What was the point of "Grey 17 is missing?

[SkeleTony]

Hello,

I am new here so please bear with me(if I am saying or asking 'noob' things).

I had not watched the full B5 series since it originally aired in the 1990s(even though I have owned the complete series on DVD for years now) and so recently decided to watch the whole thing from start to finish. I am on episode 5 of season 4 right now but one of the latter episodes of season 3, "Grey 17 is missing"(with Robert England, which also features the black actor from that show "Cold Case" in a very small role - being killed before the opening credits), just bothers me to no end. I mean there were a few clunkers as far as episodes go but this one here just seems so inexplicably bad that I cannot figure out why it was even made?! The premise is unbelievable(a whole 'floor/level' of B5 that no one is aware of being inaccessible save for a few mad cultists), the acting was not great and I cannot figure out what sort of purpose could have been served(i.e. character development, tying up loose ends, etc.) by this fiasco.

Anyone have some insight about this? Some information I am not aware of or something I am missing?

 

[KoshN]

I think that the missing level/monster thread was the best they could come up with for a B-thread. The A-thread (Marcus/Neroon/Delenn) was main thrust of the episode.

 

[Jan]

No real insight needed - sometimes things work better than others. One thing that many people miss, though, is that much of what Jeremiah said about the universe is startlingly similar to things we've heard before said by Delenn and Lennier. Just doesn't sound as good when said by a nut, does it.

Jan

 

[SkeleTony]

I guess. I just found the(what seemed like the 'A' thread to me, if going by the seeming amount of story devoted to it and the very title of the episode) story so distractingly bad that I forgot all about the conflict between Delenn and Neroon and such. And Englund's acting, as the 'nut' to be on par with Tommy Lee Jones' performance as Two-Face(in Batman and Robin)...maybe worse.

But enough of that. B5 is about 80% great, 15% good- very good and 5% being things like "Grey 17 is Missing" or Commander Ivanova being pressured to have sex with another species to secure some diplomatic goal and relying on a 'Wa Wa Wa WAHHHHH' bit of bad comedy to avoid such.

 

[Jade Jaguar]

ZARG!

 

[RW7427]

Commander Ivanova being pressured to have sex with another species to secure some diplomatic goal and relying on a 'Wa Wa Wa WAHHHHH' bit of bad comedy to avoid such.

But I love that scene!

 

[SkeleTony]

Commander Ivanova being pressured to have sex with another species to secure some diplomatic goal and relying on a 'Wa Wa Wa WAHHHHH' bit of bad comedy to avoid such.

But I love that scene!

I can buy 'inter-species erotica' in a Kevin Smith movie. In a serious sci-fi show I will take Carl Sagan's side(on this issue, as I believe it was Sagan who rightly criticized Star Trek for it's 'Half-Vulcans' and such) and say it is a bit too absurd to be funny or to be taken seriously as a plot point.

 

[Jan]

Having sex doesn't have to result in offspring. If an alien culture dictated sealing deals sexually, I don't imagine they'd care if there was any possibility of offspring unless it were a marriage contract.

Jan

 

[Mike G]

While I think there are "worse" episodes, Gray 17 does not really move the main plot of the show forward very much, at a point in the show where a lot was happening. It does feel a bit out of place. The stuff about Naroon and Marcus though was pretty good though.

 

[Bab5nutz]

While I think there are "worse" episodes, Gray 17 does not really move the main plot of the show forward very much, at a point in the show where a lot was happening. It does feel a bit out of place. The stuff about Naroon and Marcus though was pretty good though.

I don't know. It does explain some of Neroon's actions in season 4. His fight with Marcus brought him to some uncomfortables realizatons.

Anyone who had seen the S2 episode "All Alone in the Night", missed "Gray 17" and and then seen the S4 episodes, would wonder what the hell was going on. In "All Alone" when Neroon takes Delenn's place on the Gray Council, he is openly contemptous of her and says some pretty nasty things to her - in the presence of the other Gray Councillors. Anyone who had seen that, and missed "Gray 17", the saw the fourth season would wondering - "hang about - he was pretty mean to her a couple of seasons back. What's going on?"