A View from the Gallery
Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri
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Well, this was certainly a different episode. It's one that many fans don't like. However, in case you haven't figured it out yet, I am not LIKE many fans, and so therefore, I thought it was a great idea, and an absolutely adorable episode. (Then again, I actually LIKED "Grey 17 is Missing", which is one of THE most universally-hated eps--heck, even "The Great Maker" himself, J. Michael Straczynski, said so, so maybe you shouldn't be listening to me...)
At any rate, here's the basic premise of the episode. Babylon 5 comes under attack, by unknown, unnamed alien ships. (The ships kinda reminded me of the Drakh's ships, but since that name was never said, and the alien soldiers didn't phase in and out or anything like that, I guess we can assume it wasn't them. I can't shake the feeling that they were maybe somehow WORKING for the Drakh, though...) But that, my friends, is just the B-plot! The A-plot, which weaves into everything else, is about these two ordinary Joe-Shmoe maintainance guys, "the invisible people", or "Worker Caste" as Delenn calls them. They are sent in to fix things all over the station during this crisis, accidentally bump into practically everyone there of any note, and keep things running--in at least one instance, they solve a BIG, important problem--and never get thanked for it, or hardly even noticed. The result is a story that, despite the occasional philosophical or sad moment, is so light-hearted and funny that I'm extremely surprised HARLAN ELLISON wrote it! I kid you not...
I did have some quibbles, though:
1. The alien dudes' suits. They looked like something out of Buck Rogers or Battlestar Galactica or something--in other words, CHEEE-ZEEEE. Or as my mother said, "These alien dudes look like they should be fighting for the Spider-Queen--a reference to Paris's delightfully--DELIBERATELY--cheesy "Captain Proton!" simulations on the holodeck in "Star Trek: Voyager". I totally agree. The only thing missing is that they were in colour instead of black and white. What happened, the regular costume designers got sick so they hired someone else at way lower cost?
2. It was awfully CONVENIENT that Bo and Mack happened to run into EVERYBODY of any importance whatsoever--even the alien ambassadors! But then, if they hadn't, there wouldn't have been any plot. Still, when they found themselves going directly from an argument between Garibaldi and Lochley (both of whom were acting like they weren't even there) to a huge battle between Security and the alien dudes in the hallway (and Bo even punched one of the aliens out!) and from there, STRAIGHT to Byron and his telepaths, my sense of disbelief started being strained. It was fun anyway, though...
3. Byron. Why did he have to be in this episode? He had nothing to do with the plot! At least he was acting a bit nicer than usual, although still as weird and over-philosophical as always. And knock off the Shakespeare-quoting for a bit, blondie! Ya did it in the last episode!
4. Corwin. I like him, don't get me wrong, but it bugs me that they never say his actual rank. One would think that he's now First Officer underneath Lochley, after Ivanova left, but it's never SAID, and he and Lochley have several long scenes together in this episode. That's my quibble with him. And why don't they just make him a fraggin' regular already? He's THERE enough...
Otherwise, it was a good episode, and I LOVE seeing things from a different point of view! The "little people" (of which Mack practically IS one, literally; I wasn't quite sure if he was a midget or just a very short guy who also happened to be chunky, but at any rate, I started thinking of him as "The Hobbit" by the time the teaser was over...) are, well, PEOPLE, too, and it was great getting to see things from the point of view of the underappreciated "worker caste" of Babylon 5, not just the stars. (The same reason I liked that episode of Next Gen where everything is shown from the P.O.V. of some young ensigns--this is even MORE so.) Now for a list of things that I did like, in random order:
That whole thing about spoo and "I know somebody", and "it tastes like chicken!" That was great. (LOCHLEY tastes like chicken? As Bo said, don't EVEN go there...) "The Centauri actually EAT this stuff?" says the incredulous Bo, after trying some of Mack's spoo sandwich (Bo is the taller black guy, Mack is the tiny little chunky Hobbit dude). "They can't get enough of it. 10 credits an ounce!" "No WONDER their hair stands straight up!" Hee hee...
Mack working on the secondary weapons systems in C&C, laying on the floor in the middle of a huge battle and not seeing ANY of it, and got them fixed JUST in time to save the day--and got not a word of thanks from Corwin, Lochley, or anyone else--and didn't expect one. Geez...
Franklin's story about his father, and how he was saved by a Dilgar--the ENEMY--doctor, and then that poor doctor was executed for treason. Poor guy! I always thought "Deathwalker" was cool-looking and it was too bad we couldn't see more of the rather catlike Dilgar race; why'd they have to be made EXTINCT? Darnit...
Station gossip--about Sheridan and Delenn being in true love, about Sheridan "being dead once." "Well, nobody's PERFECT!" and ESPECIALLY about why Ivanova left--"Everyone had their own opinions about it. Some say she was all heartbroken about that guy...what's his name...?" (snaps his fingers) "Marcus." "Yeah, Marcus. Others say she wanted a promotion real fast and left because she wanted a whole lot more money..." A-HEM. That last one is NOT Ivanova. That is talking about Claudia Christian. We are working in REAL-LIFE anecdotes here! Oh, boy...And speaking of in-jokes, it looked to me--although I can't be sure--that at one point, Bo was reading the book "Dining on Babylon 5", but like I said, I never got a good look at it. Still, the real-life in-jokes about the fans and stuff just made my entire week in this episode.
The scene with them and Delenn, where they had to make sure she got to a life-pod because Security was busy fighting off the invaders, and Bo and Mack were there. "What would happen if, by some terrible, unforseen accident, the controls of the life-pod were to be SMASHED from the inside shortly after it took off?" Delenn asks them. "It would crash into Epsilon III." "Or explode. Yeah, it could explode". So then she goes on to say how if they put her in a pod, it will DEFINITELY suffer such an "accident" and, time being circular, we can assume that she has ALREADY done so, so she might as well not even get into the pod in the first place, yes? This was HYSTERICAL. Delenn has an EVIL sense of humour, and I love when it comes out. All her bits with them were great, her talking to them as people, her calling them "Worker Caste", her remembering their names afterwards "I think I'm in love!" "She's MARRIED!" "We can work something out..." all of it. Delenn was great in this episode.
More serious bits--Franklin with the dead bodies in the morgue ("Well, we don't have to clean up ALL the mess..."), Bo doing the cross gesture even though he's not relgious, out of respect, pointing out that every time you see a red fireball (by the way, I also liked the red vs. green fireball explanation; very nice scientific touch) that a person, a real live person, has just been killed, and everything they were, are, or could be is gone, (gee). Little touches like that pulled this episode back down to the ground and gave it a bit more reality; it wasn't JUST silliness.
And now, I've saved the best for last (although it didn't actually HAPPEN last)--Londo and G'Kar's scene. We get to hear something about Londo's childhood, which, despite G'Kar's nasty, flippant remark about how Londo never grew up, he only grew OLD, sounds genuinely sad. "I was never a child," says Londo, with real regret in his eyes and voice. "I always had duties, to family, honour, title." Gee... Their bickering--Londo making fun of G'Kar's singing ability, "Why are you coming along? Are you afraid I won't come back? "No, I'm afraid you WILL." And then Mack's so very, VERY accurate and HILARIOUS comment "How long you think they been married?" I was ON THE FLOOR!
And so, with that line, dear readers, we leave you for today. Valtoo!
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