Babylon 5, Day Two

Two more episodes so far. A good but run-of-the-mill political episode about a war criminal, and a medical episode, Season 1's tenth (not counting the pilot) I'm going to spoil the hell out of, because it stunk so bad. Long story short, a couple bring their son to the station's doctor, he's got some simple respiratory infection which can only be cured by a simple operation, but the parents' religious beliefs forbid puncturing the skin, as they believe this lets the soul escape. The doctor swears to save the boy's life, so the parents go first to Commander Sinclair (who's already received a formal request from the doc to override their parental authority) and then the four ambassadors. None of the four are willing to help, and Sinclair actually rules in their favor, on the basis of respecting their religion, even if their religion advocates killing children, because the neutrality of the station must be maintained. Naturally the doctor goes rogue and does it anyway, so the parents kill the boy. And the episode ended before they were arrested for murder, or at least told that their race was no longer welcome on the station. On DS9, Sisko might have respected their beliefs, and Dr. Bashir probably would have saved the kid's life anyway, but that's where the similarities end. Following the murder, Odo would force them to stand trial, and barring that, Sisko would have permanently 86'd them (and maybe even their people) from the station.

This is a little off-color immediately following an episode where everyone wanted to kill a war criminal.

Looks like only three episodes tonight. I can usually get six or seven in over an eight-hour shift (my job rocks, eh?) but I had other stuff to do. Luckily, the 11th episode in the first season was really good. I don't know what the Trekkies on GameFAQs were telling me about B5 not being very good in the first season, being surprisingly bad to the point of it being a surprise the show wasn't cancelled. Anyway, this episode followed a "The Fugitive" angle, with a main character implicated in sabotage, and of course we know he's innocent, but he's got to go on the run while he seeks to prove his innocence. And there's history between this character and both the person setting him up, as well as the security chief who's going after him. Good story, good ending, better than the previous episode.