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I suspect there’ll be some disagreement here, but I thought ‘TKO’ was OK. Nothing special, but a perfectly serviceable standalone episode. There have been worse episodes so far (‘The Gathering’, ‘Infection’, ‘The War Prayer’), and while this one is served with an enormous wodge of cheese it just about manages to hang together.
That the episode works at all is largely down to the chemistry between Jerry Doyle and Greg McKinney. The odd friendship between Garibaldi and Walker Smith feels real, like one of those unlikely connections that burns fast and never quite makes sense to anyone observing. The sort of friend that comes to stay for a day, and you have enormous fun with a crazy night out, and then the next day you can’t wait for them to get the hell out.
McKinney has the cheesiest of all character stories, yet entirely commits. He has the right amount of swagger, and fully goes for the Rocky-lite cliches. He’s fun to watch in every scene (while writing this, I discovered that he died in 1998 at age 41. Sheesh.😞). Don Stroud as Caliban is weirdly enigmatic, despite being little more than a plot device. Soon Tek-Oh is striking at the Muta-Do, and his alien make-up looks incredible on the blu-ray with the neon-lit arena. In fact, the general lack of VFX in this episode results in it looking visually pretty great throughout, from a blu-ray quality point of view (though we do get another GORGEOUS view of the restaurant in the central garden area).
Oh, there’s also a plot with a rabbi. And, in fact, it kinda works. Having ‘TKO’ come later in the season, as we’re following the master list order, means that as viewers we’ve almost forgotten about Ivanova’s father dying — as such, it’s a bit of a surprise when Rabbi Koslo shows up to check on Ivanova. His scenes with Sinclair work well, especially the way O’Hare plays his realisation that he’s let down his colleague and friend by not even realising. The follow-up scene in which Sinclair orders Ivanova to stay and listen worked for me.
Also, notice that in the scenes with Sinclair shows that he’s been playing with a collection of large protractors, like you get in a kid’s stationary kit. There’s even a big transparent orange one. Says a lot about Sinclair’s mental state at this point in the season.
The weirdest thing about the episode is that isn’t so low-key. There is hardly any actual science fiction in it
Next up we have ‘Legacies’, which marks the penultimate episode of season 1. That seems to have gone by pretty fast?
‼️ SPOILER STUFF ‼️
“Watch your back!” is about all there is in this episode, I think? But phew, that’s a retrospectively impactful line — and, again, moving ‘TKO’ to later in the season makes it all the more important.
Oh, also the ship that brings the guest characters to the station is, I think, called ‘White Star’. An interesting reference both historically and to a ship that will show up in season 3.
Non Spoiler Stuff (1)
(From memory as I'm on holiday and won't re-watch this episode for at least another week)
"It's not as bad as Mike's been banging on about since day one," is hardly praise.
"Better than 'The Gathering,'" (not covered in this newsletter) is hardly praise.
While "War Prayer," and "Infection," are also among the worst episodes, those do introduce concepts and threads which come back throughout the rest of the series, which is why I rank them higher. TKO has some character stuff between Garibaldi and guy-who-will-never-be-heard-of-again, and "Ivanova finally gets over it," but reducing a guest star turn by the legendary Theodore Bikel to "there's also a plot with a rabbi...it kinda works." crosses into damning with faint praise.
I don't remember character bits for Sinclair realizing he's neglected Ivanova, so I'll look out for it on the re-watch.
Much of my distaste for the episode has always come from how disposable it is. The A-plot has some sort of commentary about outsiders, I suppose. The B-plot - which should be major character growth for a lead - to quote Simon again, "kinda works."
"Watch your back" is such a vague line that I'm not even counting this paragraph as a spoiler.
So, when the A-plot never comes up again, the B-plot only "kinda works" and there's not even anything related to the core arcs or world building to make the episode something one should see. "The Gathering," while a less-than-stellar production DOES have several threads which are built upon and returned to as late as season 5, including one VERY MASSIVE spoiler in the 1997 re-edit - the only available version - which, on re-view after completing the series generates a "You cheeky bastard" directed at JMS. "Infection" is the first set up of three core concepts of the series, "War Prayer" has background world building setting up later events such as the Mars Colony rebellion, and *SPOILER REDACTED*. "TKO" could be removed entirely from the run and nothing would be lost.
When I do my re-watch, at most, I can hope for an inoffensive, mildly entertaining 45 minutes where the production saved up some money for *SPOILER REDACTED*
Maybe Mark Hendrickson will be a not-Narn in this episode, so I get a point in my B5 drinking game*.
Don Stroud (Caliban) and Theodore Bikkel (Rabbi) will return in future episodes as more significant characters. Soon-Tek Oh IS his normal excellent self in the episode, so I'll enjoy him, even if he is channeling a little Mako. Hey, if your performance is gonna get compared to another actor and that actor is MAKO, you did well.
SPOILER STUFF:
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...maybe I'll catch something else when I actually re-watch the episode? "Watch your back" resonates in a couple more episodes, but, given Garibaldi's other issues this season it barely counts?