Text 144, 197 rader
Skriven 2006-05-24 11:58:00 av Robert E Starr JR (590.babylon5)
Ärende: War Without End, Part One
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An important character from the series' past returns to close one of
the more intriguing plot points of the first season, and in the process
we get an intriguing glimpse of the future.


THE PLOT

The station's command staff are put into a state of increased
vigilance over a bizarre puzzle: a distress call received from Sector
14, the place where Babylon 4 disappeared two years earlier. The source
of this distress call? Babylon 5... 8 days in the future, as it faces
imminent destruction from the Shadows.

As Sheridan attempts to figure out what could be behind this puzzle, a
visitor arrives on the station: Jeffrey Sinclair (Michael O'Hare),
former commander of Babylon 5 and current Earth Ambassador to Minbar.
Sinclair is here in response to a message he received on Minbar. A
message that was sealed in a vault almost 1,000 years ago, and yet was
left for him by name.

The plot thickens as Delenn informs both Sinclair and Sheridan of their
situation. One thousand years ago, she tells them, the Minbari faced
almost certain defeat by the Shadows, until something incredible
happened. At the hour of greatest need, a space station arrived that
the Minbari were able to use as their base of operations for the war
against the Shadows. That station was Babylon 4.

But the Shadows recognized Babylon 4 as the source of their defeat in
the past. Six years earlier, just as Babylon 4 was about to go on-line,
the Shadows attempted to destroy the station. That attempt was thwarted
only when the station was stolen, literally snatched from time by a
mysterious figure Sinclair and Garibaldi knew only as "The One."

Now it is the job of Sheridan, Sinclair, Ivanova, Marcus, and Delenn to
close the circle. They must go back in time six years to prevent the
Shadows from destroying Babylon 4, and they must take Babylon 4 through
time to the distant past.

If they do not succeed, then the Shadows will have won the prior war
and will be at full strength now. And if that happens, then eight days
from now - in Mr. Garibaldi's words - Babylon 5 will go "straight
to hell."


THE GOOD

"War Without End" is a notable episode for many reasons. The most
evident of these is, of course, the return of Jeffrey Sinclair.

Sinclair, the lead for both the pilot movie and the first season of the
series, developed over that first season into a compelling character.
Sinclair was defined mostly around unanswered questions. What happened
to him at the Battle of the Line? What did the Minbari discover about
him that caused them to end their holy war against the humans? What was
the "hole in (his) mind?" What did Delenn and Zathras mean when
they kept referring to his destiny?

Sinclair was emotionally defined around these questions, and the
absence of their answers. He was a shattered man, though it was not for
some time that this really became apparent. His dealings with others -
particularly the Minbari military caste - showed an anger and
thinly-repressed capacity for violence that made Sinclair sometimes
seem as dangerous as the Shadows he would (presumably) eventually have
fought. He was a damaged man, wise but clearly in need of some serious
emotional mending.

Well, aside from a brief cameo in "The Coming of Shadows," it has been
more than two seasons - and, in the context of the show, more than two
years - since we have last seen Sinclair. And in that time, the
character has come a long way. That anger, that buried violence, seems
to be all but gone; the sense that he is a man uncomfortable in his own
skin has not entirely vanished, perhaps, but it is certainly radically
reduced. This is a gentler, calmer Sinclair than the man we saw in
Season One. Though there's a certain sadness in him that was not
there in Season One, he seems less troubled and less a man on the brink
of a truly epic nervous breakdown. When he tells Delenn that he finally
understands his purpose and has no doubts, it is easy to believe him.

But though the character has changed (as any character should in two
rather momentous years in a leadership position), he is still
recognizable as the Sinclair of Season One. Critically, his principal
motive in this episode fits perfectly with the latter half of the first
season. Starting with the vision of Babylon 5's destruction in "Signs
and Portents," continuing through his vision of Garibaldi in "Babylon
Squared" and his words to G'Kar in "Chrysalis," Season One saw
Sinclair given certain knowledge of the future. He knew that the
universe on a path toward something dark and terrible. He did what he
could, when the opportunity arose, to try to prevent it. That is key to
his actions here, as seen particularly in the scene where he stands on
the White Star, recalling his visions, looking out into space and
swearing that "It won't happen, I won't let it."

