For me a mixed episode (my brother liked it a lot more). I found the basic plot to be very by-the-numbers 1950s pulp, with very little in the way of surprises. But Londo’s performance across the episode is wonderful, and it’s the saving grace for the story. Sinclair, on the other hand, feels like he’s from another series entirely. There’s little character continuity with the Sinclair that we’ve seen to date, and little justification for the way he runs off or acts during his helping of Londo.
(As an aside – why does the Centauri Republic have an emperor? Seems like a strange mix of terms).
The B-story, with Ivanova secretly getting in touch with her father, is a very strange one. Surely an officer of her seniority can arrange something more formal for cases like this. And Garibaldi’s quest to nail down the anomaly was never very well justified either. Just seemed like a plot line that added little to the episode, and didn’t really advance characters notably.