Together with the previous episode, these two are probably the weakest episodes of the first season. Don't let them put you off, these are not atypical. There's also the consolation of the following two episodes being crackers in their own way.

Here's an episode where quite a lot seems to happen...but nothing much actually does.

It's as a character piece for Franklin that "Infection" works at all. Many of his character and personality traits are established here - his loyalty, his naivete, his tendency to become obsessed with something to the exclusion of all else, his fascination with anything new and different, his depth of knowledge...all of them are very Franklin.

A number of organisations that will become relevant either get a name check or are mentioned for the first time.

The bioweapon is intriguing enough - and before assimilation, Marshall Teague provides some of the nicest eye candy in the series. :evil:

Otherwise this is very stock standard stuff. You got ya more evil than evil baddie. You got ya ancient race of aliens who created something they thought would solve all their problems, and which turned out to be the means of their destruction. You got ya ludicrously heroic captain who flings himself into the fray for no good reason other than to logic the enemy to death (and incidentally, this is about the only episode in the series where O'Hare's acting fails to impress me - he's just a bit too over the top in some scenes). It's all been done before, more times than I can count, and makes for a somewhat disappointing episode.

The conversation between Sinclair and Garibaldi near the end is...interesting, though.

Difficult one to judge this. As a main story the tale of the organic bio weapon is an old one. Here it is done no better or worse than in previous shows. What is interesting in this episode though is the development not only of the Doctors character but also that of Sinclair (who I am begining to believe is wooden only because the actor himself is wooden) and Garibaldi, who seems to me to get the majority of the best lines throughout the show. A big plus of the episode for me was seeing David McCallum in something again.

Better than episode 3 but no more than average, watching this would definately not put me off watching any more however I would be disapointed if this was the standard that future episodes would adhere too.

5/10

Kind of what Ken said, but I still don't like Franklin.

Seemed to be the kind of epsiode that shows a bit more about life on the station but doesn't really add anything else to the show.

If nothing else you look forward to the next ep in the hopes they don't produce another one like this :lol:

The next two are pretty good, in different ways.

Rather dull this one. I preferred BTTP to this one. :rolleyes:

At least it's now been commented on that Sinclair shouldn't be diving into trouble all the time. Oh, and they've changed the guns I see. I quite liked the black plasticky ones from the pilot! :D (And the fact that that was my main observation from the episode shows you what I thought of the ep on the whole. <_< :lol: )

Still not put off though. The first 2 eps and the pilot were of sufficient quality to make me want to stick with it. :thumbsup:

Now...whether to keep with the pace of the board (re)watch, or continue on. Hmm.... :shifty:

One of the biggest disappointments for me with this episode is the complete waste of David McCallum. Why bother ?? They could have got anyone to play his part in this episode. What a waste :(

It was just great to see him in something again

After watching the last episode I feared this may overtake it as the worst episode so far. In truth it's about the same. A poor poor plot that's been used countless times before, but what's interesting here, what was missing from the previous episode is the monumental amount of foreshadowing. It's difficult to elaborate without delving into spoiler territory but suffice to say that things that will eventually turn out to be cornerstones of the plot later have their first foundations built here.

As mentioned above, I found one of the more criminal elements of this episode to be the misuse of David McCallum. A fine actor wasted on a cliched cameo :(

Quite right again as Sinclair once again defies the odds to save the station on his own :rolleyes: At least he got a Garibaldi slapdown for his troubles though. I also liked Sinclair's little speech to the ISN reporter at the end. JMS struggles with dialogue at times, especially when he's trying to say something important. He gets it right here.

Franklin's back after another absense, and in fact, wasn't this his first episode shot ?? Whilst there's not much to see, you can already pick up on him being an idealist.

There's an introduction to bio-tech, or more aptly organic weaponary, and we learn of Corporations grave robbing dead worlds. Interesting stuff to be sure. Is IPX really a front and if so whom for ?? This episode throws up a lot of intruiging questions.

We learn that Garibaldi's been fired countless times before due to 'personal' problems, and we also get to hear the backend of his 'Mars' story. All important stuff.

Possibly the most important line in the series so far; "Is this a preview of things to come?".

For saying that this is such a poor episode plotwise, and it is, there's an awful lot of information here, more than a few portents perhaps.

Parliament of Dreams and Mind War next, a definite improvement.

Not just Franklin's, but technically everyone's first episode proper! At least that works as an excuse for the most part...


I wasn't overly impressed with this episode. I think the main problem here was that you didn't have a very interesting A story, and the lack of B story (the reporter moments nonwithstanding) really played to this storys disadvantage.


I seem to remember reading at one stage that this was JMS' least favourite story - whether it still is (I know there are several Season 1 stories to challenge it) I don't know, but it's not hard to see why...

Isn't Joe still sticking to the story that he had a raging fever when he wrote this one ?? And that he can't even remember writing it ?? Yeah, right :rolleyes: :lol:

A dull main story, interesting again primarily in hindsight with the foretelling going on. Not much else.

