No Compromises

(Welcome to the new Captain!)

Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri

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Ah, the beginning of a new season! This is the season that everyone has been DUMPING spoilers on me for no matter how nicely--or meanly--I asked them not to, so it's a relief to finally SEE it. Maybe if I see the episodes fast enough, there might even be a few surprises left! Sigh...
Anyway, let's get the switching-to-a-new-season stuff out of the way now, shall we? First off, the new theme song. I've heard many fans say that they like the Season Five theme song best. I have to disagree; it's a cool idea but the music for Season Four still kicks major gigabutt. (Don't ask; that's a computer-world slang term me and my other "TRON" buddies came up with...) The Season Five theme is interesting, though--even if most of the events shown do have something to do with the Earth Civil War conflict and such, it still at least represents everything. I am SO glad they put in that little clip-let of Cartagia getting assassinated, THANK YOU for acknowledging that that whole huge Centauri plot-line existed, people! And they also show Londo and G'Kar's home planets before they show their faces--nice touch, and we get to see a nice view of Kiro City, rather than just the Royal Palace, on Centauri Prime--a shot we don't see that often. The music itself has a vaguely...Celtic feel to it. I can't describe why it hits me that way, it just does. Kinda cool but the Season Four music is more dramatic. And, last but not least, the people. Sheridan's credit has been changed to say "PRESIDENT John Sheridan"; Garibaldi is just Michael Garibaldi, no rank at all, and he's shown in civvies, Zack is now Security Chief Zack Allen, and a whole new face has appeared: Tracy Scoggins as Captain Elisabeth Lochley (whom I'll get to in a moment.) And, of course, there are TWO faces missing--Ivanova (promoted) and Marcus (dead). Sniff...
Now, onto the new people of Season Five, Lochley and Byron, both of whom we meet in this episode. Let's start with Lochley first. Now, I've seen Ms. Scoggins elsewhere, on DS9--she played a likeable smartmouth Cardassian engineer/scientist who was after O'Brien (!), named Gilora Rejal. I liked that character, so I was willing to give Lochley the benefit of the doubt, even though I've been hearing nothing, on-line, for several months now other than how much most other fans HATE her guts. Well, you know what? I'm not LIKE most other fans, in case you haven't figured that out yet, and, even though it's too early to make a permanent decision yet, the FIRST impression is that--I LIKE Lochley. There. I've said it. Go ahead, e-mail me, tell me I'm nuts, I don't care. I don't like following the crowd, and besides, what I saw when I looked at Lochley was a perfectly capable, tough, and intelligent career military woman who looks like she might be interesting to know down the line. I liked the way she stood up for--and TO--Sheridan; I liked the way she was smart enough to bring armoured Security guards to her little meeting with Byron and his telepaths in Down Below, I liked the way she pointed out--truthfully--that Garibaldi should not have even been in the meeting, he IS a civilian after all. (And for somew odd reason, I noticed that she's left-handed! I ALWAYS notice that, don't ask. That makes THREE in the main cast now, that I know about--she, Garibaldi, and Sheridan. It also means that the two highest-ranking people on the station are BOTH lefties! Like me. We rule. Heh heh heh.) She has a brain, and she's tough. So, so far I like her. I may change my mind over time, but for now, she's likeable. Hah. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
However, with the second famous new (and just about as thoroughly hated) character of Season Five, Byron, who is not a regular but a highly recurring character from what I've heard---the jury is out. So far I don't HATE him, but I'm not too impressed, either. Oh, sure, I like his hair, but that first line he said to Lochley about "the geometries that bind your world" or whatever it was was a bit DRIPPY. Sounded like something Lorien would say. Ugh. Not good. But the rest of the stuff he said in the episodes was more or less normal-sounding. He seemed a bit too eager-to-please, but we'll see...I really don't know about him yet. I'm TEMPTED to like him just BECAUSE all the other fans hate him, but I've done that with virtually every other character so far, I think I've made my point--so if he acts genuinely unlikeable in future episodes I'll feel free to hate him...(hee hee)
