Season One Episode Reviews

1X1    Warzone 
Plot: An Explorer ship captained by Matthew Gideon and John Matheson arrive too late at Earth, and get reassigned to the Excalibur to spearhead the search for a cure.  Dureena and Dr Sarah Chambers are introduced.  The Excalibur moves to Ceti 4, where Earthforce has downed a Drakh ship, in the hopes of retrieving it, but Drakh reinforcements arrive.  IPX archeologist Max Eilerson's dig is interrupted on Ceti 4 by a Drakh attack.  Galen joins Gideon's crew.

I was pleasantly suprised by this episode, despite many negative reviews.  First, the general stuff:
    The opening sequence was horrible.  First of all, I like Evan Chen's music (especially in "Call to Arms") but it was just horrible in the opening sequence.  It was muted and depressing, while the five B5 opening themes were adventurous.  Plus, the questions are printed in big white letters, which is just stupid.  Third, the credits are now in tiny white letters which makes them very non-assuming, when they should be just the opposite.  I am also curious as to JMS's inflating ego; first the B5 Y5 opener ends with JMS's name on the rear of the station.  Here, the question "who do you serve and who do you trust" is immeadiately followed by JMS's name.  Please!  As for the characters, I felt slightly positive about Gideon, though he was a bit deadpan for my tastes.  Sinclair and Sheridan had humor!  Matheson we frankly didn't see enough of to know whether he's any good or not.  Dureena made her usual good impression, though Galen was really underused here.  Chambers was slighly positive, nice to see one of the regulars has a relative on Earth.  Eilerson was a big fat zero in my book, both his face and emoting was asolutely impassive.  I was expecting a scumbag you'd love to hate, but this guy is just there.  However I love his ability to decode alien language and technology.  On a minor note, shuttle pilot Trace Miller (why is this guy a special guest star?!).  I found this guy extremely annoying, as he is the typical superman action hero with tons of stupid lame ass heroic jokes complete with pretty boy hair.  Anywho, onto the episode:
    TNT complained that Crusade wasn't action-oriented, but this episode is nothing BUT action.  There is a big fist fight in the first scene, which was a bit over the top; just because they're entering Earth space doesn't mean they're going to be exposed to the atmosphere!  Of course, it was supposed to introduce Gideon as an action hero which it did pretty well; if Gideon has one emotion so far it's anger.  The FX in this episode was really breathtaking, especially all the establishing shots of Mars and Earth orbit.  Of particular interest; a Mars Dome shot shows a highway with trucks and cars driving!  I can't believe 300 years in the future they're still driving cars... The shot of the Earthforce Destroyer pursuing a Drakh ships with shots going everywhere was really good.   In Galen's little cameo (which is shot for shot his first appearance in "Call to Arms") he gives one of those good-the-first-time-extremely-annoying-the-next-ten-times sayings "And so it begins" (Kosh in "Crystalis").  Why does JMS keep mouthing these same catch phrases over and over?  Can't he think of anything original?  This is the same fate that G'Kar was struck with in B5 Y5; he became a literal and annoying mouthpeice of JMS.  Gideon later mouths another JMS rhetoric; "Expect me when you see me" (G'Kar in "Crystalis").  I like very much the concept that on Earth people aren't going to work, EarthGov is falling apart, and doomsday cults are spreading everywhere.  I'm in fact very suprized, I thought the people would just quietly live their lives like nothing happened (like the British in WWII England).  However there's this lame montage of rioting, unfortunately it is all from the present.  I find it amazing that in all these shots there's no evidense of futuristic tech!  Dureena's first appearance was nice and funny (notice her forehead has been smoothed from "Call to Arms").  While the FX for the most part is spectacular, the CGI-generated Drakh soliders look laughably fake (though they look okay when the Thunderbolts blast them off the mountain pass).  The away team going on the Drakh ship was wonderfully shot with great atmosphere, though again these Drakh soldiers look a little stupid with those big red glowing eyes.  I like the way Dureena was able to find the Drakh Captain.  The FX battle between the Excalibur and some Drakh cruisers is wonderful, too bad we didn't get to see more strategy from it.  The shot of the battle from a distance as Gideon's shuttle flies up was really breathtaking.  Unfortunately, like in "Shadow Dancing" and "Into the Fire", we suddenly get music instead of sound effects or speech, which I didn't like here.  In "Call to Arms" I didn't like the Excalibur because it seemed to large and ungainly to be a warship, but here the FX showed its not a warship its a freakin' weapons armaada, it just sits there and blasts away.  I really like the scene when Eilerson translated the Drakh Captain's speech, and the Drakh asks who they will be when Earth is dead (though I found quoting the opening sequence to be very annoying).  The Gideon flashback was interesting, though it leaves me with important questions.  First, how did Gideon's ship get destroyed?  Second, what exactly happened after Galen picked up Gideon.  Third, why did we only see those dinky Technomage gliders like Galen has when in "The Geometry of Shadows" the Technomages rode this big freighter?  The final Galen-Gideon scene was interesting, though I found a verbatim of the opening sequence to again be annoying.  However I am interested that Galen only agreed to join when Gideon didn't know who he served or trusted...

