Grail
Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri
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Okay, this episode was not horrible, but on the other hand, it wasn't THAT great either. It had good and bad parts. First, let's get the bad parts out of the way:
The "actor" who played Jinxo--GREAT MAKER was he ever BAD! He always had such phony expressions on his face all the time. His idea of showing pure terror was to bug his eyes out and look even stupider than he normally did for a few seconds. Now, I'm no actor myself, so I'm sure I couldn't do much better, but SHEESH, it's his JOB to at least make me slightly believe the character!
Continuity glitches--WHY did Aldous think he could find the Grail on other planets, when it's an Earth legend? And HOW did he get ALL the ambassadors to talk to him? Delenn wasn't a problem, as the Minbari are said (several times in the episode) to greatly revere what they call "true seekers". That is, anyone who KNOWS what their goal is and devotes their entire life to it no matter what. It doesn't matter what the goal IS (as long as it's not anything harmful). It only matters that they are committed and devoted. That they have faith.
Okay, that's all well and good, but how did Aldous get in to see Londo and Kosh? Surely THEY don't believe the same way! (Vir even called it "the 'cup-object' he refers to as 'The Holy Grail'".) And...where was G'Kar? Or did TNT cut that scene for more commercials (damn their oily hides!) How did Aldous get permission to see the other major ambassadors, and how did he get it so quickly when he has no money and is not known (execpt to the Minbari) as anything but a bit of a harmless crackpot?
Another continuity glitch--in this episode, Lennier explains that the Minbari culture has two castes--Warrior and Relgious, and that they practically NEVER agree. The last time that they did, according to Delenn, was "a terrible thing. Let us hope that it does never happen again!" Presumably a veiled and ominous reference to whatever it was that started the Earth/Minbari war. All well and good as far as it goes.
BUT...there are THREE castes in Minbari society! Warrior, Religious...and WORKER! This directly contradicts stuff that was said later on. In a BIG way. Mr. Farrand, I hope you're taking notes for your B5 Nit-Picker's Guide...
That pretty much gets the bad stuff out of the way. The rest of it was pretty good, or at least decent. First of all, the guest stars. David Warner was, as always, very classy as Aldous Gaij or however you spell that. However, I have seen him play villains so much that I kept expecting him to suddenly turn out to be an evil spy from Psi Corps or something like that...when he wasn't, I was a bit disappointed! But he did a very good job. (He's one of my favourite actors).
And William Sanderson did a good job as Deuce. He was wonderfully cold-blooded and sadistic, and all with a calm, laid-back, friendly-soundin' Southern ac-cay-ant. It added a lot to the "sinister factor". Gee, I guess he gets MEAN when you seperate him from his brother Darryl and his other brother Darryl for too long! (hee)
We also get to hear a bit about the mystery of what happened to Babylon 4 for the first (?) time.
And there were some choice Garibaldi moments. The scarfing down of his breakfast and anyone else's in sight, and of course that great part at the end with Londo and Vir. "You see, right before a Feeder is going to attack, it goes very very quiet. So as long as you HEAR something, you're safe. But the insant you hear nothing...be afraid." Leaving both Centauri COMPLETELY climbing the walls with panic--EVIL but hilariously funny.
Speaking of the Centauri--the very BEST moments in this episode of COURSE belonged to them. Naturally. Both Vir and Londo scenes were GREAT. Londo is going on and on and on about how hard it would be to go through all the government files, how long it would take, how many people he would have to get permission from, how much it would cost, etc. to find out if the Grail was in Centauri space, and in the middle of his rant Vir breaks in to say that HE'S ALREADY DONE IT! The entire search! Right then! No, he didn't find it, but Londo is FURIOUS and trying very very hard not to kill his attaché (who is pouting like a little kid) in front of his guest. "You wanted to be 'efficient', eh? Too many like you and the Centauri Empire will 'efficient' itself to DEATH!" Let me tell you, I was ROLLING on the FLOOR...The aforementioned scene with Garibaldi deliberately freaking them out about the Feeder (which was already quite dead) and then poor Vir being locked out in the corridor was also classic. I also loved Londo poking his head, and ONLY his head, very, very cautiously outside of his quarters, and saying that the reason he's being so careful is for VIR's sake "he is very young and he panicks sometimes, you understand". Yeah, RIGHT Londo.
(On a side-note, I find it interesting that the CENTAURI are so freaked out by something that has TENTACLES, considering their own anatomy...but let's not go there...) And, to end the episode, I FINALLY got to hear one of the most famous Ivanova lines in existence:
"No boom TODAY. Boom TOMORROW. There's always a boom tomorrow."
But hopefully, not just yet!
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