Points of Departure

Reviewed by Emperor Cartagia

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Hmmmn...what to say, what to say. Well, this was a season-opener episode, so naturally big stuff has to happen. And, in a way, it kind of did. But overall, it left me disappointed.
We get to see our new station commander, CAPTAIN (not Commander!) John J. Sheridan, and his famous ship the Agamemmnon for the first time. New theme song--a soon-to-be-familiar new voice saying new words, new names--Mary Kay Adams, (known to DS9 fans as Quark's Klingon lady-love--"I like you, Quark. And that is why I am going to allow you to remove your hand from my thigh...instead of breaking every bone in your body!") having replaced Caitlin Brown as Na'Toth, and a new character, Robert Russler as Warren Keffer--new scenes, and to be REALLY sneaky, they are still showing Delenn as her ordinary FULL Minbari self in the opening credits. That won't stay true for long...
Interesting to see all the new stuff, all the changes, yes. (And this is gonna sound like a stupid thing to say, but HEY, I just realised! THIS is the version of the theme song music that I have playing on my main page! I always WONDERED what season that midi file was from!) But the storyline suffered from a lot of things.
First of all, it only had ONE storyline. That was disappointing, after the complex layering of "Chrysalis". Secondly, we only got to see a few of the main characters. And despite action sequences and a few great lines, the episode seemed...slow. Dull.
It did too much..."telling" instead of "showing", which any writing teacher will tell you is WRONG. For one thing, I really wanted to SEE Commander Sinclair leave, not just HEAR about it! I wanted SINCLAIR to meet Sheridan at the airlock and formally relinquish command, not Ivanova! Sure, the scene with Sheridan getting there early and wandering around the station, carrying his own luggage, and then a panicked Ivanova comes RUSHING in, GRABS the nearest other Earthforce person, a startled Security guard, and greets him, was AMUSING, but it took the place of what I thought would have been a far more dramatic and satisfying scene. I wanted to SEE the torch get passed, not just hear about it from a distance. And I also wanted to get a look at Sinclair in his new job, as the first Earth Ambassador to Minbar. SHOWING those things instead of TELLING about them would have given the first season more of a sense of..."closure", and helped "officially" inagurate the second.
Another character moment passed by--I would have liked to see a bit of Na'Toth trying to take on the duties of full Ambassador temporarily in G'Kar's abscence and getting totally flustered when she discovers that the job is WAY harder than she could have imagined. That would have been nice...I mean, hey, Na'Toth is the only Narn I actually LIKE, and this could have been her chance to shine on her own for a while!
Speaking of missing and misused characters...this episode could have been majorly improved by even ONE scene with Londo and/or Vir (neither of whom, strangely enough, is dead, missing, wounded, reassigned, promoted, engaged, or busy changing...)
And who the heck IS this Warren Keffer guy? His "introduction" consists of a very short scene with him watching a holographic message from home, and then later an inexplicable scene with him getting a drink in "Earhart's" with Ivanova and Franklin. Ex-CUSE me? We have barely even MET this guy, and all of a sudden they have him hanging out with the regulars like he's a great old friend? I would have liked a LITtle more background first. I have NEVER understood his character, or should I say, I have never understood WHY his character. Even when he died (whoops, spoiler, guys, not like it matters) I didn't CARE about him at all. He just doesn't...click. He was never good enough to be on the show, and he CERTAINLY doesn't deserve to be listed in the main opening credits and hanging out with the regulars! (And what is he doing being listed BEFORE Londo? Ack!)
It felt as if I had somehow MISSED an episode, at LEAST, in between this one and "Chrysalis". The character changes were simply not explained well enough. These people were just thrown into our faces, abruptly. I wanted to SEE the people get introduced/leave. If I had, I wouldn't be left with this vaguely confused and cheated feeling.
What's that? The plot? You're assuming this episode HAD one, there...As far as I could tell, the plot had something to do with a suicidal Minbari ship trying to become a bunch of martyrs and re-start the war with the Humans, and the Minbari in general being really mad at Sheridan (which struck me as acting like a bunch of snots--I mean, hey, it was WAR, for crying out loud! So he killed some of your guys--it was his fragging JOB!). The actual plot was pretty much disposable. The only thing of any REAL worth in this entire episode was when Lennier explained about the whole "Minbari souls being born in Human bodies" thing and finally told us what had REALLY happened to Sinclair at the Battle of the Line. But it turns out, he had only told us PART of the truth...
(Talk about being cheated out of scenes--I wish Security had taken a while longer to get to Delenn's quarters so that we could have seen tough little Kung-Fu Lennier kick that fat-cat Warrior dude's butt! He could've taken him! Easy!)
Okay, okay, it wasn't ALL bad. I will admit that the running gag where Sheridan keeps TRYING to give his "good luck speech" and keeps getting interrupted, over and over and OVER, and then finally finishes his speech--to a TOTALLY EMPTY ROOM!--was, indeed, cute. But that's all I'll give it...
And the chrysalis is starting to crack open, very slowly...
All in all, it was an episode that, while being packed full of action, (I DID like the "slice your enemy's engine clean OFF maneouver", though) somehow seemed dull. The plot was lacking, the new characters were not introduced well, the missing characters were not sent off well, the CURRENT characters were not used well enough, and it lacked a sense of continuity. It did not keep me on the edge of my seat at all, and it seemed very disjointed.
A poor effort for a season premiere. But I'll forgive it 'cos I KNOW how good Season 2 gets later on. Bring on the great Centauri episodes!

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