1X2    The Long Road 
Plot: Gideon and Galen visit a world where Earthforce is brutually mining for a potential plague cure, which is destroying the world of the simple farms who live there.  At their aid is Aldwyn, an older renegade Technomage who is old friends with Galen.

This was a really boring episode!  There was maybe 5 minutes watchable in the whole damn thing, most of it was this horrible TNT Western thing (Gideon in a cowboy hat... ugh).  The opening Gideon-Matheson scene in the Excalibur's gym was interesting, as in the Sheridan- Garabaldi baseball field scene in "Knives", a simiarly boring character driven epsiode of B5.  What really REALLY hurts this episode is that essentially only Gideon and Galen appear (Matheson has one scene).  This is only the second episode, and I want to get to know these characters.  Instead I am stuck with the perpetually angry Gideon and the always amusing Gideon, and the horribly overly dramatic but just silly Aldwyn.  The few brief scenes about Galen's past was very interesting, but unfortunatlly they essentially wiped away all the mystery of Galen, which is what makes him so cool.  Now he's just a guy with a few tricks up his sleeve.  Good job, JMS.  Most of this episode was about some hick cowboys taking the local Earthforce guys hostage.  Yawn.  The ending almost got exciting when Aldwyn was threatening to destroy the Earth ships in orbit, but ended abruptly when the Excalibur's big gun took out Aldwyn.  I thought that Gideon and Aldwyn had this planned out, but apparantly not.  I wonder how Aldwyn thought about that...  At the end there is a horrible Gideon-Aldwyn scene where Aldywn essentially quotes earlier B5s about his legacy (the Sheridan-Delenn legacy and Shadow War ending).  If JMS has no original concepts to give us, perhaps its for the best that this series ends now!  Exactly two lines from this episode really got me suspicious; Aldwyn or Galen (I can't remember which) refer to a coming darkness (the Shadow War the Sequel?!) and Aldwyn says that nothing is what it seems with a Technomage (Galen has a hidden agenda aboard the Excalibur!).  On the whole, it was a boring crapfest that was essentially a horrible western movie.  No thank you.

1X3    The Well of Forever 
Plot: Galen takes the Excalibur into the unexplored regions of hyperspace to find the mystical Well of Forever, but he has a hidden purpose.  Matheson is visited by his Watchman for a telepath scan.

