B5: Soul Hunter

The episode begins with an unknown ship coming out of the hyperspace vortex and veering out of control towards Babylon 5. This might just be me, but if I was building that station, I would make sure that it's not directly in front of the vortex. You know, so somebody can't just send a bomb through there? Actually, I guess if someone really wanted to destroy the station they could just send an unmanned ship through there, because that will apparently be enough to get the job done.

Sinclair manages to grab the ship before it runs its course, however, and brings the pilot onto the station. While the alien is still in sickbay, the Minbari Ambassador Delenn recognizes him as a "soul hunter." The alien has the ability to sense oncoming death, and he claims that he travels around, capturing the souls of people before they die. It's nice that the show is taking some risks here to transcend other sci-fi series, but it doesn't really seem to fit with what they've already established here. You can't just throw in a spiritual aspect into the early first season of a series without leading up to it and expect the audience to be awed by it. You need to take some steps first in order to convince even the most skeptical viewers that there is a possibility that souls and "life after death" exists.

Neelix's game spread far after Voyager returned home

(You need to be a real ST: Voyager freak to get this one...)

I guess my main point is that it's difficult to introduce such a topic at this early stage in the series; most of the time it just makes the show look silly. The idea behind the soul hunter is somewhat interesting, but they didn't really expand on his motivations and ended up depicting him as a gone-crazy alien who wants to capture souls for some evil reason. He escapes and is about to capture the soul of Delenn, but Sinclair arrives and uses the soul capturer machine on the soul hunter. Oh, the irony.

This episode took a crack at something completely unrelated to the plot, but it ultimately didn't accomplish much. It was better when it focused around how the different aliens on the station were interacting rather than around a cheesy season 1 plot device.

Score: 2

Best Quote: "If that's the case, then we just have to figure out who's going to die."

Best Moment: Soul capturer captures the soul capturer

B5: Midnight on the Firing Line

This episode starts off with a really cliché sequence. We see a few Centauri on a station orbiting Ragesh 3. Okay, so I guess all Centauri share that sideways mohawk hairdo. What's up with that thing? Anyway, the conversation sounds something like this:

"Somebody's dropping out of hyperspace!"
"They're attacking us!"
"I know who they are! They're the-"
The station is destroyed.

I know they probably just needed to fulfill the CGI quota for the week, but they could have found a better way of doing it. I'm probably getting too picky, though, so let's get to the rest of the episode.

Londo Mollari analyzes the footage recovered from the attack and discovers that the Narn are behind it. This really brings out the tension between Mollari and G'Kar, and a fight nearly breaks out between the two. Apparently the Centauri once had control over most of the galaxy, to the point where humans almost believed that they were distant cousins of them, but now the Narn want their turn.

"Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of hairspray!"

However, at a council meeting, G'Kar presents evidence that the Narn were not behind the attack. He calls up a live feed to Ragesh 3, where a Centauri somewhat reluctantly claims that Ragesh 3 has allied with the Narn in order to receive aid when none was given by Centauri Prime. Mollari refuses to believe this evidence, stating that the whole thing was forced.

Mollari grows more and more upset with G'Kar, and assembles a weapon in secret to kill him. On his way, though, he encounters Talia, who gets a telepathic vision of the intended event. She informs Garabaldi, who stops Mollari and convinces him not to go through with it. Sinclair has received new information about the attack by now, and declares that it was entirely unprovoked. It turns out that the Narn were behind it after all.

"Yeah, he always walks like that..."

This episode was a nice step forward. I didn't see any of the annoying characters that I saw last week, and the plot didn't hesitate to keep moving. It isn't anything special yet, but this episode was more interesting to watch.

Score: 5

Best Quote: "The wheel turns, does it not, Ambassador?"

Best Moment: G'Kar and Sinclair talking in the Zen garden. It just seemed like a good scene.

B5: The Gathering

Now it's time to start the plunge into Babylon 5. These reviews will be a bit different and may discuss more of the content because this is my first time through Babylon 5. The same goes for the Battlestar Galactica ones which will begin next week.

However, let's get into the episode. The series opens with a voice over of a guy with a thick accent that explains some of the back story. It is the year 2257, and humans have progressed to the point where they are interacting with a multitude of aliens from other worlds on a daily basis. There is, however, great tension between the five major alliances that dominate this space. The Earth Alliance has fought a recent war against the Minbari Federation, and there is a similar conflict between the Narn and the Centauri. There are also the Vorlons, who I'm guessing are like the Breen from Star Trek. We don't really know much about them yet, but their policies appear to be strict and unforgiving. Wow, that's a lot of names to take in at one time. Luckily, we have pictures to get some of these guys straight.

Centauri(below) ------------------ Narn(left), Minbari(right)

Vorla

Anyway, Babylon 5 is a newly built station in neutral space where species can reside in hopes of peace among the various races. It is the fifth in a series of stations, the first three having been sabotaged and destroyed and the fourth mysteriously disappearing just after it was launched. In many ways this show reminds me of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which also took place aboard a space station, and involved a variety of races trying to deal with each other.

In the beginning portion of the episode, we get to see the ambassadors that make up the Advisory Council, which is kind of like a United Nations in space, settle on the station. They are Jeffrey Sinclair, the Commander of the station crew, from Earth, G'Kar from the Narn Regime, Deleen from the Minbari Federation, and Londo Mollari from the Centauri Republic.

Additionally, the station crew, who are serving under Commander Sinclair, are first introduced in this episode. At least so far, the characters seem fairly uninteresting and naive. Sinclair seems like the stereotypical, new man to the job Commander, mostly because we don't see much of his back story and he doesn't do anything spectacular. Lieutenant Commander Laurel Takashima seems to spend a lot of time controlling the bridge, which seems nice. It's refreshing to see a woman in a high command position like that every once in a while, but it seems like the actor is trying way too hard to set herself apart from the rest of the crew. Her voice continually changes pitch and appears separated, which doesn't seem like it should matter much at first, but it just gets cornier the more she talks. The rest of the characters don't seem to have that much personality, at least at this point in the game. I guess that's fine as long as we get some development in later episodes.

The main plot for the episode begins when the Vorlon Kosh falls ill shortly after arriving on the station. Medical Officer Benjamin Kyle determines that he was poisoned, which begins an investigation on the station that divides the races. Sinclair is blamed for it after Lyta, the telepathic crew member, reveals in a mind scan that he was the one who Kosh last saw before blacking out. Sinclair is to be deported to the Vorlon Empire, but it is soon discovered that the suspect is using a changeling net to disguise themselves as various people. They eventually catch the culprit, and it's enough to persuade the Vorlons to stop threatening the station.

Although this series shows promise so far in its execution and story line, I don't believe that it was a very effective opening to the show. The consummate pilot should develop an intriguing storyline through some major character establishment and conflict, and also be interlaced with action sequences and humor that catches the attention of the average viewer. The Gathering had some humor and action(albeit filled with cringeworthy CGI), but the plot didn't really develop that much, and was not intriguing enough too get me excited for subsequent episodes.

Score: 4

Best Quote: "Would you like to be conscious or unconscious during the mating?"

Best Moment: That hyperspace vortex thing is kinda cool.

P.S. Sorry that there aren't many pics for this one. I had formatting issues...