Watch it at Amazon
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
For much of the first season of Babylon 5, the series still hadn't established any sort of over-arching plot to connect the episodes like it would have in seasons 2 through 5. In some ways, it was as if the genius behind the series, Michael Staczynski was still trying to feel for a sense of direction. Because of this, so many of the season one episodes are self-contained in that they don't connect well with previous or later episodes. This is pretty much the way of sci-fi shows like Star Trek, but for B-5, this makes these earlier episodes less satisfying.Now as far as this episode goes, I appreciate how the writing of the show is a great attempt to fool the viewers. For the earliest episodes, Londo and the Centauri are shown as a bunch of fun-loving but harmless people. I love this aspect of Straczynski's writing, as so often evil is disguised as something harmless or very reasonable. Hitler, in 1932, seemed like a good choice to head Germany and the monster that we now know him to have been was something people just didn't want to see--just the "good" aspects of the man.Londo is very vulnerable here, as he falls for a beautiful young woman who is being used by his political rivals to hurt him. By the time the episode is over, you feel a real sense of loss for him. Nice job.
You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the 'Update' button will take you through a step-by-step process.