Definetly worthwhile, the best of the 3 so far.  First of all, we got to see all of the characters (with the glaring and strange exception of the Doctor) operating in the Crusade environment for the first time; we got some great character stuff from Dureena and Eilerson.  It was interesting to learn Dureena's race is a race of pessimistic cleptomaniacs, and Eilerson demonstrated some great pessimistic humor himself.  The exploration of hyperspace was a great concept, and the love making jellyfish scene was just hilarious!  The crew's reaction was priceless, as well as the love motions of the jellyfish.  Galen got another big episode here, displaying some nice humor and drive; I like the fact that he can take over the Excalibur whenever he wants (notice the crew never did anything they just sat there and watched him take over!).  The revelation of the Well of Forever was handled well; first of all the FX were breath-taking, and the Galen-Isabel thing was very touching.  I also like the way Galen said it would answer their questions, and in a round-about way it did.  Very nice stuff.  I also like the progression of trust between Galen and Gideon, and the revelation that Gideon was the only survivor of his Destroyer the Cerebus, and he feels responsible for it.  Unfortunately, the Matheson plot fell a little flat for me.  While I liked Matheson a great deal, and the loved the way telepaths are now treated, Mister Jones just was not an intimidating character.  It kind of ruined the plot.  I like the way Matheson must have these checkups, and the way Gideon and him are embarassed to talk about it, Matheson's temporary bitching about it to Gideon before remembering Mundanes aren't supposed to be involved with it.  I am also intrigued at how Matheson broke the rules.  The resolution with Dureena was cute, though a tad reminiscent of 'Mind War' the PsiCorps intro episode of B5.  I am however confused by Matheson's spacewalk; when Gideon said two had to go I was sure he would blackmail Jones to go with Matheson, but it appears that Matheson went by himself.

1X4    The Path of Sorrows 
Plot: The crew discovers a lone alien trapped in a globe, which enters the memories of Gideon, Matheson, and Galen seeking to forgive them for their mistakes.

A wonderful touching episode which also hints at the Crusade Arc!  The teaser was cute, with the Galen Eilerson argument and Galen driving Dureena to tears.  The alien is awsome; first of all it looks so realistic and alien, and second I love the way it talks in subtitles no sound, just really eerie and cool.  All the flaskbacks were very interesting; Gideon's most of all.  We see now in full detail the destruction of his ship, his subsequent rescue by Galen, and the Clark Administration covering it all up.  Cool!  Plus, we see what looks to be a New Shadow ship; the true enemies of the Crusade Arc? We also first see the Apocalypse Box, which really left me wanting to know more.  The Matheson plot was perhaps the weakest but still interesting; Lyta was originally going to be the teep prisoner but I'm glad she wasn't; it would have meant her death!  Interesting to get a glimpse of the Telepath War; it seems to only be between PsiCorps and the Lyta Teeps, and not involve a PsiCorps takeover of the Mundanes as B5 Y4 kept on promising.  The Galen bit was interesting to see Isabel after last episode, plus another arc hint; Galen and Isabel were betrayed by 3 technomages who left her to die!  JMS said this is connected to why the Technomages fled known space.  I also like the end where Galen perhaps gets proof of God and afterlife but refuses to believe it because he refuses to believe in God since He took Isabel; was it the alien?  Matheson?  Isabel from beyond?  A wonderful little open-ended hint of something more.  Likewise, I like how Gideon and Matheson have traits stemming from their experiences; Gideon refuses to abandon anyone and Matheson always feels sympathy for a prisoner.  The end where some alien discovers the Forgive Alien just as Gideon left was stupid; wouldn't the two ships detect each other in orbit?  Isn't it a huge freaking coincidense that this alien arrived just as the Excalibur was leaving?  Why not just show the alien arriving much later?  Still, the best Crusade yet and perhaps the best of the 13.

1X5    Patterns of the Soul 
Plot:  The Excalibur is ordered to Theta 49, where colonists who left in the middle of the Drakh attack may be carrying the Plague.  Dureena discovers a lost tribe of her people, also infected with the plague.

