Text 2466, 212 rader
Skriven 2006-06-13 19:43:00 av Robert E Starr JR (2912.babylon5)
Ärende: Shadow Dancing: my review
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The first major battle against the Shadows finally arrives in this
gripping episode - but what really had me on the edge of my seat here
was not the mammoth battle waged by Sheridan, but instead the personal
ordeal suffered by Stephen, as Richard Biggs tops even his usual
excellence playing not one, but two, Stephens.


THE PLOT

The time has come. Sheridan and Delenn have put together the League of
Non-Aligned Worlds into a potential fighting force. They have made
contacts with at least a few of the First Ones. The Minbari have put
together a fleet of Whitestars. They have discovered the Shadows'
weakness - telepaths - and they have tested that weakness. Most
important of all, Sheridan has finally figured out where the Shadows
are going to strike. Now it is time to prepare an ambush for them.

As Sheridan's fleet waits in Hyperspace, Ivanova and Marcus are
deployed in the White Star to the area where the Shadows will strike.
Their mission is to let Sheridan know the instant the attack arrives -
and then get out fast, before the Shadows have a chance to take action
against them. It's a dangerous mission. As Sheridan notes, even if
everything goes right, Susan and Marcus "only have a 50-50 chance of
making it back alive." And needless to say, everything does not go
right. Susan could have told Sheridan that. She's Russian; they
understand these things.

Meanwhile, on the station, Franklin's walkabout finally reaches its
end when he attempts to stop a beating in Down Below. For his trouble,
Stephen is brutally stabbed - and the man he saved runs, not wanting to
get involved with station security. Stephen is left alone, bleeding to
death, with no one to help him. He gets only one response to his weak
cries for help... a sneering, arrogant vision of himself.


THE GOOD

All of the slow, careful preparation for Sheridan's battle against
the Shadows is paid off here. Sheridan and Delenn move from studying
the Shadows, from discovering the Shadows' weakness, from building a
fragile alliance among the Non-Aligned Worlds, to finally taking
action.

The battle against the Shadows is magnificently realized, with CGI work
that remains impressive more than a decade after the episode's
original airdate. More importantly, the episode's director and
editors do a great job intercutting the "light show" with the
characters. We don't just see ships exploding and people shouting
orders. We come back to the Minbari telepaths, straining against the
Shadow vessels. We come back to Ivanova, looking terrified and
determined all with one will. We come back to Marcus, stoically waiting
for whatever comes next and ready in an instant to act when the
ship's engines come back on-line and allow him to act. And we come
back to Sheridan and Delenn, directing the battle, monitoring the
Shadows' tactics, responding in an instant to whatever move the enemy
makes, while at the same time having to absorb the horrific losses this
battle is inflicting on them.

I've said before (probably too many times) that one of the key
differences I've seen between Sinclair and Sheridan is in their
tactics. Sinclair was an intellectual chess master. In "Signs &
Portents," he had laid out the entire battle plan long before the
Raiders actually arrived; by the Raiders appeared to spring the trap,
the fight was already over save for the shooting. Sinclair took his
time, prepared his strategy, and knew every move that was going to be
made by either side before the fight was even engaged.

...which may be exactly why a battle like this called for a character
like Sheridan. Sheridan is not a chess master, is not an intellectual.
We've seen Sheridan trying to deal with long-term strategizing
already, in the episodes leading up to "And the Rock Cried Out, No
Hiding Place"; though he managed to pull it out (notably, in a snap
instant, and not when he was studying the reports intently), even
Delenn could only charitably describe his reaction to the puzzle as
"cranky."

No, what Sheridan is a master of is the immediate. He relies on his
instincts and makes fast, snap decisions in response to a crisis. And
when he goes with his instincts, those instincts are proved right more
often than not. In this battle, we see Sheridan shifting strategy in a
heartbeat many times. The Shadows are boxing in the Drazi? A Minbari
cruiser will hang back to protect the Drazi. The Shadows are moving to
flank them? Alter the pattern of some of his ships to make that more
difficult. In this way, the battle as it plays out is one that had to
be led by a character like Sheridan; I just can't quite picture
Sinclair making so many snap decisions, with no time to think them
through, on the spot.


Even as this episode pairs Sheridan and Delenn at the center of the
battle, so does it once again pair Marcus and Ivanova. Their
relationship here is clearly juxtaposed against Sheridan's and
Delenn's. They even share a scene that recalls the beautiful moment
in "Messages from Earth," in the sleeping area of the Whitestar. But
the echo of that scene only shows how different the couples are. In
"Messages from Earth," Sheridan opened up to Delenn, telling her about
his father making it rain in one of the loveliest scenes the series
ever presented. In this episode, Marcus only opens up to Susan when
speaking Minbari. When speaking a language Susan can actually
understand, Marcus just plays off his feelings as a joke. On my first
viewing of the series, I had been entirely of the opinion that Susan
was the one keeping Marcus at a distance. On this viewing, I see at
least as many instances of Marcus pushing Susan away, simply by not
letting her really pass through his facade.