Sadly not - that was The Quality of Mercy (and I believe bits of A Voice in the Wilderness') :)

You know, I'd completely forgotten that one. Thanks so much for reminding me :rolleyes: :lol:

Well, given Quality is the weak link in the whole stretch from Voice through to Chrysalis, it's not that hard to forget it :)

At least most of the perceived weaker episodes are out of the way, although as I type that TKO springs to mind :rolleyes:

TKO aside, the only other poor episodes I can think of are The War Prayer, Grail and Legacies :)

However, on the most part, you've got a good episode paired up with them (which makes me think - are most people watching this on the DVDs, as I remember the videos had A Voice in the Wilderness re-edited as a complete 90 minute feature, which would make it difficult for them to end it at the half way point :))

I think I may just go with 3 episodes one week and 3 the next when we get to Wilderness ;) No one's not going to watch the second part :lol:

I didn't mind The War Prayer or Legacies, but Grail suffers from a similar problem to Infection; crap plot and a waste of a great guest star :rolleyes:

Oh well, that's me. Firefly to watch, or rewatch :lol:

we can move to 3 episodes a week period if you want too!!!


havent got around to having a second attempt at FIREFLY yet. Watched Dr Who last night instead and my SAPHIRE AND STEEL box set stories 1-3 keeps calling out to me.

Damn work, just not enough hours in the day because of it. :lmao: :clap: :lol:

With the number of rewatches going off at the moment I think it best at the moment to stick to 2 episodes per week so that everyone (or most people, Lisa ;) ) can keep up. When we come to the 2 parter then we may well temporarily move to 3 episodes a week for that and the following week.

Must get around to reattempting to watch firefly.

Looking forward to the next two B5's at the weekend.

Found a B5 wallpaer that dosent have any sort of spoiler (see wallpaper section)

I'll check that out in a sec Ken.

Surely this week would have been the ideal time to check out Firefly, what with the weeklong Rewatch :rolleyes: :lol:

Keep getting distracted by something else.

I've temporarily suspended my DS9 S1 Rewatch for Firefly :thumbsup:

Now the only thing it has to vie with for my attention is The West Wing :lol:

Finally caught upwith this one.

I remember watching this the first time and thinking @Oh look. There's The Man From U.N.C.L.E.. And that was all. Bog standard story with just about every sci fi strand in there.

The final converstion with MG and JS was interesting as was the ISN thread. I also liked one of the eary Ivanova lines. "You're too young to experience that much pain"

That's how to play a female first office, Nana!

Kira was always one of DS9's weak links. Ivanova's just great :thumbsup:

I know I pretty much stand alone on this front, but I've always wondered why everyone else seems to think this episode is so terrible! I'll admit, there are some chessy aspects to it, and it's execution could be done a lot better... but on the whole, it's not exactly "bad" in my eyes... just not quite reaching "good". It's execution could be done better - at times it does feel like it's made to emulate the old sci-fi stereotype (but then, so have a few elements of B5 S1 :P ) - but this is an episode that every time I've watched it I've felt "yep, I enjoyed that".

There had to be someone who liked it ;)

Three things for me, the central plot, been done too many times before, and better. The makeup was unconvincing. A great guest star was wasted.

Joe hates Infection, he's not alone :thumbsup:

Okay I know I'm behind - might catch up on Saturday - we'll see.

Filler, Filler, Filler is what comes to mind. I couln't help thinking that though I agree with the comments that its good that not everybody has to appear in an episode I think that on the whole episodes with G'Kar, Delenn and Mollari are more interesting. That may just be a reaction to this ep but thats how I feel at the moment.

I'm not as much a dyed in the wool sci-fi geek as the rest of you guys :P so I tend to ignore or not care about remarks like "this was done x number of times on Trek/Who/B7" or whatever. I only really care about B5 in this context. Yes the plot was simplistic but for all that it was still watchable - just - though I'd repeat my comments about the endless storage area type sets.

I'd pretty much agree with that Neil. Although the chances of being spun a yarn greatly increase when Delenn's about. There's one in particular, that I won't mention just yet, for spoiler reasons :lol:

Can't remember if it's already been mentioned but this was supposedly the first episode actually shot.

As has been said, it's not the greatest of eps and a big waste of David McCallum, that being said it is kind of enjoyable in a no need to engage brain kind of way, and there are one or two things brought up that may, or may not, be important later on.

Mwah!! Do I have to write about this one? :cry: Okay, I know I don't but... :lol:

It reminds me of Star Trek TOS, except instead of Kirk talking the super computer into self-destructing Sinclair does the same thing to the bio-weapon. The battle between the two makes me laugh because I have to wonder why the Ikarran didn't just fry him to a crisp with his big scary weapon instead of walking up and hitting him. And what's the point in closing the security doors when we've already seen it can get through walls and floors?? :rolleyes:

I actually like Michael O'Hare more and more each time I watch the first season. I think he's very good in this one.

David McCallum is a bit wasted, as Paul mentioned, but he gets to look evil and twirl his invisible moustache a lot, so that's okay.

The subplot with the reporter leads to my favourite dialogue:

Reporter: "After all that you've just gone through, I have to ask you the same question a lot of people back home are asking about space these days. Is it worth it? Should we just pull back, forget the whole thing as a bad idea, and take care of our own problems, at home?"
Sinclair: "No. We have to stay here, and there's a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics - and you'll get ten different answers. But there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on: whether it happens in a hundred years, or a thousand years, or a million years, eventually our sun will grow cold, and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us, it'll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-tsu, Einstein, Maruputo, Buddy Holly, Aristophanes - all of this. All of this was for nothing, unless we go to the stars."

It ain't great, but after dreading watching it I actually found it passed the time in an okay manner :)

This one actually improves with rewatches simply because the weight of (the lack of) expectation is such that you can't help but not quite be as disappointed with it as you thought you would be.

Great to see David McCallum but I completely agree, wasted really.