This was a bit of a yawner with a big lack of action.  Unfortunately, this episode has the exact same plot from "The Long Road"; the Excalibur is forced by Earthforce to visit some backwater planet where the locals are causing trouble concerning the Plague.  Gideon fakes the death of the local leader in a space battle.  One of our characters finds one of his/her lost people.  The colonist plot was better than I thought it would be because of the black government/cyber experiment twist (a threat from B5 "Spider in the Web").  Unfortunately this never really went anywhere, surely the government could just kill them rather than give them the Plague?  The 2nd colonist with cyber-arms did some horrible overacting, but Brian Tompson was surprisingly good.  Plus, the ending 'coverup' by Gideon was ridiculous.  In the footage he shows the General, Chambers is on the ship that explodes.  So when Chambers shows up for work the next day alive, wouldn't the General realize it was a fake?  The Dureena plot was interesting, I was wondering when she'd meet another of her kind.  I wonder why they all looked like Native Americans, but I did like the spiritual/fate aspects.  Chambers got her first real apperance in the series, but didn't have much to do personally, aside from cute grumbling about having to pick through garbage.  A curious Arc hint; the Shadows went out of their way to destroy a little transport of Dureena's people, then years later they toast the planet, and here we learn the Plague can faster adapt to Dureena's people (one year instead of five).   It seems like the Shadows had a big hard-on to wipe out Dureena's people for some reason!  Another curious thing; three Shadow vessals appear, one shoots some Fighters who then cut up the transport.  Why didn't the 3 mother ships just do it?  Did they do this to make sure some survivors would land, and if so why?   In small plot points, we learn there is a Nano-Shield which gives uninfected people the ability to be tempoarily exposed to the Plague; this must mean people can visit their family on Earth now.  There were many nice character bits here.  Gideon shows his card playing ability again, plus a top-secret Earthforce password which he can use to get illegal information.  Eilerson gets to give a great speech about the wonders of corporatism and being absolved of guilt.  The last scene, Eilerson not telling IPX about the Theta 49 secrets, was a stupid character twist.  Why must he be a good guy at heart?  Why can't  he just be an IPX scumbag at heart?  Kinda ruined the characer for me.

1X6    Ruling From the Tomb 
Plot: The Excalibur and Captain Lochely visit Mars for a Conference on the Plague, where a doomsday cult prepares to bomb the Conference.  Pilot Trace has a personal connection to the doomsday cult.  Eilerson and Dureena hit the seedy side of Mars.  Gideon and Lochely go on a date.

Like most Peter David comedies (B5's "There All the Honor Lies" and "Soul Mates" to a lesser extent) there is a lot of humor, mostly half hit and half miss.  Half of the humor was horribly forced and made the characters act completely out of character.  For example, suddenly Eilerson is falling all over Dureena?  He hasn't given a rat's ass about her in previous episodes!  The main plot unfortunately ignored the most interesting aspect, which was the Conference itself.  I was really looking forward to seeing it, but they never really showed it.  While its nice to see the doomsday cults premise flushed out a bit, here it was done horribly.  The crazy guy with his schizophrenia was just ridiculous (the 'voice in his head' was just laughable!), plus it invalidates the whole doomsday cult concept.  In "Warzone" it showed how even normal people are becoming death-obessive because of the Plague, but here we learn that only crazy people are in the cults so they're not a real concern that reflects on society, but just a few nuts.  Inexcusable.  About the only entertaining part of this plot was Gideon playing into the nut's wishes and announcing there is no hope in front of the entire conference.  As Trace Miller, I hated the character in "Warzone" and I hated the character even more here.  Suddenly everybody in the world is best buddies with him and knows him on a first name basis.  He hits on Dureena, fights over her with Eilerson, please.  And how conveinent that he used to be with the nutjob!  He used to want to be a priest!  How stupid.  The Eilerson-Dureena comedy subplot was a lot more hit than miss, with really funny stuff like Eilerson's speech on his youth, getting pickpocketed, getting drunk with some bullies and dancing with Dureena.  I like Eilerson!  As for the best comedy line, it's Eilerson calling Dureena's breasts natural floatation equipment!  The Gideon-Lochely subplot was... funny in parts.  Like the bit about Sheridan (maybe it was just nice to hear the mother series refered to).  I never liked Lochely much, but she was bareable here, and I'm actually looking forward to the Gideon-Lochely pairing.  On minor notes, that last scene where all the regulars sit together to have a conversation about the nut was the kind of stilted ridiculous things that happened in Star Trek, where all the characters suddenly decide to have a sit and spout the author's opinions on the issue at hand.  One other thing; this has to be the most violent and bloody B5/Crusade ever!  Brutal knife-stabs (like Franklin getting stabbed in "Shadow Dancing"), shots of a body sliced up covered in blood, a guy getting a PPG shot right in the back of the head, yikes!  I liked it, made for some involving PPG fights.  And it was nice to see dozens of extras walking around again, like in B5 Zocalo scenes, it just makes the scene look better, like they're in an airport or something.  Sure it got stupid often, but it was always watchable.

