Walkabout
Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri
Click HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, or HERE to see pictures from the episode.
Well. This wasn't the best episode they ever made, but it wasn't horrible either. It had two plots, neither of which had anything to do with the other but which were both important in different ways. So let's start off with the storyline after which the episode is named--Stephen Franklin's "walkabout".
Garibaldi goes looking for Franklin to find out why he seems to be walking around the station in a straight line, and after getting "the short version" ("Why does everything around here have to be a LONG story? Why not ever a SHORT story, a paragraph...?), "Walkabout." Franklin then proceeds to tell him the full story.
See, Franklin belongs to the Foundationists, a relatively new religion that has taken the essence out of all the different religions on Earth and mixed them together into one thing. One of the things they believe is the story of the Walkabout, from the ancient Aborigine beliefs. The idea is that if you get too caught up in things and duties instead of yourself (your soul, your REAL self) then one day your real self walks away and you don't even notice it. So you go on walkabout, hoping to meet yourself, then talk over EVERYTHING you saw, heard, felt, etc, while on the Walkabout with yourself, and hopefully become whole again and spiritually more at peace. Now, Franklin doesn't REALLY believe there are two of him walking around the station, but that it couldn't hurt to just get out and travel and be alone for a while. "Stephen, this is ridiculous," says Garibaldi. "You're a doctor, a scientist."
"And?" prompts Franklin.
"And what?"
"Exactly."
Well, anyway, he eventually meets someone, a singer in Down Below with a gorgeous voice (but a DRIPPY taste in music, ugh, not my thing) who he takes up with immediately, sleeping with her the very night they meet. Now, this is NOT something that the old Dr. Franklin, the careful, meticulous planner, the uptight perfectionist, would have done--that's precisely WHY he does it. This part of the plotline was rather soap-opera-ish, what with the hero falling in love with someone just to find out that she's dying, but when we realise that she stays in Down Below on PURPOSE, because she can make a difference in the hopeless, lost people's lives with her singing, it really IS genuinely sad. My mother, for example, was very obviously trying not to cry during the scene with her in Medlab--and so was I.
And if Franklin thinks he's got it hard NOW...wait until the withdrawal symptoms from the stims kick in...OH, boy...
A couple of last notes on this subject--all the words to her songs were written by Straczynski himself, and the song she sings at the end is SO poignant and symbolic, and knowing that she's singing like a lovely canary when she's only got 6 or 7 months left--gods, depressing! (Side-note: The actress is definitely a "Jennifer Sisko" type.) And the bit with Franklin being reflected in the faceted glass--"showing his soul" as Cailyn (the singer) said...very well done.
That was a nice little character piece, and let us see Franklin being a PERSON rather than just a doctor all the time. Now onto the other plotline.
This one, which concerned the new Vorlon ambassador arriving, the first actual attempt to use telepaths to defeat the Shadows, and new alliances between the Narns and Babylon 5, was VERY important to the arc. And very interesting. I think Patricia Tallman did a pretty good acting job here; it's hard to believe that when she's on-screen, she's practically ALWAYS a STUNT-DOUBLE! You wouldn't expect a stunt-double to be able to act...
Anyway, we start off with a GREAT (but short) scene with Londo and Garibaldi. Londo is complaining about the Narn heavy cruiser that is parked outside the station--"What guarantee can you give me that they will not open fire on approaching Centauri ships?" Garibaldi: "The same guarantee I gave you when I promised that none of the other Narns wouldn't slip into your quarters in the dead of night and slit your throat."
"But Mr. Garibaldi, you never made me a promise like that!"
"Exactly. Sleep tight."
On to Sheridan "taking a walk"--OUTSIDE--and seeing the Vorlon ship come in from a rather unique angle (what were those words on the side? Was the new ambassador saying something to him, or was the ship itself saying "Hi there!" They ARE alive, you know...). Then onto business. Mr. "We are ALL Kosh" Ulkesh arrives, a much darker, more sinister Vorlon. It is here that we start getting our REAL taste of the fact that they are not REALLY "angels" at all (well, besides little things earlier like preserving and using JACK THE RIPPER!). And they will get even DARKER as we move into Season Four...
Is is just me, or did anyone else notice how the new Kosh always kept to..the shadows...
Anyway, they determine to go out and meet a Shadow vessel, taking Lyta along to see what she can do to them. Sheridan wants to go it alone to make a more "pure" test, but the others want to send along a Minbari warship and some Minbari telepaths as backup. Over Sheridan's petulant "NAY!" they decide to go with this plan.
They get out there and meet the Shadow vessel, but Lyta can't focus, and seems to be in horrible pain after attempting to jam them the first time. Sheridan then grabs her and tries to FORCE her to concentrate--and then something very interesting happens:
She sees Kosh's death--in Sheridan's mind!
But Sheridan wasn't there...
(Oh, and by the way, the New Kosh (why does that remind me of New Coke?) seems to be VERY concerned over who all saw Kosh die or not, and wants to know if anyone has...a PIECE of the old Kosh left...why, is anybody's guess at this point...)
Anyway, once Lyta sees how the Shadows killed the original one, she mutters, "Burn, you bastards"...and CUTS LOOSE. The Shadow ship is paralyzed and the White Star's weapons soon make it shrivel up like a dead BUG. (I love how they die...) But to get enough power to do so, they have to take their jump-engines off-line. Which leaves them sitting ducks (what's a duck? Some strange Earther animal?) when FOUR Shadow vessels wibble into existence right in front of them. Of course, they still have the Minbari ship for backup (and I notice the Minbari telepaths don't seem to have the line-of-sight restriction that Human telepaths have...interesting...) but that's NOT enough, not for FOUR Shadow vessels!
EEK.
Let us now briefly visit the Narn subplot. The part about how EVERY culture has an equivalent of Swedish meatballs was amusing (can we say, "Gin and tonic", boys, girls, and hermaphrodites?) and I thought Robin Sachs as Na'Kal made a great Narn, more cultured and elegant than most of them, with a fine-boned face distinctive enough to show through the makeup. (He makes a great Minbari, too, as he has done at least twice earlier that I know of.) And the bit with Garibaldi and G'Kar was great. Garibaldi comes in all angry, returning the book of G'Quan by SLAMMING it down on the table and yelling in G'Kar's face about how they should get involved. A wonderful parallell here--G'Kar first GAVE Garibaldi the book by waking him up in the middle of the night; now Garibaldi returns the book by waking up G'KAR in the middle of the night! Anyway, Na'Kal has decided NOT to pledge his heavy cruiser's help to the B5 guys who have gone out to engage the Shadows as it is the last heavy cruiser they have. Garibaldi's cutting, true words ring loud in G'Kar's ears and...
From out of hyperspace, just when things are the most desperate, comes...A NARN HEAVY CRUISER! And a whole ton of other ships, too, (most notably Brakiri and Vree.).
Together, they kick the Shadows' spidery little butts and the day is momentarily saved. And Lyta tells the New Kosh, back in his quarters, that although SHE doesn't have a piece of Kosh Classic in her, she might know someone who does...
Overall, like I said, not WONDERFUL, but decent, and very important to the arc.
Click HERE to return to the main Season Three Reviews page.
Click HERE to return to the main Reviews page.
Click HERE to return to Centauri Prime.
