"Babylon 5" A View from the Gallery (1998)

Director:

Janet Greek

Writers:

Harlan Ellison (story)
J. Michael Straczynski (creator)

TV Series:

"Babylon 5" (1994)

Original Air Date:

11 February 1998 (Season 5, Episode 4)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

A day in the life of 2 maintenance workers on Babylon 5. As crisis arises, they encounter the command staff, and the ambassadors each dealing with the crisis. |

Plot Keywords:

Reference To Hamlet | Shakespearean Quote | Space | Space Station | Saga

Cast

Bruce Boxleitner	...	President John Sheridan
Jerry Doyle	...	Michael Garibaldi
Mira Furlan	...	Delenn
Richard Biggs	...	Dr. Stephen Franklin
Bill Mumy	...	Lennier (credit only)
Tracy Scoggins	...	Capt. Elizabeth Lochley
Stephen Furst	...	Vir Cotto (credit only)
Jeff Conaway	...	Zack Allan
Patricia Tallman	...	Lyta Alexander (credit only)
Peter Jurasik	...	Londo Mollari
Andreas Katsulas	...	G'Kar
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joshua Cox	...	Lt. David Corwin
Robin Atkin Downes	...	Byron
Lawrence LeJohn	...	Bo
Raymond O'Connor	...	Mack

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Trivia:

At the beginning of the story, Spoo is 10 credits an ounce; at the end it is 15 credits, indicating that Spoo is in such high demand that the price fluctuates wildly.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Capt. Elizabeth Lochley: [answering link] Lochley, go.
Lt. David Corwin: We've got something on the long-range hyperspace probes, Captain.
Capt. Elizabeth Lochley: Is it them?
Lt. David Corwin: It could be. They destroyed the probe before we could get much information.
Capt. Elizabeth Lochley: On my way.

Unusual and interesting only at first--this one is a big let-down

Instead of the episode being shown in the normal fashion, it is seen from the point of view of two ordinary technicians whose job it is to keep B-5 running. It isn't a glamorous job but Bo and Mack seem like two nice guys and the repartee between them strongly reminded me of Timon and Pumba from Disney's LION KING! I really am not kidding about this comparison. My wife watched the episode with me and when I pointed this out, she laughed and said she agreed 100%.

The problem, though, was that although the dialog between these two guys was sometimes cute and offered some insights, all too often it was cloying and self-serving. All too often, they'd look at Sheridan and make comments about how wonderful he was or how magnificent Delenn's smile was--like some drooling Babylon 5 fans at a sci-fi convention. It really got very annoying after a while and weakened the overall episode--one that SHOULD have been a lot better because the plot involving a probing invasion of alliance space was very exciting. The comments from these two guys got so sickeningly sweet that my wife kept making gagging noises after a while--and it really was pretty bad! Perhaps some of this could be because although Michael Straczynski wrote the vast majority of episodes, this one was not--and most of the non-Straczynski ones are duds in comparison. While this show was written by a big name in science fiction (Harlen Ellison) and he was one of those who helped Straczynski create the idea of Babylon 5, it really wasn't his finest work. For a better Ellison contribution, see the episode "City On The Edge of Forever" from the first season of the original STAR TREK--now THAT was a great Ellison story.