Babble On, part 5: "Born to the Purple"

Londo is in love, and his infatuation threatens a crucial negotiation with the Narn Regime. His newfound love, however, may not be what he thinks she is. Meanwhile Garibaldi works to track down a rogue signal in the station's communications network.

Only three episodes into the series and we already have a second episode based around Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari. I'm not certain whether this episode was shifted in the running order, the production team were infatuated with the chatacter, or if it was simply a coincidence. The problem is that while "Midnight on the Firing Line" had a relative amount of depth and character, "Born to the Purple" deals in stereotype and caricature.


Some observations:

• It is interesting that Londo has ridiculously big hair, while his assistant Vir has ridiculous hair about half the length, and his newfound girlfriend has a shaved head spare a tiny ponytail. It suggests a lot about status and patriarchy in Centauri society, and it's interesting that it isn't mentioned or discussed in the episode.
• G'Kar gets an aide of his own here, but I'm pretty sure she's only in the one episode because she's not the aide I remember him having. This is good, because the aide in this episode is a bit rubbish.
• It seems a little convenient that Londo not only has a set of computer files that could bring down the republic, but that he keeps it on his desktop computer on a neutral space station with his civilization's arch-enemies on board. Maybe he's just a little stupid.
• Garibaldi is striking me as a relatively silly name for a character.
• There is a distinct 1980s vibe to this episode, particularly in the climax. This isn't a good thing. Bonus points to the episode for ending on a bit of a downer, though.
• Not including "The Gathering", Babylon 5 is currently scoring one good episode out of three.