Text 7552, 141 rader
Skriven 2006-09-04 12:13:00 av Robert E Starr JR (8049.babylon5)
Ärende: The Illusion of Truth: my
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"The last time I gave an interview they told me to just relax and say
what I really felt... Ten minutes after the broadcast, I got
transferred to an outpost so far away you couldn't find it on a
starmap with a hunting dog and a ouija board."
-Commander Sinclair, "Infection," with an observation that might have
been of great aid to Captain Sheridan in this episode.


THE PLOT

Captain Sheridan is about to face an evil more terrifying than the
Shadows ever were... Reporters.

An ISN crew has come to Babylon 5 in search of a story. Sheridan's
first impulse is to refuse them access. As he tells reporter Dan
Randall, everyone knows that ISN has become a propaganda tool for
President Clark. But Randall's response is the perfect one for
Sheridan. He acknowledges that the report will be biased, but
challenges Sheridan with a simple question: If the story is going to
happen in any case, then isn't it better that Sheridan at least try
to present his side?

Swayed by this argument, Sheridan gives the ISN crew free access to the
station, even contributing an interview with himself and Delenn. As the
reporters leave, he feels satisfied with the job they did. There were
no major crises during Randall's stay, nothing serious that went
wrong... What possible spin could ISN put on Randall's visit?

And then the show begins...


THE GOOD

Most of the first half of the episode is quite engaging, with several
strong scenes. The initial reception given to Dan Randall is extremely
amusing. First there is the scene with Zack, going into "tough guy"
mode to deal with the troublesome people in customs... only to find
himself grinning cheesily when he discovers that the troublemakers are
reporters. Even funnier is Sheridan's dressing down of Ivanova, for
threatening to grab Randall by the collar and then shove him out an
airlock. "You know how short we are of resources," he mock-reproves
Susan. "She meant to say, stripped naked and then thrown out an
airlock. My apologies for any misunderstanding."

There is strong foreshadowing of events to come at the beginning of the
episode, as Sheridan worries about Clark using his father against him,
then muses about the war room still having some life in it. What's
really interesting in this scene, is that Sheridan actually seems to
miss wartime. With the room empty and quiet, it's as if he doesn't
quite know what to do with himself. He's Patton at the end of World
War II; certainly, it is good that victory was achieved and that now
there is peace. Nevertheless, God help him, but a large part of him
misses the action.

The best moments in the episode belong to Garibaldi. He's the old
Garibaldi when dealing with his client and when meeting with Lennier.
Then, when Sheridan's name comes up, the stiffness and extreme
wariness takes over, and he flashes back again to his captivity.
Between last episode (where his relaxed interactions with Zack and
G'Kar contrasted sharply with his awkward interactions with Susan and
Sheridan) and this episode, it is becoming increasingly clear that
whatever was done to Garibaldi has found its target in Babylon 5's
captain.

The ISN broadcast also features some very clever touches, prior to the
story actually beginning. The Hollywood blacklist reference, with the
jailed filmmaker giving an obviously coerced confession, was a nice nod
to the dangers of history repeating itself if we fail to learn from it.
And I did enjoy the thinly-veiled blacklist references when the
filmmaker named names, with two of the names being "Trumbo"
(screenwriter Dalton Trumbo) and "Mostel" (actor Zero Mostel). A nice
touch.

A word must be said on Dan Randall's behalf. He's slime, of course.
He's worse than Bester, in his way; at least Bester believes in what
he is doing, while Randall appears to be completely aware of his role
as a propaganda peddler. However, much of what Randall sees while on
the station genuinely would appear troubling. Once he learns of the
cryo tubes, and compares the names on those tubes to the station's
manifest, one can hardly blame him for thinking that something unsavory
might well be occurring - particularly when Stephen lies to him in
response to a direct question. I don't for an instant think that
Randall believed even a quarter of his own report; however, I
couldn't blame him for assuming that bad things were happening on the
station, based on what he saw. If this was truly "the best" that
Sheridan and his people could do, then I'm sorry guys - it wasn't
good enough by half.


THE BAD

Of course, that statement brings me to one of my biggest problems with
the episode. Sheridan and his people did a genuinely lousy job of
trying to protect themselves, here. They all knew, direct and up-front,
that Randall's report would be biased. They knew full well that any
ammunition given to Randall would be used against them. Despite this,
Sheridan... well, he bungles any number of things.

The key scene of both Randall's broadcast and the first half of the
episode is the interview with Sheridan and Delenn. Obviously, the
broadcast tampers with the interview. But honestly, some of the
statements made by Sheridan and Delenn were gifts to Randall. "If they
don't understand, we will make them understand," Delenn says, with
that full, scary determination on her face. "Nothing will be able to
stop us," Sheridan adds. Come on! John isn't this dumb; a child could
see how easy statements like that would be for a clever reporter to
abuse. Nevermind even tampering with the interview; a few of those
statements border on the disturbing without tampering.

Garibaldi mentions the term "god complex" with regard to Sheridan, and
there is plenty of screen evidence to indicate that his concerns are
right. This could have been played brilliantly. Unfortunately (and
there's no way to deal with this problem without getting several
episodes ahead of myself), unless my memories are badly mistaken,
it's an issue that simply gets raised and then dropped... making all
of these indications that Sheridan may have a genuine problem
ultimately meaningless. That is very frustrating on re-watch, knowing
that all of this potentially rich dramatic track is simply leading to a
dead end. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if the original intent
was for Sheridan to genuinely get a bit too arrogant, and that this
intent simply had to be dropped in order to try to squeeze the full arc
in by the end of Season Four... which doesn't make it one jot less
frustrating.


My Final Rating: 5/10.  Not an actively bad episode - and better than I
remembered it (on first viewing I genuinely hated this one). Still,
it's the weakest episode "Babylon 5" has delivered in quite some
time.


Next Up: "Babylon 5" goes to the movies: "Thirdspace."
                                                                               
               
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