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Old 01-27-2013, 01:25 PM   #25 (permalink)
Trollheart
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1.8 "And the sky full of stars"

Here we see the first real attempts to get to the truth behind the Battle of the Line, why the Minbari surrendered and what happened during that twenty-four hour gap in Sinclair's mind. Persons identified only by codenames (Knight One and Knight Two) arrive at the station and rent quarters in one of the more deserted, rundown sectors, setting up some elaborate machinery. With the help of one of Babylon 5's security personnel, who has got in over his head in debt, they set up a virtual reality cybernet matrix which allows them to create a nightmarish world in which Sinclair is held against his will. In effect, they enter his mind through the use of the machine they have installed, and to which Knight Two is now hooked up.

Using every sort of interrogation method they can, the two try to break Sinclair and make him tell them what they want to know. They're unaware, or refuse to believe, that the commander is as much in the dark about what happened when he "went dark" for twenty-four hours as they are, and that even if he wanted to tell them, he couldn't. But the two men are convinced he sold out Earth to the Minbari, was turned into an agent for the aliens and that's why the Minbari surrendered. Unable to defeat humanity, Knight Two says (blissfully ignoring the fact that the aliens had very much defeated Earth and were about to consolidate their victory) they decided to recruit a "fifth column", a band of traitors and inside men who would pass back information to them and help them move to the highest positions of authority on Earth. Defeat from within, sleeper agents helping to procure for the Minbari the victory they could not achieve through force of arms. Again...?

It's the first time we see a re-enactment of the Battle of the Line, though it won't be the last. The title of the episode comes from Sinclair's despairing description of their hopeless task: "And the sky was full of stars, and every star an exploding ship!" He knew then that the game was up, that Earth was defeated and determined to go out fighting he set his Starfury fighter on a collision course with one of the Minbari cruisers, but blacked out before it hit. When he woke, the war was over. Nothing the two Knights can force from him will change that story, as it is all he remembers. His mind is a total blank for that period.

However, the virtual reality cybernet does conjure up, whether from his mind or from somewhere else, an image he has not seen before. Or at least, does not remember seeing. Or does he? It does look familiar. He is surrounded by grey hooded and cloaked figures, beyond them it's dark and Sinclair cannot make out his surroundings. One of the figures shoots a beam of light at him and he collapses. Seizing upon this new information, Knight Two asks Sinclair what he's hiding, but Sinclair does not know; as far as he's aware, he isn't hiding anything. And yet...

Knight Two counters his hot retort that he did not betray Earth with a smart question as to how he could know that, if he can't remember what transpired during those twenty-four hours? Sinclair admits to himself he has no answer to that, but he does agree that something has been bothering him, something that has made him question just how much he actually blacked out, and what may have taken place during that time. It refers back to the pilot episode, where he confronted the Minbari who had been sent to kill Kosh. Just before he took his own life, the warrior told Sinclair "You have a hole in your mind", which is true, he does: there's a whole day he can't account for, and it worries him.

As they re-enter the virtual world at the behest of Knight Two, more details begin to coalesce, dragged, it would seem, from Sinclair's memory, and now he begins to remember. He sees his ship, on a collision course with a massive Minbari cruiser. He sees it loom large in his viewscreen, then be pulled in to the ship on some sort of tractor beam. He sees himself again surrounded by the grey figures. He is restrained to a large triangular structure. One of the figures approaches him and hold up a small grey metal triangular device before his face, and it glows. He somehow is free, and moves towards one of the figures, pulling back the hood and gasping as he realises he recognises the face underneath the cowl. But again he is shot, and collapses, and his memories dissolve.

Pushed to breaking point, Sinclair marshalls the strength to break free and the feedback knocks Knight Two out. Sinclair runs and punches Knight One, who has come into the room to check if all is okay, and Sinclair grabs a gun and runs out. The psychological torture has been such though that he no longer knows where he is, and believes himself back at the Battle of the Line. When Garibaldi, who has been searching for him, finds him he is ready to shoot, but Delenn approaches him. He however seems to recognise her as an enemy, but she convinces him otherwise and leads him out.

Later, as Knight Two is being taken back to Earth for trial, Sinclair speaks to him but the man's mind has been fried and he makes no sense. Garibaldi tells the commander that he believes the two --- the other of whom is dead --- were part of a covert, deep-cover Earthforce mission to try to either uncover traitors in its command structure or paint those individuals as such, and he doubts they'll hear much about the trial, or Knight Two, once he returns to Earth. Delenn later asks Sinclair if he remembers anything about the Battle of the Line, and he says no he does not.

But he does. The virtual reality cybernet has awoken in him memories that have been, it would seem, suppressed, and that twenty-four hour period is no longer dark or blank to him. However, the answer has raised even more questions, important, possibly crucial ones, and Sinclair is determined to get to the bottom of the matter.

Important Plot Arc Points
(This is, as I mentioned, the first proper "arc" episode, where all those little clues we've been getting, dropped like breadcrumbs along the path, tidbits of information, pointers and indications that something larger might be taking place, begin for the first time to fall into place. There's a long way to go before we know the whole story, certainly, but at least here we can start to fit one piece into the jigsaw, and Babylon 5 begins to be seen as something more than just an episodic sci-fi show.)

The Battle of the Line
Arc Level: Red
Finally we see the famous battle; we hear Sinclair in his position as squad leader advise his men, lead them and then quickly see a trap is being sprung, but finds himself unable to stop his men being slaughtered by the Minbari. Angry, vengeful and with no real hope of survival anyway, he resolves to take down one of the enemy cruisers and sets his ship on a collision course with it. Up to now, that's as much as we have known. Sinclair blacked out, came to twenty-four hours later and the war was over.

