Lines of Communication
Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri
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This was quite a good episode, having practically everything you could want from a show--excitement, humour, political scheming, and even--yes, for all you trigger-happy types out there--space battles! There were several plotlines: the Free Mars thing with Franklin and Marcus, the first contact with the Drakh, the escalating Minbari civil war, and the beginnings of the "Voice of the Resistance." Let's go with last things first and address that lighthearted little plot-let now.
After seeing one vicious, slandering ISN broadcast too many, Sheridan gets an idea (his eyes light up just like a little boy's when he does; it's so funny!) He then ROUSTS Ivanova out of bed at something like 3 in the morning to tell her about it, and he is WAY too chipper for someone who's up that late/early. I agree with Ivanova--someone ought to take all the "morning people", round them up, and shoot them--it should be made illegal to be that PERKY at that time of day! Anyway, this is a hilarious scene--Sheridan comes BOUNCING into Ivanova's room and wakes her up to tell her about "this great idea! Come see!" and Ivanova is standing there in her nightgown, going, "Um...don't you think I should change first?"
"Oh, uh, I guess I didn't notice. Well, get changed and come out here."
"Okay, just give me a--HEY, what do you mean, you didn't NOTICE? What am I, chopped flarn?!" demands Ivanova, rather annoyed. "I mean, sure, you have no interest in me, I have no interest in you, but the least you could say is, 'Nice outfit, Ivanova', and THEN go on a tear!" LOVE it...
What he show her is...the War Room. "John, I've seen this already." No, what he wants to do is, now that the war is over, is use the War Room, which is now just an extra room taking up space, for a place to broadcast their OWN news show from--"The Voice of the Resistance". He wants to get the TRUTH out there--get solid information to Earth and the other colonies, if they can get past the jammers. Give the people of Earth something else to listen to instead of nothing but Clark's propaganda. And since Ivanova was doing such a good job on the BabCom broadcasts at the end of the war...
"Why do I have a horrible feeling you're volunteering ME for this job?"
"I accept your offer!" And so it begins...
Now onto the whole Free Mars thing. Franklin and Marcus try to convince the resistance people to NOT bomb civilian targets and to trust Sheridan, who has a plan up his sleeve. But the main thing good about this part was the little side-bits. We learn more about Number One--she's in charge of ALL the resistance fighters on the entire planet of Mars, she does not believe in going after civillian targets--which tells us she may be dedicated but she's not a violent fanatical loonie--and she's got an extremely MEAN streak. "It would have taken you TEN SECONDS to make a call!" she snaps to one of her subordinates, the idiot who blew up the Red Planet Hotel without asking her first. "Do you know what I can do to you in ten seconds? In ten seconds, I can break both your arms. In ten seconds, I can chop off the top of your head and scoop out your brains for CAT food!" (at this point, my mom turned to me and said, "I LIKE this woman." This should scare me but it doesn't.) "Do you always treat all your ex-lovers like this?" "As a matter of fact, YES!" Number One is shaping up to be a great character indeed, she's fun. I wonder what would happen if she ever met Ivanova...OH, boy...hit the deck!
And then she...erm...gets involved with Franklin. Marcus at first jokes around and makes bets with Franklin on it and gets all moody and philosophical ("Touch passion when it comes your way, Stephen. It's rare enough as it is. Don't walk away when it calls you by name!".) By the end of the episode, the poor guy has to sit there on guard duty, boredly flicking his pike in and out while he can hear her moaning, "Oh, Steeeephennnnn..." Not his day, is it?
On to the real meat of the episode--the whole Minbari thing. This nice young man named Forell (played rather well by G.W. Stevens, who looks and sounds EXACTLY like a young version of Tim Curry! I kid you not!) tells Delenn about raids in space belonging to a race that the Minbari have been protecting for hundreds of years. Since this race was befriended by the Religious Caste, but the Warrior Caste seems to be in charge now that the Grey Council, with its equal voices, is gone, THEY won't send Ship One to help them out. So it's up to the White Stars to save these people, so off Delenn goes, feeling worried about her homeland and wondering just how bad things have gotten since she was last there.
While on the way there, they stumble across a Pak'ma'ra ship that seems to have been attacked by the same raiders, but they do not arrive in time to save them. They do manage to make contact with the raiders, though, upon which, Forell gives Delenn the startling news that the Religious Caste has made an ALLIANCE with these people! He holds a gun on her until she agrees to meet with their emissary and hear what he has to say.
They call themselves the "Drakh", and they are scary-looking as hell, phasing in and out all weird. (You want ALIEN...?) Delenn does not like this idea at all, but Forell explains how he does not intend to use the Drakh to FIGHT his own people, just how the fact that even HAVING allies such as them will make the Warrior Caste think twice before trying anything. For intimidation purposes, only. He goes on to tell about how the Warrior Caste has been killing Religious Minbari without actually "killing" them. They laid waste to one of their cities, on the southern pole of Minbar, and drove out all its inhabitants, letting them fend for themselves against the cold, forcing them to walk all the way to the next town because their vehicles had been destroyed. Many of the Religious outcasts were killed in that journey, including Forell's own family. "Minbari do not kill Minbari," says Forell, "but when it is the elements that do it..."
"I have been away far too long," mutters the frightened and grief-stricken Delenn.
They meet the Drakh, and are instantly freaked out by them, she and Lennier can instantly sense their Shadow similarities. Yes, these are the "dark servants" that escaped Za'Ha'Dum just before it blew, or one race of them anyway, and from a line of Franklin's towards the end of the episode we become almost certain that these are the people responsible for the Keepers. (DIE! DIE! DIE! Oh, sorry, got a little carried away there...) Anyway, Delenn realises that the Drakh intend to blow them to Kingdom Come the instant their emissary is off the White Star, so she plans an escape--Lennier is going to do something called "skin dancing" over the Drakh big-mama mothership. It is a Warrior Caste training excercise. Lennier cannot do it without five years extra training, but he can program the computer with the basic parameters, then "push this button and pray very fast." So they try it, skimming all over the mother ship while firing weapons, and thus begins one of the COOLEST space-battle sequences in the show to date--I love all the different angles, the quick precision turn-arounds, the flips, the...well, you get the idea. When they have done this long enough to give their jump engines time to warm up, ZAP they're in hyperspace. But not before part of the White Star fleet is destroyed.
Once in hyperspace, Lennier is about to set course for Babylon 5 when suddenly Delenn decides she has Had Enough. She goes into her "Be somewhere ELSE!" mode again as she counts up all the nasty things the Drakh have been doing lately, so instead of escaping, they are going to go BACK and attack them! This is the REALLY cool space-battle scene, with Delenn being VERY angry and short--"Be faster." and "End This." and all KINDS of bizzare swooping and diving and such--erp, I think I'm space-sick...ugh...No, seriously, it was VERY cool. I don't usually like the purely special-effects scenes, but when they are done WELL...
So at the end of the episode, she gets home to Babylon 5 to find out that after only 3 days away, Sheridan has redecorated! The War Room, that is. He's put in a desk for Ivanova to read her reports from, had a picture of B5 painted over the strategy map of the galaxy, had station logos put up all over, etc. Despite his twitchiness, she decides to go straight back to Minbar to see exactly HOW bad things are getting there, saying that Sheridan needs to be dangerous now, and she has a feeling he will be more comfortable being dangerous if they are apart.
Well, as we just saw, we could say the same thing about HER! A match made in heaven...
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