Episode 1.6: Mind War
So far there have been episodes I've hated (like 1.3), episodes I've liked (like 1.4), and a lot of middle ground episodes that I've enjoyed without really feeling strongly about either way. This one is the first episode that I've truly loved. MIND WAR is fantastic.
One of the strongest hooks for me so far was the bit in the pilot where Ivanova talked about how the Psi-Corps drove her mother to suicide--it sets up the Earth government as a grimmer dystopia than most space shows, and it presents the Psi-Corps as a dangerous faction within it. This episode doubles down on that, maybe triples down on it if that's a thing. They've discovered, through nefarious human experimentation, a way to greatly enhance psychic power, to levels even they don't understand, eventually resulting a super-psychic whose mind becomes so powerful it can't be contained by a physical body, turning him into some kind of giant space ghost who grants Talia a "gift." So far the gift is just telekinesis, but I assume it will develop into more.
In the process we get to meet Alfred Bester, a Psi-Cop, and his improbably attractive assistant. The assistant gets sent to the corn during the finale, but Bester hangs around and will become, I understand, a major player and antagonist in the arc of the series. He's played by Walter Koenig, of Pavel Chekhov fame, and once you get over the shock of hearing him speak with an American accent he's riveting: calculating, remorseless, and evil. And also kind of right: everything he said about the unraveling psychic dude was true, in the end, and while he definitely want to capture the guy for study, he was also trying to save the station. He's not a monster, but he's not a good guy either, and that duality makes him a fascinating character.
The other new character we meet in this episode is Catherine Sakai, Sinclair's old flame, who now works as a trader/explorer/something. The two of them hook up again (making this the second old flame Sinclair has hooked up with so far, which is weird), and then Sakai heads off to follow a new lead on some kind of resource, on a planet called Sigma-957. G'Kar warns her not to go, she does anyway, she almost dies, and then some kind of massive crazy ship shows up. She asks G'Kar about this later, and he tells her that whatever it is, it's billions of years old and probably considers us no more important or interesting than ants. It's a fantastic speech, and G'Kar delivers it perfectly, and suddenly this episode has kicked off not one but two big awesome ongoing plots. I can't wait to see what happens with Bester and Talia and the Psi-Corps, and I can't wait to learn more about Sigma-957 and the Big Ancient Thing.
All in all, a stellar episode. No pun intended.
One of the strongest hooks for me so far was the bit in the pilot where Ivanova talked about how the Psi-Corps drove her mother to suicide--it sets up the Earth government as a grimmer dystopia than most space shows, and it presents the Psi-Corps as a dangerous faction within it. This episode doubles down on that, maybe triples down on it if that's a thing. They've discovered, through nefarious human experimentation, a way to greatly enhance psychic power, to levels even they don't understand, eventually resulting a super-psychic whose mind becomes so powerful it can't be contained by a physical body, turning him into some kind of giant space ghost who grants Talia a "gift." So far the gift is just telekinesis, but I assume it will develop into more.
In the process we get to meet Alfred Bester, a Psi-Cop, and his improbably attractive assistant. The assistant gets sent to the corn during the finale, but Bester hangs around and will become, I understand, a major player and antagonist in the arc of the series. He's played by Walter Koenig, of Pavel Chekhov fame, and once you get over the shock of hearing him speak with an American accent he's riveting: calculating, remorseless, and evil. And also kind of right: everything he said about the unraveling psychic dude was true, in the end, and while he definitely want to capture the guy for study, he was also trying to save the station. He's not a monster, but he's not a good guy either, and that duality makes him a fascinating character.
The other new character we meet in this episode is Catherine Sakai, Sinclair's old flame, who now works as a trader/explorer/something. The two of them hook up again (making this the second old flame Sinclair has hooked up with so far, which is weird), and then Sakai heads off to follow a new lead on some kind of resource, on a planet called Sigma-957. G'Kar warns her not to go, she does anyway, she almost dies, and then some kind of massive crazy ship shows up. She asks G'Kar about this later, and he tells her that whatever it is, it's billions of years old and probably considers us no more important or interesting than ants. It's a fantastic speech, and G'Kar delivers it perfectly, and suddenly this episode has kicked off not one but two big awesome ongoing plots. I can't wait to see what happens with Bester and Talia and the Psi-Corps, and I can't wait to learn more about Sigma-957 and the Big Ancient Thing.
All in all, a stellar episode. No pun intended.
This is one of the few episodes that I caught on TV in B5's original run. When it was over, my mom made a comment about how you'd never see an ant on a plant in Star Trek. That was when I realized that, despite all other appearances and similarities, this show isn't Star Trek. It's a much dirtier, lived-in world. I love that about it.
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