Another thing that consistently strikes me on second viewing of the
series is the character of Stephen Franklin. My first time through,
Stephen seemed like one of the blander characters to me. It wasn't
until late Season Three, on my first viewing, that he seemed like
anything really other than another "stock sci-fi series doctor."  On
this viewing, however, he has been standing out since Day One, with his
complexity standing out as early as Infection. On first viewing, I
would likely have listed Stephen as one of the more expendable
regulars. This time through, he has become my favorite of the series'
human characters, simply because he is so driven, and so fascinatingly
flawed. So... human, I suppose.

If Sheridan's battle with the Shadows provides this episode with its
fists, then Stephen's ordeal in Down Below provides it with its
heart. Everything that has been building in Stephen from the very
beginning climaxes here, as he finally reaches his goal of meeting
himself.... quite literally. What Stephen discovers, when he meets this
version of himself, is that he doesn't actually like himself very
much.

The vision that Stephen encounters in his agony is an amalgam of all of
his worst characteristics. "Vision Stephen" is cold and arrogant. He
lectures the injured Stephen about his weaknesses while walking around,
looking down on him from above - the same sort of scornfully superior
attitude Stephen has taken toward patients on a few occasions - such as
the alien family in "Believers," the family Stephen patronized with
Gloppit eggs and false cures, all the while so certain that he knew
what was best. Then, having played the role of Stephen's dark side,
"Vision Stephen" takes on another role: Stephen's father, the career
military man Stephen has so vehemently rejected in the past. As Stephen
determines that he wants to live - wants the chance to "do it all over"
- his vision becomes what his father most likely once was: a drill
sergeant, barking orders, pushing Stephen to ignore the pain and fight
for his life. In all facets, "Vision Stephen" remains harsh, even dark.
He is a version of Stephen Franklin if you stripped away Stephen's
redeeming quality: his compassion and his dedication to life.

That dedication to life is what wins out in the end for Stephen. The
final scenes of him in Medlab show him back in his element. Despite his
injuries and his recent fall from grace, the Medlab staff show full
deference to him. When he wheels himself away from his own hospital
bed, he effortlessly takes charge of the mass influx of patients that
was the inevitable by-product of Sheridan's battle. In the field of
medicine, Stephen is a natural leader. As head of Medlab, he was and is
the right man, in the right place, at the right time. One hopes that
this experience teaches the character to be secure in that. As Stephen
says near the end, he should learn to "do better," not just to "do
more."

"I'm alive," Stephen tells Franklin, voice carrying an almost
heartbreaking intensity. "Everything else is negotiable."


Finally, there's the episode's ending. With everyone anticipating a
reprisal from the Shadows for the wounds inflicted here, we are then
treated to a huge build-up of a mysterious visitor to the station. Who
can this visitor be? An assassin? A monster? Maybe Mr. Morden?

It's none of the above, as the episode ends on a shocking revelation,
and the image of a snowglobe shattering just as this particular
character's arrival will shatter the relationships and status-quo
among the main characters.

"Z Minus 2 Days." Be afraid...


THE BAD

The full effectiveness of that last-minute arrival's brief appearance
comes, at least in part, from the surprise of that particular entrance
occurring at that particular moment. It's very well done,
cinematically speaking, with the slow-motion of the shattering crystal
echoing the inevitable result of this arrival on the characters, and
particularly on Sheridan and Delenn. But it would be even more
effective if the front credits didn't spell out for us at the start
that this character was going to be in this episode. This is not a
criticism of the way the show is shot or edited; but it is a shame that
they could not credit this performer in the end credits, the way they
credited Michael O'Hare at the end of "The Coming of Shadows."


Also, I'm afraid Bruce Boxleitner's performance in much of this
episode seems about half a pitch off to me. I can't quite put my
finger on it, but I got the impression that he was forcing certain line
deliveries in this episode. The lines weren't misdelivered and his
performance wasn't in any way bad - I can't even objectively
describe why his work here felt off to me. I just know that his
performance in this episode didn't feel as natural to me as most of
his work has.


Minor nit-picks aside, this is one of the key episodes of the season,
with impressive CGI work and an incredible double-performance by
Richard Biggs. I can't quite award it full marks, but it is yet
another excellent episode.


My Final Rating: 9/10
                                                            
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