O'Hare's breakdown happened halfway through production of the season. "Eyes" was filmed last. At the time JMS and the B5 producers were covering up O'Hare's problems, but "Eyes" was written and produced with the knowledge O'Hare was leaving the show.
It's still interesting to note how "Eyes" revisits what has come before AND, given Sinclair's departure, COULD give an impression the "bad guys" score a victory getting Sinclair off the station. Yet, I'm going to disagree with Simon's assessment.
We've learned the Minbari had approval over B5's first Commander. We've learned they are watching Sinclair. I posit Delenn's reports were well received. Sinclair's appointment to Minbar as Ambassador is obviously at the request of the Minbari government. Obviously the Minbari decided Sinclair should be told at least some of the truth about the Battle of the Line, then moved into training to take over as En'til Zha (Ranger One).
Oh, the Shadow-aligned in Earthforce/EarthGov/Psi Corp will absolutely get their victory at the end of the year with the assassination of Santiago, and perhaps they THINK it's a victory to get Sinclair off B5, but... Appointing Sheridan, the only Earthforce Captain to have a clear victory against the Minbari, and one Earthforce sees as a more militant officer than Sinclair - that's not going to work out as they hoped. As soon as Sheridan gets out of walking around the station for months drooling over oranges, he's gonna be a bigger thorn than Sinclair.
Macaulay Bruton is in this episode. Remember, he's shown up several times this season. He's actually Garibaldi's Number 2, and, of course, the traitor who shoots Garibaldi in the back. In "Eyes" he's "Tragedy" during Ivanova's dream. Having him in this episode in a Psi-Corp uniform was something JMS has said was foreshadowing. Cool... Now let's second guess the showrunner and director of the 30 year old episode. Since Bruton was already paid for the speaking role, and since Bruton was likely on set many days anyways, since he was Michael O'Hare's voice coach (thanks for that trivium, Simon), why not double down on the foreshadowing? When Ben-Zayn walks away from lunch eating Lou Welch he immediately starts taking to another security officer in the background. Oh, my fuck, that so should have been Bruton. As a recurring role it would have been another appearance of his familiar face keeping him in memory to set up the shock of him shooting Garibaldi, and, on re-watch, it would have been another place we could point to him and think "There's that bastard telling Ben-Zayn everything he wants to know." Especially as this episode name checks Bester, Bester dropped his "Be seeing you," in "Mind War," and Bruton will drop a "Be seeing you" in "Revelations." Sigh... Ok, I'm putting too many words to the page about this, but, C'mon, it's a missed opportunity.
Talia being in Ivanova's thoughts... Again, nice setup for season 2. I refer the immature back a few of these newsletters ago where I dropped a dubious joke around Ivanova's rhetorical like, "Why does my mouth always taste like wet carpet in the morning?" HEY-O!
Why doesn't Talia show up in "Eyes?" Andrea Thompson had made her contracted appearances for the season already. Let's face it, of the "front title" cast, only Sinclair, Garibaldi, Ivanova and Lennier were available for use. Stupid union contracts getting in the way of useful characters!
Speaking of useful characters, I'd have loved to see Grey return. Maybe in season 5... Have him show up in time for "Phoenix Rising" having fled Psi-Corp to warn Byron about Bester coming. But, B5 s5 had a budget cut, and I suppose they probably couldn't afford to have Jeffery Combs and Walter Koenig in the same episode. Still, Grey could survive and run off elsewhere with "Remember Byron" on his lips.
Production order - "Eyes" is the final episode of the season (whereas the season finale was produced 12th in the season). It's definitely a "cheap" episode, and also one which suffers from varied characters who had already fulfilled their contracted number of episodes for the season. It shows in places - surely Doctor Franklin, CHIEF OF MEDLAB, who absolutely is in the Earthforce Chain of Command would be among those considered "Command Staff." There are a couple of other cast oddities, but those will be discussed in the Spoiler Section.
Still, exterior shots of the station are all stock, and there are only two new VFX shots in the episode. One during Ivanova's dream, and, of course, Garibaldi and Lennier riding the motorcycle all the way up the false-perspective set and painted backdrop at the end of the Central Corridor.
It's a good episode for briefly touching on what viewers who joined late may have missed, and a nice reminder that Sinclair's "renegade" actions have consequences.
