It’s possible that I haven’t watched this episode since it first aired in ‘94. My oldest son says that I did watch it when we last went through the whole series about three years ago, but I have no knowledge of it. I remember the ep, particularly the ending, but overall my memories were pretty squishy, which is unlike me. Maybe I left the room, or fell asleep? I *do* know that this was one of those episodes that I tended to avoid in reruns, much like the Space Hippies episode of TOS. There wasn’t much there to hold my interest.

So after two-and-a-half great episodes in a row, we’re right back to crap city. A lot of people consider this the worst B5 episode every. They’re wrong. It isn’t even the worst B5 episode we’ve seen thus far in the first season. It is pretty terrible, though, and yet there is one thing to like.

PLAY BY PLAY

Garibaldi’s old friend, Walker Smith, visits the station. He’s a washed up prize fighter who got blacklisted, and he hopes that by competing in an alien combat sport - the Mutai - he’ll get enough notoriety to get his career going again. It works. Yawn.

This one is a watershed, kids; B5’s first actual *important,* game-changing episode, though most of us aren’t going to like it

PLAY BY PLAY

Last week I pointed out that B5 was tackling territory already well-traveled by Trek, and yet it did it in a much better fashion. This week does it again, and in a much better fashion still. I’ve long grumbled that TNG refused to take a non-didactic, non-preachy angle on *any* issue, and as such there was little or no drama, little or no risk, no moral ambiguity, and ultimately little-or-no meaning. The show was, as a whole, an exercise in “Luring intellectuals into believing what they already know to be true.” (To quote They Might Be Giants).