s1e8: And the Sky Full of Stars

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This is a busy episode. There is a lot going on, most of it very good. There are some mis-steps, but on the whole this feels like a step up for the series. It’s the first season reaching for something more sophisticated: embracing the main story arc, going for a more stylish presentation and raising the stakes significantly for Sinclair.

After last week’s awkward ‘comedy’ music, Christopher Franke this time absolutely nails it. His synth-heavy score during the synthetic interrogation of Sinclair is wonderful, making me think of Blade Runner and The Terminator. Threatening, hard to pin down, atonal and resistant to melody, going all-in on atmospherics. It fits perfectly.

New director Janet Greek is clearly working hard to make an impression. The simulation scenes are shot with stark, noirish spotlights. She finds intriguing new ways to shoot the sets that make the station feel larger and more complex, as well as dangerous and labyrinthine.

The VFX team are clearly stretching themselves, delivering a real sense of scale to the Minbari war flashbacks. Piddly explosions aside, it works well for the most part thanks to really solid spaceship designs and music. I haven’t really talked about the visual design of Babylon 5 yet, because other than the starfuries and the station itself we haven’t really had a good look at much else. In this ep we get to see Minbari cruisers and fighters, and there’s a nicely coherent design language going on to define each race. Seeing the undulating, smooth, sculpted Minbari ships up against the utilitarian military of Earth makes for a great contrast. There’s also a beautiful shot of the station in silhouette with a midnight tint that is probably the first CG shot of the show that doesn’t feel like CG.

Elsewhere, we have a mixed bag of performances. I think Michael O’Hare delivers perhaps his best episode so far, bringing a real strength to Sinclair alongside a vulnerability stemming from his missing memories: I love that he almost collaborates with his captors, because he also wants to know what the hell happened to him. The HD blu-rays work especially well - I’ve never noticed the tears rimming his eyes as he recounts the war, never quite tipping into an emotional meltdown. O’Hare walks a fine line in this episode.

Furlan and Doyle are also good. Furlan makes Delenn feel like a friend and an enemy at the same time. If Sinclair had admitted to remembering in that end scene, what would have happened? I can’t see it going well for Sinclair, one way or another. Garibaldi realising that something has gone very badly wrong, but handling it in a quiet, focused manner is good stuff.

The guest actors are where things go a bit wobbly. I actually think the compromised, gambling security officer is rather good - he clearly believes that he’s not doing anything wrong, and just needs to get out of a bind. When he realises he’s been complicit in the Commander’s kidnapping he’s genuinely appalled, and you can imagine him trying to help Sinclair, if he’d had the chance.

The two captors aren’t so successful. Their performances are a little too arch and twitchy, and they’re good examples of how a lot of Babylon 5’s hair and costume design has serious 1980s hangovers. A bit more restraint from Christopher Neame would have elevated the performance: he’s certainly threatening and committed to his mission, but comes across as a bit of a loon from the off.

I like that Sinclair remembers what happened to him, but that raises more questions than it answers. Eight episodes in and we’ve solved part of that central mystery. This actually shifts things round in an intriguing way: suddenly Sinclair has reason to distrust Delenn and the Minbari, which puts him in an awkward position diplomatically. He’s lived with the trauma of the war, potentially halting his career progression and leaving him stuck in the past somewhat, and he’s now discovered that he had reason to be suspicious. We also know that the Minbari discovered something when they took Sinclair on board during the Battle of the Line, but we’re not sure what.

This is perhaps the first episode to really embrace the how’s long-form storytelling. It remains satisfying in itself, but clearly has an eye to the future. The mystery evolves but continues. There is no convenient wrap-up or explanation. Back in the day, this must have been the first episode to make people sit up and start paying attention. Rather than simply laying some sneaky foundations, ‘And the Sky Full of Stars’ goes all-in on the long story.

Next week we’re on to ‘Deathwalker’. Let me know what you thought of this one down below.

‼️ SPOILER STUFF ‼️

There’s a lot of big revelations going down in this one. Previous episodes have had hints here and there, but this one is where JMS starts to pull back the curtain - to reveal another curtain, obviously.

In retrospect we know that we’re dealing with a time loop, and that Sinclair is destined to go back in time, become Valen, infuse human souls/DNA into the Minbari gene pool and thus cause an entanglement of the two species. Something that has clearly been forgotten/suppressed by some Minbari. That there’s such a massive high concept fantasy-scifi plotline lurking in the background of this episode, and of the entire first season, really, makes me slightly giddy.

We’ll get more episodes that tie directly to the Sinclair arc, right here in season one: ‘A Voice in the Wilderness’ and ‘Babylon Squared’ are the other pieces of the time puzzle, but I love that on first watch you have no real idea that these things are all connected. This is the power of Having A Plan, such that the audience increasingly feels like the story is building towards something. Shows that followed in the 2000s didn’t quite grasp this, and opted to lean into foreshadowing but without really knowing what it was for.

Rewatching Babylon 5 is a pleasure precisely because it does all hang together - occasional production glitch or complication aside. Season 1 in particular is a much enhanced experience on a rewatch, when you suddenly realise it is doing a lot more heavy lifting than you appreciated on first viewing.

See you next week!