By Jonathan Klotz
| Revealed
Babylon 5 isn’t a sci-fi comedy; it’s a sci-fi epic, however the fastidiously crafted story is stuffed with small moments of comedy that lower the stress, often due to Londo. Tucked away within the Season 1 episode, “Grail,” is a tremendous joke that immediately pokes enjoyable at alien abductions.
It has no impression on the remainder of the episode and serves solely to introduce the station’s decide, however a person suing the Vree, modeled after the well-known “Gray Aliens,” for abducting his great-grandfather, is the sort of offbeat humor that sci-fi followers love.
Suing Over Alien Abductions
As quickly as “Grail” returns from the title sequence, viewers are dropped into the courtroom of Ombuds Wellington (Jim Norton), listening to Flinn (John Flinn, the episode’s director of pictures and he directed a number of episodes, together with “Gray 17 is Lacking”) argue that his great-grandfather was kidnapped by the Vree for 2 days, after which, nobody believed him, he couldn’t get a job and a he misplaced the whole lot. That’s why Flinn is suing for damages. The Vree’s response is to attract an image. Clearly annoyed, Wellington wonders why he at all times will get these instances.
The Vree are one of the annoying races on this planet of Babylon 5due to their spiritual devotion to a Trickster God, justifying their prankster conduct. Seems, that’s why they might abduct people; they discovered it humorous. We by no means discover out if Flinn gained his case in opposition to the Vree or not, however the thought that sooner or later, when people reside alongside aliens, somebody would sue over alien abduction is the kind of absurdity nobody anticipated from the war-torn political sequence.
The Search For The Holy Grail
Flinn’s courtroom case is the early excessive level of “Grail” which spends most of its runtime on Jinxo (Tom Booker), a station mechanic in debt to the gangster Deuce. Determined to get out of debt, he picks the pocket of Aldous Gajic (David Warner), an odd man who got here to the station as a part of his quest for the Holy Grail. The 2 discover themselves bonding after Gajic takes the downtrodden employee beneath his wing in lieu of banishment for thievery, with Gajic explaining {that a} dying man restored his will to dwell by passing on the hunt for the Holy Grail to him.
In case you’re questioning, Sinclair (Michael O’Hare) doesn’t take the hunt for the Holy Grail critically, however Delenn (Mira Furlan), a part of the Minbari spiritual caste, respects Gajic for being a truth-seeker. It’s an attention-grabbing character second for each of them in an episode that’s in any other case utterly devoid of the primary solid. The way in which people and Minbari view faith could be very completely different, and it’s onerous for any human to know why it’s so vital to Delenn, although, as viewers know, Sinclair would go on to know the Minbari higher than they knew themselves.
Nice Reveals Are Allowed To Have Unhealthy Episodes
“Grail” sidelines the primary solid to give attention to Gajic, Jinxo, and Deuce, culminating in a firefight inside the sub-basements between the gangsters and a safety squad after a monster disguised as Ambassador Kosh is revealed because the supply of the mindwipe murders. It wouldn’t be the final time that Babylon 5 would give attention to aspect characters, however Season 5’s “A View From The Gallery” is among the better of the sequence, whereas “Grail” is a boring slog.
Babylon 5 remains to be the most effective sci-fi reveals ever made, even when it has some uneven episodes. The saga of Gajic and Jinxo was a one-and-done story, and now, the episode remains to be greatest remembered for the temporary, 60-second joke about suing little gray aliens. It’s quick, it’s hilarious, it suits inside the world, and it’s the kind of gag Star Wars would by no means make.