100 Reviews: 94
And now back to the ongoing B5 review project.
Babylon 5: 1x12: By Any Means Necessary
I’m not sure where to start with this one, I have things to say, but I’m not quite sure how to put a lot of them. I’ll start with this, while this is the only episode of the series that really deal with this kind of operational issue and sort of dances around class and politics issues, the presentation of it is in keeping with a lot of the larger B5 themes, of needing to remember the littler folks in things. It’s normally presented on the galactic scale, where the little guys are still big fish to their own cultures, but next to the giants of the universe are still very small.
Just for this episode though, I wish Zento was less obviously The Man. There’s no actual character there, to the extent where I basically lump him in with Billy Zain in Titanic as the rich white guy antagonist (with a Z name involved). I feel a negotiator should have a little more negotiating skills than this guy displays, since he basically comes across as a cartoonish metaphorical mustache twirler who’s all ‘down with poor people.’ We’re not lead to side with the dockworkers so much through reasoning or even through theme relevance, but because the other side is done in visual shorthand evil.
Not to say there aren’t plenty of reasons we would side with them, but we not really given the opposing side. We’re presented their side and why we need to address the situation, and we’re given Sinclair and the command staff’s side of being caught in the middle and just wanting the best solution and wanting it now. We’re not really given arguments for why the budget was it was aside from in the most slimy and superficial ways possible by Zento.
This is another episode I kind of think people like because of what it is (especially for the time) more than the story itself. It is however a MUCH better episode than the last one I brought that up in, so I don’t slap it that label quite so broadly The end is a little pat and easy after how many issues had been raised, and the fact that there’s no real consequence down the road doesn’t really help matters. It’s an episode that I too am glad exists in the B5 canon, and I think it handles its issues relatively well, manages a decently told story, and is thematically is not plotedly relevant within the bigger narrative. I just don’t think it’s all that layered or dynamic.
But it does get some points back for being an early episode to point out that Londo and G’Kar are basically no better than each other. Early on we’re given a lot of G’Kar the aggressor and Londo the victim but this one casts that dynamic in a slightly different light where G’Kar may be the more overtly aggressive while also being driven by duty and faith and not so bad things, but Londo’s petty and passive aggressive and subscribes to all the racist attitudes of his people towards the Narn. Neither of them are saints and neither are total villains. Plus it does in passing say that the Narns aren’t a race with a single religion either, another point in the changing the conventions of sci-fi thing this episode has going on.
I can’t decide if I should do any contrasting with the BSG stories around the mechanics and labor class; but the issues, while not far removed also aren’t quite the same. The thing I will mention is that I actually didn’t like the BSG strike episode while I think the B5 one is okay, a lot because of where the issues differ but pretended they were this same kind of thing. And BSG should have been better for it since it had several characters we knew well and identified with who fell on the labor side of the dispute where here all the main characters are on the middle meant to seem reasonable side. But I don’t really want to get into it largely because it’s been a while since I watched that episode of BSG.
Next time:
What can I really say about Signs and Portents that hasn’t been said in the last 20 years? Guess we’ll find out.
Suggestion box
Babylon 5: 1x12: By Any Means Necessary
I’m not sure where to start with this one, I have things to say, but I’m not quite sure how to put a lot of them. I’ll start with this, while this is the only episode of the series that really deal with this kind of operational issue and sort of dances around class and politics issues, the presentation of it is in keeping with a lot of the larger B5 themes, of needing to remember the littler folks in things. It’s normally presented on the galactic scale, where the little guys are still big fish to their own cultures, but next to the giants of the universe are still very small.
Just for this episode though, I wish Zento was less obviously The Man. There’s no actual character there, to the extent where I basically lump him in with Billy Zain in Titanic as the rich white guy antagonist (with a Z name involved). I feel a negotiator should have a little more negotiating skills than this guy displays, since he basically comes across as a cartoonish metaphorical mustache twirler who’s all ‘down with poor people.’ We’re not lead to side with the dockworkers so much through reasoning or even through theme relevance, but because the other side is done in visual shorthand evil.
Not to say there aren’t plenty of reasons we would side with them, but we not really given the opposing side. We’re presented their side and why we need to address the situation, and we’re given Sinclair and the command staff’s side of being caught in the middle and just wanting the best solution and wanting it now. We’re not really given arguments for why the budget was it was aside from in the most slimy and superficial ways possible by Zento.
This is another episode I kind of think people like because of what it is (especially for the time) more than the story itself. It is however a MUCH better episode than the last one I brought that up in, so I don’t slap it that label quite so broadly The end is a little pat and easy after how many issues had been raised, and the fact that there’s no real consequence down the road doesn’t really help matters. It’s an episode that I too am glad exists in the B5 canon, and I think it handles its issues relatively well, manages a decently told story, and is thematically is not plotedly relevant within the bigger narrative. I just don’t think it’s all that layered or dynamic.
But it does get some points back for being an early episode to point out that Londo and G’Kar are basically no better than each other. Early on we’re given a lot of G’Kar the aggressor and Londo the victim but this one casts that dynamic in a slightly different light where G’Kar may be the more overtly aggressive while also being driven by duty and faith and not so bad things, but Londo’s petty and passive aggressive and subscribes to all the racist attitudes of his people towards the Narn. Neither of them are saints and neither are total villains. Plus it does in passing say that the Narns aren’t a race with a single religion either, another point in the changing the conventions of sci-fi thing this episode has going on.
I can’t decide if I should do any contrasting with the BSG stories around the mechanics and labor class; but the issues, while not far removed also aren’t quite the same. The thing I will mention is that I actually didn’t like the BSG strike episode while I think the B5 one is okay, a lot because of where the issues differ but pretended they were this same kind of thing. And BSG should have been better for it since it had several characters we knew well and identified with who fell on the labor side of the dispute where here all the main characters are on the middle meant to seem reasonable side. But I don’t really want to get into it largely because it’s been a while since I watched that episode of BSG.
Next time:
What can I really say about Signs and Portents that hasn’t been said in the last 20 years? Guess we’ll find out.
Suggestion box