{"id":49444,"date":"2015-01-31T23:29:19","date_gmt":"2015-02-01T06:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=49444"},"modified":"2015-01-31T23:36:09","modified_gmt":"2015-02-01T06:36:09","slug":"b5-rewatch-movie-1-thirdspace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/31\/b5-rewatch-movie-1-thirdspace.html","title":{"rendered":"B5 Rewatch: Movie 1 “Thirdspace”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though it was actually filmed during Season 5 — part of the deal with TNT for that season was a set of TV movies — this film is set during Season 4, and is generally recommended to be played (as part of the timeline) between 4×08 “The Illusion of Truth<\/a>” and 4×09 “Atonement.” \u00a0One many levels, though, the precise fit doesn’t matter, because this is a stand-alone effort, neither carrying on any backstory nor setting up anything that comes into play later. \u00a0Part of that is inevitable due to the displacement in the chronology; part of it is the nature of TV movies. In any case, it’s a fatal flaw in an otherwise decent romp.<\/p>\n

[B5 Rewatches have been slow of late — playing lots of catch-up with Actual Currently Running TV has played havoc with the schedule. Sorry about that.]<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Towing<\/a>
Towing the Artifact through a widened jump point. Yes, it’s big.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ivanova’s Starfury squadron, while protecting commerce, finds a massive, derelict, million-year-old Artifact drifting through hyperspace. It’s gobsmackingly huge and mysterious, so, of course, it gets towed back to B5, whose folk start to carefully examine it. They’re able to fend off the other races wanting to poke at the Artfact (i.e., steal anything that looks like a weapon or cool tech), promising that anything discovered will be shared. They are less able to fend off InterPlanetary Expeditions (IPX), which shortly thereafter arrives on the scene to check things out in a more trained fashion. Sheridan reluctantly agrees to using their expertise, but insists that any discoveries have to be shared.<\/p>\n

\"Lyta<\/a>
Lyta is having a bad day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But things with the Artifact are not as they appear. Lyta has been having visions of doom and destruction. The station’s power is starting to fluctuate. People are having bad dreams about looming menaces and strange cities, people are having fugues where they say vaguely menacing things about needing to get the Artfact up and running, fights are breaking out, etc., etc.<\/p>\n

Eventually (amidst IPX shenanigans and poor judgment calls by several people), they discover the secret of the Artifact. It’s a doorway to another level of reality, going beyond hyperspace to “thirdspace,” designed by the Vorlons in their hubris and pretensions to godhood (you can trust this, because Lyta channels the echoes of Kosh to tell Our Heroes about it). (It could also be used as an incredibly fast transport system, which is why IPX is jonesing after it.)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Artifact.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What the Vorlons didn’t realize was that in thirdspace there were even bigger, badder critters, high-tech and telepathic, who had already destroyed all other life forms in their dimension and were thrilled to find a new place\u00a0to similarly destroy. The Vorlons had barely been able to close the door, but some of them who had been psychically dominated (!) managed to get the )Aartifact lost in hyperspace.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, of course, IPX has powered up the Artifact, half the people on B5 are murmuring “Imhotep” … er, trying to murder the other half the people on B5, the station’s power is being drained to open the portal, the Big Bads are coming\u00a0(twice as daunting as anything the Vorlons or Shadows every looked like), and a huge force field is protecting the Artifact from direct attack by the White Stars and Minbari cruisers and Starfuries that have been launched against it and the scout ships that have emerged.<\/p>\n

Sheridan comes up with a cunning plan — take a EVA suit out, with a tactical nuke, sneak around the back of the Artifact during this huge battle going on (the force shield is being drawn to the front of the ship against incoming fire, you see), plant the nuke, then get out of Dodge. Remarkably, the plan works (despite pursuit by a tentatcled critter): the Artifact is destroyed, the remaining Thirdspace ships destroyed, and all that remains is cleaning up the mess.<\/p>\n

Sheridan muses about the lies he tells the general public (basically covering up the Vorlon connection, as well as the use of the now-lost-but-possibly-recoverable Thirdspace tech). Lyta, meanwhile, muses on what other past mistakes by the Vorlons she now realizes are waiting out there to bite them in the ass in the future.<\/p>\n

We never find out, of course, because it’s a stand-along flick.<\/p>\n

One sad continuity hole must be noted: why the heck didn’t they (finally) enlist the help of Draal and the Great Machine down on the planet? There are a dozen meta reasons why not, but from an internal story standpoint it makes no sense.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/div>\n

On the other hand, we had William Sanderson reprise his role as Deuce from the first season episode “Grail<\/a>,” which was nice to see.<\/p>\n

Overall<\/strong>: \u00a0Overall, it’s competently done, the FX are nice, the menace is appropriately menacing, all the actors involved get some good<\/a> and funny lines<\/a> and some action sequences, and for all that the thing is a disappointment. The sense of a bigger canvas, of stories that tie into other stories, of menaces that will actually come back to haunt later, is missing, especially in retrospect. There’s also not much of a grand lesson or moral to the story (unless it’s There Are Some Things Man and Vorlons Are Not Meant to Know, which is an odd message for B5). It is, in sum,\u00a0a massive Monster of the Week episode, with Lovecraftian overtones, and it does that decently but it only takes you so far in the B5 universe.<\/p>\n

That and the whole cunning plan thing was pretty goofy.<\/p>\n