By Any Means Necessary
Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri
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This was a good episode, funny and clever, and, although it SEEMS like a mere account of "The Very Long Day(s) of Jeffrey Sinclair", it is actually far more important than it seems, as you can clearly see seeds being planted for much darker events in the future.
"By Any Means Necessary" has two plots going on at the same time, which are loosely connected to each other. The main plotline concerns grievances from the station's cargo hold workers (or "dockrats" as they call themselves) over a lack of money, equipment, and decent working hours, and the snooty EarthGov (Republicans?) officials who refuse to help them out. (Note that "The Rush Act", which enables the creepy government officials to use violence if necessary against the workers, was named after RUSH LIMBAUGH!!! True story.) The second plotline revolves around the EVIL/funny antics of G'Kar and Londo, who plot, scheme, scream, threaten, beg, borrow, and steal, all for the want of a G'Quan Eth plant. G'Kar DESPERATELY needs one for the most important ceremony of the Holy Days of G'Quan, and he needs one by a certain time, or ELSE. But they are very, very, VERY hard to get all the way out on Babylon 5. And, due to an accident in the docking bay caused by shoddy equipment and overworked dockrats (see, how they tie together?) just GUESS who has the ONLY G'Quan Eth plant left on the entire station?
Yep. Londo Mollari. BWAHAHAHAHA...
I'll have to address the two plots seperately here. First, the dockworkers strike plotline. I honestly felt sorry for the poor dockrats, and all the actors involved did a creditable job. I especially liked the TINY but feisty young Guild Leader, Neeomi Connally (that's how it's spelled in the credits), who was brave, angry, spirited, and sarcastic. She had possibly the best line in the episode, although it's hard to tell because it was so FILLED with good lines, said while leaning directly into the face of Orin Zento, the OBNOXIOUS labour negotiator: "Stuff it."
The labour "negotiator", and I use that term VERY loosely considering that someone like that is supposed to be DIPLOMATIC, and he lost his temper WAY too easily, was an absolute festering snotball from Hell! Watching him was the visual equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard! YOW he was annoying! But then, he was SUPPOSED to be, so I suppose I should give some credit for good acting to John Snyder, who incidentally was ALSO the second Soul Hunter in the episode of the same name--the one who showed up to capture the first one. Funny, he only looks SLIGHTLY less weird out of his alien prosthetics...and is there any chance he could perhaps be related to Morden in some way...?
And speaking of irritating guest-star characters...I was tickled to DEATH to see not only an obnoxious ISN reporter sticking her microphone in everyone's faces, which did indeed make sense, but to see that it was the exact SAME big-haired skinny blonde woman from "Infection! I was absolutely on the floor giggling over the WONDERFUL continuity. Oh, and Garibaldi had that same dark-haired young assistant again who has shown up in at least three other episodes I can think of offhand. I love when they keep even the background, minor people consistent. It gives the station so much more of a "community" feel.
Now, for the second part of the plotline. G'Kar and Londo's antics were HILARIOUS, although there was a slight dark edge to it, in the fact that Londo was torturing G'Kar about the plant as revenge for what he did to his nephew. Are we to assume that Carn Mollari was indeed killed shortly after making that forced announcement over the comm channel? Yikes. But this episode was FUNNY. I especially loved Londo's little double-handed twiddle-fingered wave in the turbolift...
What ties it all together? Mainly, that has to go to Commander Sinclair. Michael O'Hare did a very good job in this episode. Sinclair, despite going for two entire days without sleep (and looking it!) managed to solve BOTH problems in a very, very clever way in a short amount of time. When the Rush Act is enforced, which gives him the right to finish the strike "by ANY means necessary" (hey--the title!) he chooses to end it by the "means" of...giving the workers what they want! Hey, ANY means includes NICE ones! Sinclair and Neeomi both know that they are going to "catch seven kinds of Hell" over this, but for now it works. And as Sinclair said to the Orin Zento, "If you're going to hand someone a gun, you'd better be sure of which way they're pointing it first."
And at the end, Senator Hidoshi reveals himself to be a much cooler guy than you thought all this time. It even turns out that they WON'T get in trouble after all--because it would be POLITICALLY embarrassing to the Senators to oppose them. It would make the public not like them.
It seems to be a mere stand-alone, cute little story with an almost Disney-esque double happy ending, but in Luis Santiago's policies towards the workers, we see shades of W. Morgan Clark's policies later. It is episodes like this, way back in the first season, that make Sheridan's fateful decision later on make SENSE. And in Londo's dealings with G'Kar, we see the seeds of his predilection for revenge that will drive him to much darker consequences in future days.
The title turns out to fit the ENTIRE episode perfectly. The workers, Sinclair, Connally, and Orin Zento (the negotiator) were willing to end the strike "by any means necessary"; on the other side, G'Kar was willing to do ANYTHING it took to get his hands on a G'Quan Eth plant!
And, at the VERY tail end of the episode, we are treated to the sight of that very Narn ceremony (remember, their beliefs were left out of "The Parliament of Dreams"!) that all that fuss was about.
All in all, a satisfactory effort.
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