Babylon Squared
Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri
Click HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, or HERE to see a BUNCH of pictures from the episode (and these were just the five I narrowed it down to!).
This was an episode of big answers, and of big questions. While we are finally told at least part of what happened to Babylon Four, and the reasons WHY the Minbari surrendered when they were totally winning, whole new mysteries are introduced at the same time...
It was strange for me, seeing this one. You see, I did not see this episode, and "A Voice in the Wilderness" first, as Nature and Straczynski intended; instead, I saw the third-season two-parter "War Without End", which is what these earlier episodes were setting UP, first. In other words, I saw the ending BEFORE I saw the beginning! Or maybe it WAS the beginning. Well, heck, this IS a time-travel story, so maybe it makes SENSE to see it in the wrong order. Right?
I gotta go lie down...
As Miles O'Brien once said on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (yes, "The Other Show", I will mention it freely on this site, get used to it), "God, I hate temporal mechanics."
Well, whatever order you see it in, it makes for one HECK of a good episode!
First of all, the main plotline. This is...complicated...
As the episode starts, there is a weird tachyon thingie going on in "Sector 14" so Ivanova sends someone off to check it out. He comes back DEAD--of old age--but he's only 30! Then they get this weird message--from Babylon FOUR!!!
But B4 disappeared 4 years ago--that's WHY B5 had to be built.
Needless to say, it's also coming from Sector 14, so they decide to take a look-see.
Now pay attention because this is where it gets really tricky:
Babylon 4 has somehow become "unstuck in time". Like the "Flying Dutchman", They have been wandering loosely all through time for the last four years, and it's wreaked havoc on the health and sanity of the crew.
Major Krantz, temporary station commander, is begging our boys to help evacuate everyone before it happens again. The time-shifts are very dangerous and to be at the outskirts of the effect--which extends well beyond the station itself--is lethal. That's what happened to the poor dude who investigated earlier. Also, when it's getting ready to flip through time again, everyone on board experiences weird flashes of some unspecified different time-frame--all VERY vivid, and all tuned to each individual.
The last time B4 went through the time-thingie, they picked up this strange little scruffy-looking alien named Zathras. He is from another time but cannot say whether it is the past or the future, because he can't translate his people's time into Earth years--"Mathematics not Zathras skill." This line instantly made me start liking the little dude--mathematics not Keela skill either. Hate them she does. (clickclickclickclick) Very bad, much frustration, much confusion, very bad...Oh, wait, where was I? Ah! Review, yes! Okay, Zathras says that he needs to take B4 with him through time so that it can be used as a base of operations in a "Great War" to save the galaxy on the side of Light. They are not sure if he is serious or not, but as Sinclair says, "I believe HE believes it."
He keeps going on about "The One". When Sinclair walks into the room, he half stands up, looks at him expectantly...and then says, "Not the One. Not the One."
Later on, when they are evacuating everyone, a strange space-suited figure appears. It kneels as if in pain and Sinclair comes forward to touch its hand. As he touches it...
...he is SLAMMED all the way back across the cargo bay! Zathras comes forward and hands the figure a "time stabiliser") and says that he has fixed it. So HE knows what's going on...
Then poor Zathras has a pole land on top of him, due to the station shaking itself in preperation for its next time-jump, and cannot move. When Sinclair tries to help him he says that he (Sinclair) has a destiny and that he must leave Zathras. Reluctantly, Sinclair eventually does.
But shortly after they leave, the space-suited figure shows back UP again and saves Zathras, pulling the heavy pole off of him. The figure takes its helmet off--and it's SINCLAIR!!! But as an old man!!
And Zathras calls him..."The One".
Then we see a female hand gently put itself on the older Sinclair's arm and we hear a soft voice--it's DELENN! But why are they not SHOWING her...? They manage to get most of the people off and B4 squiggles away again, to--only the gods know where...
And that's just the A-PLOT! The B-Plot was interesting too. It concerns Delenn being secretly summoned to join a meeting of the Grey Council, which she is a member of, where she is told that she is being elected to replace Dukhat. They want HER to be their new leader!
She is flattered but refuses. She says that she must continue her work on B5, among the Humans, whom she greatly admires because of their diversity and passion. And here was also learn--FINALLY--why the Minbari just suddenly gave up when they were about to win at the end of the war--it was written in one of Valen's prophecies not to destroy the Humans, because some of them have a destiny that they could not interfere with. Hmmn...
We also finally learn WHY a member of the Minbari ruling body is on some station playing Ambassador--it is her assignment to STUDY the Humans. They want her to stop and come home to become the One that rules over the Nine; she wants to stay and keep studying them a while longer.
And just before she leaves, the No-Name Grey Council Dude gives her...a triluminary...
A great line from the No-Name Grey Council Dude: "We are surrounded by signs and portents, and I can feel a great darkness pressing in behind us..."
Incidentally, as each season has a subtitle--Season One's subtitle is "Signs and Portents", and as for the "great darkness pressing in behind us"? Enter Season Two, starting in only three more episodes--"The Coming of Shadows".
Gotta love it... And last but not least, some interesting side notes:
1. B4 is the BIGGEST Babylon station? Sheesh, B5 is HUGE itself! Just how big IS B4, anyway?
2. The scene with Sinclair and Garibaldi tricking Ivanova and stealing her food was GREAT. Wonderfully funny. I was absolutely on the FLOOR laughing.
3. And the "Fasten then zip" scene on the shuttle was great too. "I'm not having this conversation!"
All in all, a great episode, full of science-fictiony stuff, character development, answers, mysteries, foreshadowing, intriguing secrets, and even humour! How DO they manage to pack so much into just 43 minutes?
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