{"id":7042,"date":"2018-10-26T13:00:55","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T20:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7042"},"modified":"2018-10-15T13:20:25","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T20:20:25","slug":"mark-watches-babylon-5-s02e03-the-geometry-of-shadows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/10\/mark-watches-babylon-5-s02e03-the-geometry-of-shadows\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Babylon 5’: S02E03 – The Geometry of Shadows"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the third episode of the second season of Babylon 5<\/i>, Ivanova is promoted; Garibaldi has doubts; Mollari ascends. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Babylon 5<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Tonally, this is a bit of an odd one, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s necessarily a bad thing. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s jarring at times as the episode tips from humor to dire warning, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a part of me that appreciates just how weird<\/i> this all is. Technomages, magical creatures, a warring species, ambitious ambassadors\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just so much going on here! But it gives us a sense for how lively, strange, and complicated life is aboard Babylon 5<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ivanova the Diplomat<\/b><\/p>\n

I think one reason I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bothered by the tonal swings is because it was so entertaining to see Claudia Christian get to use her incredible sense of comic timing. I love characters who use humor and sarcasm to talk about heavy shit, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like Ivanova was made specifically for me. So, after getting promoted to commander (and I did appreciate that this reminded me the rank of these characters, as I believe I referred to Sheridan as commander in the past when he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the captain), her first responsibility ends up being the most absurd thing we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen on the show yet. As it turns out, every five years, the Drazi arbitrarily split into two \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sides,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d determined by drawing either a green or a purple sash, and then fight until one side defeats the other. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s it<\/i>. Then the winning side \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rules\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the Drazi for another five years until the next round.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If that sounds ridiculous, what transpires here is somehow even more visually ridiculous than the description. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meant to be that way. In a rather scathing scene, one of the Drazi leaders insists humans do the same way. When Ivanova remarks that humans do not, they point out that humans go to war over flags all the time. OH. OH<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a humorous simplification, of course, but it felt like a direct dig at nationalism, but also at what is probably going to come. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore all the hints at war, so this humorous plot was suddenly\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 wow, not all that funny anymore. While I sense that what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to come is not going to be nearly as arbitrary, it still got me thinking: was there a path that could have been taken to avoid this?<\/p>\n

Mollari<\/b><\/p>\n

It seems a little obvious looking upon this episode with that lens: Mollari could have not<\/i> allied with Morden and the Shadows. But he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, and the more I watch him go down this path, the more I realize no character was better suited to this journey than him. His ambitious is almost infectious, and it is certainly all-encompassing. No matter how many times he is warned or sees the ill-effects of his little \u00e2\u20ac\u0153deals,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he continues to press on. Even here, when he tries to get the blessing of the technomages (I LOVE THEM, MORE OF THEM PLEASE), his attempts backfire on him horribly<\/i>. Does he learn a lesson? Alter his behavior? Maybe only time will tell. Maybe after Elric\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s warning, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll reconsider what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing. But his desire for power, for his empire to be an empire again, is so damn strong that I worry Elric\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s warning is going to seem like an encouragement<\/i>. Those billions of screams of Londo Mollari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s victims might be a price he is willing to pay.<\/p>\n

Garibaldi<\/b><\/p>\n

I admit I found the other two plots more interesting than this one, though I understand why it happened. If Garibaldi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plot had been given more time\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthis episode juggles so much!\u00e2\u20ac\u201dperhaps I would have felt different. But this came off as a bit more surface-level than I would have wanted. What sort of guilt did Garibaldi feel beyond the obvious? Did he feel like he failed President Santiago, too? Did he consider himself responsible for the assassination of all those people because he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t figure out things quick enough? I thought that this is where the episode was going, but it mostly resolved Garibaldi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s struggle after he helped Ivanova and got the validation of the rest of his staff. Look, I might have to eat my words if this comes up in a later episode. That is actually totally possible, and this show has continued stories in later episodes more times than I could count at this point. Still, this was just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 okay. Nothing spectacular.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Geometry of Shadows\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"