Now, more details are beginning to emerge, details that start to fill in that missing blank period in his life, the "hole in his mind" that the Minbari assassin spoke of. We see that he was taken onboard the cruiser, seemingly tortured, examined and probed by what appear to be members of the Grey Council, the shadowy rulers of the Minbari. He also sees that he recognised one of the members, and now sees the face of Ambassador Delenn behind the cowl he pulled back. What was she doing on that cruiser? This also plays into her warning to Lennier, on his arrival, not to call her by her title "Satai", so that no-one will know she is a member of the Grey Council. Clearly, the Minbari blanked Sinclair's memory, but why? What did they not want him to remember? And why does Delenn want her membership of the Grey Council kept from everyone?

Sinclair's partially-returning memories of the Battle of the Line are of course the main arc plot point in this episode, but there are also foreshadowings of a change in the power structure back home, with dark elements within the government getting stronger and coming a little more out of the shadows, as if they are no longer afraid to be discovered. We've already seen Home Guard, and of course the Psi Corps flexing their muscle. Before long, we will see pretty cataclysmic changes in the balance of power, which will impact on the series right up and into the fourth season.

The Grey Council
Arc Level: Red
Who are the Grey Council? Nothing is known of them, save that they are a shadowy conclave who speak for, make policy for and direct the Minbari people. Like a ruling body of high priests, their word seems to be law and their edicts unchallenged. Delenn is a member, so what does that mean for Babylon 5, and for Sinclair in particular, who must assume now, with his memories partially regained, that she was complicit in, and may even have taken an active role in, his abduction and torture?


Some additional notes:
Although not a part of the main arc, per se, we do see into the soul of Dr. Franklin here, when he is asked by Delenn what he did during the war? He replies that toward the end of the war, all xenobiologists were asked by Earth Force to turn over their notes on Minbari physiology so that effective genetic and biological weapons could be created. Delenn asks him if he did, indeed, hand over his notes. "I took an oath that all life is sacred. I destroyed my notes rather than have them used for killing," he answers.

This tells us more about the man than a hundred action scenes could. We will find, as the series goes on, that the good doctor certainly knows how to handle himself. He may kill, if it is unavoidable, but at heart he is a man of peace, a healer who is just as likely to run to the aid of a fallen enemy as a comrade. He does not generally differentiate between the wounded on either side: to him, a patient is a patient, even if an hour ago that patient was trying to blow the doctor's head off. He has taken the hippocratic oath, and nothing is more sacred to him. This will later put him in a very tough position, when he has to reconcile that belief with carrying out acts he would never have thought himself capable of, for the greater good.

"Oh dear, JMS...!"

Although there is some great dialogue in this episode, one line stands out to me as just terrible. JMS is a great writer, of that there is no doubt, and even a genius can have an off-day, so we can forgive him the odd slip. However, this quote made me think that maybe he was tired when writing this, or just wanted to finish something and so didn't give it too much thought. It's only one line really, so nothing to make a big fuss over, but its banality and lack of originality disappointed me. Sinclair speaks about the truth to Garibaldi. ""Everyone lies, Michael. The innocent lie because they don't want to be blamed for something they didn't do, and the guilty lie because they don't have any other choice."

Even ignoring the terrible lines, the concept is flawed. The innocent do NOT lie: they almost always tell the truth, and the guilty CAN lie, but it's not like they have no choice, as Sinclair asserts. If anything, in fact, the guilty are more likely to lie than the innocent, as the former have something to hide while those who do not have no real reason, normally, to lie. So the whole thing is a really badly-thought-out and badly-written line. It's only a few words, but perhaps because of how good some of the other dialogue is, it tends to stand out to me, and annoys me.

Quotes
Knight Two speaks in a very grand, pompous voice, but he has some excellent lines as he speaks to Sinclair (the only person he does talk to, other than his partner in crime).

"Maybe you're asleep. Maybe you're insane. Maybe you're dead. Maybe you're in Hell. Not that it matters much, Commander Sinclair, because wherever you are, wherever you go, you're mine!"

"It's shadow-play, without form or substance".

"We'll walk together across the bridge of synapses and neurons, into the very heart of your memories, to find the truth about what happened at the Battle of the Line!"

"They took you aboard, fixed you some milk and cookies. Asked you to work for them. Nobody wants to die, Commander, especially in the cold of space. You agreed."

And Commander Sinclair waxes tragic about the Battle:
"They were my friends. I watched them die, one by one. For years afterwards, whenever I saw a Minbari, I had to fight the urge to strangle them with my bare hands.... We never had a chance.... When I looked at those ships, I didn't just see my death. I saw the death of the whole damn human race."

Most interestingly, when Sinclair is taken aboard the Minbari cruiser and the grey figures silently circle him, he shouts at them "What do you want?" The significance of this, whether intentional or not (and one always has to assume the former with Straczynski!) will become clearer soon, and certainly as season two gets going.

Sinclair's vow, as the episode fades to credits, is also telling, and a marker for the future: "Personal Log. I remember. I was taken inside a Minbari cruiser, interrogated, tortured. Was that the Grey Council? Maybe. Maybe. Before they surrendered, they must have blanked my memory and let me go. And Delenn--what was she doing there? What is it they don't want me to remember? I have to find out. I have to!"
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Last edited by Trollheart; 02-27-2013 at 12:47 PM.
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