Overall, it's a quite effective episode, only let down by Ben-Zayn being such a sneering villain, and utterly snapping so quickly at the climax of the episode. Also, sorry, Michael O' Hare, but the way Sinclair grabs Ben-Zayn's PPG and slugs him in the face is so awkwardly executed I did snort with laughter. You needed to step forward off that back leg and look like you put your body behind it. Here we'll blame director Jim Johnston. I assume he kept your feet planted, so you wouldn't end the motion with your back to the camera, but, damn, that was poor staging.
To Johnston's credit, he shot that scene in C&C with Grey and Ivanova really well with the steadicam tracking and nice use of the tech pit to break up some angles - and the shot where Grey enters the casino looking for Ivanova makes wonderful use of that transparent plate with the air bubbles rising through water is gorgeous.
The expansion of Ivanova's backstory is quite nice, and there's some foreshadowing for season 2, as well.
Speaking of foreshadowing - Simon already listed it.
A daring episode for the time when most shows are still having to return to the status quo at the end of the episode. As an example, although from a decade-to-two before B5, I'm rewatching M*A*S*H* right now, and, for the most part, if a character has growth in an episode, that growth will reset in the next.
Lennier is awesome, and, overall, is my favorite character on the show. If anyone reading this is a first time viewer, Lennier of season 1 is the "new kid," who is still walking around smiling at everything he learns. As the show develops, you'll see him become much more.
Bill Mumy, on the other hand... Simon chose the "Za ba ga bee" chant as the representative quote... Mumy, besides "Lost in Space," and "Babylon 5" (and a lot of other TV/film work as actor, writer and producer), is also a talented musician. One of his bands was "Barnes and Barnes," (of the legendary song "Fish Heads"), and the chant in this episode was unscripted. "Za ba ga bee" is the title of a Barnes and Barnes album.
When he found out J. Michael Straczynski was NOT amused. At all. Not even a little.
Jeffery Combs is always awesome, and wrings every possible nuance from the role.
Side note: a bit over a year ago, I created a meme image which was a parody of the poster for "Being John Malkovich," which was, of course "Being Jeffery Combs." The top of the parody poster listed several of Combs roles, including Harriman Grey.
Spoiler Stuff.
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Correction regarding O' Hare leaving the show.
O'Hare's breakdown happened halfway through production of the season. "Eyes" was filmed last. At the time JMS and the B5 producers were covering up O'Hare's problems, but "Eyes" was written and produced with the knowledge O'Hare was leaving the show.
It's still interesting to note how "Eyes" revisits what has come before AND, given Sinclair's departure, COULD give an impression the "bad guys" score a victory getting Sinclair off the station. Yet, I'm going to disagree with Simon's assessment.
We've learned the Minbari had approval over B5's first Commander. We've learned they are watching Sinclair. I posit Delenn's reports were well received. Sinclair's appointment to Minbar as Ambassador is obviously at the request of the Minbari government. Obviously the Minbari decided Sinclair should be told at least some of the truth about the Battle of the Line, then moved into training to take over as En'til Zha (Ranger One).
Oh, the Shadow-aligned in Earthforce/EarthGov/Psi Corp will absolutely get their victory at the end of the year with the assassination of Santiago, and perhaps they THINK it's a victory to get Sinclair off B5, but... Appointing Sheridan, the only Earthforce Captain to have a clear victory against the Minbari, and one Earthforce sees as a more militant officer than Sinclair - that's not going to work out as they hoped. As soon as Sheridan gets out of walking around the station for months drooling over oranges, he's gonna be a bigger thorn than Sinclair.
Macaulay Bruton is in this episode. Remember, he's shown up several times this season. He's actually Garibaldi's Number 2, and, of course, the traitor who shoots Garibaldi in the back. In "Eyes" he's "Tragedy" during Ivanova's dream. Having him in this episode in a Psi-Corp uniform was something JMS has said was foreshadowing. Cool... Now let's second guess the showrunner and director of the 30 year old episode. Since Bruton was already paid for the speaking role, and since Bruton was likely on set many days anyways, since he was Michael O'Hare's voice coach (thanks for that trivium, Simon), why not double down on the foreshadowing? When Ben-Zayn walks away from lunch eating Lou Welch he immediately starts taking to another security officer in the background. Oh, my fuck, that so should have been Bruton. As a recurring role it would have been another appearance of his familiar face keeping him in memory to set up the shock of him shooting Garibaldi, and, on re-watch, it would have been another place we could point to him and think "There's that bastard telling Ben-Zayn everything he wants to know." Especially as this episode name checks Bester, Bester dropped his "Be seeing you," in "Mind War," and Bruton will drop a "Be seeing you" in "Revelations." Sigh... Ok, I'm putting too many words to the page about this, but, C'mon, it's a missed opportunity.
