15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best TV Sci-Fi of 1990s Cont'd. WARNING: Spoilers!, August 15, 2000
This review is from: Babylon 5 Season 1, Set 3 - Starliner [VHS] (VHS Tape)
As has been noted, this boxed set contains the episodes SURVIVORS, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY, SIGNS & PORTENTS, TKO, GRAIL, and EYES. They should be viewed _after_ the two previous sets THE COLLECTION and MIND PROBERS. In importance, these six episodes are all over the map, ranging from those containing threads that never turn up again (as in the violent TKO) to the crucially pivotal SIGNS & PORTENTS. In all six, we learn progressively more about the fascinating cast of characters that populates the BABYLON 5 universe.
In SURVIVORS, we learn more about Michael Garibaldi's troubled past. But when B5 station security is on the line, he overcomes overwhelming disadvantages and gets the job done. In BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY, Commander Sinclair is caught between striking workers and EarthGov regs, under which he has been commanded to resolve the dispute "by any means necessary." He does, and in a very creative way. Good quote: "You should never hand someone a gun unless you're sure where they'll point it" (Sinclair).
SIGNS & PORTENTS is the most important episode here, and arguably, of Season One itself (although BABYLON SQUARED, to come in the next set, also has a claim to importance). In this episode, the mysterious Mr. Morden comes on board, and asks each of four ambassadors an elementary question: "What do you want?" G'Kar basically throws him out. Delenn's reaction should give us pause: "They're here!" Who's here? Do we really want to know? Kosh, the equally mysterious Vorlon ambassador, tells him to "Leave this place! They are not for you!"
Only Londo, in perhaps the pivotal moment of this pivotal episode, tells Morden exactly what he wants to hear, and although he doesn't know it yet (WE might have our suspicions), Londo has just opened a door he will never be able to close again. Possible lesson here: be wary of an obsession with power and lost glory. Or, perhaps, a variant on that old chestnut: be careful what you say you want. You might get it.
The other episodes are the above mentioned TKO, GRAIL, and EYES. TKO's most important thread tells us more about how Ivanova's character has been shaped by a dysfunctional family life. There are heart-wrenching moments near the end of this episode. (I personally could have done without the other main threat: fight scenes of a kind of WWF for aliens which adds next to nothing to the overall story arc.) In GRAIL, a common thief is transformed into a holy seeker while Station personnel have to deal with a rather nasty creature called a Nakaleen Feeder, loose on the station. This episode contains some of the thought-provoking sequences we've come to expect from BABYLON 5, e.g.: "Among my people, a true seeker is treated with the utmost reverence and respect. It doesn't matter that his Grail may or may not exist. What matters is that he strives for the perfection of his soul and the salvation of his race, and that he has never wavered or lost faith" (from Delenn). It also contains moments of comedy: "No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow... Sooner or later: BOOM!" (from Ivanova, expressing her Russian fatalism, at the end).
Finally, in EYES, an Earthforce Commander comes aboard with a telepath (played by the ever-creepy Jeffrey Combs). The former alleges that maybe Commander Sinclair has something to hide about his encounter with the Minbari during the Battle of the Line, and takes over the station when Sinclair refuses to allow his command staff to submit to telepathic scans. But who really has the most to hide?
Overall, the episodes in this set accomplish two things: (1) they develop each of the major characters on the BABYLON 5 stage, although leaving much for the future--as a JMS script would doubtless put it, "when the time is right"--; and (2) SIGNS & PORTENTS (also, significantly, the name of Season One itself) sets the larger stage for what is to come. For Mr. Morden will return, and we will learn that he is never alone.
Again, this is material no devotee of great science fiction can afford to miss, and the best is still to come!
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