A Voice in the Wilderness, Part II
Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri
Click HERE, HERE, or HERE to see pictures from the episode.
Okay, I know I said yesterday that I did not like the first episode of this very much and that to properly judge it I would need to see the second part with it.
Well, now I have.
And I STILL didn't like it all that much.
Oh, to be sure, it is very important in the arc, and it has its moments, but all together, it was just a bit too predictable and disappointing for me.
Let's go through the reasons WHY, as a whole, I felt this two-parter was nowhere NEAR as good as many of B5's normal episodes:
1. Sinclair should have blown that Pierce character to Kingdom Come, and I was SO disappointed when he didn't! When Pierce said, "Commander, if you fire on us, you can kiss your career goodbye." I wanted Sinclair to say "And if you go towards that planet, you can kiss your ASS goodbye!" Pardon my French. But you get what I mean--a snappy, AGRESSIVE comeback was DEFINITELY called for there, and yet Sinclair didn't say it. Oh, sure, he stood up for the station, but I wanted him to just tell that @#$# off SO bad. And when Pierce was still alive and went peacefully back through the jumpgate at the end...I found myself almost booing!
Okay, okay, I know, I know, if Sinclair gave the order to "blow him out of the sky", not only would it have messed up the timing of the story-arc, but it would have killed all the other people on the Hyperion. STILL...
2. It was TOTALLY predictable, from the instant that Varn (the alien dude from the planet) started calling Draal's name, or perhaps at the end of Part One, that Draal would end up in Varn's place. It's perfectly logical, from the way things were set up ahead of time; unfortunately it's also perfectly OBVIOUS from the way things were set up ahead of time. You can see the ending a light-year away. Not good.
And what was up with that alien captain dude? First of all, I think he learned their language AWFULLY quickly considering he only had a few seconds to download all their files--are these guys' brains hooked into their ships' computers or something, like, Borg?--and then when he DID talk, his accent sounded horribly stereotyped and corny. I don't know, everything about him just bugged me. And the fact that his ships decided to go towards the planet ANYWAY ever after Draal warned them was obviously JUST to let us see things go BOOM.
And Ivanova has gone OVERBOARD with the "Russian" stuff. Okay, you're RUSSIAN, we got it already! To paraphrase Season 3 Delenn, "If you value your life, say something ELSE!" On the other hand, Ivanova's "testosterone poisoning" line was an absolute jewel, so she's forgiven...
But this episode was not a TOTAL loss. It still had some good stuff, which for me was mostly in the form of character development. The scenes with Londo were of course great. The one with him, Delenn, and Draal in the garden was very touching, and the scene with the three of them in the shuttle..."If I was a landing thruster, which of these would I be...?"
Character and/or arc stuff that we learn from this episode:
1. The rebellion on Mars has evidently been quelled. For NOW. But don't you worry, this mini-plotline will DEFINITELY come back to effect the arc later...
2. Lise Hampton is alive, but MARRIED. Leaving poor Garibaldi absolutely CRUSHED at the end of the episode, but then again, if you ignore someone for two entire years, they're naturally going to move on. Garibaldi should have been expecting it. _I_ sure was...
3. Londo used to be a crack fighter pilot when he was younger. Looks like he's NOT just the overweight, decadent nobleman he appears to be--he has some actual useful/dangerous skills. Not to mention, this episode shows some of the goodness that is in him, which gets buried more and more in later seasons...
4. Speaking of our favourite Centauri, Delenn now owes him a large favour. Exactly what did she promise him--and when will he come to collect?
4. "The Great Machine": It belongs to the future, it is now fully operational, it extends life for whoever is plugged into it as its "Guardian", and it can be used "to explore the farthest reaches of the universe with your thoughts". I am sure that at least ONE of these things will be used later...
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