Talia being in Ivanova's thoughts... Again, nice setup for season 2. I refer the immature back a few of these newsletters ago where I dropped a dubious joke around Ivanova's rhetorical like, "Why does my mouth always taste like wet carpet in the morning?" HEY-O!
Why doesn't Talia show up in "Eyes?" Andrea Thompson had made her contracted appearances for the season already. Let's face it, of the "front title" cast, only Sinclair, Garibaldi, Ivanova and Lennier were available for use. Stupid union contracts getting in the way of useful characters!
Speaking of useful characters, I'd have loved to see Grey return. Maybe in season 5... Have him show up in time for "Phoenix Rising" having fled Psi-Corp to warn Byron about Bester coming. But, B5 s5 had a budget cut, and I suppose they probably couldn't afford to have Jeffery Combs and Walter Koenig in the same episode. Still, Grey could survive and run off elsewhere with "Remember Byron" on his lips.
Non Spoiler Stuff.
Production order - "Eyes" is the final episode of the season (whereas the season finale was produced 12th in the season). It's definitely a "cheap" episode, and also one which suffers from varied characters who had already fulfilled their contracted number of episodes for the season. It shows in places - surely Doctor Franklin, CHIEF OF MEDLAB, who absolutely is in the Earthforce Chain of Command would be among those considered "Command Staff." There are a couple of other cast oddities, but those will be discussed in the Spoiler Section.
Still, exterior shots of the station are all stock, and there are only two new VFX shots in the episode. One during Ivanova's dream, and, of course, Garibaldi and Lennier riding the motorcycle all the way up the false-perspective set and painted backdrop at the end of the Central Corridor.
It's a good episode for briefly touching on what viewers who joined late may have missed, and a nice reminder that Sinclair's "renegade" actions have consequences.
Overall, it's a quite effective episode, only let down by Ben-Zayn being such a sneering villain, and utterly snapping so quickly at the climax of the episode. Also, sorry, Michael O' Hare, but the way Sinclair grabs Ben-Zayn's PPG and slugs him in the face is so awkwardly executed I did snort with laughter. You needed to step forward off that back leg and look like you put your body behind it. Here we'll blame director Jim Johnston. I assume he kept your feet planted, so you wouldn't end the motion with your back to the camera, but, damn, that was poor staging.
To Johnston's credit, he shot that scene in C&C with Grey and Ivanova really well with the steadicam tracking and nice use of the tech pit to break up some angles - and the shot where Grey enters the casino looking for Ivanova makes wonderful use of that transparent plate with the air bubbles rising through water is gorgeous.
The expansion of Ivanova's backstory is quite nice, and there's some foreshadowing for season 2, as well.
Speaking of foreshadowing - Simon already listed it.
A daring episode for the time when most shows are still having to return to the status quo at the end of the episode. As an example, although from a decade-to-two before B5, I'm rewatching M*A*S*H* right now, and, for the most part, if a character has growth in an episode, that growth will reset in the next.
Lennier is awesome, and, overall, is my favorite character on the show. If anyone reading this is a first time viewer, Lennier of season 1 is the "new kid," who is still walking around smiling at everything he learns. As the show develops, you'll see him become much more.
Bill Mumy, on the other hand... Simon chose the "Za ba ga bee" chant as the representative quote... Mumy, besides "Lost in Space," and "Babylon 5" (and a lot of other TV/film work as actor, writer and producer), is also a talented musician. One of his bands was "Barnes and Barnes," (of the legendary song "Fish Heads"), and the chant in this episode was unscripted. "Za ba ga bee" is the title of a Barnes and Barnes album.
When he found out J. Michael Straczynski was NOT amused. At all. Not even a little.
Jeffery Combs is always awesome, and wrings every possible nuance from the role.
Side note: a bit over a year ago, I created a meme image which was a parody of the poster for "Being John Malkovich," which was, of course "Being Jeffery Combs." The top of the parody poster listed several of Combs roles, including Harriman Grey.