1X7    The Rules of the Game 
Plot: The Excalibur visits Babylon 5; Gideon works with Lochely to gain access to Lorka 7, but two extremist Lorkans try to kill them.  Romance blooms between them.  Eilerson meets his ex-wife Cynthia Allen who needs help against a thug she borrowed money from.

 This was a highly enjoyable episode, and it was great to visit B5 again and see the old sets and aliens.  This even felt like a B5 Y1 episode, with some random aliens coming gunning for Our Heroes, but that's not neccesarily a good thing.  The Gideon-Lochely plot was tolerable mostly, with some good and some bad.  The later Gideon-Lochely scenes (in civvie clothes) were good, and plus it was the second time (the first being "River of Souls") that I actually liked Lochely as a character.  Maybe it was just this episode, but I've decided that I don't like Gideon's speech patterns, the way he exaggerates and over-enunciates every word.  I've seen it to a lesser extent in earlier episodes, but it was really annoying here.  As for their romance, TNT must have loved this bit.  We've got Our Heroes running from dumb aliens shooting at them, get into a fist fight with said aliens, then have hot steamy sex in the shower while cheesy sax music plays!  Please.  Hopefully it will be handled more tastefully in later episodes (actually Lochely's in only one more ep, the last one!).  As for the Lorkans, I couldn't make out Tim Chaote/Zathras at all.  The Lorkan makeup was very alien looking without being too different, and I like the Lorkan history (hints of The Arc or just the old Shadow War?).  Lorkan #1 was good, but the second one over-acted so horribly I was sick.  And their weapon was just stupid, plus all they ever did was fire it wildly giving away their position!  The Eilerson plot was much, much more enjoyable.  Eilerson is probably my favorite character, and this episode was a great example why.  Eilerson has a brilliant and devious mind, yet he's actually a geek at heart.  His solution to his ex-wife's problem was brillant; the slave-collar thing was the most perfect possible solution and I can't find a single hole in the concept.  It really blew me away.  Plus, his obsession with Mister Kitty was hilarious and it was interesting to learn more about his childhood and his ex-wife.  For minor points, the brief Chambers fight scene was so horribly fake it was ridiculous.  And besides, why is a female doctor a prize fighter here?  And at one point Gideon says he has a little over 4 years to find the cure; I guess this episode was supposed to air towards the end of the full season!

1X8    Appearances and Other Deceits 
Plot: The Excalibur is invaded by a body-possessing parasite seeking conquest, which quickly takes over half the crew.  Two Earthforce propaganda men visit the Excalibur with the intent of redesigning it to appease the folks back home.

A nice action episode, at last!  Eight episodes in, and we finally get an episode that the series format has always promised; the Excalibur exploring the unknown, and running into some evil stuff.  So it was great to finally see this type of action episode, plus it was the classic 'aliens take over the ship' plot, and I always enjoy the classic plots because it gives the series a chance to shine.  Here it didn't disappoint; the episode was jam-packed with suspense, and like last episode the day was won by a brilliant solution from the crew.  The exploration of the alien ship featured some great FX, and Eilerson's bits about translating the language were great, but his little subplot of feeling remorse for this Marine who died protecting him was just a little... strange.  It seemed a tad out of place, and once again Max is shown to be a nice guy underneath (like in "Patterns of the Soul") but I'd rather see him as a legitimate selfish IPX guy!  Gideon was very palatable in this episode (unlike last episode where the actor seemed to be a little hopped up on his lines) and he displayed some good thinking, going in to see the aliens with a spacesuit and PPG.  Again, the final solution and the way it ties in to what we saw on the alien ship at beginning was just a brilliant conclusion.  As for the subplot, it was great to see Mister Welles (from B5's "Fall of Night") again but the fashion designer was just annoying, what with his exaggerated gay-ness.  Welles' line to Gideon about knowing how to survive political change was classic, and it was cool to get to see Welles as the leader of the aliens.  As for the new uniforms, I hate them!  They look like Star Trek body-hugging jump suits, only worse.  At least we got to see the characers complaining about them, not that they'll complain in the next episodes....