The final major area in which Season One Sinclair was characterized was
in his friendship with Garibaldi. When Sinclair couldn't quite trust
anyone else, not even Delenn, he felt comfortable putting his full
confidence in Garibaldi. Though the story in this episode unfortunately
does not allow these two to have any scenes together, the episode does
remember their close friendship and plays on that in some memorable
moments. One of O'Hare's best line deliveries of the series (and
almost certainly his best "non-angry" line delivery) comes in
Sinclair's sad, haunted response to Sheridan that he wished he had
been able to talk to Garibaldi "more than you'll ever know."
Jerry Doyle's look of wounded betrayal when Garibaldi learns that
Sinclair was on-station and didn't wait for him is similarly fine.
Finally, there is Sinclair's message, and the various passwords that
Garibaldi attempts in order to access it. All of it is carefully
calculated to draw out memories in the viewer of the wonderful
friendship Garibaldi and Sinclair enjoyed during Season One, and these
moments make this a far richer episode than it would have been without
them.


It's not much of a spoiler to observe that this 2-parter is
Sinclair's last hurrah. As such, it is appropriate that he gets the
lion's share of the episode's most memorable material. Still, there
are scattered gems involving other characters, as well. When Sinclair
is talking to Zathras on the White Star, watch Sheridan's wonderfully
bewildered expressions in the background. Boxleitner does a fantastic
job of showing the character's confusion at all that's going on
around him (and beyond it being good character acting, some of the
expressions are really quite amusing). Note also Marcus' eagerness to
volunteer to help Ivanova on her part of the mission, and Ivanova's
very brief moment of discomfort in reaction.

Finally, Ivanova gets one absolutely bravura scene in this episode, one
that has nothing to do with Sinclair or Marcus. In fact, it's a scene
that doesn't even end up happening to the character. In the
transmission from the "alternate future," Ivanova's character is
perfectly captured. Sending out her final, doomed distress call, we see
her reacting as anyone would: with panic. She's alone on the bridge,
she knows she's going to die, and she is terrified to the point of
tears... all of which makes the fact that this doomed Susan continues
doing her duty, recording the Shadow attack and the final moments of
Babylon 5, all the more impressive. It may be Claudia Christian's
best-written and best-acted scene since her bitter farewell to Talia in
"Divided Loyalties."


THE BAD

Sinclair's character has changed a lot. All of his issues, all of
that repressed violence, hate, and anger, has been dealt with...
apparently. Mind you, it would have been nice to have seen some of the
process, rather than just the result. I know there were probably
issues, and certainly expenses, involved in getting O'Hare to Los
Angeles to do any guest spot on "Babylon 5."  But I can't help but
think that Season Three would have benefited from one or two additional
guest appearances by him, if only to help set the character up a bit in
viewers' minds before pulling the trigger on him (remember, a lot of
viewers would have started watching the show in Season Two, or even
Season Three. To them, Sinclair in this episode would be just another
guest star... and a guest star given the bulk of the episode's focus,
at that.)

O'Hare does a creditable job, and his performance here is a lot
smoother and less mannered than his very early performances in the
series. On the other hand, it is equally far from the intensity of the
performances he was turning out late in the first season. It is as if,
in the absence of the anger that he tapped into for his very best
performances as Sinclair, he has been left with less to play. His best
moments, oddly, are nonverbal ones. The expression that he gives as he
first sees the letter in the precredit sequence, the determined yet
mournful look on his face as he bids a silent farewell to Garibaldi,
the soft smile on his face as he watches Delenn and Sheridan.

However, when he speaks, his vocal inflections are sometimes a little
too soft. He sometimes overplays Sinclair's current "peace," to
the point where he comes across as nearly emotionless. In the
aforementioned scene with Zathras, there's a palpable difference
between O'Hare's fairly one-dimensional foreground conversation and
Boxleitner's terrific range of expressions in the background.
Remembering the strength of O'Hare's late Season One performances,
that can't help but come as a bit of a disappointment.

Fortunately, the performance recovers some ground in the final moments
of Part One, as Sinclair is able to take command again, thus putting
him in a position much closer to that the character held in Season One.
Once Sinclair is in charge, some of the old intensity returns, and the
spark seems to come back into O'Hare's performance. It's just a
shame so much of his performance here is so muted, when I know he's
capable of stronger work.


Still, a fine episode, and I can't imagine anyone during the original
broadcast watching Part One without finding the one-week wait before
Part Two a very, very long one...


My Final Rating: 9/10
                                    
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