs, plus an intro and this conclusion. Blah. Let's hope next week is better.
If your following the DVD order next week is "Passing Through Gethsemane"
ReplyDeleteIts better...