1X9    Racing the Night 
Plot:  The Excalibur visits an abandoned world and is soon attacked by automated ships who are using the entire planet as a lure to other races in order to capture and dissect them.

Wow!  This is easily the best Crusade yet!  It's full of action and eye-popping FX, has a great plot that moves quickly and a smart finish!  Since this was intended as the original pilot but pushed back, there were a few inconsistanices:  first, we see Gideon getting the Excalibur at Babylon 5 but in "Warzone" he got at Mars.  Second, Gideon has been in more battles than a war-time captain yet he was in an Explorer ship, which doesn't seem to have any weapons at all!  Third, this whole episode Dureena bugs Galen to teach her his abilites, yet in all their episodes before she never brings this up.  Fourth, Eilerson brushes off the death of a redshirt but in the last episode he spends the whole episode moping around because a redshirt died!  Fifth, suddenly we're back to five years left, when last episode it was four, and when two episodes it was a little over four!
    Anywho, this was easily the most exciting episode yet.  Even the Babylon 5 flashback scene was neat, now if they don't find the cure by Season Five they'll have to spend the final season in orbit of Earth!  The CGI City was probably the best non-battle sequence FX ever seen in B5, and the Speeder bike/UFO chase through the city was absolutly amazing!  The city looks so realistic!  For the first time in the whole freakin' series (with the possible exception of "The Path of Sorrows") we see them actually exploring an old alien world, which was the original premise!  And the bit where Galen's homonculus gets captured by the UFOs was awsome FX and a hilarious bit!  The ensuing battle around the Excalibur was absolutly beautiful, better than the briefer one in "Warzone".  The final bit with Kulan made a great thoughtful end to an action-packed episode, and the FX effect of his hologram looked great.  I find Gideon's holier-than-thou attitude curious given how he's in cahoots with that Apocalypse Box and makes illegal access to military records in "Patterns of the Soul".  Kulan's people's solution to their problem seems perfectly logical, as does Eilerson's want to work with them.  Another strange thing; we once again see the Shadows from 1,000 Years ago!  This must be leading to THE ARC, since we're seeing the Shadows more now than we did in B5!  In the tag, we finally see the Excalibur actually working with the Rangers, which we should be seeing a lot more of.  We get a few more hints of Galen's Secret; he says all his enemies are dead, and hints to seeing many horrors.  The last scene with Gideon and his Apocalypse Box was certainly intriguing, unfortunatly it was next to impossible to make out what the Box was saying!  Oh, and the 'new' uniforms look ridiculous.

1X10    The Memory of War 
Plot: The Excalibur visits another abandoned world against the strong warnings of Galen, who says it is too dangerous for even Technomages to go there.  Down on the planet is an invisable enemy which turns the crew against itself.