Now for the episode itself. It was pretty standard--nutball comes on board, tries to kill the President, yada yada--but with some interesting scene-lets, lines, and tidbits of information. The episode had an odd feel to it--with the new characters and plotlines being set up, and old ones also travelling along, and practically ALL the old characters in new positions or ranks, it felt--it felt more like the PILOT of a new SERIES than a continuation--I dunno, it just had so much introducing and explaining that it felt like a pilot episode for some reason. It was a weird feeling. Anyway, first we have Captain Lochley being greeted at the airlock by Lt. Corwin--and ONLY Lt. Corwin. (Question: Since he seemed to be, towards the end, directly under Ivanova in C&C, does this mean that after her departure, HE'S now the First Officer? Whoah, this boy is coming up in the world! Maybe. It wasn't said.) This parallells Sheridan's coming onto the station, in "Points of Departure"--he was met at the airlock by Ivanova, and ONLY Ivanova, after wandering around lost for a while with his suitcases. (Well, Ivanova and a very confused random Security officer that happened to be standing there!) I feel this was deliberate; it had very much the same feel to the scene. And again, with Corwin playing Ivanova's part, I wanna know if he's now got her JOB...oh, well, I assume they'll tell us later...
Then a lot of stuff happens--we have the dread Music Box Killer blow away a Ranger and leave him outside B5 in a bubble, with a sign around his neck that says "Special Delivery for Babylon 5" (is it just me, or did the thing of having the killer listen to cutesy, old-fashioned wind-up music RIGHT before he kills someone remind anyone else of Jack the Ripper's little musical watch in "Time After Time"? Or do I watch too many science-fiction movies?). Then we have Sheridan and Delenn in his quarters and a thoroughly bizarre explanation about how washing socks keeps you alive. (DON'T ask.) A useful tidbit of information--we find out that Delenn is only living there part of the time, because neither of their quarters are big enough to hold both their stuff, so they are switching back and forth different days or something. Well, I like to know that kind of stuff...They discuss the upcoming Inaguration ceremony, among other things.
Then, somewhere in here, Lochley meets with Sheridan, who seems to know her from before but never says exactly how, other than military career terms (I know, but that's because idiot fans dumped spoilers on me...) and they set up the boundaries--as long as he's here, and not at the Alliance's permanent headquarters on Minbar, which aren't built yet, he will handle political things and she will handle military things and stuff that affects Babylon 5. He makes it a very big point NOT to ask which side she was on during the Earth civil war and she goes out the door. Then she has her first meeting with Byron--who follows her as she leaves Sheridan's office--and he does a rather creepy effect in which, somehow, telepathically, he manages to make ALL the background noise in the Zocalo stop, so she can hear NOTHING but his voice and her own. Then the noise snaps back in again after he leaves. Spooky--the first time we saw this, we were sure that TNT was having trouble with their sound! (Heck, UPN used to do that all the TIME with "Voyager"...) She agrees to meet him later in Brown Sector, and to come alone.
But just as he lied--he has a bunch of other renegade teeps with him--she lied, too--she has several Security goons along for the ride. (Good girl!) Byron introduces her to all of them, especially this strange young boy with a mysterious and tragic past named Simon, who only communicates with remembered images, not words, not even telepathically to the others. They ask to make a colony here on Babylon 5. She says she'll think about it but they can all tell she means no, but offers to help Simon at Medlab, for free.
