The down sides are legion. The threat (biological war machine from the past infects someone on the station; hilarity ensues) is telegraphed with a loudspeaker. The moral lesson (purity campaigns rarely end well) is delivered with all the subtlety of a sledge hammer. The direction favors static, empty-of-all-but-minimum-actors tableaux. There are no ambassadorial hi-jinx.
The up sides are … harder to find. We learn a bit about Dr Franklin. We get a sense of how both the corporations and the military back home are working.
More importantly, we learn a bit more about Jeffrey Sinclair, who acts (once again) like a hands-on suicidal idiot / hero to save the station — and actually gets called on it. Yeah, the Commander has a kinda-suicidal streak, owing to his time in the war with the Minbari, which explains why he's Jim Kirking all the various menaces on the station. Nice. The acting in the scene that confronts it is … less than fluid, but it's a nice plot point.
The best parts are where Sinclair is taunting the Ikarran war machine. Michael O'Hare really gets into it, with a hoarse, powerful dynamism that highlights problems he has in other scenes. The lines are annoyingly moralistic, but delivered with a serious punch.
There's a B-plot about an ISN correspondent trying to get an interview with Sinclair, but she's just annoying (opportunity for a funny Ivanova line notwithstanding) and her final Q&A with Sinclair provides the worst justification for space travel ever.
Honestly, this would rank high on the "B5 episodes you could skip over" (even with David McCallum guest starring). But if you have to watch it, and can get beyond the "monster of the week" aspects of it, the stilted monologuing (it being a JMS episode notwithstanding), and the sparse direction, it's not a bad episode …
Most dramatic bit: Sinclair telling the Ikarran war machine just what happened to Ikarra 7.
Most amusing bit: Um … nothing, really. Maybe Ivanova intervening when the reporter wants to chase Sinclair around the bridge.
Most arc-ish bit: I guess the idea that biological machinery exists, especially with the Vorlons and maybe with the Minbari. But, really, nothing critical here.
Overall rating: 2 of 5 (that Joe would rather this episode, which he wrote, never existed, is telling.)
Guide Page: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/004.html
Wikia Page: http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/Infection
Guide page: “Infection”
An archaeologist smuggles ancient artifacts onto the station, unleashing a living weapon. David McCallum as Dr. Vance Hendricks. Marshall Teague as Nelson Drake. Sub-genre: Action P5 Rating: 6.33 Production number: 101 Original air date: February 18, 1994 DVD release date: November 5, …
One thought on “B5 Rewatch: 1×04 "Infection"”