It's only topped by "Racing the Night" and maybe "The Path of Sorrows".  The first half was wonderfully creepy if a little slow in pacing, there were no action sequences but the looming threat of the planet was handled excellently.  Unfortunately the second half, like many JMS outings, was anti-climatic.  The opening ISN news report bit was nice because it establishes the quarantine situation on Earth, in fact this whole episode felt like a mini-pilot.  Unfortunately it also used some modern footage pretending to be in the future, just like in "Warzone".  It was also interesting to see the operation procedure when the Excalibur first reaches a planet; it releases hundreds of tiny little probes which flit around the planet, then sends down a group of shuttles with Marines and the crew.  Galen's warnings to Gideon were very spooky, the way he talked about the entire planet being haunted and Technomages being forbidden to visit it, unfortunately these warnings went nowhere.  Also nice to see Max has two underlings (both of whom die as I recall!) for IPX.  The Dureena skyscraper electronic bridge scene was some breathtaking FX.  Max translates a recording which speaks of invisable death walking among them (and in great attention to detail the alien's mouth doesn't match the English translation!).  Unfortunately once it's determined that a nanovirus is doing the kiling, things get very mundane.  The last misleading promise, that there is a renegade Technomage responisble (wow!) is another anti-climax.  Sure the scene between Galen and the faux-Technomage was cool, but he was just a computer!  Very anti-climatic.  However there was a wonderfully scarey and intense scene where Max is hiding in his quarters while 'possessed' crewmembers are pounding on his door, reminded me of 'Night of the Living Dead' only more vicious.  The ending was really disappointing; Galen throws his staff at the computer and boom, it's over.  Really anti-climatic!  Plus, if this computer is going to send Dureena and maybe Gideon to protect himself from Galen, why not send EVERY possessed crewmember?  And how much cooler would this episode have been if some of the possessed people got up to the Excalibur?  Of course then it would be a rehash of "Appearances and Other Deceits".  There was a touching scene at the end about how Galen was connected to his staff, and then a filthy Dureena appears and silenly returns the staff to him.  While it was cool to see this nanovirus adapted into a Drakh Plague Shield at the end, it's a hilarious continuity error because we saw this Shield already in use in "Patterns of the Soul"!  Another cool ending scene with Gideon and the Apocalypse Box; it tells him not to trust Galen.  Obviously the Apocalypse Box is an enemy of Galen and/or the Technomages!  On a minor note, they should change Lt. Matheson's name to Lt. Exposition because that's all he ever does.  We also get to see some neat things about Galen, like he has machines inside him and his eyes have computer displays!

1X11    The Needs of Earth 
Plot: Gideon risks breaking the law to nab an alien fugitive holding an illegal alien database, who is pursued by bounty hunters and his own people.  Eilerson accidently gives Gideon alien porno instead of a report and Gideon blackmails him for it.

A really good semi-quiet episode, outclassed only by "Racing the Night" and "The Path of Sorrows".  First off, the Gideon/Eilerson alien porno subplot was hilarious.  The first half on Praxis 9 was a funny action story, with Gideon acting Kirk-like and starting an alien barfight but then he gets his ass kicked.  Also, we learn Dureena was sold into slavery, which gave some great character scenes.  The real standout stuff was with Var on the Excalibur; the actor was great and the bit where he listens to classic Earth music was really touching.  Best of all was the smile he gives Matheson on his way to his death, and the revelation that he wasn't smuggling information he was smuggling the last remaining bits of art and music and poetry, because his planet had fallen under a Nazi-like dictatorship.   And the scene between Gideon and the alien ambassador (which was a rip-off of the one in B5 Y2 "Acts of Sacrifice") was good, especially the translator trying to save his own skin.  Gideon's cold uncaring reaction to it was very interesting, these early 5 episodes really show a darker side of Gideon (mainly because of his Apocalypse Box).  And Matheson finally gets some great character work, where he reveals he accidently lightly scanned the aliens (which was clear from the scene) and his reaction to Nar's sacrifice to save his planet's culture.  Gideon seems to be a lost-cause in terms of hope; though he tries to hide this from Chambers for asking for some of the music, instead he palms it off to Dureena.  Great moving episode, much like "The Path of Sorrows" in that respect, specifically the final Galen scene.

1X12    Visitors From Down the Street
Plot:  The Excalibur picks up a lifepod carrying two aliens dressed in human clothes, saying Earth has been conspiring with their government to control them.  Another of the aliens soon arrives.  Gideon detects a bad small in the railpod.

