Babylon 5 Rewatch: “War Without End, Part 1”

Sinclair and Zathras are back just in time for a wacky time-travel adventure! Secrets from both the past and the future are revealed, as the Babylon 5 Rewatch looks at the first part of “War Without End.”

An excerpt:

We get some really cringe-y attempts at humor, from Sheridan’s eye-rolling, “As my great-grandfather used to say, Cool!” to Garibaldi reminding us of past awful dialogue in his attempt to find a password to Ivanova’s awkward “I’ll be in the car” in a setting in which we’ve never seen a car to Sinclair’s comparisons to him and Sheridan (“Butch and Sundance, Lewis and Clark, Lucy and Ethel”).

That last one is not aided by a truly somnolent performance by Michael O’Hare. Knowing now about O’Hare’s mental health struggles, that somnolence is, at least, understandable, but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s being acted off the screen by everyone around him. His stilted line readings stand out, especially when he’s standing next to Bruce Boxleitner’s relaxed charisma, Jason Carter and Claudia Christian’s snark, Mira Furlan’s intensity, and Choate’s loopiness.