Meanwhile, Sheridan comes to G'Kar to ask him to write his inaguration speech AND, essentially, the Alliance's constitution! In other words, he wants him to play "Thomas Jefferson"; citing G'Kar's famous "We are at war!" speech (one of the ones the fans go on and on about, incidentally.) G'Kar is all flattered and tells Sheridan that he and the words will be "locked in mortal combat until one of us surrenders!" (as a fellow writer, I know how he feels) and shoos Sheridan out the door. A very cute scene.br> Somewhere in here, Mr. Music Box kills the Gaim ambassador--poor little thing! (and we finally got to see what they look like under that helmet-thingie, too! Kinda neat-looking, in a insect-y kind of way.) and takes its armour to use as a disguise. The little boy telepath, Simon, sees him through a duct, reads his mind, gets his plan, and starts to crawl away to warn Sheridan. But some little noise he makes warns the guy and he shoots into the ceiling. Blood drips down the wall. Oh, dear...but, undaunted, the poor kid drags himself on...
Then we have the hustle and bustle at the Inaguration ceremony. Sheridan is complaining to Delenn about how he wanted a "discreet prescence" by Security (they had a big argument about this earlier--Sheridan feels that a leader should be hands-on, OF the people not above them; everyone else thought that was too dangerous. Only Lochley stood up for him--and then chewed out Garibaldi afterwards.) Delenn replies that this IS "discreet" compared to what Garibaldi had in mind--strip-searches for everyone as they come in the door! Then Sheridan has a hilarious line: "Thank God--I wouldn't want to be struck BILND by the sight of Londo naked!" (yikes! And, uh...Sheridan? From what I've heard about TOMORROW's episode...you might want to be careful what you wish for...seriously...) Mr. Music Box comes in, wearing the Gaim's encounter suit and passes through Security, and he is just about to shoot Sheridan when Simon, the little boy telepath, staggers in weakly and broadcasts his intentions, telepathically, to everyone in the room! The guy panics and raises his gun anyway, and Simon says, "NO!"--he actually SPEAKS--just before he DIES. How depressing! Anyway, the guy evades the "discreet" Security guards and gets away, but "where can he go?"
NEVER say that! The answer is--as Garibaldi figures out from the computer check he's been running, the guy is an Earthforce "pain technician" working on the side of Clarke who is a qualified pilot--into a Starfury!
"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" say the others. Yes, dammit is Sheridan's answer. So they go on with the inaguration--or try to. G'Kar holds up a "Bible" that contains the first page of the main holy book of EVERY culture in the Alliance (awww...cool idea! I love it!) that Sheridan can put his hand on to swear. Then Mr. Music Box shows up in a Starfury, RIGHT outside the window, nose-to-nose with them, and tells everyone else to clear out so he can talk to Sheridan. Delenn and G'Kar both stay, however.
Sheridan listens to his ranting, keeping him distracted just long enough for Garibaldi--WITHOUT any spacesuit!--to sneak up behind him in another Starfury and grab him, and pull him far enough away from the station so that he can safely be destroyed, then lets go, the station's guns go BOOM, and that's that.
There's only the matter of the inaguration left--"Do you want to be President?" G'Kar asks Sheridan.
"Yes." he answers.
"Then put your hand on this bible and say 'I do'."
"I do."
"Good. You're President. Let's eat."
GREAT scene.
Somewhere in here, Byron comes to meet with Sheridan to ask about making a colony, and Sheridan says YES. He just unilaterally decides that this is a political thing not a station thing. Well, it's a station thing TOO, and I'm waiting for Lochley to bust his butt when she hears about this...
The episode is just about over, but the last thing we get is a confrontation between Lochley and Garibaldi, the former of whom is redecorating her office (this caused my mom to say, "I'm thinking....pastels?" Heh heh heh I've trained her well...). Garibaldi explains how he's now going to be, essentially, the head of the Alliance's new CIA-type thing, and how Zack is still going to be head of Security. Then, just before he leaves, he asks her, "What side WERE you on, anyway?"
Her answer is a good one--"I was on the side of Earth. Weren't we all?"--and tells you absolutely nothing. Hmmn...
All in all, not a wonderful episode--the plot was pretty standard--but not all bad, because of the character moments and good lines, and it set up important stuff for the future. After all, didn't those talking heads on the 100-years-in-the-future talk show say something about how allowing the telepaths to start a colony on B5 was one of Sheridan's most lethal mistakes...?

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