Well, it was a cute parody of The X-Files and had another clever Crusade ending, but that was about it.  The plot was excessively talky and slow paced.  The many many many X-Files references were cute, though the Mulder quoting got a little annoying at times and black-white flashbacks were silly.  The opening bit was interesting mainly because we got to see Matheson use his telepathic powers as a weapon (we never saw anything like that in B5!).  Unfortunately it also had a lot of stupid things; Gideon asks for a translator but he shows up with some troops, is this is a good 'first contact' protocol?  What really hurts this episode is the abscence of all the characters save Gideon and Matheson; Eilerson would have been perfect for this episode!  Plus, the Earth-parody-culture thing was done to death on Classic Trek, and it wasn't sufficiently explained here (okay they hear our radio waves and the government conspiracy decides to mimick it, but how do they mimick the taste of ice cream and pizza?).  AND, this episode would have been much better if the Mulder-alien didn't have a British accent, it really ruined the parody.  The cool thing about the Mulder-Scully stuff was Scully actually accepting alien existance, which we never see on that show.  By the way, the human takes off mask to be an alien bit was already done in B5 Y2 "There All the Honor Lies".   And Cancer Man's appearance was great.  The really great thing about this episode is the extremely clever ending where it turns out the government fakes aliens so that their paranoid people stop killing each other and just blame the aliens for life's problems.  It's brilliant!  Frankly it's more logical than the X-Files!  And Gideon makes yet another controversial decision when he tells the planet the truth; personally I think it was a horrible mistake, he's condemned that planet to civil war and death again.  Doesn't the Earth Alliance have a Prime Directive for god's sake?!  On a superficial note, the alien makeup was great, especially those tenticle hairs.  And the Gideon character bits (the smell in the railcar, liking wind in his face) were nice.  The bit where Gideon dumps shit all over the Marines climbing the ladder was hilarious!

1X13    Each Night I Dream of Home
Plot:  The Excalibur becomes the secret stage for an experiment with the Drakh Plague run by an infected and quarantined Dr. Stephan Franklin; they will infect a willing human to trace the virus' lifespan.  But the Drakh learn of the experiment and send a fleet to destroy the Excalibur.  Meanwhile Lochely gets stranded in a dying Starfury and rescued by the Excalibur.

A very entertaining episode with some nice FX action, but also some really stupid moments.  It was really cool to see Dr. Franklin again, and both the Senator and David were great characters.  I especially like the way the Senator talked, and David's touching love story.  Unfortunately Lochely gets a ridiculous appearance here; what a COINCIDENSE that the Excalibur just happens to be the one to run across her, and what a COINCIDENSE that out of the Starfury wing she took out only she was stranded and B5 didn't find her first!  Come on!  Still, the sequence where the Excalibur eats her Starfury was pretty cool.  Unfortunately we get another TNT-made inaccuracy here, Gideon and Lochely meet here for the first time despite "Ruling From the Tomb" and "The Rules of the Game"!  The really interesting bits are where through Dr. Franklin we finally learn some facts about the Drakh Plague, especially the ending revelation that it's a sentient nanotech virus.  We also get clarification on the 5 year deal; it will slowly kill people before that until there's nothing left.  This seems strange though; the Virus must not want to just kill humanity, because it obviously could immeadiately if it wanted to.  Instead it seems like it wants to study humanity before wiping it out.  Here's my theory on how JMS cures the Virus.  Like the stupid "Into the Fire" B5 Y4 which ended the Shadow War, the Virus will give up by Gideon being able to talk to it and convince it to leave humanity alone and to paraphrase Sheridan in that ep "Get the hell out of our galaxy!".  While the CGI battle with the Drakh was very exciting, once again we get the Drakh as EEVVVIIILLL! cardboard villians just like they were in all their appearances.  And these people are the (temporary) main villians of the series?!  Most ridiculous of all is the Amazing Malfunctioning MedBay!  First it just happens to malfunction so that Chambers not Franklin has to poison David, then worst of all because the ship took a few hits it suddenly decides to flash-fry the MedBay quaratine section!  Wow, that's a safe MedBay!  This never happened on B5 even when the station got the shit kicked out of it!  It was just ridiculous events to move along the plot and give the MedBay scenes some suspense.  Frankly I thought it was already suspenseful enough, learning the secrets of the Virus.  Ironically, this episode had a nice ending for an unknown series finale, talking about life going on.  Very nice.

Babylon 5 'First Season' Average:  21.5 / 13 = 1.65